A Simple Easter Gift

 

Every year for Easter I make special baskets for my Niece and Nephew.This year, my older brother is engaged and his fiance has two daughter's. This year I get to make for THREE girls -- SQUEAL!!! :) Being that I have a boy I rarely get the opportunity to sew for girls so I opted to make each of them a cute chevron skirt for their basket.

I just got a new machine and it did not go as smoothly as planned but by no fault of the machine.

 I bought the Brother SE 400.

Which I LOVE LOVE LOVE. It so unbelievably quiet compared to my old machine not to mention smooth as butter. It is reasonably priced and I (so far) would recommend it to others. Embroidering on knit though...there's a learning curve. That is where I ran into problems and had to buy a replacement shirt.

The three (yeah, THREE) lesson's I learned here:

1) Always use larger than your hoop size stabilizer

2) Make sure your fabric is taut and not hanging loose on one side.

3) Never get up during embroidering to look for a camera.

In the end the outfits turned out lovely and I hope all the little ladies love them!

I love how they are all chevron and match but are still unique. 

      AND by the way..the whole GFC thing...   Follow me on Bloglovin' instead:)     Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Birthday gifts!

So you probably remember my post on the quilted coasters here as a birthday gift for my little brother. I added these to his gift and to my surprise he actually liked them the best!

I made these cuties with some vintage napkins I got at a church sale. The same sale that I got the awesome teacup...which I still haven't decided what to do with!

Anywho I figured I could share this little project with you today.

1) Acquire some vintage napkins...or just buy new if you can not find any.

2) Pick some fabric that you like and cut into strips 3-4 inches wide and as long as the napkin + 1/2 inch or so for folding over.

3) Fold your napkin into fourths and center your names in one of the panels. I used the far left fourth but if I did it again I would use the second from the left. I used this 1" stencil for the names but you may need to use smaller stencil or freehand. Luckily for me they have short names! I got my stencils at Office Max for less than $5 and they were with the protractors and whatnot. They were hard to find surprisingly.

It is hard to see, I know. I used a disappearing/washable blue marking pen by Clover to mark my letters. 

Step 4) Put the strip of fabric in the embroidery hoop and stitch it up. I chose to use black embroidery floss and used two strands at a time. I wanted it to have a timeless look not kitschy. 

Step 5) Then I just serged the edges, washed, ironed and folded the edges over and attached to the napkins. 

I love the way they turned out and I'm glad he did too! 

 

 Ignore the little man's hand! He loves to "help" and be right in the middle of everything...and I don't mind. I hope he grows up liking to do things with his hands as well.