Spoiling my pets

I thought I was just going to be spoiling the cats, but that's not how it turned out.

I made some felt catnip toys for them for Valentine's Day.

The first one I made was this red heart. I used scalloping shears to cut it out, stitched around the edges, and stuffed with some polyfil and fresh catnip. The cats loved it!

 

Then I stitched this one from some scrap felt that I had. It also has the polyfil and fresh catnip. And, once again, the cats loved it.

The problem is that the dogs loved them too! The dogs managed to get hold of both of them and got them all slobbery and wet before tearing them up. Who knew dogs love catnip too?!

A cute little bag

Wow! So much time goes by so quickly and I suddenly realize that I haven't posted here in ages. How does that even happen?

Awhile back I made a quick little bag. Turns out that 'little' is the key word here. The bag came out much to small for me to use for anything, so my daughter is using it as a makeup bag.

Anyway, you can find the 'instructions' here. I'm using the term instructions a little loosely because there are only pictures. It's all a guessing game.

I started with this pair of capris that I never wear. I figured that the side pockets would be great on the outside of the bag.

 

I did my best to figure it all out by following along with the pictures and this is what I ended up with.

 

 

 I with it had turned out bigger because I really like it, but it's working for her so I figure that makes it a success!!

 

Christmas Flashback

We were looking at old pictures and video over the Christmas season and happened across this video. We had forgotten about it, but it's one of our favorites.

These kids are so funny......then and now!

Machine embroidery.....first time

Well, I've had my sewing machine for a little over a year now. It's taken me up until recently to work up the nerve to try downloading different embroidery patterns and making them with my machine.

Okay, honest? I still wouldn't have worked up the nerve to do it even now if I hadn't been forced to.

My mother-in-law loves the Pillsbury Dough Boy and has had her kitchen decorated with him for years. I've often bought her new towels and rags for her kitchen whenever I can find them with the Dough Boy on them or I've ordered many times from ebay.

Well, this year I found that even on ebay the prices have just gotten too high. I mean, really, $30 for a kitchen towel? That she's going to use daily!! I don't think so.

So, I found a site that sold sets of different dough boys and ordered them. At first my machine wouldn't read the file and in seeing my frustration my prince came to the rescue. He got online with Bernina and downloaded a program to transfer the digital file into one my machine could read. God I love that man!

And it worked!

I was nervous, too, about doing a pattern that required a change in threads because I didn't know anything about how to do it. But it turns out that it was much easier than I had anticipated.

I made these two towels with matching rags for her.

For the rags I scaled down the pattern to 50% of its original size.

I think they turned out great and she loved them so it was all good.

Who knows, maybe now I'll go crazy and embroider everything I can find. Ha!

You can never have too many purses....

Or maybe I should say that I wouldn't ever admit to having too many purses.

And to go with that kind of thinking, I made this cute little bag for myself.

The pattern is really easy and it only took a couple of hours, start to finish, to get the purse made. I did make one change to the pattern though. I have a concealed carry license and often carry a firearm with me, so I really like to have a place to put it. Ha! Anyway, I added two large pockets to the inside of the purse. They start from a couple of inches below the top of the purse and extend all the way to the bottom. Because I put them in the middle, it actually separates the inside of the purse into two sections. It wasn't part of the original pattern, but it was a really easy little tweak.

I took the purse with me while we were in Las Vegas and actually had someone (a woman in an accounting class with me) ask me about it and express interest in maybe purchasing one. That's always the best compliment, isn't it?

I got the pattern from a link that my daughter sent me via Pinterest, but now I can't find it for the life of me. It's not in my Pinterest 'likes' or on any of my boards. I even did a search of where I thought it linked back to and still can't find it. How crazy is that?! I printed out the instructions, so I'll dig those up and post the link here as an update.

Make it a pocket tee.....

My children's birthday was last week. One of them is a huge Hunter Hayes fan and for her birthday she had asked for tickets to his concert in Dallas, so that's what she got.  Well, in keeping with that theme, I decided to make a customized shirt for her. I settled on a pocket tee with a custom pocket.

I chose a picture of her with Hunter Hayes from a concert that she had been to earlier in the year where she also purchased the 'coffee house experience' so that she could meet him.

I ironed freezer paper to a piece of off white fabric and then cut the fabric to match the size of the paper. (Be sure to iron it with the wax side to your fabric.) Then, I just ran that through our ink jet printer.

(I messed it up on the first go round--I put it in with a seamed side starting off which was too thick--so I got a little extra ink on the other end.)

After I printed my picture on there it occurred to me that I might should have done something special to the fabric. I got online and found some information saying that I should have treated the fabric with something before printing and then follow that up with a separate treatment after printing or the whole thing would wash off with water. I was in a panic!!! Then, I remembered that I had a Tide To Go pen in my desk drawer (I printed it at the office) so I tried that. First I tried to rub off the part where I had messed up and nothing happened. Then I tried a corner of the picture and, as you can see, it didn't even smear. What a relief!!

So I cut out my pocket leaving plenty of room around the edge of my picture.

Then, I hemmed it across the top of the pocket, folded the edges under, and attached it to the t-shirt.

So there you have it! It was quick and easy.

But best of all.........she loved it!!!

Halloween Quicky

This was so quick and easy for a cure Halloween decoration.

I just put a smaller jar inside of this large one to hold the flowers. Then you just layer your candies into the space between the two jars. Add flowers to the inner jar and you're done.

It's just that quick and that easy. And it's adorable to boot. What more can you ask for?