Saturday, August 27, 2011

B2S and a few gifts

Evynne is finally heading to K-4 in a couple of weeks {they don't start until after Labor Day}. Next week we get to go to Open House and meet her teacher, see her classroom, etc. I LOVED this crayon trio from Applique Cafe as soon as I saw it and when I asked Evynne what she would like {I gave her a few choices}, she picked this one too. YAY! So this is what she'll wear to Open House next week . . .

I used Madison font to add her initials . . .

Then, I found this precious skirt on the Chez Ami finale sale page and when it went an additional 20% off, I grabbed it! Fortunately, I already had a brown shirt that I could make to go with it. Again, I couldn't resist the zigzag apple from Applique Cafe . . .

She'll wear this for the first day of actual school {Wednesday after Labor Day}. I'm kicking myself for not putting a layer of white {interfacing or fabric} behind the hot pink for the apple. The brown shows through too much and it's not as bright as I would've liked. That's what I get for trying to skip a step!

It's still super-cute though and Evynne is already begging to wear it. You can't argue with that!

And, of course, all of us here in the South know that Back to School also means back to football. A customer brought me these cute Chez Ami dresses to monogram for her girls {and Auburn fans} . . .

I also had a few gifts to squeeze in the past couple of weeks. Evynne's friend Emma just turned 3 . . .

And this is a baby gift for one of my sister's friends. So sweet . . .


Wednesday, August 24, 2011

all dressed up

I've had fun doing some church dresses and boys' baptism outfits recently . . .













{Hopefully, you'll be seeing this same Kelly's Kids dress and coordinating romper with EMH on them soon! This one, however, is for the little girl of my friend Amy, who is the rep for the company.}

Monday, August 22, 2011

what's new?

First of all, the blog is finally complete. {Barring a few minor changes I want to make.} This is now my only site for all of your Sew Personal needs :) Notice at the top of the blog, there are now tabs with all of my applique designs, fonts, and other information about products and ordering. I'm pretty proud of myself for getting it all on here! It was not a quick and easy task.


Besides the blog update, I have a few more new things that I'm excited about. I got my first shipment of commercial stabilizer from sewingmachine.com today! I.AM.PUMPED. This is what it looks like . . .

I took the plunge based on a recommendation from the applique cafe blog. And I am not disappointed. The initial reason for my order was to get something called "Comfort Cover", which I have not seen an alternative to in the stores.

Basically, you iron it on over the back of the applique so people with sensitive skin aren't bothered by the thread and interfacing. I have one special customer currently with said sensitivity so I wanted to give it a whirl. I can't believe how easy it was. Literally, cut, lay, iron.

And I must say the back feels super-smooth and soft. While I was at it, I went ahead and bought a BUNCH of stabilizer. Now that I have the 6x10 hoop, I'm flying through stabilizer and it's super-expensive even with 40% off at JoAnn's. I purchased 100 pieces of 12"x12" precut squares {$13.99} and 250 pieces of 8"x8" {$16.95} medium cutaway. I didn't try this out today, but I can tell I'm going to love it.

Also, after talking to the very nice man at sewingmachine.com on the phone, I decided to buy this LARGE can of 505 adhesive spray to use in place of the very expensive KK2000 spray I've been using. He's told me it's a much better bang for my buck. {$12.95}

Also, in the first picture you'll notice the ENORMOUS roll of cutaway - 28"x 25 yds. that I bought for $18.99 and the large roll of "Peel and Stick" that I bought for $21.78. The peel & stick was me going out on a limb as I did not read about that on the applique cafe blog. But I did use it today and the only difference I can tell between it and the Sulky "sticky" is that it doesn't have the grid lines. Which I never used in the first place. It is a much better deal. I am pleased. So if you're in the market, I say head over to sewingmachine.com. I think this will pay huge dividends in the end even if it did cost me $115 on the front end!

Friday, August 19, 2011

more for H4G

This week I finished up a few more items to sell at the Hope for Gabe Consignment sale. I enjoyed choosing simple designs for football season & Christmas to put on these items for sale. I was pleased with how they turned out and hope they sell well at H4G! In fact, I went first thing to the sale on Thursday morning and the Auburn "War Eagle" with football shirt (in previous post) sold within the first hour while I was there. I hope it continued to go that way after I left! It would be awesome for me to get to make a little money and support this awesome cause at the same time (20% of all sales will go to H4G)!
















By the way, any items that don't sell at H4G will be up for sale here when the sale is over!

Thursday, August 11, 2011

catching up

I have a few projects from previous weeks that I haven't posted plus the things I've done this week. I really loved how this princess castle turned out on the pink shirt. So girly . . .









This week I've spent my time working on some overstock shirts. I'm going to sell these pre-done shirts at the H4G Consignment sale next week. Hopefully, I can make a little money and get rid of some overstocks at the same time!





Lastly, I completed both of my girls' second Auburn outfits . . .



Nothing like Applique Cafe's "add a bow" to make a tiger a little more girly. I let Evynne pick what she wanted on her shirt and she chose the tiger with bow over a cheerleader. I was thrilled because I think we have plenty more years that she can wear a cheerleader!

Saturday, August 6, 2011

felt, fabric, and a few baby gifts

As promised, I am trying out felt clippies. First I needed some felt. Apparently, there are different types of felt, which I know nothing about. So, I bought this array of choices for a starting point . . .

I didn't get the right size clip so these aren't finished, but this was my first effort . . .

LOTS more options I want to try! {When I find the time.}In order to buy some felt, I had to go to JoAnn's and Hancocks. Which meant I also found a few fabrics to add to my collection. I really liked these that I found for boys . . .

Cute boy fabric is SO much harder to find so I was really excited about these! I also found a few that are more girly . . .

And after wasting spending so much time running errands, I managed to squeeze in a few baby gifts. This first bib and burp set is for a friend who had a sweet little boy 3 weeks ago and named him Sam. I couldn't resist a Dr. Seuss theme, though it's not my usual style . . .

And this little romper is for a friend due with her first little girl next month {she already has two boys!} . . .

I just can't get enough of this sweet girl fabric . . .