Category Archives: Holiday Projects

Cutest Halloween Costumes

Halloween has never been my favorite holiday, but I must admit I have warmed up to it since our grandchildren joined in the festivities.  Both of my children have October birthdays and each had at least two parties every year (school, family and sometimes neighborhood).  By the time Halloween came around, I was out of creative energy.  They were told to scrounge around to find whatever they could for a costume.

My three grandchildren, however, had fancy costumes that did not come from the dress-up box.  Three year-old Alastair was resplendent in his Incredibles  costume, his current favorite Super Hero.  It arrived at Nana’s house while he was here a month ago.  Thank heavens for Express Delivery!I got big points (read lots of hugs and kisses) for pulling that one off!

Alastair Incredible flexing his muscles at the office of his adoring paternal grandmother, “Oma.”   There was an office party for the children and he loved it.

His mother had to hide it after they returned home so that it would still be wearable by Halloween.  And it was.

Continue reading

Candy Corn & Halloween Fun

There are sooooo many adorable Halloween applique’ designs for machine embroidery!  For granddaughter Laurel’s outfit, I finally narrowed the field down to this candy corn design, primarily because I had already purchased the spider web/candy corn fabric for fun.  This design just seemed right.  Candy Corn Cutie is from Embroitique.com

The girls A-line jumper in  Applique’, Martha’s Favorites by Martha Pullen’s has always been one of my favorites.  I bemoaned the fact that it went only to size 6 when it occurred to me that I could use the same quick and easy lining technique with any similar pattern.  I found just what I needed with a commercial pattern (on sale at JoAnn’s for $1.99!) and whipped up this piece for Laurel in no time.

It is lined with yellow cotton batiste because 1. I had it on hand and 2. because it is a relatively cool, lightweight fabric.   In Florida, Halloween season can be and usually is very hot.  Top stitching is worked around the hem, neckline and armscyes.  At the them, three rows of ribbon echo the white, yellow, and orange layers on the candy corn.

The leggings with a knit ruffle at the ankle are from Sophie’s Stitches.

NANA FUN—Our daughter, Rebecca, came for a few days with her husband and 3 year-old Alastair.  We had so much Halloween fun with the little guy.  Every year Granddad (Bob) decorates his shed which is the background for the bonfires the children love so much.   Often, they pause from running around or eating s’mores to climb up on his John Deer tractor housed in the shed, or pretend to drive the golf cart which also resides in this man cave.

It was late, so Alastair was in his jammies.

Sadly, cousins Robert and Laurel were tied up with football practice, piano lessons and Girl Scouts so they couldn’t make it over while Alastair was here.  But 4 year-old Alysha, our goddaughter’s child,  came for the bonfire and a day of fun. Continue reading

Back to Halloween

Getting back from the hospital didn’t mean getting back to sewing.  Until two days ago, I was restricted from even press the foot pedal on my sewing machine!  But now I’m really back to my sewing room which features stacks of projects in various stages of readiness.

Halloween is just around the corner so these tee shirts were embroidered for the grandsons, one orange, one black.  The cute design is from JuJu Designs #444  Jumbo Halloween Sampler.  (Wow!  I just checked and this collection and all of her others are now on sale for $6!)  It was very interesting to stitch out, as the sequence, to my surprise, included a reverse applique’ sort of technique midstream.  I had to study the design in BuzzEdit to get a grip on what and why. Continue reading

Shadow Smocking How-to

shadow-dress

 

My granddaughter’s shadow smocked Easter dress was inspired by Kay Guiles’ article in Sew Beautiful, Easter, 1998.  In fact, the dress is nearly identical to one of the sample garments shown in that article.  I take no credit whatsoever for the design or technique.

 

SB pic

 

The only changes made to Laurel’s dress are the addition of lace insertion in the skirt and the substitution of a different embroidery design that included both silk ribbon and DMC floss.

Shadow smocking is a very unique technique and not at all difficult.  But I learned a lot that I would like to share with anyone considering such a project. Continue reading

Easter ’12

Robert and Laurel after our at-home egg hunt.  Somehow, her white shoes were left at home so we had to make do with the black ones that were left at Nana’s house.

Easter is such a joyful holiday, and our family celebration reflected that joy. All were gathered here except for our hard working pilot son who was somewhere in the sky.  Lots of activities, lots of fun, and lots of sewing projects added more joy to this special week.   Easter Sunday, of course, was the highlight.

Robert was debonair in his first grown-up, store-bought Easter duds while Laurel was radiant in what might be her last smocked Easter dress.  The shadow smocked confection was a joy to stitch.

Alastair with his eggs

Alastair was his usual adorable self wearing a shirt he loved.  The applique’ featured an engine pulling a train car with a huge Easter egg.  I had selected this design because he loves trains.  That won his heart. Continue reading

“T’was the night before Easter…”

peach-Swiss-all

 

I’m doing my absolute best to finish up my Easter sewing, but it seems that one thing and then another keep getting in the way of progress.  Still I plug along, hoping and expecting that everything will get  done, because I’ve done it before.

I keep reminding myself of  the Easter my Rebecca was 6, 28 years ago.  For whatever reason, I decided to abandon an almost finished smocked dress in favor of this peach Swiss batiste frock.  From where the inspiration came, I don’t recall.  But I HAD to make it!

That was Maundy Thursday.  I had three days, mostly filled with the activities of this 6 year old child and her 10 year old brother, not to mention preparing my Sunday school lesson, fixing dinner, etc.  I slept very little from then until Easter, but I did complete the dress.  If I did it then, I can do it again, right?  I am 28 years older, but I don’t have a 6 and 10 yo under foot.  Yes, surely I can do it!

The fabric is what Jeannie B. calls “fairy” batiste–sheer and fine enough to clothe fairies who could not bear the weight of linen or even Nelona.  The major features of the dress are entredeux beading, tatting, puffing–lots of that!–a sweet Swiss handloom.

 

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The sleeves are set in with entredeux, one of my favorite heirloom touches. Continue reading

Free ME Fil Tire’ Heart Design

To receive the free machine embroidered heart design, state your request as a comment at the end of this post. The .pes design will be e-mailed to you.

fil tire’ hearts on Swiss flannel baby shawl

The previous post which showed Judy Day’s Valentine outfits for her granddaughters reminds me that this celebration of affection is just around the corner.

For Laurel, my 7 year-old granddaughter, I am smocking a pink bishop nightgown with a matching one for her AG doll.  But I have left a small section at the center front with no pleats.  Machine embroidered in this area is the fil tire’ heart.

 

I’ve used this design several times for Laurel, most recently on last year’s Easter dress.

My overly ambitious plan was to have these nighties finished by now, feature them in this post and offer the design free to readers.  I thought this might give you enough time to use it on some Valentine project.

This is just a very small token of my gratitude for those of you who read this blog, those who have made purchases to help me in my de-stashing efforts, and those who have offered your friendship.  I do so appreciate each one of you.

Well, neither gown is done but ….tick*tock*tick*tock…time passes by.  So I am re-running this  Pink Diamond Baby Pillow post and a photo above from the Heart Swag Baby Shawl post to show you what the heart looks like.  It also includes detailed instructions for stitching it out.

fil tire’ heart in winter colors, 1.56″ x 1.92″

So, Dear Readers, happy Valentine sewing to you.  Just leave a comment requesting the design and I will e-mail it to you in .pes format. Continue reading

Valentine Pettiskirt Ensemble

Judy Day made these darling Valentine outfits for her granddaughters. As my granddaughter, Laurel, would say, these are “cool!” Judy has a knack for seeing one thing and envisioning another. The Valentine ensembles clearly demonstrate that ability.  Here are the details from Judy.~~~~~~

I typically don’t make Valentine specific outfits, as I want my granddaughters to wear the things I sew for them longer than this short season.

Purchased “blank” items can be transformed into personal outfits with just a little embellishment here and there, as these outfits attest. Continue reading

Christmas Celebration #2 Projects

After a joyous Christmas Eve and Day on the other side of the state, we’re gearing up for Christmas celebration #2.   At our home this weekend, both of our children and their families will be here.

Things are not going according to plan though.  I had scheduled a 3-day, uninterrupted solitary sew-in this week while Bob was out of town on business.  But my little Christmas gift to me was stolen by a powerful Grinch virus which moved in about an hour after DH moved out for the airport.  Instead of stitching, I was twitching and groaning in misery.

Three days later and 20 minutes after I moved from black suffering to the light of almost normal , our daughter and her little family arrived.  Now, I’m scrambling to sew up a few of the projects I had planned for my abandoned sewing retreat.  Of course, I wanted to enjoy time with Alastair, so most of these were sewn with his…assistance?  supervision? Whatever… We had fun.

In the interim, Laurel joined us for an unplanned overnight, so I threw this outfit together for her to have something clean to wear to her Odyssey of the Mind practice this morning.  I knew I was a desperate woman when I passed it off as an early Christmas present. Continue reading

Christmas ’11~First Celebration

I hope you all had a happy, merry Christmas day, filled with family, friends and love.  We’ve just had another joyous celebration with our daughter, Rebecca, Harvey and 2-1/2 year old Alastair.    Regrettably,  I took very few pictures the entire two days.

Christmas Eve was spent with Harvey’s family, who seem like our very own.  At Carol and Alan’s absolutely gorgeous, huge, decorated-to-the-nines country home, we enjoyed a delicious supper of gumbo, homemade slaw, special bakery bread, fresh strawberry pie and bread pudding.  Our son-in-law Harvey grew up just outside New Orleans so it’s no surprise that his mother has significant expertise in Cajun cuisine, not to mention everything else edible.  The company was as good as the food.

 

A-Xmas-suit1

 

Alastair wore his Christmas suit and was, of course, the star of the evening, shining for his adoring grandparents,  89 year-old great-grandmother Ruby, aunts and uncles.   Why didn’t I snap a shot of him charming Ruby or showing everyone how high he can jump?  Why didn’t I take a picture of him alone in the music room playing (well, hitting the keys) on his grandmother’s baby grand piano? Or pulling back the curtains to examine the electric candles and the outdoor lights?  I missed so many photo ops. Continue reading