Bias Tape Maker

I reviewed the Dritz Bias Tape Maker over at Craft Critique. Read my review HERE.



I managed to bind my tea towel successfully, but my feelings on this particular tool are: buy the Clover brand one instead. The extra dollar cost is worth it.

Cowboy Small

This is Cowboy Small. He's the embroidery I finished for Pearliepie in our Tea Towel Tour swap on Craftster.

She wanted a Wild West Saloon theme, but I remembered this adorable children's book from our collection and wanted to stitch him up Here is his coiled up rope:

He's an image from a charming children's book first published in 1949. Lois Lenski won the Newberry Medal for children's literature and probably should have won a Caldecott Medal too.

Chain stitching throughout! I tried french knots for his eyes, but they pulled through so I used small satin stitching instead.

Clown Fish Embroidery

This is the clownfish embroidery I did for j_q_adams in our Tea Towel Tour 5 swap on Craftster. He wants an aquatic/oceanic theme for his towel, and I thought that the clownfish might be the most charming fish in the ocean. I remember teaching about the coral reef back when I was a teacher. The reef pictures I found just didn't have the appeal of this little guy.

His towel is a nice ecru color. I did my favorite chain stitches with 2 strands of embroidery floss. I used a coloring book image, (I think.. clown fish images were easy to find) and just started stitching the outline in black really late at night. About halfway around, I realized that doing the outline that way meant that I would have to fill-in a lot. I have a phobia about fill-in stitching. I don't know why, because I think these rows and swirls of chain stitches look cool.

Something else I noticed is that DMC embroidery floss is really nice and silky. The black I had was something I've had in my stash for a while, maybe Coats and Clark or something and it was just noticeably not as easy to work with.

Sad Sad Sofa

My friend Susan is moving this week from Chicago to San Diego. I cannot imagine why! We have glorious, dramatic season changes here, and a lovely lakefront. She sold a lot of her beautiful like new furniture. We got a very nice, long sofa and two classy looking side chairs. We are so happy to be able to banish this horrible sofa to the junk heap.

That's it, outside in the rain. I like to think it is weeping tears of humiliation for being so excessively uncomfortable, and for the upholstery fading well before it should. We will never ever buy from Thomasville again after this expensive travesty. Our experience with this purchase reminds me of the Chevy Vega my parents bought when we were kids, and it was such a horrible car, it ruined us for Chevrolet forever.

We feel much sadder about Susan moving away! Farewell, Susan! Safe Travels!

Tea Towel Tour Round 5!

I think this might be my 7th Tea Towel Tour! This is the stitching I did for SarahJ2001:

Stalking her revealed a love for roller coasters, so I thought this coloring book motif would be perfect.

Whee!

And because I love it when people do these title motifs, but I never do it myself, here is SarahJ's stitching for her own towel. She says she is new to embroidery, but she did a great job!

In other news, I think we had the H1N1 flu in our house over the weekend. It hit my husband and son hard, but my daughter and I have no symptoms. It was a nasty flu, but it didn't last that long. Turns out there is no real way of knowing if it was the notorious virus going around because they can only test for that when symptoms are just beginning or at their worst, and.. uh... my guys were stuck in the bathroom at that point. In any case, we are on the mend, but we missed some fun Labor Day activities we were looking forward to!

Sewing Tool Article

I tested the Dritz Magnetic Seam Guide. It is a useful little sewing tool. Read about it at Craft Critique HERE.

Envelope Pouches

I used THIS tutorial from maya*made to make some very easy envelope pouches.

Cute, Huh? That black and white fabric is a home dec weight from Ikea. I bought it to use my fabric markers to color in areas here and there, but I never got around to that.

These adorable pouches look great with fabric covered buttons. It may be hard to believe, but I have never covered fabric buttons before. I heard that it is easy. I think it is the prices on the notions wall that kept me away for so long. Dritz charges half these prices under their Prim brand at WalMart. Say what you want about Wal Mart, but at least they still sell sewing notions.. Seriously, that one large covered button is $3.49?!?!



Well, anyway, this could be super thrifty project if the covered buttons weren't about 75 cents apiece... So all my parts are lined up:

Get all that fabric straight and tucked in:



Push it all together with the little tool. Push hard until it snaps in place:


Voila! Nice right? I want to make about 50, just to have a big pretty pile to use for whatever strikes my fancy. Anyone got any bulk suppliers to recommend?

I was going to review this little product for Craft Critique, but Kim Fox beat me to it! She used hers for papercrafting. She also didn't say anything about the price. I would be much happier to have gotten about 10 or 12 buttons in the package for the price instead of just 5.