Category Archives: Holiday Projects

Christmas Fawn Daydress

Christmas is just around the calendar corner and it’s rush, rush, rush for me and many of you.  I’ve just finished this Swiss batiste dress for Baby Beatrice.

I’ve written in earlier posts about Baby Bea, our new granddaughter via our church. Neither of her parents’ mothers is living,  so months before she was born they asked me to be her official Nana.  That was a happy day!  And, of course, she is a doll, just now 4 months old, which for me has been at least 120 more happy days.

Her daddy is an avid hunter, especially for deer. Bea’s little daydress is a reminder NOT to shoot Bambi or his antlered  father.

But back to the dress……the pattern is Old Fashioned Baby‘s Baby Daydress.

 

 

Like all of Jeannie B’s patterns, this one is a delight to sew and offers several design options.  I love the Scriptures and embroidery designs she places in the blank space around the pattern pieces.

 

 

 

The shadow work fawn is from Joy Welsh’s Applique for Kids.  It stitches just beautifully with her instructions.  The greenery beneath the fawn was extracted from another design which I cannot recall right now.

 

 

 

The holly at the neckline is another design whose origin I cannot recall.  I need to keep better records of what I embroider.

 

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Give Thanks Decor

 

This is a fun and relatively quick project that will be a special reminder of the season of Thanksgiving.  A complete step by step tutorial is posted at http://blog.brothersews.com/holiday/give-thanks-tutorial/

Children could be involved in this project and will be delighted to help with pulling burlap threads and stuffing the jars with the fairy lights.

 

 

It will be easy for you but I had  to struggle with various steps while making this.  Double sided tape has always been a staple of my sewing supplies, but now it is my new favorite.

Did you know it is described as permanent?  That’s good news for Give Thanks as it beautifies your mantle, piano, bookcase or anywhere.

We always celebrate fall in a big way, but Thanksgiving is the crowning glory of the harvest season.  So hop over to Stitching Sewcial and see just how this comes together.  If you like it, I would really appreciate it if you would leave a comment there.

FYI, there are so many fabulous ideas and tutorials posted at Stitching Sewcial.  You needn’t have a Brother machine to enjoy and reproduce many of the projects.  Take a look!

Required disclosure:  I am a paid and proud ambassador for Brother sewing machines.  I LOVE them.

 

 

Halloween Projects~Quick and Easy

 

NOTE: This is reposted from several years ago, but still has some good ideas for quick and easy Halloween projects.  I hope you find something you like.

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Halloween has never been a favorite holiday of mine but our grandchildren get absolutely giddy with the fun it brings.  This year, I’ve joined in the celebration with sewing projects.

This candy jar was so quick and easy.   Our grandchildren are all big Disney fans so the iBroidery.com design with Mickey and the pumpkin seemed perfect.  It was embroidered on orange felt then glued to a fringed circle of black burlap.  The embroidery was glued to a strip of fringed black burlap  then adhered to the jar with double sided tape (one of my all-time favorite sewing notions).

 

candy jar alone

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FREE Peekaboo Pumpkin Treat Bag

 

Now here is a quick, easy and fun fall project for you.  Since orange gourd designs are appropriate through Thanksgiving, you can stitch up a whole pumpkin patch of these to share. Even without an embroidery machine, you could trace a pumpkin and stitch the entire project on your sewing machine.

A detailed photo tutorial and the free design in 4×4 a d 5×7 are available at Brother’s blog, Stitching Sewcial. You can be very creative with this little pumpkin, using various colors of felt, burlap or even a sturdy fabric.

I especially liked using my Brother P-touch Embellish ribbon and tape printer  to print BOO! for the black pumpkin tie.

black love the imprinted ribbon

 

There are so many great projects posted at Stitching Sewcial, like Angela Wolf’s lovely burlap jar covers embellished with Scan ‘n Cut letters FALL.

 

 

Having recently purchased a Scan ‘n Cut I was especially interested in this project.  Check out Angela’s post and her tutorial here.  I just love the long fringe at the top and bottom of the jars.

And here is another fall project from Joanne Banko, Fall Wreath–a great post, great project, great tutorial with a great free sunflower swag design.

 

Happy Fall to you all!  Enjoy stitching for this colorful season.

 

 

 

From Sea to Shining Sea

 

My latest blog post at Brother’s Stitching Sewcial is up, named From Sea  to Shining Sea.

Yes, the embroidery design Born in the USA  is crooked and I just now noticed!!!!!  Oh, dear,  I was so focused on the concept of “sea to shining sea” –from the Statue of Liberty in NY to the Golden Gate Bridge to the Lone Star State of Texas,–that I was oblivious to the skewing.  Sigh….

Anyway, the design is darling and so appropriate for Independence Day.  There is plenty of time to whip this up before the celebratory parades, picnics and pyrotechnics.

With white shorts embroidered with a starburst,  a child is a walking, talking poster for patriotism.  I just love this.

 

 

A detailed tutorial and more photos are posted at  Stitching Sewcial.

Have you stitched any July 4th outfits for the little ones in your life?

And now for the requisite disclaimer:  I am a paid sewing expert/consultant for Brother.  And I love it.

 

 

Happy St. Pat’s Day

St. Patrick’s Day outfit for Vivian Rose

 

I couldn’t let St.Patrick’s Day go by without a fun little outfit for 5 yo granddaughter Vivian Rose.  This isn’t the traditional “wearin’ o’ the green,” but it combines her favorite color, purple, with her favorite fabric print “rainbow.”  So I thought it would do.

It was given to her at Alastair’s birthday party.

 

Earlier, she had lamented to her mother that Alastair had a party in a few days and her birthday wouldn’t be for sooooo long (January).  Rebecca replied, “But you will have fun at Alastair’s party.”  Vivi boo-hooed, “but I won’t get to open the presents and they won’t be for me!”    I thought this little outfit might help assuage her grief.

She doesn’t look very sad now.

I hope you all have a great St.Patricks’s Day.  We’re enjoying a quiet day at home. My hard working husband was hard at work early on, then rushed in for a quick shower.  Now he is parked in front of the tv, simultaneously watching baseball and March Madness.  He deserves to relax. So..

And I am off to the sewing room. YEAH!  I’ll be listening to some Irish classics like this.

https://www.facebook.com/PeterHollensMusic/videos/1431323636919962/

 

 

Valentine Towel for Coach

 

This is Joy, my bubbly, enthusiastic, encouraging exercise coach at the Herbalife Nutrition Club in downtown DeLand.   When asked about her plans for upcoming Valentine’s Day, which fell on a day of our regular exercise class, Joy said that her guy, (a nurse) was working a double shift that day.  So the only celebration would be with her children.

This little tea towel certainly is no substitute for wine, roses, chocolate, and the man in her life, but it was a small reminder that others love and appreciate her.

 

heart balloons from Zundt designs, towel from All About Blanks

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Valentine Free Fil Tire’ Heart

 

With Valentine’s Day around the corner, I am again offering this free fil tire’ heart design.  There are many new readers who might enjoy this and some older readers who might have missed it.  The design is so suitable for this holiday celebrating love.  And what says love better than a heart?

I so appreciate the support and encouragement you dear readers have given me  through the years.  For the some time now I have been extraordinarily busy and posts have been few and far between. And yet you still stop by to read my infrequent chats. I thank you for that.

For this day celebrating love, I am offering this free machine embroidered fil tire’ heart, along with wishes for love each day.  Just leave your request for the design as a comment at the bottom of this post.
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Christmas Cat Dress

 

CC Lucy embroidered with a darling cat Christmas tree from Apex Embroidery

 

It’s rush, rush, rush around here and, except for you amazingly organized ladies,  I expect we are all scurrying around with Christmas preparations.

This season has been especially busy for me as I am working on an heirloom project for Brother’s Stitching Sewcial blog.  Hurrah!  But I only had time to make a simple CC Lucy Christmas dress for 4 yo Vivian Rose.  And of course, a matching bow tie for big brother Alastair.

 

 

I was tickled pink to find the cat Christmas tree in the huge and wonderful Apex Embroidery catalogue.  Of course, cat-lover Vivian was delighted when the package arrived. Continue reading

Thanksgiving Table Runner

 

Yes, I know Thanksgiving is over but life has been hectic around here.  I’m waaaaay behind!  But this could easily be made as a Christmas runner.  Keep that in mind.

This table runner was made for Brother’s blog, Stitching Sewcial.  It included two of my favorite sewing techniques, hemstitching and machine embroidery. A detailed photo tutorial is posted here http://blog.brothersews.com/home-decor/thanksgiving-table-runner/

The hem of the pale sage linen was mitred and then hemstitched.  I just love hemstitching.  It gives such an elegant finish to just about anything.  My Brother Dream Machine (and all of my earlier Brother machines) executes this technique flawlessly.  This linen was fairly heavy so I used a large wing needle.

The embroidery design from ibroidery.com is so nice for the end of a runner.  Only the colors gave it an autumn look and it stitches out perfectly. With other color and different seasonal text it could used again and again.

 

 

The opposite end read Thankful.

 

The companion embroidery was mirrored along the outer edges of the center, leaving room for a center piece.

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