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Mary’s Fairy Bags

Love the fairy horse for my denim go-go bags.  My husband and I make them out of recycled jeans and love the western and southwestern embroidery designs for them.  That horse is gonna be a big seller and I am hoping to get to the embroidery tomorrow.

We always donate the money we get for the bags to homeless vets, so I really appreciate when you put your designs on sale like you did today.

This is really wonderful of you both Mary!  Suz

Here are some pictures of those go-go bags we are making.  We go to the thrift shops and find the good, old, 100% cotton jeans.  Then my husband Paul is so good to wash, sanitize and dry with scent beads so I have a nice clean pair of jeans to deconstruct and sew.

These little bags finish out at about 7X9.5 inches and I just made up the pattern. They actually sell like crazy.  LOL!  I think recycled denim is hot right now.  I also attached a pic of a tote I made with one of your face designs.

Rosemary from New Zealand’s Possum

From Rosemary:

I’ve attached a couple of pictures of the possum stitched out.  I took a big risk and reduced it by 25% (normally I would never do this , but I just couldn’t hoop it my larger hoop due to the size of the onesie). I was hoping that your digitizing skills would prevail …and they did!  I’m very happy with the result.  The only potential issue I had was when stitching out the whiskers I had a few breakages, no doubt due to me reducing the design so much.

I should perhaps mention that I did change the ear colours to Admelody 166 and Admelody 168 to better tone with the colour of the onesie, and that the wee bend near the chin of the possum is due to my poor ironing/photography skills….I’d have taken another photo, but it is already wrapped up to be given today.

Once again, I’m so pleased that you designed this possum.  Most “possum” designs are of the American “Opossum” not the Australian Brush Tailed “Possum” – and they are quite literally two different creatures.  Wee Adalyn’s mother works with possums, so it was just the perfect design for her baby (although perhaps not quite so traditional).

BFC31665 Bushy Tail

Peggy’s Hint about Threading Needles

Place a yellow post-it note behind the machine needle to help your eyes see how to thread it easier. The eye can focus better in bright yellow behind the eye of the needle. HTH all sewers

Thanks Peggy – I never knew about the yellow!  I’ve used a piece of paper behind a needle but never yellow 🙂 I will try it next needle I thread.

Fixing a small gap in Design

This HINT is for when a design stitches great except for one or two small gaps between sections.  If the gaps are very small and color is darker than your fabric you can use the appropriate color in a permanent marker to fill in the gap.  It is better to make several small marks than one big one to look more like stitches.

If the gap is a little larger or the color is light and a marker won’t work, you can use your regular sewing machine.  Thread the missing machine embroidery thread used in the design onto your regular sewing machine. If you are comfortable doing free motion stitching, stitch back and forth in the gap following the angle of adjoining rows of stitches.

If free motion isn’t for you, thread your machine as above and do a few rows of stitches to fill in the gap.  Follow the angle of the design stitches and go very slow so you don’t over stitch.  The goal is to fill in the gap, not cover the gaps edges.  Experiment on similar fabric to see what stitch length looks the most like the stitches.

From Sunny:

I have a set of permanent markers in 30 colors that I often use to fill in gaps on finished designs. It happens! Sometimes it is the fabric, the stabilizer, etc., but rather than dispose of the final design, if gaps can be filled by a permanent marker, that’s the answer!

From Sunny:

I have a set of permanent markers in 30 colors that I often use to fill in gaps on finished designs. It happens! Sometimes it is the fabric, the stabilizer, etc., but rather than dispose of the final design, if gaps can be filled by a permanent marker, that’s the answer!

 

 

Hint for small Design details

Very tiny details can often get lost in your embroidery go just be tufts of thread sticking up.  One solution for this is to first trim any thread sticking up.  Then if it’s a darker thread on light, touch it up with a permanent marker.  If it’s a light detail – like the sparkle in an eye, thread a sewing needle with your embroidery thread and put two of three stitches and tie off the thread neatly on the back of the design.

Sunny’s Tote Bags

I almost forgot to send these along.  The last two of nine!  These are of dark brown denim; the others were black denim.  They are actually larger than they look, because the bottom is folded as are the sides.

Everyone LOVES them, Suz!

I made 9 of them for Christmas gifts on denim grocery totes, and one

daughter said the store employees at Trader Joe’s (a high-end grocery

chain on the West Coast) crowded around her to look at hers and even

took photos.  She insists I should make more to sell!!!  I just finished

stitching out the kitten on its back and one of the trios you split up.

These will be my 13th kittens!  The lady across the street (my Tai Chi

partner) got two on her tote bag and when a visitor friend of hers saw

it, she wanted one too!  So here I am, stitching yet more kitties!  I

swear Suz, these things are so very popular.  First, they are colorful

and not dense, and second, they are very well digitized.  You deserve a

medal for these little felines.  Just a note to tell you how popular

they are here in the San Francisco Bay area!!!

Sunny

Great job as always Sunny!!!

Uses designs from our Picasso Style Category

Carol

Today  I finished recovering an old chair my husband inherited from his grandfather. Rob fell in love with the design and it suited the chair as you can see. Thank you for all your creativity that turns the everyday into something special.

Cheers, Carol

Carol, this is a fantastic idea!  You chose the perfect design for this beautiful chair.  Thank you for sharing…Suz

BFC1836 Steampunk Seahorse