Presents for babies

I love doing applique ... so I knocked this up as a present for friends who have an 8 week old. They had a little girl, but are not pink people and since I have a love of teal, I thought I would use it as inspiration ...

Using some Japanese Matryoshka doll print fabric, I cut out and appliquéd the doll onto a white bib and some flowers onto some face washers. Check out etsy for Matryoshka or Babushka Doll fabric, it is everywhere ...

Paired up with a toysaver, it made a nice neat little package. Material was backed with interfacing, then some double sided interfacing to stabilise the shape before sewing it around with zig zag.

Photo's taken using my new Toy from Think Geek ...

Baby Gear for Georgia

I am quite busy getting a number of custom jobs done. One of them was a "collection for a baby girl" inspired by a few pictures that were given to me (Confederacy, The state of Georgia, American Civil War). The task was very much a Project Runway moment ...but on project runway the designers don't have to take care of a grumpy 11 month old at the same time! I sketched out a few ideas and decided on five items; a dress, a hat, shoes, a bib and changing mat.

The dress took me longer than expected due to the hand sewing that I had to do on the cord work. The design is from the cuff of a confederacy general's jacket. I definitely have to buy the attachment for my sewing machine that makes cording easier to sew on! Here is my gorgeous daughter modeling the dress which is a little big for her.

I had to also make a matching hat, so I opted for more of a "bonnet" style hat.

I did some matching shoes and decided to do some cord work on them to see how my machine would handle the stitching of the cord.

The changing mat and bib had embroidered stars on them and also a lining that was water repellent. These two items are quite striking.

Last night out of frustration I spent a some time working out how to make garment labels on my embroidery machine *grins* ... at the moment I am embroidering twill tape - doesn't look too bad. Better than the cashs' labels that I got done as a trial, and certainly cheaper than the $400 I keep on getting quoted for "real" labels. The advantage of doing them myself is that I can change the colours, size and tape colour to meet the needs of the garment or object I am making.

Yesterday afternoon I went off to the etsy meet up at fed square. It was a worthwhile afternoon, lots of ideas and things to follow up on and lots of interesting people to talk to.