'Tis the Season to... Sew for Others

I have two new projects for me in mind, but am waiting for a pattern and some fabric to arrive…Tomorrow?

In the meantime, I have been stealing snatches of time to sew for friends.  I made 2 more of the lunch bags like mine for 2 lovely young ladies' birthdays.  One for my DD #2 who turned 23 (!) and one for my walking buddies daughter.

More pretty lunch bags!

I was able to fussy cut one, but there wasn't enough fabric to squeeze out another with the design in the center.  The fabric is so pretty that I don't think anyone will mind.  I used more stiffener in the bottom of these bags to give them more shape.  I didn't tackle the zipper - I know…I promised - but #2 and #3 sure go together in a snap and I was in the mood for a fast, fun project without too much thinking.  DD #2 loved it!

Tonight's project was for a co-worker who just got married.  She has an amazing blog that you should check out if you are at all into food:  Ellen In the Kitchen  

So what to make a fellow foodie?  Embellished kitchen towels, of course!

Have I mentioned how I love my embroidery machine?

Kitchen Towels that walk on the wild side!

The towels are the burgandy and gold of our school's colors and the zebra stripe?  Well…everyone knows that all teachers - especially high school special education teachers have to enjoy living on the wild side just a bit!  :-)

I'm hoping that you have a little bit of a chance to find your wild side this week!

Quick Head Band Project

My niece recently celebrated her birthday and I got her a store-bought present, but she is a crafty/sewer sort of girl so I also wanted to make her a little something.  I had tons of this purple sweater fabric in my stash that I bought forever ago at the outdoor market in Spain and have been meaning to make a sweater out of.  I thought it would make a cute winter headband for my niece.

Quick Headband for a favorite tween - oops-teen!

I started out by cutting a strip of the sweater material and then serging the edges.  You could get a similar effect without a serger by zigzagging the edges or just leaving them raw if they don't ravel.  Then I gathered one edge and pulled it into a circle and stitched the ends together to form the rosette.












Next, I made a tube of the sweater fabric and overlapped the ends, turned them under and stitched them with a zigzag.







To finish it off, attach the rosette to the headband with a few stitches.  (I stitched to the part where I zigzagged to cover that up.) Add a decorative button.  Mine was a vintage button that I inherited from my mother-in-law.

Not me, maybe?

It's hard to get a good picture
at a birthday party full
of giggling girls!

I think that my niece looks a bit better in it!  :-)

So a bit of the purple fabric was put to use...Now if only I could get to that sweater!

Hoping that you are able to carve out a small piece of time to do what makes your heart sing!