embroidery, patchwork

m is for mom

I was hanging out at my mom’s the other weekend and I suddenly realized that I’ve really only made her bags or purses.  And of course mother’s day was coming up, so I made an apron for her newly redecorated kitchen. 

I used the patchwork apron pattern from the book I Heart Patchwork (which I just spotted today that she’s selling her signed copies of the book for 25% off!).  All of the projects in that book are so fun and it makes it easy to make a personalized gift.
We had recently gotten my mom and dad a new set of dishes, so the apron is the start of a little set of things for her kitchen.  Oh, and the fact that I had to use a Christmas bear potholder to take something out of her oven really called me to action.
I added a little hand stitching along the patchwork border and embroidered a little ‘m’ on the pocket just in case my dad gets confused and thinks it’s his apron, haha.  But really, the ‘m’ is for either her first or last name since they both begin with ‘m’. The only thing that gave me any trouble was the waistband, I think I had to re-sew it about 3 times before getting it to the point where I was satisfied.  Anyway…
Hope you all had a wonderful Mother’s day!  Glad you like your apron mom.
patchwork

ringo pie in the kitchen

This month’s theme for the patchwork bee Ringo Pie was chosen by the lovely Penny of Sewtakeahike.  She picked such a fun one, kitchen!  Seems like there are a million different kitchen ideas you could sew up.  Have you seen the other blocks yet? Take a look over here.  Amazing is all I can say.
I ended up waiting until the very end of the month to make it (plus a few days, hehe).  I couldn’t decide what to make, I had a couple fun ideas sketched out, but I figured you can have a kitchen without a measuring cup, spatula, and stirring spoon.  
I can say that I was a wee bit intimidated making this for Penny, I just wanted to make sure she would be happy with it.  And I hope you are Penny.  🙂  Up next is Ayumi‘s month with her theme of letters and packages, yay!  Check out her block.
kids clothes, patchwork, pattern

patchwork spring coat

The snow has already melted (again) here and I was able to put together a patchwork spring coat for Natalie.  I admit that I’m so in love with this coat. 
Especially because I added a lot of my favorite scraps of fabric to the patchwork strips. 

I used Make it Perfect’s Uptown Girl pattern in a size 5 (here’s a bunch of links to where you can buy Toni’s patterns).  I think it fits really great and I’m so happy with the length.  I just can’t stand it when coats are too short.  Plus the sleeves are perfect because you can cuff them over if you need to. 
The other thing I’m really proud I remembered to add was a little coat hangy tag (yes, that’s a technical term).  I love it when coats have them!  This coat would completely reversible, but since I figured we wouldn’t be reversing it to the aqua blue side ever, it was worth adding the hanging tag (just a simple piece of ribbon sewn into the neck seam.
Oh, and I almost forgot, it was my first time making side seam pockets.  I knew Natalie would appreciate a couple pockets, so I forged ahead and added pockets to the side seams even though the pattern doesn’t call for it.  Man it was fun, and I think I’ll add them to just about everything else I’ll ever make – well, almost everything. 
Hope you all have a very happy Easter. 
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