CORSET BAG DRIPPING IN GOLD

A few weeks ago, a young lady came to my embroidery shop to pick up some items for her boss.  Once she entered the front show room, she was amazed at all of the items available for sale.  As she surveyed the room, her attention was drawn to a grouping of corset bags.  

She immediately fell in love with these bags and asked if they were for sale.  Of course, they were.  Everything in that room is for sale.  She inquired about the price and looked at the various colors, fabrics, and sizes (10" tall and 6" tall).  Once she saw the little bag with a monogram, she once again swooned.  

I explained that it was also possible to have her signature embroidered onto the purse and she was shown some handkerchiefs embroidered with handwriting.  

Her mind changed from purchasing the already made corset bag, to creating one to her specifications.  Her question was, "Can you make it in gold?"  Yes, of course.  I carry satin fabric in several colors, including gold.  

By the time she left, she had ordered 2 gold satin, over the shoulder corset bags, one 10" and one 6", using gold metallic thread, with her signature embroidered for the monogram.

Anyone who follows me knows how much I enjoy and am passionate about embroidery and this embroidery machine.  So, I was anxious to get started.

I had her signature and the first step was to digitize.  

She later send a picture of her signature, not so rushed. Both were digitized.  The first, rushed, signature actually fit better on the small corset bag.  The not so rushed signature worked well on the larger bag.

Before creating the bag, there were a few things I needed to know.  What type of over-the-shoulder strap did she want?  

I gave her some choices and she chose the beautiful, ornate, gold, sequined trim for the larger bag; and, small, gold cord for the smaller bag.

Since the larger bag required a button for closure, I went through my stash of buttons and found a lovely plain gold button for the gold elastic closure.

The designs were then created in the digitizing program and send to the customer for approval.

Once approved the designs were placed into separate files and the materials and thread gathered.  The embroidery machine was set up appropriately.  The first bag was the 10" bag.  Then the 6" bag.  The cording, trim, and elastic closure were all sewn with the embroidery machine.  Once out of the embroidery machine, the stabilizer and excess fabric were removed.  Voila'!  The only thing remaining to do was to sew the button onto the larger bag.  I sewed it by hand.

The bags turned out beautifully and seriously dripping in gold.

The customer absolutely loved them both.

PEGGY'S TOWEL HOLDER

This is the story of Peggy's Towel Holder, a/k/a The Towel on the Oven Handle.  It is listed in my Etsy shop.  Take a look.  The link should be off to the right.

Once upon a time there was a lady who became very aggravated with her kitchen towels falling off of the oven handle.  She tried sewing the towel to fabric for a cute little towel topper.  That didn't work.  Frequently she needed to pull that towel off of the oven handle and use it to wipe up spills or whatever.  She then tried patterns for towel toppers with buttons or snaps.  Those still didn't work for the same reason.  She decided to create her own towel topper with a band of fabric to slip the towel on and off.  That was better but still didn't function as she would have liked.  Years went by and every once in awhile she would try to create in her head something that would work.  One day she thought of a new design.  Actually creating the design went on the back burner for a few months because there was always something else that needed to be done.

As it happened, one of her friends was having a birthday and the lady needed to obtain a birthday gift for the following week.  Her birthday friend was a volunteer for a cat rescue organization and loves cats.  Our lady went to Amazon, of course, to shop for the perfect gift.  And she found it.  A beautiful chrome wine stopper in the shape of a cat.  She bought it immediately.  There has never been such a perfect gift.  Unfortunately, she was informed that the gift would not arrive until Friday.  The party was on Wednesday.  Being somewhat creative she decided to make a little something for her friend to give on Wednesday but letting her know that the real gift would arrive on Friday.  But what little thing could she make?  Now was the perfect time to create the towel holder!

She located some cute animal fabric scraps and set to work.  First she had to draw and digitize the design for her embroidery machine.  The fabric had very bold animal print and she wanted to include a particular little kitty cat design that her friend had always admired.  To make the design pop she stitched it in gold metallic thread.  She used some fabric on the back and front of the towel holder, sandwiching some hooped stabilizer.  Included in the design was a cross-hatched, quasi-quilting stitching to hold the fabric in place.  The holes for the towel was about 3" wide.  Then she set up the machine, inserted the hoop with the fabric in place and made the first of these towel holders.

It turned out beautiful.  But when she went to put the little towel in the openings, she found it worked but was a little tight.

The embroidery design was adjusted for a wider opening for the towel but, to do so, she had to enlarge the entire design.  Once that was done, she tried again and stitched out the towel holder.

That worked great!  The lady was elated and put it on her stove handle, inserted a towel, and admired her work.  Well, until she went to pull the towel out to wipe up a spill.  You guessed it, the process worked except once the towel is pulled out, there is nothing holding the towel holder onto the oven handle.  Thinking about a closure, she could put a button there to keep the towel holder on the handle but was there something more sturdy that she could use?  Metal snaps!  Yes!  And so she put a metal snap, in the center, right above the towel opening. "Ah, this should be perfect," she exclaimed. 

 

Well, not exactly.  Now that she took up the space for the snap, the towel holder didn't fit around the oven handle.  It worked beautifully on other things like a belt, dowel, or curtain rod.  Back to the design.  She didn't need to widen the design.  She lengthened the design.  Perfecto!  She used up all of her pretty animal print fabric and had grabbed some scrap white fabric.

She put a towel in the opening and went through the process of standing at the stove and wiping her hands on the towel.  That worked well.  Pulling the towel out worked well.  The holder stayed in place.

As she looked at the white towel holder, it seemed to look a bit plain.  Then she decided there is room for a monogram.  Nothing big.  She digitized, grabbed some blue fabric scraps, and a lighter blue spool of thread, hooped the fabric, and powered up the embroidery machine.

It worked.  It's beautiful.  And hanging on her oven handle.  

Throughout this process she had posted pictures on her FaceBook page and asked what she should name this creation.  One friend said Peggy's Towel Holder.  And, so it is.

Although I'm out of the cute animal print fabric, I do have lots of fabric and choices listed in the Cajun Stitchery shop on Etsy.  Please visit.  Remember this item is handmade in the USA and I only sell in the USA.

Kitty Cat Blanket

Kitty Cat Blanket

I was contacted by a friend who volunteers at a local cat rescue and asked if I would make a blanket they could raffle off to make money for the rescue.  Of course, I said yes.

    My friend loves this kitten design, so, I decided to make this design the center of the blanket.  The design was originally just a tiny outline about 2" tall.  The blanket required something a bit more massive.  When I made the design 15" tall, it just didn't look right without some detailed features.  After looking at many cat pictures, trying to find the same or similar pose, a few details were added.  Concerned that the design would be too heavy if I made it a solid color, I opted for the more zig-zag look for the fur. 

    After the kitten was embroidered, I finished the blanket, ruffles and all.  Rather than the usual quilting, the butterflies were going to hold the blanket together.

The original design had the kitten looking and pawing at a butterfly.  I wanted a lot of butterflies.  Back to looking at pictures.  This time it was butterflies, and a Monarch was chosen.  I digitized the butterfly and stitched it in several different colors and many angles.

At this point, the whole design seemed to be missing something which turned out to be flowers.  After searching through many of my store bought designs, I found the perfect flower design.  To be specific, sun flowers.  Now our kitty is sitting in a field of bright yellow sun flowers, playing with multi-colored butterflies.  Life is good.

I liked the design, but felt I could, and should, do better.  After all the rescue organization needs something eye catching and special to get those big bucks flowing in.  The 3D butterflies had been on my mind for awhile but I hadn't been able to find the perfect project for them.  Ah, this is the project.  Several butterflies were made in different colors and fabrics.  I made them like you would make a patch but before I tore them off of the stabilizer, I embroidered the body between the wings and then pulled off the stabilizer -- carefully.  To adhere them to the blanket, I measured the body of the butterfly and created a straight stitch a little shorter than the body.  Then I turned the straight stitch into a small zig-zag.  I would go to the placement site on the blanket, stitch the straight stitch, place the butterfly on top of the straight stitch and stitch the zig-zag.

Looking good.

Still something missing.  I can do better than this.

Rhinestones!

The rhinestones seemed to do the trick

I had changed the bobbin thread to various colors when doing the flowers and butterflies.  When you look at the back of the blanket, albeit no kitty, the design is still pretty.

As my little Cajun mama used to say:  "Fini."  This blanket was given to the cat rescue organization.  I'm not sure if they've raffled it off yet or, if they have, how much they made.  I certainly hope this unique, OOAK, blanket brings them some well deserved funding.

October in Pensacola

It has been awhile since I've posted anything on my blog.  Let's try to catch up a bit on some of the more fun projects happening at Cajun Stitchery.I'm so used to embroidering names and monograms on the front left or right chest areas.  This nice lady came to me wanting names on the back of these shirts for her maids of honor and herself for her wedding.  She loved them; as did I.  She wanted something that each lady could use more than once but yet was special.  This did the trick.

We had a few people wanting beach towels for guests and family.  There were some really nice towels appearing at the shop this summer.  As usual, I thoroughly enjoyed monogramming. 

I believe both of these sets of towels were ordered on Amazon by my customers.  They got some good deals and the quality of the towels seemed really nice, lush, and soft.

 The towels to the left are turkish towels.  They are more of a flat weave than the usual thick, loopy nap of towels.  Nevertheless, they were really nice towels.

The towels to the right are my usual fringed tea towels that I sell at Cajun Stitchery for $5 each.

Usually, with a monogram, name, or simple embroidery, they are only $10 each.

This wonderful customer has been coming to me each year for these towels for her pastor.

 The two towels to the left were gifts from a real estate agent to her buyers.  I suggested that she might want her logo but she said, "no".  She and the buyers had become friends through the process and she wanted something more personal.  These letters are 2.5" tall only 3" above the hem of the towels.

 A friend and customer of mine asked me to give her a quote on her Mardi Gras krewe's logo.  To the right is the test stitch out of her logo -- still in the hoop.

One day a lady contacted me on my Esty store and asked if I could put a simple Christmas tree and holly on a white baby bib with red trim.  This is the outcome of that little project.  This bib is actually for sale on my Etsy store for $19.85 (free shipping).  I love making beautiful baby bibs and I've had friends tell me they won't buy them because they would be afraid to get them dirty.  I see their point.  The bibs are completely washable.  I just can't seem to stop making them.  I should make some with black cotton fabric. LOL

The simple tote bag to the right is just a reminder that our teachers spend so much of their own money for supplies for our children.  It would be a good idea to get a tote bag and fill it with school supplies for a local teacher.  If you don't know a teacher, there are places online where teachers tell you what they need for their classrooms and you can donate.

I've donated in the past to https://www.donorschoose.org and find this a good organization.  There are many ways to help our teachers.  This is only one. 

One of my customers is a 4th grade teacher and also holds down a second job just to make ends meet.  Teaching really is a work of heart.
 

Until next time, my friends,
Peggy

It's Already Fall

It's Already Fall

I'm so bad about keeping up with this blog.

It's been 8 months since I last posted anything.

That doesn't mean I haven't been busy.  Just to prove it, I'm adding several items that Cajun Stitchery has worked on this year.  

These pictures are definitely not all inclusive.  The machine has been busy this year.

Since last year I've been trying to digitize a Pensacola Beach design for each holiday.  I think that's been pretty much accomplished.

I did the Pensacola Beach Ball and the Pensacola Beach sign for Mardi Gras.  Turned out that lots of people loved the Pensacola Beach Ball but only a few cared for the Pensacola Beach sign.  So, I stuck with the Pensacola Beach Ball.

 This little Nutcracker tee shirt was special.  A customer contacted me on Facebook to do this.  She purchased the tee shirt online and had it delivered to me.  I did the embroidery and shipped it to her.  She paid with PayPal.  That was one of the coolest orders I've ever had.  The project just worked perfectly.

I digitized this crawfish awhile back and listed it in the Etsy Store as a digitized design for other embroiderers.  A potential customer contacted me recently wanting a patch with this design and "Crawdad" printed on the claw.  The potential customer never purchased it but I liked the design so much that I have it listed for sale on Etsy.

I made another USA flag quilt this year out of scrap fabric for my husband.  It really turned out nice, used up a bunch of my scrap fabric, and he loves it.  Yes, that's the Pledge of Allegiance stitched on the edges.

And then I started working on aprons.  Just because I wanted to do so.  Then I purchased waaay too much satin fabric in a myriad of colors.  But it makes me happy.

There is a special spot in my heart for the bridges-to-be who contact me.  From robes to handkerchiefs to anything needed to be embroidered for weddings.  I just love doing this.

Until next time

Visit me at https://www.etsy.com/shop/cajunstitchery

Peggy