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.

Cajun Corner – Vol. 6, No. 24 – December 27, 2014

Cajun Corner – Vol. 6, No. 24 – December 27, 2014

Bon Jour!  Welcome to Cajun Stitchery’s weekly email and welcome to our family.

ΘΘΘΘΘ

Don’t forget to visit us at www.cajunstitchery.com, www.flickr.com/photos/cajunstitchery, and, www.cajunstitchery.etsy.com often.   We are also on Twitter and Facebook.  

Visit our on-line catalogs at:

http://www.my-catalogs.com/cajunstitchery

and www.companycasuals.com/cajunstitchery.

Christmas has come and gone and we are headed toward New Years.

Technically, we are closed this coming week.  The problem is that instead of a week of rest and relaxation, it is now filled with all sorts of things to do.  Some things are pretty mundane, like catching up on our end of the year bookkeeping, getting our annual beach pass and giving the studio a good ceiling to floor cleaning.  While others are a bit more fun, like redecorating for Mardi Gras.  Ah, and then there are some left over orders that didn't need to be finished for Christmas but need to be completed nevertheless.  And, the Etsy Store needs a new 2015 make over taking out the old and putting in the new.

Turning to my trusted Pinterest site, I was looking for ideas on decorating for Mardi Gras.  The Christmas tree is already up, so I'm thinking of replacing the Christmas ornaments with Mardi Gras ornaments.  Our cute Christmas door decor needs to be replaced with something purple, green and gold.  You get the picture.  Ideas are flooding my brain.  Not to mention that I actually do not have any Mardi Gras ornaments and before I can make some, I need to create them.  Basically, it is all just a color change.  Changing the red to purple.  The green and gold can stay from Christmas.  Nativity and Santa/elf designs change to fleur de lis and jester designs.  Throw in some shiny Mardi Gras beads and we should be done.  Easier said that done.

A few months back I took a real good look at our Etsy store and realized there are items in there that have never sold and have sat on the shelves for several years.  Most of the stuff is, well, adorable.  I guess the person who really wants these items never got a chance to see them.  The items in question have been in a "sale" category on Etsy for about a month.  Whatever has not been purchased in the Sale category by January 1, 2015, comes off of Etsy permanently.

This brings me to the realization that I need more merchandise in the Etsy store to replace the removed items.  You know how they say, "you've come a long way, baby"?  Looking at those earlier items, yes, we have come a long way.  There were some good ideas and some bad.  Some items just look cheap and others look nice.  The handkerchiefs stay but the older hankies are going.  Bridal hankies will stay but most non-bridal will go.  Of course, the "You have a booger" handkerchief will stay because we continue to get orders for it.  The "Mom" handkerchiefs now in the shop will go but I think we will replace them with nicer "Mom" handkerchiefs.

Scarves are staying.  I have a dilemma about the scarves.  Some sold but not many.  I'm not sure if it was the price or style.  The scarves in the "Sale" category are going away.  The scarves in the "Accessories" category are going to stay and more may be added.  It seems people are more interested in monograms than other designs.  So, we will keep the pretty chiffon scarves for the monograms.  The lap scarves will stay, only because I do occasionally get inquiries about them.

I'm not sure why the ball caps weren't big sellers.  They are all adorable and reasonably priced.  Nevertheless, they are going away.  Perhaps in the future the ball caps may re-appear for weddings with "Mr." and "Mrs." on them but right now I'm over the ball caps.  There just doesn't seem to be any interest.

Enough about Etsy.  I've had a set of fonts for quite some time but never stitched them out.  I guess the reason is because I put them together for a sampler and the stitch count was so high, I just never had the time or inclination to stitch them out until this past week.  The details in these letters are exquisite.  Each letter is about two inches tall and perfect for hand towels and that sort of thing.

Every once in awhile we get a customer who wants a custom patch.  Such is the case with this patch, "Man shall not live by bread alone".  It turns out that our customer is a chef turned minister.  I think he has a cooking ministry.  He is performing a wedding today and wanted to wear his chef attire but the clothing had the logo from his past employer and he wanted patches to cover up the logo.  

It is the week between Christmas and New Years and look at our garden.  We have swiss chard, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, green onions, and carrots.

Then we have our special gardening projects.  George planted the root end of a bunch of celery we purchased and by golly it is growing.

Here's a picture of the cilantro.

And broccoli.

In the same vein as the celery, George planted the root end of some romaine lettuce.  Yep, it is growing.

 Have a Happy New Year :)

Cajun Stitchery

(850) 261-2462

cajunstitchery@yahoo.com

Cajun Corner – Vol. 6, No. 22 – October 7, 2014

Cajun Corner – Vol. 6, No. 22 – October 7, 2014

Bon Jour!  Welcome to Cajun Stitchery’s weekly email and welcome to our family.

 

ΘΘΘΘΘ

Don’t forget to visit us at www.cajunstitchery.com, www.flickr.com/photos/cajunstitchery, and, www.cajunstitchery.etsy.com often.   We are also on Twitter and Facebook. 

Visit our on-line catalogs at:

http://www.my-catalogs.com/cajunstitchery

and www.companycasuals.com/cajunstitchery.

Did you miss me?  Hopefully the computer issues are now totally resolved.

It has been an entire month since the last Cajun Corner went out.  A lot of stuff has happened.  We’ve lost a few friends.  We’ve gained a few friends.  Summer has turned into Fall.  This weekend the time changes and we fall back an hour.  Don’t forget to set your clocks; although, with all of the technology, the clocks pretty much change themselves.

It is time to look forward and imagine some fabulous embroidery.

Chenille is the topic today.  Do you remember times gone by when you would drive down the road to see chenille bedspreads hanging on the side of the road for sale in little mom and pop roadside stands?  Chenille has a pretty interesting history. 

There is some controversy about the beginnings of chenille.  Some believe it began hundreds of years ago with the French knot technique of embroidery.  Chenille is French for caterpillar.  Move forward to the 1700’s.  Alexander Buchanan is credited with introducing chenille to Scotland by weaving a leno fabric (a strong, sheer, weaved fabric) and cutting that fabric into strips to create chenille yarn.  This chenille yarn was then made into soft, fuzzy shawls.

This technique was refined over the years.  In the 1890’s Catherine Evans of Dalton, Georgia revived the chenille and candlewicking embroidery technique into hand tufted bedspreads which she sold locally.  She used strips of cotton sheeting to make her tufted bedspreads.  Her little cottage industry took off.  In order to fill her orders, she hired women in her community and taught them to make the chenille bedspreads.  They would stamp designs onto the sheeting and fill with the chenille tufting.  By 1918 her business grew to such an extent that she took on a partner and sold chenille items to retail stores up and down the east coast.  Many families in this area survived the Great Depression by making and selling chenille bedspreads by setting up roadside stands and offering their bedspreads for sale.

The popularity of chenille has been revived several times since the days of Catherine Evans.  Eventually, the chenille process in Dalton, GA became carpeting.  In fact, 90 percent of worldwide wall-to-wall carpeting production is done within a 30-mile radius of Dalton.

You may be asking what this has to do with Cajun Stitchery and custom embroidery.  The answer is that Clothilde has learned how to make chenille.  The “micro” chenille created on the embroidery machine is the chenille found in varsity letters.  In fact, Clothilde can make varsity letters.  Let’s not limit Clothilde to just varsity letters, though.  Many monograms and letter styles, as well as other designs, can be digitized into chenille stitches.  The beauty is that chenille provides a texture to the monogram or design and the little yarn tufts do not pull out like they used to do on the bedspreads.

Cajun Stitchery’s Etsy store is having a big sale.  These items have been slashed up to 50% off.  Once they are gone, they are not coming back.

There are also some adorable new baby bib designs available in our Etsy store. 

HAVE A GREAT WEEK

If you are not a subscriber and would like to receive Cajun Corner weekly, please email cajunstitchery@yahoo.com and let me know to put you on our email list. 

No time to read Cajun Corner?  Visit our blog at www.cajunstitchery.blogspot.com and click the Odiogo button to hear the computer read the blog.

Cajun Stitchery

(850) 261-2462

cajunstitchery@yahoo.com

P.S.  You are always welcome to stop by and look at all of the catalogs and pass some time with me, cher.

Cajun Corner – Vol. 6, No. 21 – September 7, 2014

Cajun Corner – Vol. 6, No. 21 – September 7, 2014

Bon Jour!  Welcome to Cajun Stitchery’s weekly email and welcome to our family.

ΘΘΘΘΘ

Don’t forget to visit us at www.cajunstitchery.com, www.flickr.com/photos/cajunstitchery, and, www.cajunstitchery.etsy.com often.   We are also on Twitter and Facebook. 

Visit our on-line catalogs at:

http://www.my-catalogs.com/cajunstitchery

and www.companycasuals.com/cajunstitchery.

This has been a very rough week.  Most of the Labor Day weekend was spent working on a rush order for a left chest logo that was needed on Monday.  Tuesday was going to be our Labor Day holiday.  When Tuesday arrived I received a disturbing call from one of my Nereid sisters telling me that one of our youngest members was in the hospital.  She suffered from a cardiac arrest Monday morning and had been in an induced coma ever since because of the time she went without oxygen to her brain caused swelling in her brain.  I sat at the hospital on Tuesday with the family and one of my fine finned sisters.  Although she was still in a coma, the medical staff was bringing her out of the coma.  I was able to visit with her, although she was still comatose.  The medical staff brought her out of the coma on Wednesday morning and the neurologist was able to perform an EEG which revealed a complete lack of brain activity.  Since one of her brothers suffered from kidney failure and was on dialysis, the family decided that her kidneys should be donated to him.  The protocol for that procedure took a day or two and turned out that they were not a match.  The family then decided that her kidneys, and other salvageable organs would be donated and she would be able to help at least 3 additional people.  She was taken off of life support this past Friday at noon.

Needless to say work was not a top priority this week.

A few orders did come in from our Etsy store which, of course, were filled and shipped.

This weekend I have gone through all of the items in our Etsy store and placed 94 items in a Sale category.  A lot of the sale items are marked down at least 50%.  If you are looking for Christmas gifts and stocking stuffers, please browse around the store.

This year we have had a few issues with the post office not delivering our items.  The only way I know to track through the mail is via priority mail.  The policies in our Etsy store have changed.  The default is 3 day priority mail, and first class mail upon request.  Shipping to Canada remains the same, first class mail, because priority mail is outrageously expensive to Canada.

Another addition to our Etsy store are a few fall and Halloween items.  Only a couple of Christmas items have been listed at this time but I do plan to list more.

All in all, I just want to get rid of the old stuff in order to make room for newly created new stuff.  As always, I am open to ideas and critiques.  So, bring it on.  What do you like about the shop and your shopping experience?  What don’t you like?  Got any ideas on improvements?

George found two old dining chairs that were left over from the previous homeowner or somehow got in our garage.  He took the seats off and painted the chairs white, at my request.  I plan to recover the seats with, of course, embroidery.  I just have to decide on the design.  You can never have too much seating.

Last year I was looking for large bolts of fabric to make curtains for the studio.  I found an online site out of New York that seemed to have what I needed.  All I wanted was plain, white muslin.  I purchased 100 yards of plain, white muslin and received a fabric that did not appear to be muslin.  It turned out that it was 100% polyester muslin.  That was pretty difficult for me to understand.  In my mind, muslin is a 100% cotton fabric.  I went back to the site and found they offer 100% cotton muslin and 100% polyester muslin.  After a little research I found that you can purchase about any kind of fabric you want in polyester or a poly-blend.  The polyester fabric is, of course, cheap.  The truth is that I’ve just about used up my 100 yards of white polyester muslin on a myriad of items.  It is strong but doesn’t have the nice cotton feel to it.  However, it goes against my “all natural” side.  I later purchased 75 yards of 100% cotton, red muslin from the same company and I am satisfied with that purchase.  I really like the company because although they are the middle man, they state that they purchase only from mills in the USA.  Their fabric is all made here.

The same issue appeared recently when I purchased chiffon scarves from a different wholesaler.  The caption stated that they were 100% chiffon.  When they arrived, I found them to have the same feel as chiffon.  The tag says “100% poly – Made in China.”  I suppose they are 100% poly-chiffon.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK

If you are not a subscriber and would like to receive Cajun Corner weekly, please email cajunstitchery@yahoo.com and let me know to put you on our email list. 

No time to read Cajun Corner?  Visit our blog at www.cajunstitchery.blogspot.com and click the Odiogo button to hear the computer read the blog.

Natural Nail Polish Remover:

Pour equal parts vinegar and lemon juice into a small bowl and soak a few cotton balls in mixture. Meanwhile, soak your hands in a basin of warm water for 10 minutes to loosen the polish a bit. Apply the cotton balls on the nail and leave on for 20-30 seconds. Wipe off the polish gently. Repeat if needed.

Cajun Stitchery

(850) 261-2462

cajunstitchery@yahoo.com

P.S.  You are always welcome to stop by and look at all of the catalogs and pass some time with me, cher.