Cajun Corner – Vol.
6, No. 10 – April 19, 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:
Spring comes and goes this year. A friend and life long resident of Pensacola once told me
that we have one last cold spell in mid-March and then it is spring. Usually that is true but this year little
frosty days have popped up in April. And
the rain! It seems we’ve had quite a bit
of rain this year. No problems
here. Our garden is very happy.
We had a week or so of company. It was so nice to be able to have out-of-town
guests and let them stay at the studio.
The bed over there is apparently quite comfortable. It is too low for my tastes and George
promises to make a platform for the bed someday.
It may be the full moon this past week but my
printer died and we had to buy a new one.
Then our microwave died and we had to buy a new one. Now it looks like our Mr. Coffee may be
dead. Goodness gracious! Things need to last longer.
In spite of all of our activity this month, a lot
of embroidery was done, as well. I
finally finished a non-rush project of a name on a huge Christmas
stocking. I kept putting the project off
because the customer didn’t need it until Christmas. George finally said that if I keep putting it
off Christmas will arrive and then it will be a rush job. So, I did it and it turned out beautiful.
In my endless pursuit of trying to use all of my
scrap fabric, I made a cute “Happy Easter” banner that turned out very
nice. It is now hanging in our
showroom.
Handkerchiefs are the highlight of our Etsy
store. One lady contacted me on Etsy to
find out what kind of fabric I had available for handkerchiefs. After sending her pictures of a lot of fabric
she decided that she wanted four handkerchiefs made. Two of the handkerchiefs were to be made from
our black and white pin striped fabric and the other two from our 100% cotton
white fabric. One of the black and white
pinstriped hankies was to have an artists palette and the word Dew in
script. The other pinstriped hanky was
only to have the word Dewest on it in script.
The hanky with the palette was edged with white thread. Dewest was edged in red thread. The other two were on white cotton and edged
in pastel colors. The white and pastel
edged hankies were no big deal and they were done using a light tear away
stabilizer. The hanky with the red edge
was a bit more complex. You see, the tear
away stabilizer is white and once you tear it away little specks of white can
show around the edge. It does not show
on white or light colors but for a dark color like red it poses a problem. Instead of the tear away for the red edged
handkerchief, I used Vilene. Vilene is a
wash away stabilizer. Basically it is a
sheet of starch. After making the hanky
with the red edge I soaked it in cold water.
It turned out beautiful. The
handkerchiefs were mailed to the customer who, upon receipt, replied that three
of the hankies are beautiful but the one with the red edge is discolored and
hard. I knew it was the starch so I told
her that before she had to send it back and I make another, for her to soak the
hanky in cold water. She did soak it
overnight and replied the next day that it is as soft as the other
hankies. She just couldn’t believe it
was starch because the fabric wasn’t hard, just the edge. Ah, another satisfied customer.
A baby shower was approaching and I needed a baby
shower gift. I’ve made baby booties
before and have some adorable patterns.
So, I made a pair of baby booties.
They turned out okay, I guess.
They really are not that hard to make.
The problem is all of the little, tiny pieces. Finally, I got the idea of scanning the
pattern pieces into the computer and digitizing them. OMG!
It worked. I was able to do a
running stitch for the seam and outline, including the little important divots. Then I turned on my boring needle and the
machine cut out the pattern pieces perfectly.
Sweet! The booties still had to
be assembled and sewn on the sewing machine but with perfectly cut pattern
pieces it helped so much with the sewing.
Better than that, I was then able to embroider on the pattern pieces
before cutting them out. Yes, anyplace
on the pattern can be embroidered, including the soles. They did turn out so
cute. The time involved in making the
booties is rather extensive. It still
takes me 2-3 hours to make a pair of booties.
This is much better than the first pair that took me the better part of
the day to make. One problem still
remains. The very last thing to do in
making the booties is sewing the front, toe area. Mine rarely are curved properly. For my baby shower gift, I made a pair of
booties with a matching bib and bonnet.
The bib is also done on the embroidery machine. The bonnet is easy to make but other than the
embroidery, could not be done on the embroidery machine. Of course, the baby bibs are for sale on Etsy
and for custom orders. The booties are
not; simply because I would have to charge $40-$60 per pair, which is
ridiculous for a pair of booties.
A friend/customer contacted me about wedding
coasters. Her son is getting married and
she wanted a special coaster to go under candles that will be placed on each
table at the reception. In addition, she
wanted something that her son and daughter-in-law could keep and use. We ended up making 5” wide coasters in the
shape of a sea shell with the names embroidered on the edge. Using one of the special features in our
digitizing program we were able to embroider the last name as a loose fill
stitch on the entire area of the shell. All
24 coasters turned out lovely and the customer was happy.
Another customer, a real New Orleans Saints
fanatic, found a pair of scrub pants in the gold color of the Saints. She asked that I design something that said
New Orleans Saints and included some fleur de lis. Our end design was “New Orleans” down one side of the pant leg. “Saints”
down the side of the other pant leg.
Fleur de lis across the bottom of each pant leg.
Recently we obtained some new embroidery
designs. One of the designs is the
Pledge of Allegiance. It is very
pretty. I’ve heard that schools no
longer have the children recite the Pledge of Allegiance each morning. That is a shame. What about having the Pledge of Allegiance
embroidered on patriotic tee shirts?
Last year George and I purchased identical tee shirts. They are white with red and blue stripes on
the sleeves. I stitched out the design
and it stitched out just fine. We are
now going to stitch it out on our tee shirts to wear for Memorial Day, 4th
of July, and other patriotic days. I’m
doing mine on the front but George wants his on the back. At least the kids can see the words and we
will make a statement, too.
You know when my embroidery tech comes by she
gets me up to date on all of the latest embroidery techniques and things. This visit was all about Thread Velvet. Thread Velvet is a technique which I think is
registered to Viking or Pfaff. The method
is to sew a satin stitch in one color with a bean stitch around the edges. Then embroider another satin stitch on top of
the first but slightly larger; and, bean stitch around. You can have as many layers as you like. Once finished, slit the middle of the satin
stitches and fluff them. If you use a
darker color on the bottom and a lighter color on the top (or vice versa) it
gives an illusion of a little strip of velvet and is beautiful. It is hard to describe but I am definitely
going to have to play with this technique.
Everything that I’ve read says it can be laundered but launder
gently. Of course, the more layers the
thicker and richer it looks.
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.
Thank you, Sandy,
for all of the jokes:
One day, a man came home and was
greeted by his wife dressed in a very sexy nightie.
'Tie me up,' she purred, 'and you
can do anything you want.'
So he tied her up and went golfing.
*****************************************
A woman came home, screeching her car
into the driveway, and ran into the house.
She slammed the door and shouted at the
top of her lungs, 'Honey, pack your bags. I won the lottery!'
The husband said, 'Oh my God! What
should I pack, beach stuff or mountain stuff?'
'Doesn't matter,' she said. 'Just get
out.'
********************************************
Marriage is a relationship in which one
person is always right, and the other is a husband.
*************************************
A Polish immigrant went to the DMV to
apply for a driver's license.
First, of course, he had to take an eye
sight test.
The optician showed him a card with the
letters
'C Z W I X N O S T A C Z.'
'Can you read this?' the optician
asked.
'Read it?' the Polish guy replied, 'I
know the guy.'
******************************************
Mother Superior called all the nuns
together and said to them, 'I must tell you all something. We have a case of
gonorrhea in the convent.'
'Thank God,' said an elderly nun at the
back. 'I'm so tired of chardonnay.'
********************************************
A wife was making a breakfast of fried
eggs for her husband.
Suddenly, her husband burst into the
kitchen.
'Careful,' he said, 'CAREFUL! Put in
some more butter! Oh, my gosh! You're cooking too many at once. TOO MANY! Turn
them! TURN THEM NOW! We need more butter. Oh, my gosh! WHERE are we going to
get MORE BUTTER? They're going to STICK! CAREFUL! I said be CAREFUL! You NEVER
listen to me when you're cooking! Never! Turn them! Hurry up! Are you CRAZY?
Have you LOST your mind? Don't forget to salt them. You know you always forget
to salt them Use the salt. USE THE SALT! THE SALT!'
The wife stared at him.
'What in the world is wrong with you?
You think I don't know how to fry a couple of eggs?'
The husband calmly replied, 'I just
wanted to show you what it feels like when I'm driving.'
********************************************************
Fifty-one years ago, Herman James, a North Carolina mountain
man, was drafted by the Army.
On his first day in basic training, the
Army issued him a comb.
That afternoon the Army barber sheared
off all his hair.
On his second day, the Army issued
Herman a toothbrush.
That afternoon the Army dentist yanked
seven of his teeth.
On the third day, the Army issued him a
jock strap.
The Army has been looking for Herman
for 51 years.
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Cajun Stitchery
(850) 261-2462
P.S. You are always welcome to stop by and look at
all of the catalogs and pass some time with me, cher.
