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.

Bad Habits

This weekend was busy, busy, busy.  Saturday was the Mystic Krewe of Nereid's King Kake Party ushering in the Mardi Gras season on Pensacola Beach.  We had a blast and the turn out was fabulous.  Several of the local krewes always come out to support us and we are so grateful to them.  The party was definitely a success.  Our new king and queen were crowned and both seemed very surprised.  King Pierce and Queen Daisy shall reign in 2011.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, a dear friend to everyone on the beach, including myself, passed away unexpectedly last week.  The King Kake Party included a tribute to our Mary.  Mary's funeral was Monday.

While at the King Kake Party, I met a group from a new, local krewe, The Krewe of Bad Habits.  Don't you just love the name.  They said they may be contacting me later for some embroidery work on their logo.  Right now they are waiting to receive their tux jackets that are being made out of lame'.  I think I have previously talked about my feelings about lame'.  There are some things about lame' that I do like.  No doubt about it, lame' is as shiney as fabric comes.  I just hope the krewe isn't spending a lot of money on lame' jackets because they may not last very long.

I received several compliments on the last Cajun Corner.  My friend, Melanie, stopped me at the King Kake Party to tell me that she enjoys reading Cajun Corner.  Thank you so much, Melanie.  I just love the feedback from everyone.

January is loaded with birthdays.  George's birthday is the 2nd and his sister, Kathie's, is the 11th.  Each year we get together for lunch/brunch to celebrate.  We did the birthday lunch this past Sunday.  Kathie brought two of her neighbors/friends with her.  They were delightful people -- Pat and Peter. 

Also on Sunday a friend from Central Florida arrived in Pensacola on a business trip.  She will be here until Wednesday.  We took her out to eat on Sunday and last night she was at the house for gumbo.  We call her Turtle.  It's true and she likes the name.  She is absolutely adorable and is an embroidery machine technician.  I love it when we can spend time with Turtle because we can talk embroidery for hours.  And you know I am passionate about my embroidery.

Turtle actually has the sequin attachment.  I was able to show her some of our Mylar work and share some Mylar with her.  It made me feel good that she agreed that the Mylar is just as blingy as the sequins.

Last week I added several items to our Etsy store -- all were handkerchiefs with mylar designs.  I still have more handkerchiefs to add to the store.  There have been some people looking at them but not nearly as many as I thought there would be.  To be fair, I have been so busy with other things that part of the problem is probably because I need to get in there and do more marketing. 

We have more black satin jacket orders that I need to place this week.  Those black satin jackets have been a real hit.

I'm really looking forward to this coming weekend.  It's our annual bead trip to Mobile.  We spend the weekend at our friend, Marilyn's, home and the weekend is full of shopping.  Then each night all of the girls get together and party -- just the girls.  We drink and talk and sing and dance and laugh.  It's a wonderful weekend and I look forward to it every year.  One year, one of the girls happened into a dollar store of some sort and found slippers with blinky lights.  A bunch of us each bought a pair and that night when we all changed into our "after 5's", we came our with our blinky slippers.  The girls that didn't have them were so envious.  We laughed and played with our blingy slippers all night long.  I still have mine somewhere; although I'm sure they no longer blink.

Got to get back to work.  Have a nice day everyone:>)

Cajun Corner, Vol. 3, No. 1

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

ΘΘΘΘΘ

Don’t forget to visit our catalog at www.companycasuals.com/cajunstitchery and www.cajunstitchery.etsy.com often.

Happy New Year! This actually should be the last Cajun Corner for 2010 but today is New Year’s Day 2011.

We had a wonderful New Years Eve in the neighborhood. We began gathering at the pavilion in our park with our drinks of choice and even food around 6-7p.m. We brought a hurricane lantern for light and simply talked, drank, ate and had a wonderful evening. Later, sometime before midnight, we dispersed. Some went home and others gathered at a neighbor’s home for further refreshment, food, chit chat, and festivities. It was delightful. I’m not sure what time we got home, but George and I never made it to the bedroom. We woke up this morning on our sofas. Frankly, I had a headache and my mouth didn’t taste very well. God has blessed us with such a wonderful group of neighbors. There was never a need to drink and drive last night, but there wasn’t anyone in Pensacola who had a better time that we did.

This week has been spent reflecting and projecting. I do believe that the year 2011 is going to be filled with glitz and bling. The Mylar embroidery is turning out to be a reasonably priced method of adding bling to embroidery. It is not difficult to embroider. The hardest part of Mylar embroidery is actually digitizing the design for Mylar. Luckily, I’ve made great strides in this department.

Additionally, this past year I’ve learned to apply rhinestones. The rhinestones are not done on the embroidery machine. They are all done one-by-one by hand. There is a rhinestone machine but it is out of our price range at the present time.

Yet another method to add bling is with sequins. There is an attachment for the embroidery machine to enable the sewing of sequins. I am looking into this possibility. It is very expensive but may be worth the investment. Even if I had the sequin attachment, sequins require special digitizing which I must learn.

Another technique that I learned in 2010, rather recently, is puff embroidery. Puff embroidery is achieved using craft foam and gives the embroidery a 3D effect. Of course, puff embroidery requires its own special digitizing.

As much as I love the art of embroidery with thread, it appears that shiny objects are sellable. This year Cajun Stitchery needs to increase its sales to another level and bling, hopefully, will get us there.

The Etsy Store did fair this year but requires a lot more attention. The handkerchiefs will remain a staple at the store. Who would ever have thought that handkerchiefs would be such a hit? The Etsy Store will be introducing some new items this year.

The first new item is going to be designer pockets. Mama always loved pockets, as do I. It is frustrating when someone hands me change when I’m out in public and I don’t have a pocket to put the change into. To stop and find my wallet in my purse, or simply to find my purse, is time consuming and annoying. What if you could just add a pocket onto the clothing that you have that doesn’t have a pocket? That is a good idea. However, sewing a pocket onto clothing is simple for someone who can sew, but what about those who don’t sew. This project took a bit of experimentation but it turns out that you can put a bead of glue around the satin stitched edges of the embroidered pocket (no glue at the top or you won’t be able to get into the pocket) and simply glue the pockets wherever you like. There are various glues for all types of projects. For the pockets, fabric glue would be required. Permanent and non-permanent glues are available. If you want to permanently adhere the pocket to a specific piece of apparel, use permanent glue, such as Fabric Tac. However, if you want a pocket for the day, use something less permanent, such as Tacky Glue which will come off in the wash. I’m just using these 2 glues as examples. There are plenty of permanent and non-permanent fabric glues on the market. You would have to follow the instructions for the particular glue that you choose.

Designer pockets can be used to change the look of an outfit by using contrasting colors; or, to maintain the same look of the outfit and use the pocket for functionality by using the same color pocket.

Decorating your clothes with designer pockets can be fun and environmentally friendly. Purchase a pretty pocket and glue all the way around. Then adhere the pocket to your rear blue jeans pocket. Or, take a plain shirt and purchase designer pockets with motifs for each holiday, i.e., Mardi Gras, Easter, patriotic, Halloween, Christmas, etc. Use non-permanent fabric glue and you can use the same shirt for all holidays. But don’t stop at shirts and jeans. Designer pockets can be attached to purses, hats, even notebooks. Purchase some designer pockets with your name or monogram, or even your company logo.

In addition to all of the above, designer pockets come in many shapes and sizes to fit whatever item you like.

I must interject here that while doing my research for the fabric glue, I ran across several articles and tutorials on the internet for sewing with glue. There is even one on attaching a zipper with glue. It is all very fascinating.

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.
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Boudreaux and Thibodaux were working in the south Louisiana sugarhouse plant cutting that sugarcane and piling it up for cooking into syrup. They decide to stop for a coffee break down by the bayou. Boudreaux ax, " Thib, what is the smartest ting in the world?"

Thibodaux tink about it, take off his LSU hat, scratch his bald head, and say, "I don't know Boud, what it is?"

Boudreaux sip a cup of dat hot Community coffee and say, "A thermos bottle. It keeps hot things hot and cold things cold. How do it know?"
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French Phrase of the Week:

Nouvel An heureux (Happy New Year)
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Recycle Crafts found at http://www.ehow.com/how_5866915_sew-pocket-purse-recycle-crafts.html

How to Sew a Jeans Pocket Purse Recycle Crafts

Jeans Pocket Purse fun for girls

Jeans pocket purses are easy to make and fun for young girls and maybe even tweens, depending on the fashion of the day.

Recycle worn denim jeans of any size or gender--the larger the jeans, the larger the purse will be. This recycle crafts project takes very little time and sewing ability to sew a jeans pocket purse.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

old pair of jeans

seam ripper

rope or ribbon for handle

sewing machine or needle and thread

snap or fastener optional

1  Remove the pockets.

Using a seam ripper, carefully remove the patch pockets from the old jeans. Do not remove the double stitching around the edge. Work from the backside of the fabric if it is easier for ripping.

2  Place the pockets together.

Make sure that the pockets are sufficiently matching so that they fit together when wrong sides are touching.

3  Decide which will be the front side.

Look closely at the pockets and see which side is better looking. If one side is in worse condition, use that for the front and decorate it with an applique or something that will cover the wear. Use your imagination. Woven ribbon is attractive on these little jeans purses, too.

4  jeans pocket recycled for a little girl purse

Cut the rope or ribbon for a handle.

Measure about 14 inches for a handle and place the ends in the inside top of the two pockets about half an inch from the edge.

5  Stitch around the edge of the pocket.

Using a sewing machine or needle and thread, stitch all the way around three sides of the pocket, leaving the top open for a cell phone, keys and a tissue. Make sure to stitch the handle securely in place.

6  Add a snap or fastener.

Sew a snap or fastener in the center of the inside of the top edge if desired.

C’est tout, mes amis

Peggy Henshall

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.