I Found My Way Out!

Many of you took it quite seriously that I might never find my way out of my sewing room again HAHAHA (but would that be so bad?). Thanks for the offers to send the rescue teams after me! I left a trail of bread crumbs so that I wouldn't get lost. Unfortunately, today is Monday, so it's back to work!

I played around with a few things, but most of what I did was make more of those little dolls :) Most of them are waiting to go to their new homes for swaps.







I'm still playing around with the felting thingy. That is just way too cool!! I'm seriously addicted.

New Bags I Made

Here are some bags I made. I pretty much made my own pattern for the pink one. It is lined with a product similar to Timtex to make it stiff. Someone told me that they don't make Timtex anymore but the stuff I got is called "Stiffy" (hey - I DIDN'T come up with that name LOL) and I ordered it from Long Creek Mills They said it's the same thing as Timtex, but I found it to be a bit thinner. It still worked great and you can't beat the price. I put a magnetic snap in it so that all my crap won't fall out.

I made the Mickey bag before we went to Disney World last year. The handles started to rip while we were there, though, because I ended up overstuffing it... I got wise and bought a fanny pack while I was there to use instead lol.

More Sock Creatures

The little sock guy I made HERE was getting very lonely all by himself so I made a couple of buddies for him to hang out with. These are so fun to make. I found the funkiest socks at the dollar store :)

Scenes From Tere's Sewing Room

My sewing room is my sanctuary... a place that's all mine to create, play, forget about the stress and fondle my pretty fabrics and scrapbook paper. I had a 300 square foot room built onto my house last year just for my "therapy" and as soon as it was done I realized that it was too small HAHA. Oh well, the truth is it would never be big enough. I would always find more sales to go to and more fabric and paper that I just couldn't live without.

It's usually kinda messy, but I figured if I took a few select photos, it wouldn't be so scary.



My potato head collection-


Some ladies I machine embroidered and framed-


The frog was from my sister when I had lasik surgery done in 2001, and my mom made the monkey for me when I was 3 years old or so. He is made out of socks and stuffed with panty hose :) He went with me everywhere when I was little-


The doll dressed in white came from Goodwill for $3 new in the box. The other doll is still waiting for me to make her new clothes-


Just a small part of my stash-



I love this clock! I found it at Goodwill for $4.


I found this organizer at Michael's. It's actually for scrapbook stuff, but it works nicely for my sewing stuff-



Michael's and Joann's are such bastards - they keep sending me coupons, so of course I have to go and see what to use them on... heaven forbid I WASTE the coupons!

My sewing room is slowing expanding and taking over other parts of the house. Did you ever see the movie The Blob? Kinda like that LOL.

Fabric Gift Bag and Tutorial

With all the efforts lately to recycle and to be environmentally responsible, I decided to make gift bags out of fabric. That way, they can be reused and man- I have SO MUCH fabric, my sewing room is about to bust! I need some kind of 12 step program to deal with my fabric addiction lol.

Here is the gift bag I made-


They are super easy to make and take about 5 minutes from start to finish. Basically, you cut the fabric the size you want, plus 3 inches at the top. Sew the sides and bottom together, then fold the top over to make a pretty edge and sew. This will show, so make sure the raw edges are hidden.


I squared the bottom so that it would stand up-


That's pretty much it! Press it and tie a pretty ribbon around it.

Have fun!

Two More Days Until the Weekend

We made it over the hump day yesterday... at least the weekend is in sight now. I bought a few books on making softies so I plan to play around with that this weekend. It's supposed to be 115 degrees here today - ICK.

Here are a couple of CUTE YouTube softies videos featuring little dudes from the books I got recently. I'm warning you, however - the music will get stuck in your head LOL.





Have a happy day!

Tissue Cozy Tutorial

Here is a tutorial on how to make a little tissue pack cozy to keep in your purse. Not like it's difficult to make, but sometimes it's nice to see step-by-step how someone else did it. They make cute gifts that are really quick to sew!

Cut 3 pieces of fabric, each 4"x6".


Take 2 of the pieces and iron them so that they are 2"x6" and put the other (flat) piece of fabric pretty side up, then center the pressed pieces on top so that the folded edge is towards the middle. You want all the raw edges to be together. It's no fun to rip out stitches if you have a senior moment and stitch it incorrectly... ask me how I know. I used about a 1/2" stitch. It doesn't have to be exactly perfect.


After stitching, clip the corners so that it turns nicely, then turn right side out and put the kleenex pack inside.



Happy Stitching!!!

My Machines and Misc Stuff I Did

Well, it looks like we made it through Monday. It's all downhill now to the weekend, isn't it? The summers here in Arizona are hotter than h-e double hockey sticks, as some folks say... but one nice thing is that there is hardly any traffic going to work compared to the normal rush hour. I guess the smart (?) people went elsewhere for the summer and we are the suckers who are stuck here in the 115 degree heat HA! Wimps!

I bought this book on how to make sock creatures. Funny how a lot of crafts lately focus on the bizarre, wierd and totally NOT perfect sewing/crafting techniques. It's kinda fun to do something like this once in a while. Here is my sock creature. I made him out of some snowman socks that I absolutely hated to wear but I think he turned out cute... in a Tim Burton sort of way...

The book -


Putting him together-


All done!!! Time to party!



These are my embroidery machines. The big one is Baby Hughie and the little one is Molly Moo. Now don't judge me as crazy just because I named them. Embroidery machines are people, too. Have you hugged yours today? :)

My Brother Innovis 4000D (Molly Moo)


My Brother PR600II (Baby Hughie)



OK, one more pic. I bought a bunch of plain wooden plaques from the dollar store and finally got an idea what to do with them. I painted this one and put some pretty paper on it and some clipart I printed.



That's it for this Monday. I hope you guys have a great evening. Over and out :)

Flip Flops I Made

Here are some flip flops I made. I couldn't get the ribbons to look right all the time, so I made some yo-yos on the other ones. I have about 150 pairs of flip flops to fix up. I hope they sell lol.

Blog Finds - Tshirt Makeovers

I found a few cool blogs today on how to make tshirts into something new. I just *love* tshirts and I tend to keep them way too long after they are worn out lol so I will have to try these ideas.

Make PJ pants out of a tshirt -

Tshirt Surgery

Lots of tshirt makeovers-

Oh My Stars

Tshirt underwear!

Undies From A Tshirt

Happy stitching!

Things I Stitched Lately

Here are some burps/blanket sets I finished recently:






Everyone has a different way of making burps, but I like to line them with flannel so they are extra comfy. I might post a tutorial down the road - they are pretty easy to make.

Memorial Day/Fourth of July Wall Hanging

This is a wall hanging I designed as an "in-the-hoop" embroidery machine project, meaning that everything is done with the embroidery machine. There is no other sewing involved. Each piece is basically done as an applique on water-soluble stabilizer, then the stabilizer is rinsed away after all the stitching is done. Both sides of each piece is covered in fabric so it is pretty on both sides. The colors are appliqued pieces of fabric, and pretty ribbons tie it all together.


It really is easy to do, as long as you follow each step :) But isn't that the truth with pretty much everything lol...