Bitty Kitty Wallet

J beat me to the punch in getting L a Starbucks gift card for the holiday. Instead I made her a little wallet to hold her card, her library card and where she can collect the business cards that she likes so much.

This is nothing fancy. Two layers of wool felt, with a third piece for the pocket. Both appliques are wool felt as well. All the sewing is done with scrap bits of embroidery thread.



It's a little wonky though. To start with it's not very square. I fixed that with a heavy dose of steam from the iron and a few trims with my rotary cutter. I'm really giving that tool a workout lately. I don't know what I used to do without it.

Second the female half of the magnetic snap isn't all that secure. When it eventually comes loose I'll have to replace it with a ribbon since it's one of those item that can't easily be removed without leaving behind damage. I should have been more careful with it but again, late at night and with L hovering over my shoulder I wasn't.

Third it closes backwards. I wanted the cat on the front but I wasn't thinking when I did the appliqué. I forget to reverse the design before tracing it onto the wonder under so when I ironed it on, it was reversed. At least I also forgot to reverse the bird too. to reverse the bird, so it ended up on the opposite side, which is what I wanted (only backwards).



I slipped the card into it before wrapping with a scrap of fabric. Hopefully she'll like it, not loose it & oh yeah, treat her mom to a coffee once and a while!

The Forest for the Trees

Todays appliqué. Another simple design to recycle a pair of kids jeans. This time the inspiration is the old saying "can't see the forest for the trees".

I'll be adding these two pairs of jeans & a few other items to the store sometime tomorrow if I'm lucky. In all honesty I'd love to keep these for L. I'm very disappointed that none of the jeans I got from the lady on-line were the sizes she said they were. I guess it just means that I'll have to find jeans for L in the resale shops myself.

I've been enjoying this appliqué work and found myself actively looking for something else to appliqué onto. L has a jean jacket from the thrift store that I think might be next on my "make snazzy with appliqué" list. We'll see what next week holds.

Three Little Birds

Rise up this mornin, Smiled with the risin sun, Three little birds Pitch by my doorstep Singin sweet songs Of melodies pure and true, Sayin, (this is my message to you-ou-ou:)

My first appliqués. These are recycled jeans that I orignally got for L, but sadly they didn't fit her. Three little bird shapes cut from some hand dyed fabric that has been floating around in the scrap bags. The stitching isn't perfect. The back pocket is done free motion, gasp! I do need to work on getting a tighter satin stitch on my machine. Or perhaps I should try using the button hole stitch on a few. Either way I know I need more practice. I have some trouble with the inner curves especially. The fusible web really makes a difference though!

Next up is another pair of recycled jeans with 2 fall trees. The secret is that these appliqués hide the rips in the knees and other torn spots essentially making torn, outgrown jeans wearable again! Hurrah for recycling!