Entirely Emily: Embroidery

Showing posts with label Embroidery. Show all posts

Monday, August 6, 2012

Cute Cloud Felt Case

I entered the world of smart phones for the first time a few weeks ago. I know, I know...craziness. But for a while, I couldn't justify the costs. Now with my blog, kids, and crazy schedules....it's nice to have around.

I bought a Samsung Galaxy 2. And let me tell you, compared to IPhones, there is a sever lack of cute cases for my phone. I came home and jumped on Amazon and found a cute one and ordered it but it was going to take a week. I didn't want anything to happen to my phone.

I happened to have some of the felt laying around from the USA projects so literally wrapped up my phone in piece of felt and put it in my purse because ..well... it was brand new and I didn't want to mess it up. My husband was thoroughly embarrassed by my wrapped phone. I also have some new sunglasses and a point and shoot camera that roll around my purse sometimes. So I wanted to make a little case that could hold one of them when ever I need to.

As you know I have a thing lately for felt and embroidery, so I brought them together . I sketched out a little design with some clouds. I have to sketch most things out first on paper still. It's just how I roll. And who doesn't like cute, white, fluffy clouds? Ok , I'm sure some people but I like them.

I folded the felt and cut it in half. Then I got out my handy dandy sewing machine, and decided that , hey, I'd try the zig zag stitch today. Why not? It looks kinds fun. I measured about an inch around the phone and then trimmed the felt again. Then I started sewing.....

...at the right top, went down to the corner, stopped the machine, turned the felt to go across the bottom, and then turned it again to go up the left side.

It was not without it share of oops.. I had to start over a few times.

And then I cut the top for a flap and then realized I wanted the stitch to go all the way around.....Started sewing that and realized I needed it to be double thickness or it wouldn't hold up through the sewing machine......So I grabbed another piece and sewing it on top of that. Yikes. what a mess.

Ok...cut it and then realized...shouldn't have cut it


Sewed new piece back on

Now you have learned through my mistakes, don't cut it until you are sure what you are doing. On to the cute part...

I cut out the little white clouds and arranged them on the front and back of the case until I liked the arrangement.

Then I started to embroider them on with some blue thread. So cute.

Then when that was done, I needed to be able to close it. I grabbed some velcro we had for a project in S's room, cut and stuck it on. Not super cute but easy.

There I have my new phone or sunglasses or camera case. And it has clouds on it. Cute and Happy. What kind of cute would you put on your case?

Monday
What is the Gunny Sack -Making the world Cuter -Debbie Doo -DIY How Off
DIY Shop - Lines Across My Face -I should be mopping the Floor
Great Fun 4 Kids

Tuesday
How to Nest For Less - Tip Junkie - My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia -The Kurtz Corner
Sugar Bee - Romance On A Dime - Debbie Does Creations - Funky Polka Dot Giraffe
The Winthrop Chronicles

Wednesday
Thrifty Home - Someday Crafts - Sew Much Ado
- Junk in Their Trunk - Southern Lovely -SNAP

Thursday
My rePurposed Life - Beyond the Picket Fence - Somewhat Simple - Live Laugh Rowe
Loving this Crazy Life - Fireflies and Jellybeans - The Shabby Cottage
The Taylor House- House of Hepworths

Friday
Naptime Crafters - Stay At Home Nation
Young and Crafty - My Turn(ForUs)
Delicate Construction
Serenity Now
Here Comes the Sun

Saturday
Six Sister's Stuff
Be Different Act Normal
Cheerios and Lattes
Natasha in Oz -Say G'Day

Monday, July 30, 2012

Mickey Mouse Party (with printables)

(This is another flashback post just like the one about the Wall-e Party. These parties were pre-blog but I wanted to share some of my ideas and printables)

A year ago (2011) K was into Mickey mouse really bad. It was no surprise when that was the theme for her 3rd birthday party. This was more of a store bought party I will say. At the time Charlie was very sick and I had a almost one year old, so I was a tad overwhelmed.

I bought the Mickey Mouse cupcake stand, invitations, table cloth, balloons,cupcake papers and one banner to put downstairs.

Yes,,,those are Pringles around her cupcake. She still won't eat cupcakes or cake. So she gets ice cream and Pringles.

But I had to do some things to complete the look....it can't be all store bought. I decided we needed Mickey ears everywhere so I went into Photoshop and created this file . Which I then printed out, then traced a billion times, and cut out ( see... another reason I need to win a Silhouette machine..anyone want to give me and my readers one? )

click to download file

Then I took the mickey mouse face cutouts and some crepe paper and hung them around the basement.

As I looked around the room, I noticed all of the black frames that we had down there. Why couldn't they be mickey-ized too? I cut out big black circles and taped them up behind the tv....

behind the big picture frame....

behind the big clock and the key chain shadow boxes....( look to the right)

The birthday girl could not go without a special shirt. I took the same Mickey face cutout file, added a 20pt red outline to the outside, the Cheri font K and volia!

click to download (PSD file)

I cut the separate pieces out, used some wunder under. (Amazing stuff) cut out the shapes and ironed them on the shirt. I then used some white embroidery thread to add that cute little touch. I loved the shirt .And I think I must love embroidery too!

I unearthed it out of her clothes memory box. Sorry about the wrinkles.

I also wanted a personalized banner upstairs on the mantle so back to my trusty Photoshop and I created this file. The font I used was aka Dylan Open from dafont. I used aka Dylan Plain for the shirt above.

Click to download file

I couldn't find any photos from the day of the party but I had saved the banner. Notice the lovely patina of wrinkles it received in her paper memory box. Yes, each kid has a clothes/stuff memory box and a paper stuff memory box.

I used the layers in Photoshop to break apart the letters of the banner, print them out on colored card stock ( I don't have a colored printer, only laser) and make every other letter a different color by placing two letters per sheet of paper. I just cut them out by hand. They are about 4" tall.

You can see the in the color picture that the H and the P are both red. I did that with all of the letters. I hope this gives you some other ideas for a Mickey Party. You can blend the store bought and the diy at any party. Sometimes us mommies need some help.

Monday
What is the Gunny Sack -Making the world Cuter -Debbie Doo -DIY How Off
DIY Shop - Lines Across My Face -I should be mopping the Floor
Great Fun 4 Kids

Tuesday
How to Nest For Less - Tip Junkie - My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia -The Kurtz Corner
Sugar Bee - Romance On A Dime - Debbie Does Creations - Funky Polka Dot Giraffe
The Winthrop Chronicles

Wednesday
Thrifty Home - Someday Crafts - Sew Much Ado
- Junk in Their Trunk - Southern Lovely

Thursday
My rePurposed Life - Beyond the Picket Fence - Somewhat Simple - Live Laugh Rowe
Loving this Crazy Life - Fireflies and Jellybeans - The Shabby Cottage
The Taylor House- House of Hepworths-SNAP
Friday
Naptime Crafters - Stay At Home Nation
Young and Crafty - My Turn(ForUs)
Delicate Construction
Serenity Now
Here Comes the Sun

Saturday
Six Sister's Stuff
Be Different Act Normal
Cheerios and Lattes
Natasha in Oz -Say G'Day

Monday, July 9, 2012

A Cute Saint Louis Cardinals Girl's Shirt

We decided to take K to her very first Saint Louis Cardinals Baseball game. Up to this point she was so not ready to go. Nor did she care. And when you go to a Cardinals Game you have to wear your cardinal gear/garb. It's really great how we have such team spirit here. But then I realized we had a problem.... I never see any cute Cardinal shirts for girls. And since I have girls, gosh darn it, they are going to look cute and girly!!

What we did have were two generic Cardinal T-shirts that had Albert Pujols name and number on therm. And since he left our team, J and I aren't very happy with him. But we don't need to go into that here.

I decided that I could reuse the Cardinal logo itself in a different way. I went and cut the logo off the shirt.

I also went and raided my stash of old t shirts just waiting for the next t-shirt quilt and found a nice quality white shirt that I wanted to make a heart out of. I traced the logo on a piece of paper and made sure it would be big enough, then cut it out.

I needed a plain red tshirt so I went to Kohls and found, in the boy section, a red plain t shirt with a pocket for $6. I borrowed my mom's seam ripper ( man I need one of those) and took off the pocket. You can see there was little outline but I knew the heart would cover that.

I was going to use this stuff called Wunder Under that is sold at fabric stores that my mom had but it was really old and wouldn't stick :( I used it for another project before and it works great when it's not old. At Michaels , I found Aleena's Peel and Stick Sheets. It says they are for fabric , they are permanent, and washable. Hey, let's take a chance. Since I'm still a sewing newbie, I don't mind using stuff like this until I get better at it.

I laid the heart and the Cardinal Logo out on the sheets of stick and made sure I had enough to cover it. The sheets are only 4.25x5 wide.

Then I had to cut around them and let me just tell you this is the stickiest stuff I have ever dealt with. I tried the scissors and they kept getting stuck. I broke out the X-acto knife and that seemed to work really well especially around the logo. You had to peel it off and lay it down carefully so it wouldn't bunch up.

I put it on the shirt and it was time to add a little border. It looked so plain so I asked my mom about putting some kind of embroidery stitch around it and she showed me how to do a blanket stick around the edge of the heart. You start from underneath and go up and through the loop you just made. BUt remember to come up with your needle as close to the edge as you want your border to be. I didn't a few times and I had to redo it because it wasn't right on the edge. I hope the pictures below kinda show what I'm talking about.

The going up part , right be the edge.

The going under/through the loop part

A close up of the stitch

All finished with the blanket stitch.

After all of that I thought she still needed something else. Rhiannon over at Being (mom)me made these firecracker hair bows and I thought...perfect. I'll do a version for K. I had bought some red and white ribbon at the store just in case. I took a few strips and sewed them together adding a bow in the middle.

I got done with that and though the shirt still didn't look finished so I took some of the same ribbon ( which I though kinds looked like baseball stitching) and sewed some bows on the sleeves.

Now.... I was happy with everything and when I showed it to K, she ran and told daddy that mommy had made her a shirt for the baseball game. I'm glad she liked it. I'll post pictures soon of her wearing them.