Custom Order of Pillows

Recently, a friend asked me to do a custom order of pillows for a wedding gift.  And because I can’t say no to anyone, I got out my laptop and started digitizing their invitation artwork and slapped it on some fabric and sewed a series of lovely pillowcases.

custom embroidered pillowcase

I was glad their artwork was line art as it made for an easy embroidery job.  Though, they did want gold thread, which is always a pain to work with.  Metallic threads constantly snap when you sew with them.

Once the job was finished and the pillows were delivered, I had some extra supplies left over and I hit up my home-girl, Jess, and asked if she wanted to learn how to sew pillowcases.

Jess learning to sew pillowcases

The hardest part was the cutting the fabric up for a very large pillow.   We worked through folding fabric to cut on a small mat and then sewed the pieces together.

I pretty quickly realized how spoiled I am with my monster sewing machine at home that threads itself and auto adjusts for different fabrics.  The fleece she picked out for her pillows was slipping and sliding all over, but with a few pointers she was sewing pillowcases like a pro!


jess' fabric painted pillow cases

After our little sewing session she went on to make more pillowcases and even did some fabric painting on them!  She painted them so well I thought she had bought precut iron-ons.

I actually taught someone something, so that was pretty cool.

Making a Wallet with the Cricut Maker

Finished Faux Leather Wallet

One of the things I’ve really been wanting to try was making a wallet with the Cricut Maker. A few days ago I began scouring the internet for patterns. I wanted something free and simple to try things out. When I came across the MakeSupply company’s website, I was pretty much in business. They offer free templates you can download and even videos on putting them together. I downloaded a Bi-Fold wallet template, converted it from PDF to SVG images, and uploaded it to the Cricut app.

faux leather on cricut maker

I have real leather to work with but I pulled out some faux leather instead. This is my first wallet, after all, I didn’t want to waste more expensive materials. Faux leather is pretty thin and the machine easily cuts through it with perfect cuts. Continue reading “Making a Wallet with the Cricut Maker”

I’ve got a golden thimble

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golden thimble

Baby Lock and Brother are coming out with their latest release of their high-end sewing machines and because of this, I’ve got a golden thimble in the mail to woo me into giving them more money for the latest machine.  Ya know, because apparently I’m a baller in their eyes.

I like being on the list of people they want to schmooze to buy a new product.    The problem I have is with the approach they’re taking with the new release.  They want me to slap down $1000 down payment for the right to a discount when it eventually comes out.  Which, I guess is not uncommon these days especially when you’re talking the amount of money these things go for.   You put money down for the right to buy the latest Tesla car and you put money down for the right to buy a flagship Baby Lock machine too.   If you’re not a sewer, you probably wouldn’t know that.   Oh right, back to the problem… They don’t tell you anything about the machine.   Just that it is coming and it has features.

It 👏 Has 👏 Features. 👏

No word on what those features would be but for $18,000 it better have some life-changing features.  I’m not looking for a new machine, but if I was, I’d need a lot more information than that before I’d pony up some money.  And for $18,000 I better be able to throw some fabric into the sewing room and return to find whole new outfits sewn and waiting for me to try on.

I tried googling the new machine but they are keeping it pretty hush-hush.  Not even any rumors on it.   Even the sales people didn’t have anything on it.   I kind of feel sorry for them.  It can’t be easy selling a mystery product at that price point.