Holiday Insanity

In this post I am going to post nearly everything I made for the holidays as gifts  for people so you can see why I disappeared for nearly a month in recovery! This post will cover everything I made that I did not already post about. if it gets too long, I may have to split into two posts. Ready?  Here goes...


 Let's start with the Professional Tote. Yes, I have made several posts about this amazing bag,  and here is another one I made for the holidays. On this one, I added additional short straps to the top to accommodate the way my mother carries her luggage through the airport. The other straps would have been too long to use and the bag would have been dragging along the floor. So I added these little straps. And then below we have the back view.

Next, we have the Serged Satchel by Indygo Junction. I made this bag using Cappucino Bali Pops and YLI's candlelight thread in the loopers. This thread is truly sparkly and gorgous! It is too thick to go through a needle so you can only use it in the loopers of your serger, for couching, and in the bobbin for bobbinwork.

 

Next, I embroidered a makeup bag with a cute hearts and rickrack design. These makeup bags come in two sizes and a ton of different colors and are great for embroidery. Plus, they are lined with vinyl to make wiping down easy for when your makeup spills all over! You can get them from The Sewphisticated Stitcher.

I also made another purse like the one you saw previously in my Quilt with your Serger tutorial. However, with this one, I shrunk the pattern by 40% (so it is 60% of its original size) and then continued to construct the bag. I also added embroidery and hot fix crystals on this smaller version. You can get the pattern for this bag here.

This next photo is of a casserole carrier I made using insulated batting so it will keep any dish cold or hot. This insulated batting is called Insul-Bright and is great for use in your hot pads, iron cases, oven mitts, etc. Keep reading for another gift where I used this batting. 

 The inside ties with ribbons so it can accommodate many different sizes of casserole dishes. 

I also embroidered many ready-to-wear shirts with various embroidery designs I knew the designated gift receiver would like. If you want to know where I got any of these embroidery designs, leave a comment or contact me and I will tell you...I'm just worried this post will get obscenely long if I go through every design I used!

 For this next one, the gift receiver goes to University of Pittsburgh and I looked on their website and they make a hoodie and shirts with Pitt just like this! So I used a Varsity font and an applique/outline stitch and re-created it for her!

And what post would be complete without something about babies???  Here are two onesies I embroidered for very special boy babies. Love those alien designs!

The next item is a two zippered makeup pouch. I also sell these on my Etsy site here. They are custom made and totally functional and can hold so much! This case is always special made up in someone's name.

Now we have another Insul-Bright gift! Here are two sets of trivets I made. These are made in the embroidery hoop, quilting in all, in one hooping! I used fabrics to match the kitchens of the receivers and instead of using regular cotton or polyester batting, I filled them with the insulated batting. This way they can be used as trivets.

Here are some coasters I made using the same in the hoop design. I just used the circular pattern and used plain cotton batting. I love this fun and colorful Chanukkah print.  I also use this same pattern, to make my monogrammed coasters that I sell on Etsy. The ones pictured there are square but I can make hexagonal, circular, square, oval, rectangular...you name it!

Making gifts for men is always hard. So I was extremely excited when I found this tutorial for a Dopp Kit. I used the basic tutorial as inspiration to make this first kit. On this one I used Decor Bond interfacing on all the main pieces. Decor Bond is what I use in nearly every handbag pattern. It is stiff, but pliable and sturdy. It is fantastic interfacing. However, I felt that it left the Dopp Kit a little too pliable--if that makes sense. In my opinion I think they needed to be stiffer. But when he got the gift, both he and his wife thought it was great that it was flexible as it would pack easier in a suitcase on trips. The choice is yours.

This next Dopp Kit I made using really stiff Peltex interfacing (the one that is fusible one one side) on only two of the four main pieces. And man this thing is stiff stiff stiff! I could hardly bend it to sew through. I think I need to find a happy medium. Any suggestions?

On this gift, I took a ready made tote bag, available at craft stores or here, and put an embroidery design on it. The receiver of this gift is in tap dance classes and this will be a great bag for her to throw her tap shoes and dancing supplies in to carry back and forth from class.

Another baby gift! These are adorable little cowboy boots I made for a baby boy and embroidered them with his name. The pattern is by Curby's Closet. Here is the pattern for the cowboy boots. They have all kinds of baby shoe patterns. Check them out here.

Last, but definitely not least, I made these little snap cases to hold things in your purse. They hold a mini tide stick, pills, anything you want. They are incredibly handy to have around. These are also made completely in the embroidery hoop in one hooping. 

Phew...I think that about takes care of it! All the other gifts I already posted about...man I just got exhausted all over again looking at all these things I made! I'm thinking about having a giveaway soon...what do you all think? What would you like to see me give away???