Recycling fleeces

Along with the wonderful donations of jeans (seized by Trading Standards as designer imitations), Lance Haggith recently passed on a number of hoodies and other fleece lined items, also seized as "designer rip-offs".

The idea with this was to use them to line bibs, using the inside of the garments.  Some of the seized jeans were used for the front of the bibs, with various embroidery designs used.  I will put these up as individual items in later posts.  The hoodies etc were cut up for the linings.

The batch of items pictured produced about 20 bib linings.
The linings were then sewn, with the logos hidden inside the bibs and the fleecy lining used as the bib backing.

Lots of learning points from this:
There are only a few parts of the hoodies suitable for cutting up - the sleeves are great, as is the back, but the pouch on the front makes part of it unusable. 
Trousers produced very little usable fleece.The images on the front of the bibs are often very hard to sew over - they seem to stick to the presser foot and stop the fabric from moving.
The fleece is of much better quality than the cheap blankets I was using - and it comes to me free!

Thanks Lance!

Appreciation and encouragement.

These postcards carry a variety of messages - I have had more fun with the slogans!

"Do what you love, love what you do."
"The simplest things in life are often the things most precious."
"Always follow your heart".
"Relax".
"You rock".
"Good morning sunshine."
"Laugh".

Positive postcards

These postcards are multi purpose, with the main hope being that they will raise a smile both for the sender and the recipient.

Which one catches your eye?

Keep calm..

A selection of "keep calm" slogans on postcards.

I enjoy watching people's faces as they browse my postcards.  Often I can work out which one they are looking at!

Birthday cards

The previous line of embroidered postcards having sold out really quickly, it was time to make more.  This line is a variety of birthday cards.

I probably should have made more... these may not last for very long!  I have at least speeded up production by avoiding the tedious oversewing of the edges.

Birthday postcards

This latest batch of cards has proved extremely popular, and particularly the birthday cards.  The next batch will have to include more of these.
It's good fun choosing the designs and the colours.  Those pictured here are from a range of sellers.

Postcards

I would love to be able to photograph the reaction to the arrival of one of these.  On the rare occasions that I do get to find out a reaction, it is always positive.  My hope is always that these unusual postacrds bring surprise and pleasure.

The "Keep calm and..." theme continues to be popular...

Postcards

My fabric postcards always attract a lot of interest, and are great fun to make, particularly with the range of slogans I have acquired. Here is a new batch, with some new slogans.

Final Babushka doorstop

Here she is:

The regal purple and the homespun check make an interesting contrast.  Right now I am longing to make an entire family of these dollies, perhaps for some little girl to play with.  If I manage it, I'll let you know!
Next on my list, however, is a wonderful set of owl doorstops from Inspiration Mutz.  I'm looking forward to playing with those.
Shared here:

Cet Crafty Fridays	Can I get a Whoop whoop	Anything Goes
5Days5Ways	Friday Follow Along	Show off Friday

Meet Gloria

I might be getting carried away with the naming here, but humour me!  This Russian Doll doorstop, in yellow and gold, looks so cheerful, don't you think?

Shared here:

Catch a Glmpse Thursday	Gingerly Made	I Gotta Create

Postcards again

A third set of embroidered cards, ready to post off to someone special.

I'm particularly fond of the "You Rock" one - with a guitarist husband, it appeals to me!
Shared here:

Serenity Saturday	Saturday Sparks	Handmade Cafe
Saturday at Seven	Strut your stuff Saturday	Check me out Saturdays

Blue Baboushka

Another version of the lovely Inspiration Mutz applique.  Of course, I used denim as the base fabric for this, and the back is entirely denim.  I stuffed them with sawdust - obtained for free from a local sawmill.  It was a messy process, but the sawdust works well.

Sharing this project here:

Take a look Tuesday	Hand Made Tuesdays	Made by Me
The Inspiration Board	Show me what you got	Feather's flights

Second batch of fabric postcards

These are a mix of patterns I already had and some from the purchased set.  I'm enjoying using the embroidery designs in such a variety of ways.

Shared at these parties:

Sew Darn Crafty	Sunday Funday	Submarine Sunday
Bouquet of talent		Sew-licious

Fabric postcards

Many years ago I was introduced to applique, patchwork style fabric postcards.  I made a number of them, most of which were given to friends.  While doing my post-Christmas embroidery pattern hunt, I found a set of patterns for embroidered fabric postcards, so of course I had to have a go!  I love the fact that the back of the postcard is also embroidered, and am now experimenting with various of my existing embroidery designs (particularly the word blocks) to use them as postcards.  Here are my first set:

I'm hoping these will be a popular new line with my customers; to start with I am aiming for about 20 different designs with just one of each.  They do go through the post, by the way - I have tested it out!
Shared here:

Take a look Tuesday	Hand Made Tuesdays	Made by Me
The Inspiration Board	Show me what you got	Feather's flights