AMPERSAND & OWL EMBELLISHED TOPS

She has grown up quite a fair bit from the last winter so I thought her winter wardrobe could do with some new additions. 

Using the same pattern as before, the above green striped top was embellished with owl applique. I got the template online, but I have forgotten to note from which website for credit. Nonetheless, thank you! The applique is done on pink and brown felt with iron-on interfacing and finished off with close zig-zag stitches. The shiny eyes are two pink buttons.

The material is some stretch material which has been in my stash for such a long time and I am glad to have finally put a good use to it.

The above top is embellished with an ampersand sign. I just love working with punctuation marks and letters. They are very versatile and make such statement pieces.

I have learnt an easy way to sew applique with template downloaded from the computer after reading it from another blog, but I just can't remember which one(I know! I am soo..bad!). I wish I have thought about it earlier because it makes it less fiddly and more accurate.

For the ampersand, using Microsoft Word, I enlarged the ampersand to 500 points and printed only the outline to save printer ink on A4 paper. Then, sandwiched the red material on the black shirt material, followed by the A4 paper. I then pinned the sandwich in place.

It is important to set the length of the stitch to short stitch as it made it a lot easier to peel off the paper later. Too long and the stitch tend to come undone and break as the paper is peeled off.

Machine stitch, peel off the paper and cut the excess fabric around the ampersand and voila! I did finished it with a zig zag stitch but it is good without it.

My ampersand puckered a little bit as the material is quite thin which quite be easily resolved by using iron-on interfacing. Learnt my mistake!

She said that torn legging is in fashion!

STRIPED BABY BLANKET WITH WAVY QUILTING

The arrival of another friend's baby girl prompted the making of this baby blanket. Instead of making the same baby blanket as I have before, I decided to go for a pattern that I could whip up quickly within a day and a half  minus the time taken to complete my daily chores, netball game etc.

Lucky me, Spotlight is having a sale. I bought a selection of material for about $10 and used some from my stash.

This blanket was inspired by  bijou lovely. I just love the simplicity and practicality of this design. I cut the pieces at random length spanning from 2 to 6 inches the width of the material - 45".

The binding is from a linen table cloth. It proved to be a bit too thick, so it was quite a challenge to get a neat  binding, nonetheless, I soldiered on with a bit of sore fingers after!

This is also the first time I am using wavy quilting to quilt the blanket and I just love the freedom and randomness of this free-motion technique. Watch out for more similar projects!

As I have done before, the batting is an old flannel flat sheet and the backing is also flannel which I bought for $3, thus making the blanket slightly thinner.

In hindsight, I would probably cut some strips of the panel shorter so that more varied patterned and coloured panels can be added. In future projects, I would also probably use a darker coloured thread for the wavy stitches for contrast and to give the pattern more visibility.

I am however, quite pleased with this first effort! Sending out this blanket to a precious baby girl with much love!