Stitch Along

I really admire all of you blogging ladies that crochet and knit and make the most wonderful projects. I don't really do yarn, so this is more of a Stitch Along rather than a Yarn Along post. I've been playing with sewing lately. I decided to do something a little challenging for me - sewing with a zipper! It sounded really intimidating but I found an easy-to-follow tutorial online and made my first attempt. The above picture is how it turned out. It looks like a zippered pouch so I'm pretty happy with it. However, I learned a lot of things that I could do better with next time, not the least of which is to avoid getting a hot iron on plastic zipper teeth...

I also found a cute, funky embroidery on Etsy that I really liked. It was $45.00 in the Etsy shop! Yikes! Not in the budget. So just for fun I thought I could try to make my own version. I free-handed the design on the fabric in pencil and then embroidered it. I gotta say, I like mine better!

Finally, my most important project! Dominic has had this Christmas stocking since he was born. He loves it! He keeps it in his room year-round. It's seen a lot of action, including actually being worn around the house. It's been coming apart at the stitching, the synthetic lining was tearing and exposing the foam lining which was also tearing, and the gold rope edging was coming undone and fraying. I thought I could stitch it up but it was much worse than I thought when I turned it inside-out to get a better look at the damage. Because he loves it so much I decided to re-make it with better quality material.

I removed all the stitches and took it down to the basic cut-out shapes. I sewed a new navy blue fabric lining onto the original stocking pieces, sewed a ribbon detail onto the cuff, and sewed a new loop to hang the stocking. When Dominic got home from school I told him what bad shape his stocking had been in and he thought that I meant that he had to get rid of it. His face was just adorable when he saw how I had re-made it with good strong material so it would last much longer! He was so happy!!

I've been reading Everyday Saints again, but this time I've been reading snippets of it to the children at bedtime. They absolutely love it! They ask for more each night and it's sparked a lot of good conversation.