A little sewing project!

I have been practicing my sewing skills!!  I used to do much more sewing when my children were home.  I made this little zippered pack for my grand daughter for her birthday.  It was fun to add some decorative stitching and work out a way to add a lining.  The belt is way too long but I thought more was better in case she decides to wear it over her shoulder instead of around her waist.

Therese

An altered cuff with a metal embellishment in a zipper bezel!

Another cuff!!  This is the one I created for the swap that more closely follows the guidelines provided for the Altered Cuff Swap on AFTCM.  I started with two strips of sky blue cotton fabric.  I stitched the lace, piping and teal bias trim to the right side of one of the pieces using my sewing machine.  I cut an elastic to serve as the closure, pinned it at one end, laid the other piece of fabric right side down and sewed both ends and one side being careful not to capture the lace in the seam.  I snipped the corners and turned it over.  I added the white and turquoise ebeads over the teal bias trim using white embroidery thread and then added the buttons using turquoise sewing thread being sure to leave enough room in the middle for my embellishment.  I used clear thread to attach the embellishment to the middle of the cuff.  I really like how the zipper teeth create a bezel for the metal piece!!  After that, I turned it back to inside out and sewed two short seams from each end, snipped the corners and turned it back to right side out.  I pressed the whole thing and hand stitched the opening closed.  I thought it needed a bit of something so I used white embroidery thread to add blanket stitching to both sides.  That was better!! I added yet more stitching - French knots in between the eyelets in the lace and a stitch in the center of each eyelet to help keep it from rolling up.

The embellishment was created using an old earring, a piece of zipper, some sequins and clear thread.  You can check this post for the construction details.  I submitted it to one of my groups in their Zipper Challenge.  

Therese

Zipper Challenge

On MMS, they issued a Zipper Challenge - create something using a zipper!  I decided to use part of a zipper as a frame on a project I was working on.
I cut one side of a zipper just long enough to frame this metal embellishment and sewed the ends together and then sewed a basting stitch through the fabric part of the zipper and gathered it in to create a flat bezel.  The metal  embellishment is an old earring from which I removed all of the innards and replaced them with turquoise sequins. I placed it over the zipper bezel  and sewed them together using clear thread.  Worked out perfectly for what I wanted for the project I was working on which I will share later.

Therese