Farm Aprons , Patriotic Pennants, Vinyl Front Cross Stitch Project Bags, and Secret Sewing

            I finished the farm aprons that I have been wanting to make since I found this duck fabric in my stash.  The instructions from Cosmopolitan Cornbread blog were very good and I was able to get two aprons cut out in less than an hour.  The ironing, hemming and sewing for each apron took about an hour.  These aprons are perfect for going out into the yard to do a messy job or even in the house for a messy job.  I love the big pockets.  

       It's that time of year when I do a little secret sewing for dear daughter's birthday.  I found some lovely colorful fabric that is being turned into something useful for her.  I will show the finished product after they are gifted in November.

       I have some old curtain panels from my bedroom that will be made into tote bags for me and dear daughter.  These curtain panels make lovely tote bags.  Here is a picture of the fabric I'm using.  I have a couple of these already and I gave about 4 of the tote bags to dear daughter a few months ago.  

I've decided to make a patriotic pennant banner with some red, white, and blue fabrics in my stash.  I drew up a triangle to use as a pattern and I made a fabric string from some red, white, and blue fabric I used in my patriotic wall hanging earlier this year.  I cut the fabric for the string like a narrow binding and folded in the edges and sewed it down.  It's perfect for a banner.  I just have to make the pennants.   I want to make one for me and one for dear daughter.  I don't know if I have enough fabric to make two, but a quick trip to Joann's will fix that.  Here is a picture of the fabrics I'm using for the pennants.

        I never posted any pictures of all the clear vinyl front cross stitch project bags I made a few months ago.  These bags are not perfect  and I did not really enjoy making them, but I have to say that the instructions are super easy and they went together very quickly.  They are so much cheaper for me to make then to buy from an etsy seller.  It's a very good use of stray pieces of fabric and batting.  Each bag has a little mini vinyl front pouch to match and all have zipper pulls either made with charms by me or purchased.

Embellished Gingerbread People Blocks

       My daughter and I has the best time "dressing" our gingerbread people blocks (pattern from Lori Holt Vintage Christmas book).  Dear daughter helped draw the pattern for the dress and she also came up with the idea for the bow tie for the boy blocks.  

         I used craft felt for the ties and dresses.  The felt was really easy to sew through and the solid colors are perfect.  To avoid bunching up while sewing the embellishments, I only sewed the middle of the ties to the block and the sides and the top of the dress to the block leaving the bottom open.  I knew if I tried to sew the entire thing down I would have bunching at the end of the top stitching.  I really love the girls' dresses with the lace detail.  

        I did minimal quilting around the gingerbread person to stabilize the whole thing and I gave them hanging triangles on the back so we can hang that during the holiday season.

      Here are my blocks.

    Here are dear daughter's blocks.  

      Next project.  Farm aprons.  I have some material I bought to make capri pants for me but I didn't like the pattern and I decided to use the fabric for something that will be used.  I found the pattern at Cosmopolitan Cornbread blog here.  Constance Smith of Cosmopolitan Cornbread also includes a youtube video, but the written instructions are better.  The video has a lot of unnecessary explaining in it.  It's a simple pattern, which I love, and it will be very useful.

Gingerbread Cookie Blocks

   I made four of the 12" gingerbread cookie blocks from the Vintage Christmas book by Lori Holt.  These were fun to make and very easy.  I made a couple with a plaid fabric I bought because I couldn't resist.  

  I still have to add the eyes and buttons and a dress for a girl gingerbread person.   I'm making wall hangings out of these.  I'll add some muslin borders to them, and quilt them.  I will share the end product when I get them done.

Christmas Tree Pillow No. 2 finished, starting on Gingerbread Cookie blocks

 I finished the second Bringing Home the Christmas Tree block turned pillow.  What a fun project.  

I have all the piece cut for the Gingerbread cookie blocks from Lori Holt's Vintage Christmas book.   I'm going to make four of them.  They will be fun to make as well and a much smaller.  I'm making the 12" blocks for wall decorations.

Bringing Home The Christmas Tree X 2

 Here they are.  The pillow covers I made from the Lori Holt pattern.  I love these.  They had a lot of pieces but the instructions were great and they were easy to put together in stages.  The red car is mine and dear daughter picked out the yellow fabric for her car.  I'm going to quilt these then turn them into pillow covers.  

Banner and Christmas Trees

I made a paper patriotic banner for my home.  I bought the blue and red paper which I glued to 110# cardstock.  I used my stencils to make the letter and I had the wooden stars that I painted to put on the ends.  The hardest part of making this banner was trying to figure out what it should say.  I was going to make it longer with Happy 4th of July, but that was way too ambitious.  So I settled for this.

I'm in the process of making Bringing Home The Christmas Tree block from the Lori Holt book, Vintage Christmas.  Here is a picture of the block I'm making I found on the internet. 

I started with the tree.   I'm making the car with the tree on top only.  There are two trees because I'm making one for me and one for dear daughter.

Here are the trees made.