Camo Backpack

Hubby picked out fabric to match his camouflage clothes and when we got home we found that they weren't a match, so a grandson got a camouflage backpack for Christmas.
I bought a  pattern and was very unhappy with it when I took the pieces out of the envelope.  The backpack wasn't lined and didn't have all the pockets I thought it should have.  It was to small also.

I added two inches to the width.  Four inches to the height and I don't even know how much to the depth. There was no zippered pocket on the front and the short front pocket had no extra fabric for anything with any thickness to fit without pushing into the space inside the backpack.  No loop on top either.

 Here is the side view.  This backpack can hold a lot.

Since I enlarged the backpack so much I decided that plain belting straps would never do. I decided to make padded straps to make a heavy load more comfortable to carry.

I purposely made this difficult to see, but if you look closely you can see something orange in the backpack.  I embroidered my grandson's full name in the lining.

Not only did I embroider it once, his whole name is on both sides inside the backpack.  His first name is on one side near the bottom and below each end of the zipper.  No stealing this backpack and getting away with it.
After all that he doesn't want to take it to school.  He plans to use it for camping, traveling, and things like that.

Mermaid Tail bag and Shark blanket Bag

Now that Christmas is over I can post these pictures.  I bought the fleece at the Black Friday sale.  I think the fleece was about $3.48 a yard.  I can't remember for sure, but it was less then $4.00 a yard.  I bought 1 yard of the main body fabric and 1/2 half yard of fin fabric.

I see these bags on Pinterest and decided I could make my own pattern and make the bags out of fleece.  Each bag is about 25 inches wide and 40 inches long.

This bag is pink.  I put the scales on the front only.  I liked it without the scales until I finished the shark bag.  After comparing the two the mermaid bag looked plain and boring.

1/4 of a yard each of red and white was plenty for the teeth and lips.  These bags were fun, fast, and easy.  Even the teeth were easy.

Three Purple Dresses

I went to a local thrift store one day to see what fabric I could find and found this.  About 3 1/2 yards of fabric.  I see why they got rid of it too.  See how the design ends on the picture on the right near the price tag.  Well that is how it ends and begins down the center of the fabric without any raw edges finished or meeting together. Nothing can be placed on the center fold without looking terrible.

                      

I got three little girl plain dress out of this fabric and could have gotten more if I could have used the center fold.

This is the pattern I used.  The pattern was 99 cents and the zippers were on sale for about 1 dollar each and I had matching thread already so the three dress cost about $8 to make.

The three little girls got together to try on their dresses and the youngest one wouldn't hold still for a picture.  Of course the others had to be wild if the little one was being wild. Hubby got the girls dancing on the coffee table and got this picture.  This is the best one any of us could get.
The oldest one wants matching purses for each girl since there is plenty of fabric left.  That probably won't happen.  I don't think any of them have worn their dresses yet and they were made during the summer.

Princess Elsa Dress

I went to Hancock Fabrics one day and the specialty fabrics were $3.77 a yard.  I wanted to make a Princess Elsa dress for my granddaughter.  She wasn't too happy about the fabric colors when I first came home with them.  I kept telling her that it was a Princess Elsa "STYLE" dress then and that was better.  I finally finished the dress yesterday and took it to her today and she loves it.

Here is the pattern.

 

Here she is with her dress.  Now she calls it her Princess Elsa dress.  It is long, but she is happy to know that it will fit her for a long time and wants high-heals for now.  

Princess Amber Dress

My niece wanted to be Princess Sophia for Halloween and her sister to be Princess Amber.  Well Amber dresses are nowhere to be found, so I made one.  Here it is.

I used these patterns to create the dress.  The Snow White dress was the pattern I used without the sleeves.  I used the sleeves from the Princess Elsa dress.

Summertime Quilt

My newest completed quilt is called Summertime.  It is from The Quilter magazine July 2005 page 20.
This quilt is about 92" by 107"  That is what the pattern says.  I haven't actually measured mine.

Here is the finished quilt.  It is a log cabin style with one half of the strips narrower than the other half.  In my case it is the blue.  I didn't want the blue to overpower the quilt.

Here is a sample of the binding.  I used strips from all of the fabric on the front of the quilt to make the binding.  I also cut the binding strips different lengths.  That made it easier to use scraps and make the strips at the end piece together nicely.

Here is a picture of what each square looks like.

Here you can see how each square is turned a different direction, which makes the overall zig-zag design.

Can you see the seam halfway between the binding and the bottom of the picture.  If not then I am glad.  That seam caused me to name the quilt Sunflowers from Hell while I was quilting it.
I quilted this quilt on my mom's quilting machine.  I carefully quilted the sunflower border to make it look like a border if you looked closely.  I got to the end of the quilt and found that I was 8 inches short for what I need on the quilting machine.  About 6 inches short of the quilt front.
I had one small piece of fabric left.  I cut it into 4 pieces each about 8 inches long and 27 inches wide. That was all the fabric I had.  I sewed the strips together on the sewing machine and got a piece then that was 8 inches by 108 inches.
I then had to sew the 108 inch long strip onto the backing that was on the quilting machine by hand.
I sewed the tiniest stitches I could.  Knotted it every couple of feet. And had very sore fingers by the time I was done.  Thus the name Sunflowers from Hell.  Thankfully there was enough fabric to finish the backing.
So much for my nice design of making the sunflower border having it's quilting look like it was making a border.  I quilted as close to the edge as I could and was ready to chop most of the border off, but mom talked me out of it.  I'm glad she did.
I actually love this quilt and should give it a nice name. LOL.

Dress for Granddaughter - Anna and Elsa Fabric

My mom and I were shopping and found this cute dress made of pale blue prints.  We asked for the pattern and this is what it was.

I would never have bought this pattern for the dress that is pictured on it.

Well with the blue dress in mind, I took my granddaughter shopping for fabric.  This is what I made for her out of the above pattern.

It is hard to see from the picture, but the printed fabrics have swirls or snowflakes.  The white has white swirls.

Here she is wearing it so I could take a picture.