Skirts for Girls

  A little over a year ago I decided my girls were old enough to start wearing zippered skirts and not just elastic waist ones. I searched and searched for an a-line skirt pattern and found none. Then I came across Burda 9653 and quickly purchased it. I have since made it at least 5-6 times—out of denim, linen, and most recently corduroy. Will I ever make my girls the jacket though? Complete with a lapel and fully lined? Doubtful.
I like the cut of Burda patterns for women so I assumed the same for little girls. Well, like most children’s patterns, the sizing was very large. I made both my girls (ages 6 and 9) the size 6 skirt and just lengthen it quite a few inches. I also had to cinch in the waist a little bit as it is cut really straight. (You can see how straight it is cut in this below photo.) I realize little girls don’t have hips yet, but still, it needed to be tapered just a little bit at the top so as not to slide down their little hips. I didn’t make that mistake again with the turquoise corduroy ones below.
I also noticed the yolk piece is cut a good 1-2 inches short. You can see wear I have to piece it in the photo below. This was the first time I made the skirt in November 2009 and I was pretty angry, but figured the girls wouldn’t be tucking in their shirts so it was ok to have the yolk pieced.  I have since cut a new yolk piece extra long to avoid this problem again.

Here are the turquoise corduroy versions. For my 9-yr old’s I embroidered a very colorful floral design that came with my machine. Of course I tweeked it and added a little more of those spiral green ‘swirlies.’

And for my 6 yr-old’s I did a tone-on-tone floral embroidery. This design also came with my machine, although I tweaked this design as well. Of course you can’t hoop corduroy as it will ‘scar’ the fabric but just hoop your stabilizer, spray it will temporary adhesive (I like 505), and place your corduroy fabric where you want it. I used some (machine) cross stitch designs at the hem and a dots design to hide the seam where I lengthened it. Long story. Usually I would just cut it longer, but like I said, long story.

Here is a picture I took of the zippered yolk area, after they wore the skirts to church. Hence the wrinkles. I did a basic centered zipper—my least favorite way to install a zipper. I usually do a lapped zipper or an invisible zipper.

Voila! That’s it. For 1 and 1/2" yards of corduroy (found at Joann’s shockingly!) and $10 the girls have some adorable new rags for church.  I can make the skirt in about 45-60 minutes, but how you choose to embellish it is where all your time goes—think ric rac, decorative stitches, ribbons, embroidery, etc.  Just too much fun.

Christmas Gifts 2010

I did my bestest to give mostly handmade gifts to friends and family this year. Obviously I couldn’t do this post earlier because  the masses would then know what they are receiving.  There is something about a handmade gift because I know that receiving such a gift means I was thought about. I hope all my friends and family know how much love went in to all my gifts this year.
I embroidered lots of aprons for friends and fam:

I made pillows for nieces and nephews:

And I embroidered t-shirts and bibs as well for my nieces and nephews:

I hope everybody liked their stuff! And of course I made my girls their dresses. Luckily I started back in October….just seeing these pics make me tired, although they do bring a smile to my face.

Sewing Room

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged about sewing room. Here are some random shots:
Here I am sitting next to my two Bernina sewing machines. Love ‘em. My Bernina 131 looks like a midget next to my new 830. Yikes! Stacks of fabric are (sort of) organized by color—pink, brown, reds, blues, etc. The baskets are from Target. The furniture is from Four Chairs in Lindon, Utah.

This is the cubby where I keep some of my birthday banner supplies. I’m so burnt out on these puppies. My etsy shop no tiene nada ahora.

These are all my purdy little embroidery threads and stabilizers. Ain’t they purdy?

Sewing books and embroidery packs:

This is my Bernina 131. I bought it used about 10 years ago. It was “used” in that the previous owner bought it, took it home for a year where it remained un-opened, and then she upgraded to a bigger fancier machine. I remember Paul and I hemmin’ and hawin’ about the price tag of $800. It was so much money, truly a stretch for our tight budget.  But this machine can sew anything—even 7 layers of canvas on ottoman covers’ corners. I did all my heavy velvet sewing on this for the 2006 Parade of Homes and then went on to sew 75 sets of sliding glass door curtains in velvet (again) all without a single problem.  It’s the last of the basic Bernina machine that they made with a full size free arm and in stainless steel. (The basic models now have a shorter free arm so that they are more portable. Whatever.)

And well, you’ve already seen my post 2 blogs ago about this machine:

This is my cutting table area. It’s always a wreck and I’m keepin’ it real by posting such a messy picture. That’s my serger on the right. Yes, I do all my serging standing up. On the wall is an el-cheapo cork board covered in fabric. Notice the matching hem on my curtains. Isn’t that special. (*church lady*)

This is where I hang my college diploma because this is the nearest I’ll get to an office ever. It’s the most expensive piece of paper I own so it must be displayed. I’m still so proud of the fact that I put myself through college 100%. Crappy jobs, dinners of boxed mac and cheese, near poverty for 4 years, and lots of studying gave me my Business Management degree from BYU. So when I hear others talk about not having the money for college I want to scream. Starve, scrimp, borrow the minimum through student loans, and work so hard sometimes you cry. No entitlements. But I digress.

So that’s it! I hope you liked it. This is a tiny 11x11 room but with all my cubbies and shelves it does the job well. I like it cozy. Back to work now.

Christmas Dresses

I closed my etsy shop a few days before Christmas so that I could make some Christmas dresses for this girls. (My regular website meringuedesigns.net stayed open because those are just electronic designs.) Now when I say Christmas dresses, I don’t mean red taffeta trimmed in green ric rac.
Gag. 
I mean special dresses. Instead of spending my usual 1-2 hours sewing a simple cotton dress I spent 3-4 hours on each dress with all the embroidery, decorative stitching, silk bias binding, etc. I couldn’t love them more.
this is probably the worst pictures I have ever taken (Ilene’s head is cut off!) and they both look all pale and hungry, but there was too much snow outside to take this outside. Hence their awesome patent faux leather boots.

I used this crazy Danish pattern by Onion. I say crazy because no seam allowances are given, only a rough translation is given in English, and zero illustrations show you what exactly you are doing. In other words, there are no directions. You better not be a beginner with these patterns which is a shame because they are super simple to construct. But I had wanted a wrap (or faux wrap) dress pattern for the girls and this was all I could find. The pattern is super simple, you just gotta know what y0u’re doing. The dress pattern is kind of boxey so I made both dresses the same size—all I did differently was length the bodice and hem 2” on Ilene’s dress.
I left out the leftover denim for this photo so you could just see how much sampling I did of the binding and various stitching before I did the real thing.

How awesome is the embroidery design on Hallie’s dress? It’s my own combo of designs from this collection by OESD. I am obsessed with variegated threads in this type of open embroidery work. This is probably the best design pack I have ever bought. I use it a lot of denim. Ok, so I’ve only ever bought like 4 packs! I prefer to use my own designs most of the time.

The hummingbird is stitched out in a combo of variegated and metallic threads. I’d rather have a root canal than use metallic threads too often, but I suffered through it.  Hallie’s dress was sewn/embroidered on my Bernina 450. It was the last time I used it before trading it in. I hope it goes to a good home. *Sniff*

Ilene’s dress was sewn exclusively on my new Bernina 830. It’s hard to tell here but the design on the skirt is a mass of butterflies in variegated pink thread. Love that new jumbo hoop that came with the 830. Hot diggity dog,  no re-hooping required here.


The bodice is embroidered with another set of the butterflies. This lousy picture is blurry so you can’t see how cute the stitching is on the silk bias binding, but trust me, it’s cute.  So that’s it for the girls dresses! They loved them, I loved them, success.

Bernina 830

I traded in my Bernina 450 for the screamin’ superstar of all sewing machines—the Bernina 830. I’m almost embarrassed at such extravagance. Almost. Ok, I am a little embarrassed. But let me just say, I would never buy such a machine without having a good reason to—my sewing business. And last year was a great year for Meringue Designs which meant I owed lots of taxes….which meant I could buy this baby at the end of December and thus eliminate that tax liability. Gotta love a write off. I know, I know, if you are like my CPA hubby you are shaking your head and saying, “It’s stupid to spend a $1 to save 30 cents.” Mathematically, that is true. But sewing machines aren’t really about math are they?
So stay tuned as I blog about my adventures with this dynamite sewing machine. I’ve done some embroidery and some sewing and already I am super duper happy. Once I got past the crazy new bobbin issues, I’ve been happy. Thanks to this blog for helping me understand that you just gotta oil this sucker quite often. Bobbin and tension problem solved!

Love Reciprocated

I have loved HGTV for oh so00 many years now.
And now they love me! Ok, well, they love my headboard I made.
Click here to read article.

Winter Owl

Here is a new winter owl embroidery design. I’ve blogged about appliqué before but this time I’m going to show you the backside of my work.

Nobody likes a scratchy shirt so I always use gentle touch embroidery cover up to cover all of the embroidered area on the back of the t-shirt.
This is the t-shirt after I cut away all the excess stabilizer:

And this is the t-shirt after I ironed on the Gentle Touch.

You just iron on this softy stuff on the back! Presto! The kids don’t complain about scratchy threads anymore rubbing their chest. Hope this helps!

What Shall We Give?

I was thrilled on Sunday when it was announced the Mo Tab would sing this song. Is there a better Christmas song that sums it all up? I don’t think so. I’ve been humming and singing this all week—as I scrubbed my shower, and while braiding Ilene’s hair this morning.
What shall we give to the babe in the manger,
What shall we offer the child in the stall?
Incense and spices and gold we've got plenty-
Are these the gifts for the king of us all?
Merry Christmas.

Pear Grocery Bag

FREE pear design on my website!
I love using reusable grocery sacks at the store. Not because I care about the environment (ok, I care, but not Al Gore care…nevermind, he doesn’t care. Have you seen his mansion?) I like them because you can really load them up at the grocery store and they never rip due to heavy cans.

To make this 15-minute grocery bag you’ll need:
1 piece of canvas cut 20”x34”
2 pieces of 1” handbag webbing cut 18” long each
heavy cardboard cut to fit bottom, approx 8”x10”
Fold the canvas in half and sew the two sides of the bag (I used my serger to finish the seams but you don’t have.), then sew an 8” gusset along the bottom of bag with heavy triple stitching to reinforce the seams, fold down top of bag 1/2” and sew all around.  Attach straps with lots of stitching. Cut a piece of cardboard to fit the bottom. This gives it stability. All done!
Embellish with an embroidered motif like my pear or hand-appliqué some fun shapes.

I love quick projects!

Tree of Life

Here’s a new modern embroidery design for my shop. I am calling it the Tree of Life. If you’re a Mormon then you know where I got that name. And if you are not….you probably still have a clue since the tree of life metaphor is dominant in many religions.
Ain’t it cute? I love designs that look great on home decor and children’s clothing. So versatile.
This tree would just be too boring stitched out in dark green with a brown trunk. Snoozer. But in turquoise and lime? Yummy.

Here’s the ‘hollow’ backstitch version. I put this design on the back of a pillow for my fab sister-in-law.


“Hey we wanna see the front of the pillow lady!” Ok, ok, but it has nothing to do with this post:

Lastly, here’s my rainbow version on a onesie for my adorable niece.
Just too much fun.

Technicolor Vine Machine Appliqué

I remember the first time I saw machine appliqué. I was standing in a horrific line to get fabric cut at Joann's Fabrics (gag) and looked over at the Viking machines and one was whirling away at an embroidery design. An appliqué embroidery design. I had never seen that done before and I instantly loved it. Fast forward 3 years later, to now.
I’ve had a tutorial before about appliquéing letters, but here’s another appliqué tutorial, with a few more instructions this time. This time the sample item is my Technicolor Vine appliqué design.
1. Hoop your fabric and stabilizer. (duh) Load the thread color you want to use for your final satin stitching, in this case, yellow.
2. Sew the placement stitch. It’s hard to see here because without bionic eye balls because its yellow. Sorry.

3. Cut a scrap of fabric large enough to cover the placement lines, usually just a rectangle. Now you can either spray it temporary spray glue (I like 505) but I actually prefer to just starch the heck out the rectangle. Just use heavy duty spray starch that you would use for any other clothing item. (Assuming you iron, I don’t.) Lay the heavily starched square over the placement lines and sew the second stitching.

4. Remove hoop from machine and trim away excess yellow fabric with small curved appliqué scissors, $5 bucks at WalMart. DO NOT REMOVE THE fabric from the hoop!!

5. Replace hoop, sew the tack down line. This is usually a wavy zig-zag or just another straight line, depending on the design. (There may or may not be two tackdown lines sewn. Usually just one though.)

6. Sew final stitching, usually a satin stitch, but not always. Sometimes I use different types of cover stitching* like a criss cross pattern of Xs, as seen in my geranium design or even just a fancy swirly cover design, like my boutique label. But for this design, a regular ol’ satin stitch was used, as seen below.

7. Finish the embroidery process. In this case, one more leafy couple and then the stem.

8. Sew up your pillow!

*Here are some different cover stitch lines other than satin stitching.
Here’s kind of a butterfly edge (orange thread), with a zig-zaggy stem stitch (green thread) on these circle appliqués.

Here’s a criss-cross of Xs on the main petals (orange stitching) of  this geranium applique.

That’s it my cyber-embroidery buddies! Machine applique is super easy, so give it a try.

How to Make Stocking Ornaments

How cute are these little stocking ornaments? A great way to use those little embroidery designs. But if you don’t have an embroidery machine you can just use really cute printed fabric. Click here to get the pattern for free. Alright, I realize you don’t really need a pattern for a stocking, but hey it’s free, so take it or leave it ya begger. The stocking itself took 5 minutes to make, the embroidery took 7 minutes. Not bad, huh?
I really like how my embroidered snowman turned out. He (or she?) can be purchased here.

And my shaggy-edges little Christmas tree just makes me happy to look at.

So here’s how you make these little guys:
Download the pattern and cut out your fabric. Embroider the fabric first, but that’s optional. Make sure the stocking pieces are cut mirror image, like below.

Place right sides together of the stocking pieces and sew all around, except the top. Place the cuff pieces right sides together and stitch just the sides. (I don’t know if you can see in the photo but I did serge (or you can zig-zag) the bottoms. But you don’t have to. Then place the cuff over your stocking—right sides together—and pin in place, like below picture.

Sew around the top, attaching the cuff to the stocking. Pull up the cuff, like below picture and press with iron.

Tuck the cuff all the way inside, iron again, then fold cuff over 1-2” inches and press again. Use a small piece (3” inches or so)of ribbon or scrap of bias tape, fold in half, tuck in the raw edges, double stitch through all layers.

Hang and admire!

I know, I know it’s only November, not even past Turkey Day and here I am posting about Christmas. Well, to fill a tree with all of these stockings will take a while to make, so you better get started early. These would make great little neighbor gifts too. Hmmm….there’s an idea for me as well.

Scripture Tote Bag

Hallie has been needing a new scripture tote bag. She grew out of her old scripture bag made by my fabulous (now far away friend) Candy of Candy Argyle Designs. So I made Hallie a new bag for church. While I was contemplating how to decorate her bag (yes, I think about these boring details) I had an embroidery customer email me asking if I had an CTR designs. CTR stands for Choose The Right which is basically the theme for all Sunday School children of the LDS faith. Well, I didn’t have such a design, but I said I could quickly make one. So being the brilliant gal that I am, I put those two ideas together—a CTR Scripture Bag! If you’d like to buy the design, click here.
If you’d like to make this scripture, bag you’ll need to cut:
Main body: 1 piece, 18”x11” of canvas,
Top strips: 2 pieces, 2”x11” each
Cotton batting to interface for structure: 1 piece, 21”x11”
Lining: : 1 piece of lightweight cotton, 21”x11”
Straps: You’ll need 2 pieces of 1-inch handbag webbing 19” each.
Fabric to cover straps: Cut 2 pieces of lightweight cotton 3”x19”
That should be it for your supplies!
I’m too lazy to type here all my steps, but trust me, it’s easy.  Like 30-minutes easy for this speedy sewer and maybe 1 hour for those without the Speedy-Sewer-Super Power. Just google “how to sew a tote bag”. But if you’d read this far, you obviously already know how to sew and don’t need no stinkin’ directions.
On the other side I added my Boutique Tag with her name, and voila, cute and chic scripture bag for lil’ miss Hallie.

My NEW Website!

I have been working for months now to get my very own website up and running. Now my embroidery designs can be instantly downloaded after purchase. No more waiting for me to email them to customers! Sweet Fancy Moses! (Name that episode of Seinfeld.) I’ll still keep my etsy shop but I hope that eventually my customers will move on over to www.meringuedesigns.net. 
Now I can offer coupon codes to newsletter subscribers and free designs just to say thanks to my awesome customers all around the world. Interestingly enough, I have quite a few customers in Australia, England, and Germany.
Thank goodness I hired a fabulous web designer, my brother in law Trevor. There is no way I would have known what to do. No chance at all. My brains (or lack of them) can only stretch so far.
Happy Stitching!