Sunday, May 22, 2011

Sewing Project-Appliqué

My sweet friend Erica has two precious little girls.  Both girls have birthdays coming up in the next couple weeks.  In honor of their birthday I decided to test my newly discovered sewing skills on something a little fancier than pillows.  

Here is my version of an appliqu é t-shirt tutorial...

First find the picture you would like to turn into an appliqué.  I found a super cute cupcake on clipart, made it the size I wanted for the shirt, printed it off and cut it out. 
 Pin each piece of the clipart to material and cut it out.
Next I used some fusible interfacing to make each piece a little stiffer.  This step is not necessarily needed, but it does help to keep the pieces in place better when sewing to the shirt.
I began by pinning the interfacing to the back of each piece of fabric and steam ironing them.  Trim edges of interfacing once the fabric has become fused to the material and cooled.
 Pin each piece of the fabric to the shirt and your are ready to start sewing.
For attaching the cupcake to the shirt, I used a zig-zag stitch around each piece.  My machine already chooses the length and width of my stitches, but I tweeked the numbers a little bit and made the zig-zags a closer together for a tighter look.
As a finishing touch I hand-sewed glass beads to the polka dots for an extra touch.
The shirts came out really cute and I was very impressed!  It really wasn't a difficult task once I got started.  The hardest part was picking out cute material!
I found this tutorial online, which is what I based my appliqué process on...I just changed a few things.  She has a TON of cute projects and tutorials on her blog that I just love!  This site is also where I got my inspiration for the burlap fall wreath. I'm hoping to try more stuff out this summer when I have a little more time on my hands.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Blessings

22.  Mother's Day lunch with my mom, and Mother's Day dinner with my mother-in-law

23.  Going to the gym...although its hard to actually get to the gym (only made it once this week) I did feel really good after my workout

24.  Free baseball tickets and getting to sit in "The Perch" with some of J's coworkers
 25.  An after school "snack date" with a coworker that I never see anymore because she teaches on the other side of the school...yes our school is huge!

26.  Seeing Britt sing a solo in her Golden Blues show choir concert

27.  Homemade pizza date night with the hubby

28.  Great Strides 5K and raising money for CF

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Matchy-Matchy

Apparently we like to coordinate our color schemes with each others spouse.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Mother's Day Outing

2nd Annual Mother's Day Celebration in Charleston
Aimee...why are you so short?!?!
A building just for her!
 

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Cinco de Mayo!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

In honor of the holiday J and I made tacos for dinner...
Cinco de Mayo was always a favorite holiday for my roomie and best bud in college...Here's to you Briana, hope you got to hear a mariachi band!!!!

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Take me out to the ball game

Aimee and I spent the afternoon with friends at the Carolina baseball game.  It was the first time I've been to the new stadium...so much fun!  The weather was perfect for a Sunday afternoon game...beautiful sunshine and a nice cool breeze.
Laura, the birthday girl!!
Our "commemorative" cups
 The Gamecocks win 7-3 against Auburn!