Pumpkin Candy Treats in the Hoop

These adorable pumpkin treat bags are a free download on Brother's Stitching Sewcial blog. I made several in both the 4x4 and 5x7 sizes.

These are very quick and easy to sew, not to mention: fun!!
You can make them in Halloween or Fall colors and fill with all sorts of treats. The top opens and ties with a pretty ribbon. The window is made of vinyl (available at Walmart or Joann's".

It's not too late to stitch a patch of these pumpkins for your Thanksgiving celebration!! Get the designs and photo tutorial FREE HERE

A "Dream" Come True!

A few weeks ago, in the midst of every cold/sore throat/virus going through our house, I had a great opportunity to buy a gently used Brother Dream Machine. My friend Janice found it for me in Florida and the wonderful store shipped it north!

This machine is totally amazing! It is a huge step up from my beloved Viking Designer 1. My largest hoop used to be 150x240mm and it's now 200x360mm!! That's 9x5"x 14"!! It's crazy!
I never would have attempted certain designs before that needed many re-hoopings. Today I am tackling the Blue Ribbon Baby Crib Cover. It has about 75000 stitches and I was able to combine it into 3 hoopings with  my new huge hoop!

One of the incredible things about this machine is that it has a scanner and a camera, so I just scanned the fabric for the 2nd hooping and it shows my finished embroidery along with the new part I am about to stitch! Teh elephant in the picture is already stitched and the light blue bow is the next section. I quickly used my arrows to place it and I'm off!! It is a real game changer!
I haven't even begun to explore all that this machine can do, but I'm looking forward to it!!

The 1960 "Charlie Brown" Dress

Quite awhile ago, I saw a vintage Polly Flinders Smocked Dress on Etsy and I loved it. I nicknamed it the "Charlie Brown Dress" because of the color and the black rick rack like Charlie's zig zag shirt.

Here's the original dress. It was size 3 and I think it was about $35. I saved the image and kept it in the back of my mind for a future project. Eventually I looked for a nice honey/mustard broadcloth to remake the dress. I even ordered one, but it was so dark when it arrived. Finally I found a quality cotton fabric that I thought would work.

I also found a McCall's pattern from 1960 with the same full skirt, deep smocking, and straight sleeves that I wanted. Then I got to work. The construction was quite different from the modern yoke dresses I had made.

I did a simple diamond smocking design.

Notice how full the skirt is? The back yokes also form the sides of the dress and "wrap" around to meet the front smocking. There are 3 full 42" panels to the skirt- one front and 2 back/side. It's a really clever way to get the nice full skirt. It needs a puffy crinoline.

I added a belt instead of a sash because I liked it and because I was running low on fabric. This dress took a lot of yardage. I made a size 3 and added 6 inches of length! I think it has a nice "vintage" length without being too short. It looks big to me- more like at least a 4. I used Swiss embroidery and black baby rick rack for the trim.

This was a really fun project and I am very happy with the results!!