Pin 70

I have so many pins I have been waiting to share with you!! I've been working on putting together a luncheon for Teacher Appreciation Week and I didn't want to spoil any of there surprises by posting them here. The lunch was yesterday so the next few posts will all be related to that.

Original pin:

http://sewlikemymom.com/applique-tutorial/

A quick tutorial on how to applique.

I found these cute beach bags at the dollar store!

A bargain. I thought they would be so cute with a little appliqued monogram. So I went to work.

Thankfully, the boys are in a small preschool so I only had to do 20 monograms. I made my stitches closer together than in the original tutorial just because I like the way the smaller stitch looks better. It was faster than I expected. The bags were slick on the inside so I did have a little problem with them sliding around which made some of the stitching less than perfect. Hopefully none of those ladies looks too closely at it!

Halfway through bag 19 my sewing machine clunked and stopped working. So out of character for me--I had actually started this project early. So early, in fact, that I had time to send my machine off for a week at the repair spa and got it back with days to spare. Plenty of time to finish the one and the half bags left.

One down, 19 to go.

Extreme close up of my narrow stitch

Extreme close up of some "less than perfect stitching thanks to the slippery lining.

Thankfully, by bag 5 or so, I had a little better handle on the slippery bag issue and most of them didn't experience too much slippery stitch issues. Without the extreme close up it wasn't obvious.

NOTE TO TEACHERS: Do not, I repeat, DO NOT run right now and examine your bag for defects. I will die of embarrassment.

20 bags later, I am a total pro at this now.

I stuffed them with goodies and delivered them yesterday.

Total cost: Less than $1.50 per bag. I used a quarter yard of fabric and four sheets of light fusible bonding.

Total time: 3 hours.

Final verdict: So far I've had rave reviews. The technique was simple and easy. I even had one teacher ask me to teach her to applique and another recruited me to sew some Girl Scout patches. (I totally support Girl Scouts even though I will probably never have one) A bargain of a gift. I even made one for my sister for her birthday.