CC's Creative Concepts: CC made treasures

Now that the holidays over it is time to take a breather and start focusing on this years sewing goals. Mostly, I plan on sewing more warm weather dresses and coordinating outfits......lets face it in New Orleans you may wear your beautiful sweater only three times a year. (Although, right now the temperature is currently 29 degrees!...so today is one of those beautiful sweater days.)

In addition, I have containers upon containers of beautiful lightweight fabrics that I plan to sew first before buying new fabric. Already, I have a cute black and white gingham cotton fabric cut, marked and ready for sewing. I love having a pattern that has been already adjusted to fit me.

Moreover, before I start my next sewing project, I decided to do something dangerous....I unscrewed the top part of my machine and cleaned around the tension wheel and the parts in between. I have never cleaned the top part of my machine, thinking that it needed to be professionally cleaned and after sewing with it for 3 years now I knew it needed to be done. Yikes! It was filthy, and my fear of taking the top off is now alleviated........I know I can clean it without destroying it!

Now onto the little holiday treasures I sewed:

First up: Simplicity 1441 . I made the butterfly rag pillow.

Review: This pattern is very easy. The sewing time was only about 3 hours. What took the longest was cutting all the pattern pieces. Each pattern piece needs 3 to 4 layers of fabric. I used cotton flannel so I could only cut a double layer of fabric at a time. If using flannel, I wouldn't suggest cutting all the fabric in a day, cause you might pull a muscle or bruise your hand. Electric scissors would have come in handy for this project. Overall I think the pillow came out cute.

front of pillow

back of pillow

Next up : functional drink coasters, using Sweetly Stitched Handmades book, by Amy Sinibaldi

front of coasters

back of coasters

Review: First things first. I love this book. The photos are beautiful, and the author gives you wonderful tips at the beginning of the book. In addition, the templates are in the back of the book. I will sew more of these lovely projects.

Sewing easy. Although, sewing the ric rac even on the coaster takes patience. In addition, the author suggested using interfacing in between the fabric; however, I used flannel. I read somewhere that flannel sandwiched in between the outer cotton fabric will absorb moisture better.........so that is what I did. In addition, I added top stitching to the coasters.

Next up: pillow with hand embroidery.

You can check out the link to the last pillow I made.