SUNSHINES AND FLOWERS SUNDRESS AND HANDBAG ENSEMBLE

I meet Kate the fabric manager at Mardins in Madawaska upon shopping last week and she told me about a great program here in Northern Maine for all us sewers.

You decide on a sewing project you would like to create, choose the fabric to create the project and get it for free right then and there. You then have 2 weeks to complete the project and bring it back to the store. Mardins will then hang your finished items for 3 weeks in the fabric department and once the 3 weeks are up you get your items back. What a great program. Fabric for free and finished projects back at the end of the 3 weeks how could I say no to that.

This is my first project I did for the summer season. I just love how bright the colors are and they coordinate so well together. I love it so much this will also be my fabric of choice for a twin bed quilt I am making for my spare bedroom.

The dress pattern is one of my favorites to make and the pattern is a free download from "OLIVER +S COMPANY" you can get it by clicking on the link HERE.

The ribbon flower was created using 1" silk ribbon and the tutorial can be found HERE.

CREATING YOUR OWN SEW IN LABELS

I wanted my sew in labels to match my blog header and my business cards. So after some playing around I came up with these. I designed them first in Word, printed them on iron on transfer for fabric and ironed them onto Twill tape that is 1 1/2". I iron it on to the bottom edge so that leaves the top for the seam allowance to be sewn in the corner of all my purses/handbags. I complete each edge of the lable with a double overedge stitch so the twill tape does not fray

I finish off each item I create with a hanging tag below. The hanging tags were also created in word with the business card template. Once printed I punched the top and bottom edges with my eyelet paper punch. Now labels and tags (I list the price of my items on the back of the tag when I do craft fairs) match for all my sewing projects.

STYLE 2

I ran out of my 1 1/2 twill tape today and labels I already made so I had some canvas 1" ribbon and cut them long enough to fold in half. I then ironed on my label once again and my label was complete. I like them both so I will make a bunch of both styles to have on hand at all times.