Westie Applique Hand Towels

Just in time for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, I added a new section to my SewAmazin ArtFire Studio for Embroidered Towels, featuring these machine embroidered Westie applique designs.

I digitized the applique design using Penny's Free Westie Pattern with permission from the designer, Penny Sanford Fikes. A portion of the sales of every item the the design is stitched on will be donated to WestieMed or Westie rescue.

The inspiration for the towels was a photo of similar bath towels sold by a famous designer a year or two ago, but I added my own twist.

The first few sets were stitched using this fun stripes and dots fabric on light green (celadon) towels, and I was amazed at how quickly they sold out! I received requests for custom colors on other towel colors, too!

In my original plan, I intended to list this complementary color combination, using the same green and red stripes and dots fabric on red (garnet) towels.

I managed to get these done and listed before Christmas, and they're still available (see Christmas Westie Applique Embroidered Hand Towels).

The applique fabric for this set of towels has pink and red stripes like candy canes, stitched on dark pink towels. They could be used for Valentine's Day, too.

A similar design stitched on red (garnet) towels is also available. Both can be found in the Embroidered Towels Section of my shop.

One of the requests I received early on was for blue terriers on white towels. It was hard to send these away - I wanted to keep them for myself!

I plan to add more Westie applique towels to my shop in the spring, in addition to other designs.

You can see more examples in the Embroidered Towels Section of my SewAmazin ArtFire studio or in my ArtFire Samples set on Flickr. 

Mr. Met Fleece Scarf

A friend (and fellow fan) asked me to make a Mr. Met embroidered fleece scarf for her husband for Christmas.

I chose this blue anti-pill fleece, cut twice as wide as the finished scarf by the full width of the fabric. After deciding how long the fringe would be, I marked the design placement on each end, then embroidered the designs.

On one end of the scarf is this Running Baseball design. I've used this design before on bibs and fleece hats, but this time I added some additional color stops to stitch the button on the top of the cap in orange.

On the other end of the scarf, I stitched this Mr. Met face, which I digitized using a pumpkin carving stencil image that Mets.com shared a couple of Halloweens ago.

To finish the scarf after the embroidery was complete, I folded it in half lengthwise and stitched the seam, using the dual feed foot on my sewing machine. After turning the scarf right side out, each long side was top-stitched a little less than 1/2 inch from the edge. For the final step - cutting the fringe - I used a June Tailor fringe template and a rotary cutter.

Lets Go Mets!

A Tropical Sassy

In September, my SIL asked me to make a shoulder bag for her to use during her family trip to Disney in November. Sandy wanted something just big enough to carry her camera, DVD recorder, cell phone tickets and a few other essentials while traveling. And she asked for something bright and fun so her boys could spot her easily in a crowd.

We decided on a modified Sassy Bag - a pattern from Lazy Girl Designs that I've used a few times for myself - and some bright tropical turquoise and green fabrics.

Of course, I made a few changes to the original design, beginning with increasing the width and height of the bag by a few inches in each direction. And I made the shoulder strap adjustable so it could be worn snug or loose across the body as needed.

The closure is a magnetic snap and I added a bit of ribbon to the side seam with a carabiner clip to help keep track of keys.

The inside front has a slip pocket, divided into 3 sections; two sections wide enough for holding a cell phone and a digital camera, and one smaller section for carrying a pen or slim reading glasses. The extra width and larger pleats on the front let this Sassy expand to hold onto a wallet, sunglasses and a DVD recorder.

The back was made just like Lazy Girl Designs' Runaround Bag, fully lined, with a zipper closure for keeping things like tickets securely in place.

These are some of my favorite colors! And Sandy said her bag was exactly what she wanted for her trip. :-)

Bamboo Embroidered Towels

A few months ago I received a request to do some custom embroidery on a set of bath and hand towels.

One of my ArtFire customers had been looking for towels with a bamboo design to match her new bath decor, but couldn't find any she liked, so contacted me.

Since I didn't have any bamboo embroidery designs in my collection, I searched several online sources, creating a board on Pinterest to help keep keep track of the various options.

She selected the small Bamboo design from Adorable Ideas, and sent me her towels. We traded emails with color palettes and photos of sample stitch-outs to make sure everything was just right before I stitched on the towels.

<< Here's a close-up of the bamboo design embroidered on one of the hand towels.

This is a closer view of the design increased by 20% and embroidered on the bath towels >>

I like the way the towels turned out, but more importantly, my customer wrote that she likes them and they look great in her bathroom!