Gift Card Holders

Even though these gift card holders are not sewing projects, these are handmade by me. These gift card holders can be customized for any event, including holidays, weddings, baby showers, birthdays, and even red egg and ginger parties! I upcycled a red egg and ginger party invitation into a gift card holder. The recipients were amazed (and not offended) that I cut up their baby's invitation and created a gift card holder which contained a Target gift card. The ideas are limitless.

Inside

Back

Here's another one that I made for a friend.

Asian Fabric Tote Bag

This is my latest creation, an Asian tote bag. It was made from a pattern from ithinksew. This tote bag is very roomy and would be perfect for the beach, school, grocery shopping, or as a diaper bag. I'll be sewing another one and more of my products to show at my friend's home party.

My Sewing Center

Earlier this year, I bought a sewing table that I found online. It was one of those assemble yourself deals. There were a lot of parts, but since I have a lot of experience with assemble yourself furniture, I put it together in a few hours. This table is perfect to hold both my sewing machine and serger at the same time. The sides are able to fold down and store away, but I have it permanently set up in a spare bedroom that gives lots of natural light.

My sewing machine is a Janome Sewist 509. I bought it about 3 years ago when I finally got fed up with my Montgomery Wards brand sewing machine since I had since 1984. My old machine never worked well and started skipping stitches early on. Even after getting it serviced, it would work fine for a little while, but the problem came back. Since getting my Janome, sewing has become a fun experience again. It is a very basic machine with just 7 stitches. Now, I wish I had bought a higher end model with more stitches! But for under $200, it works great and is reliable, which is the most important thing.

A year later, I bought a serger. I had never used a serger before but always wanted one because of the professional looking seams you can get with the serger. My serger is a Janome MyLock 644D. It came with a how-to video. Having to learn how to thread 4 needles instead of just 1 was intimidating at first. It took me a while to figure out how to adjust the tension and cutting width of the blade to get my stitches just right. But now, I feel much more comfortable with it and enjoy using it.