More Comfort Caps Made by Sew What! Class Member

More comfort caps!  

This is the second of my posts to brag on my Sew What! community sewing class attendees.  Patsy, one of my regular students, made more comfort caps for donation to those who have lost their hair due to chemotherapy or other reasons.  Patsy brought about 12 caps to our November class, and these 21 caps were brought to our January class.  Patsy has become a comfort cap-making machine!

All of the caps have been embellished with either iron-on or sew-on appliques or flowers or buttons.  As you can see in this photo, we love the University of Kentucky!  Go Cats!

These caps will be divided between two locations at Baptist Hospital East: the radiation treatment center and the chemotherapy treatment center.   This week, I found out about a third location that needs caps, at another local hospital's cancer treatment center.  So, I'll be donating a portion of the caps to them, also.

Thank you so much, Patsy, for your wonderful work and willingness to donate your time, fabrics, appliques and effort for those who are in such need!

Sew What! Community Sewing Group Update

This is the first of several articles I'll be posting about what our community sewing group, Sew What!, has been doing so far this year.

The first is about our project to sew shoulder bags for an orphanage in Haiti.  This is a photo of the bag I made as a model to teach the class how to make the bags.  Our Louisville Area Master Clothing Volunteers made 39 of these shoulder bags at our work day in January.  There were 10 shoulder bag kits left, so I brought them to our January Sew What! sewing class and taught them how to sew the bags together.

The students took them home to finish.  At our class last Thursday, they brought back 13 finished shoulder bags!  Thank you so much, Bonnie, Patsy, Rebecca and Jan!  Patsy even made 8 more out of some upholstery fabric she had at home!  You ladies ROCK!!!!

This is the same bag that's in the photo above.  It's been reversed.  These shoulder bags are reversible and are sewn primarily of upholstery fabric.

One of our Master Clothing Volunteers drew up the pattern for the bags so they are easy to make, but are very functional.  I had one shoulder bag kit remaining, so I gave it to one of the students who wasn't able to come to the January class.  I know she will bring back a beautifully made bag to our March sewing class.

Here are some of the shoulder bags that were brought to our class on Thursday.  The bag kits were made with upholstery fabric that was donated to the project by a fabric store in Shelby County.

The fabrics look like a mish-mash of patterns and colors, but they turned out to be very cute.  Everyone did a great job of combining what they were given to make the flaps and the linings go together so well.

These shoulder bags can be used for carrying books or personal belongings.  They have a shoulder strap, but it isn't really long.  I think the length of the strap is good for children, so the bags won't be uncomfortably long.


My heartfelt thanks goes out to my Sew What! sewing students for taking on this project with such ease, for a job well-done!  You ladies are the greatest!

February Sew What! Community Sewing Class Project

I made my Valentine a mug rug so he can stop using paper towels for his coffee mug!  I had so much fun making this little cutie!  I just discovered mug rugs about a month ago and have fallen in love with them!

I wasn't sure how big, or small, to make this one.  I just guessed at the size, after trying out a mug to fit.  It worked out really well, and hubby really likes his mug rug! (He had no clue what a mug rug was - imagine that!)

When I found the built-in decorative stitch with hearts on it, I thought what a no-brainer using that stitch would be!  I used regular all-purpose thread, thinking the rayon embroidery thread would be too glitzy for the mug side of the rug.  I do like it this way.

I used flannel fabric for the mug side, to make it look more "manly."  Along with the cotton/poly blend plaid fabric for the snack side, I like the way they compliment each other.

I used the rayon embroidery thread for the applique stitch on the hearts.  The applique consists of two sizes of hearts, stacked one on top of the other.  I like the way it turned out.

I'm teaching this project at my community sewing class this Thursday, so I hope to have some more photos to share of what my students make in class.  Stay tuned!

Flower Power Fabric Flower Class at Austin's Sewing Center

 If you live in the Louisville, Kentucky area, please come to my class and learn how to make fabric flowers on March 16.  We'll have a wonderfully fun time learning about six different kinds of fabric flowers in this class.  Go to www.austinssewingcenter.com for registration information.

 These are Kanzashi flowers - a Japanese folding technique, which I found on the Internet somewhere.  I had seen some fabric flowers on ready-made garments and started searching for ideas.  When I ran across this technique, I was so curious.  They are easy to make and great fun to put together.  I have sewn buttons into the centers of these flowers and a pin back on the backside so they may be moved from garment to garment.

 The ribbon rosette flowers can be made with satin, silk satin or grosgrain ribbon.  They are a quick, easy way to make some very attractive fabric/ribbon flowers!  And, fun!

 Here are some yo-yo flowers made from cotton fabrics combined with rick-rack flowers.  The yo-yo flowers were made using a yo-yo maker.  They can be used as an embellishment or as a brooch with a pin back sewn onto the back.  The pink is a three-layer flower made with a yo-yo base, a gathered ribbon on top of that, and a small rick-rack flower as the last layer.  The pink flower is sewn onto a stretchy headband.

These fabric roses were made using a template.  The template is a little challenging, but really easy to use after getting the hang of it!

As a bonus, I'll teach how to make a pleated ribbon rose flower brooch by machine, so bring your sewing machine and supplies for this extra project!  I'm looking forward to seeing you there!