Baby It's Cold Outside!

This morning Sweetums and I headed outside for a quick walk and it was raining. Nothing serious, nothing freezing cold. I was wearing a hoody and a tshirt and didn't feel the 'sting' of the weather. I was, in fact, relieved that I didn't have to gear up in boots and all that fun stuff!

Now, Sweetums on the other hand was singing a different story. FYI, Sweetums is our new Yorkie pup and she is a pretty little thing, little being the operative word. She did not appreciate the mild fall weather and was shivering enough to gain my sympathy and convince me that it was time to head to the store and get her some outdoor clothing.

Once it warmed up a bit and we headed to the pet store (Sweetums came along to try things on and make sure they looked nice) we didn't find very much! There were lots of little t-shirts on sale, and a bunch of halloween costumes, but very few winter jackets or even hoodies, and even fewer CUTE options! 

We headed to a second pet store where I found the little Martha Stewart fleece below:

Fleece Puppy Jacket ala Martha Stewart! 

It's pretty cute and probably pretty warm, but I have to say that it is missing some PINK GIRLYNESS!! What's the point of dressing up a girl puppy if it isn't going to be in pink??!! No problem though, my sewing machine has been sitting on my desk all week along with a gazillion pink swatches of fabric that I am using to make Alix a baby quilt (I'll share when I'm done!).

Cricut + Heat'n'bond + CUTE!

I cut some Heat'n'bond into flower shapes (the same flowers I am putting on the baby quilt!lol) and  then ironed it onto the back of some lovely pink fleece. Then I cut the fleece out with scissors. I WISH I could of cut the fleece with my Cricut, but cutting the heat'n'bond provided an awesome pattern and it was the next best thing.

A few lacy details...

After cutting the flowers, I ironed them onto the fleece jacket and top stitched the edges. As a final touch I sewed some lace and pompoms around the edges of the outfit, added a pom pom to the center of each flower, and, whoola!

She is NOT cringing!! Honest! She just doesn't want to walk in it just yet...

I had a lovely, fashionable PINK and brown fleece jacket for Sweetums! Quin says it looks like something Sherlock Holmes would wear. humff. I like it!! And Sweetums does too, sort of...

She did eventually walk in her jacket :)

It took her a few minutes to see it's merit, but eventually Sweetums was happily wandering the back yard in her warm little outfit.

Lovely poses...so professional! 

Is that a smile?!

And so, my mission for the day is done. I also picked up a little gray Martha Stewart winter jacket. I'll get started on it next week!

xxoo
Heather

Winter Frolics Appliqué

The snow is NOT flying in Calgary yet, but I can't ignore that it is lurking right around the corner! And with the flurries outside will begin the frantic flurry of shopping and preparing for Christmas! The Shopping Channel gives me the perfect opportunities and excuses to start some seasonal crafting in advance and seeing how it is time to put away my Halloween Appliqué, I thought that I would replace it's spot on my mantle with a winter one! 

Pre-plan your design by cutting the shapes out of printer paper

Winter frolic has lots of fun images to choose from, and so I pre-planned my design by cutting out some shapes and tweaking them until I got the perfect sizes. Wow, pre-planning!! go figure! Who knew that I had it in me!?

Once everything was planned, may I just must stop again to remind you that I PRE-planned, I ironed Heatn'Bond to the back of all of my fabric. I personally am loving the Ultrahold weight for applique, and while I have also cut fabric that is backed with the HeatnBond light, the Ultrahold seems to deliver the very best results.

Next step is cutting the images, which of course will go VERY quickly if you have, ehem... pre-planned your cut sizes!

Some tips on cutting fabric with your Cricut machine:

   1. You MUST use a backing on the fabric, regardless of whether you are cutting cotton, silk or rayon.

   2. Use a new super sticky mat to hold your fabric securely in place while cutting. This will help give you a crisper cut.

3. A new blade is great, but not always 100% necessary. Try putting a new one in if you aren't getting a clean cut.

4. It's ok if the paper backing comes off of the fabric before you cut. It will still cut well!

5. If you are having trouble cutting, try flipping the fabric upside down to cut. Sometimes this works better! You can even use the 'Mirror Image' feature on your Cricut Expression or Create so that your image is still 'right side up'.

Iron your cut images into place and you are ready to stitch!

Once all of my images were cut out, I layered them onto the base fabric and started machine appliquéing them into place. I found it effective to have placed my 'snow' down first and top stitched it in place before layering any other pieces on top of it. This way, I could sew one continual topstitch instead of starting and stopping at all of the overlapped pieces.

Finished Appliqué

Once I was done stitching, I put a layer of batting behind my finished piece and then put it into a frame. 

Close Up! 

I think this little penguin guy is adorable and may end up on some Christmas cards as well! 

Happy Crafting!