A clock for the lake house sewing room!

I wanted a nice clock for my Pocono sewing room. This design came from Emblibrary and I did it one hooping with the maxi hoop on my Bernina B790. The quilt background was done on my Bernina B580 using some quilt scraps. I found the frame, plexiglass and clock kit on Amazon. This room is really coming together!

And idea for Jeans and how it went

I entered these into a jeans contest and of course I didn't win. I'm never optimistic about winning because the group of people who enter are extremely creative. The fun thing is looking at what they do and stealing ideas for the future!


The base pattern I used was one I self drafted. I took several classes in drafting and decided I needed to give it a shot. I did use my Bernina My Label jeans pattern for things like pockets, yokes and other details. I looked a Jalie 2908 for reference for the cut of the legs.


For fabric I used this really nice denim from G Street Fabrics. It was 97% Cotton and 3% Lycra so not a whole lot of stretch. I did buy some stretchier denim from Mood but I'll be I'll be using it to try out the Jalie pattern in the future. I was suspicious it wouldn't meet the 95 Cotton 5 Lycra requirement.

This is the front:

This is the back:

I had this fairly nice soft black leather blazer with a torn arm. So far I've cannibalized it to make details in a hounds tooth skirt and for the yoke and pocket trim on these pants. 

I recently bought this snap press from KamSnaps as well as pliers to remove snaps that don't work out.
Wow is this thing heavy! Of course I got it in powder blue! I find the bottom of snaps work quite well as rivets.  I used the leather as trim for the pockets:

I interfaced the leather with a medium weft interfacing and lined it with the same fabric I used for the pockets:

My embroidery for the back pocket and front and back leg was Dressed in Damask from Emblibrary. I've used it before and I just love how elegant it is. My Bernina B780 embroidered this denim very easily.

My topstitch thread was from Wawak. It's a huge spool and I'm sure I'll eventually have to figure out who to will it to! It's enough for several generations!


My setting for the picture was the dock of my Mother in Law's house in Cocoa Beach, Florida. I love water as a backdrop! And this was a nice break from Winter. These were taken in March and WOW that was a wild month in Pennsylvania! However, when I got back to Virginia Spring has seemed to arrive.

Sewing room luxury - sewing themed coasters!

I've been looking high and low for sewing themed coasters for my sewing rooms. Alas, none exist. Well, step in my creative side......make my own!

First I had to find blanks. I found these lucite coater blanks with cork backing at All Stitch Embroidery designs. I need to remember this group - they are in Baltimore and I got these in one day with regular shipping.

I then went looking for sewing themed embroidery designs. I really like Emblibrary because they have interesting designs and they are quite reasonable. I bought the Creative Filigree Design pack and picked out the four designs that I deemed most appropriate designs. 

I gave my B780 it's first embroidery workout doing these. Wow is that machine fast!

This was the result:

I made a set for the Virgina sewing room and a set for the Pennsyvania Sewing room. So now the coaster stones with the robins can go back to the living room!

A nice little wrap skirt that won't unwrap

I’ve been really happy with working with My Label patterns and like to take creative license with them. I wanted a wrap skirt, but not all the quirky problems with a true wraps skirt. This was done as a "faux" wrap. The fabric came from a remanent I found at G Street Fabrics. 100% linen and a true steal!

Between where the basic skirt ends and the wrap starts I inserted a hidden invisible zipper:

I also added a slit right below that for walking ease:

Also I used a combination of the multi-hoop program in the Bernina Designer Plus 6.0 and the giant Hoop-it-all to create the embroidery design as this one was done on my Bernina Artista 165E. The embroidery design was from the “Dressed in Damask” package from Emblibray. Had I used my Artista 630E (which I did not have at the time) I could have auto split it with the mega hoop.

I then added buttons for the faux closure. I really like the versatility of the My Label patterns. It’s amazing what

The kimono jacket - perfect for an over air-conditioned office

As anyone who works in the DC area knows offices are notoriously over air-conditioned. When it's hot and muggy outside you can count on freezing in the office. That's why having some nice Summer jackets are a good thing.

This was a pattern for Bernina My Label that was released after the original package came out. There have been six more patterns released, free to anyone who has the program. I've been really happy with My Label and have tried just about every pattern so far.

 This komono jacket was quite challenge in construction. I found some really nice stripped texture linen at G Street Fabrics and some turquoise linen to make the trim with. The embroidery as a fairly inexpensive download from Emblibrary. It's worth checking every so often with them. They frequently have $1 designs that are fun to use. I used a giant Hoop-it-All for the design with assistance from the multi-hoop program on my Bernina Designer Plus software. That's the way I could split designs on my Bernina Artista 165E. On my Artista 630E I can use the Bernina Megahoop and the softwear will auto split it for me.

The back was actually one piece at the top but I liked putting the strip across it to give it more interest.

The sides are slit with hidden pockets - I love to hide pockets when I can because I never seem to have enough!

So I'm really happy with this program  - I haven't had to buy a pattern since I started using it!