Free Baby Quilt Pattern!

I'm excited today to share this baby quilt pattern with you for free! That's right, I said free!  This is my Boy Power/Girl Power baby quilt pattern.  It is a versatile quilt pattern that's great for a girl or boy and you can customize it using whatever fabric you choose, so have fun with it.  If you make a quilt, I'd love to see your completed project.

Click Here to Dowload the PDF

Girls Day: Jersey Maxi Skirts

Every fall I try to get together with my daughters that are around and do some type of craft.  My husband doesn't think I need to add to my holiday decorations so I was on the hunt for a craft or sewing item that was not a holiday craft.  In August I found a couple of blogs that showed how to make a maxi skirt. The maxi skirts are popular and the girls were all excited to make this our craft. The web site we bought the fabric from was Girl Charlee.  We were able to find some really cute and very affordable knit fabrics from here.  

Even though we purchased our fabric in August we didn't get a chance to sew until late September.  I spent a Saturday with my girls sewing and another Saturday with a co-worker who wanted to learn to sew.  Everyone wanted at least two skirts and of course all the grand-daughters needed a skirt so there was a lot of fabric purchased and a lot of skirts sewn.  I personally made at least 10 skirts (only two of those were mine).   

I purchased a pattern that had a couple different skirt styles with multiple sizes and I also found some good blogs that showed how to make a skirt with stripes that are at opposing angles.  The best blog for the skirts was i candy homemade.  This blog had a pattern to download and print off.  I did have to adjust the pattern for some of us that were a little bigger.  The pattern said it was a medium but I think it was on the small size just based on the fit for my small daughters. 

The skirts were quick and simple to make.  I used my serger to sew them all together and I serged the edge on the hem then rolled it and topstitched it. My daughter JaNae suggested using a twin needle for the hem.  I used this on my last couple of skirts and it really finishes it well and makes it look just like a professional hem.  Thanks JaNae, I taught you everything you know about sewing and now you are teaching me a thing or two. 

 The most important thing that I learned with this project was to measure each person carefully and adjust the pattern to fit.  Even though it is knit one size does not fit all.  The knit is very clingy and you really don’t want it to show every bump.  The second thing is if you are doing the opposing stripes then more fabric is needed than a straight skirt.  For an adult I orderd 2 yards for the opposing stripe skirts.  I have lots of tiny little granddaughters so I ordered 2 yards for every adult skirt and I was able to make some skirts for the little tiny grandkids to match the moms.  It was fun and another successful girls day.  

Tutorial: Repurposed Pottery Barn Bags

A year ago I bought a new sewing machine which was quite an upgrade from the machine I was using.  I have a Bernina Activa 230 and I purchased a Bernina 750 QE.  I liked the machine but within 6 months I found I was using the embroidery on the machine more than I thought I would and there were some limitations on the embroidery program in the 750 machine and I Decided to upgrade to a Bernina 830. I have been having so much fun embroidering with my new toy!  The grandkids are the recipient of most of my projects.

One day I was at DownEast and came across these cute backpacks.  If you are familiar with DownEast they have many children's items that are monogrammed with names.  These items were originally sold through Pottery Barn for 30$-40$.  DownEast buys the blemished or misspelled items to then sell in their store at a reduced cost.  I was able to purchase a slew of bags and backpacks for 30% off the reduced cost!  When DownEast receives products into their stores they price and date the product.  The longer the item is in the store the lower the price will be.  The prices will drop each month and then periodically the store has a really good sale like a 30% off the lowest marked price on the product. These were all less than 10$ a piece.  

One of the first projects I made with my new machine was done using these bags I had found. I made patches for each of the grandkids with their name on it and then put them on a back pack. Instead of picking out the names and then embroidering a new name on the bag I created patches large enough to place over the blemish or old name.  It was a big hit with the grand-kids as they started the new school year. 

A friend of my daughter Micquel noticed the cute patch and wanted to know where she got them.  This mom had also bought a backpack from DownEast for her son but she picked out the name.  After picking out the name the old name could still be seen.  Micquel asked me if I would make a patch for her friends little boy which I did and his mom was so excited.  Kids love personalized things.

My older grand-daughters played baseball this past summer.  From DownEast I was able to find these long duffel bags that could hold a bat, and all their baseball gear.  The bags were pink and white polka dot.  The patches were the perfect touch to personalize their bags.  They were so cute and they even used them to pack for our Disney land trip this past summer. 

For my oldest grandson's backpack I created a patch with a dinosaur and his name on it.  The grandkids use these cute bags and backpacks to take on car trips or airplane trips.  The kids get to carry them and it has all the special things in them they want to take to entertain themselves on their trips. So much fun!

These are some of the items I have purchased and what I paid for them:

Backpacks-depends on size                                $7.00 or less

Other Bags-depends on size                                $9.00-$15.00

Large Beach towels                                             $5.00 or less

Notebooks                                                          $2.50 or less

Computer bags                                                    $2.50 or less

Hooded baby towels                                            $3.00-$5.00

I love a good bargain!  I can’t possibly go to even Walmart and buy items like these for these prices.  The hooded baby towels are a great baby gift and I would not even be able to buy terry cloth fabric for the price of these towels.  At JoAnn's the cost of terry cloth is anywhere from $9.99- 12.99 a yard.  With a 40% off coupon the cost would be $5.99-$9.09 a yard.  Then it would take a pack of binding at $1.99 a pack and it may take as much as 2 packs to finish the edge.  This brings the cost of making a hooded baby towel $8.00-$10.00.

For the machine embroidery I will buy multiple towels.  Most of the towels come in blue gingham border for boys and pink gingham border for girls.  I purchased 5 towels of each.  One towel of each color will be used to create the new hoods for the other 4 towels.  I use the hood I cut off as a template to cut out new hoods.   

So, the first thing I do is to cut the hood part of the baby towel off.  I do this by cutting very close to the bound edge of the hood. 

Take the extra towel and place the cut off hood against the outside edge of the remaining large part of the towel. This gives the new hoods a bound edge to match the towel and I can cut 4-5 new hoods from one towel.  I like to cut them a little larger leaving about ½” extra.  I then embroider the design I have chosen onto the newly cut out hood.  When I am done embroidering I will recut the hood the size I need.  I don’t want to pick any part of the binding off so instead I take the newly embroidered hood and place it in the corner of the towel and I will pin then stitch a tight zig zag stitch to attach the hood.  Stitch this as close to the binding edge as possible.  The terry cloth helps to hide this stitch so that it does not need to be sewn into the bound edge. 

 If you don’t have an embroidery machine it is still possible to applique a design on using fabric and a shape of your choice.  This could be a baby duck, a flower, frog, fish, car, or even letters to spell out the baby's name.  

When I machine applique I use a product called Heat N Bond lite.  This product is sold at Walmart and fabric stores.  I like to buy a large roll, 17” X 5.25  yards, because I do a lot of applique and it is more economical than the small packages. 

Pick out the fabric you would like to use and then iron on the heat-n-bond.  Trace the design on the back of the paper on the fabric and cut out the design.  When the design is cut out then peel the paper off and iron on the design on the fabric centering on the hood.  When I machine applique I use a blanket stitch but a zig-zag stitch works just as well.

When I get my beach towels embroidered I will share the results.

Disney Tees and Smocked Dresses

This summer we decided to take a family trip to Disney Land (which by the way I considered a success).  So being the crazy woman I am, I wanted to have each family in shirts that were matching.   My children decided each family should be a different color so they picked out the colors and then I went to work using my new sewing machine that embroiders to embroider a logo and name on each shirt. 

For the guys shirt I bought a surfboard pattern and for the girls I bought a flip flops pattern and I began to embroider each shirt and also put their names on it.  I thought they turned out really cute and everyone wore them on one of our days in Disneyland.  Some of my son-in-laws were humoring me by wearing them because they knew I went to so much trouble.  

As if the shirts weren’t enough I wanted to make some cute sun dresses for each of the grand daughters, (I have 7) to wear to the beach.  I resurrected my old READ PlEATER and decided that smocking across each of the sun dresses would be cute.  This was a lot of work but it also gave me an opportunity to show my daughter JaNae how to smock.

 I’m proud to say all of the shirts and dresses got done (but I was sewing some buttons on the dresses in the car on the way to California).

    

Welcome to My Blog

I'm LaVonne Jackson.  To family and friends I am called Vonne (with a long E sound at the end). I have sewn for almost as long as I can remember.  The start of my journey into sewing was not a positive one but I stuck with it and eventually I fell in love with it.  Sharing my passion for sewing with everyone I know is what I really love to do. 

Some of my sewing began as means of saving money so I made many of my clothes or my children’s clothes.  From there I began branching out and sewing home décor, drapes, pillows, and bedding.  There is probably not a craft, needlecraft, or sewing art that I haven’t tried at least once.   

I consider myself a designer.  From the time I was very little I remember getting out gridded draft paper and drawing house plans. All of this came natural since my father, who was not a builder by trade, built a couple of his own homes and was very skilled with woodwork. 

I married and raised a family first, and through those years I designed and created clothes for my children.  I sewed the window treatments and other decorations for my home as well as many of my friends homes. I have even upholstered furniture! Some of my creations were not the most beautiful but I learned from every project and through plowing forward I got better and better.

I have always loved learning and most of my skills were self-taught through books or just experimenting, but I always knew that I would go back to school to get a college education.  When my kids were all finally in school I started back to college.  We had built a couple of homes at that point and I was a bit frustrated with a designer who kept trying to talk me out of things I wanted in a home.  This frustration was actually what led me to the degree I have in architectural drafting.  Coupled with the drafting I also took many classes in art and interior design. 

I was self-employed as a designer and designed house plans and interior elevations for builders.  Through some down falls in the economy my husband was laid off, and when the economy struggles the housing market also falls so we struggled to make ends meet.  I made a decision to head back to college and get another degree in the medical field, which is another area I have always been interested in so I got a bachelor degree in Diagnostic Medical Sonography.  As much as I like my career, when days are sad from working with patients that have received bad news, the sewing and crafting help to lift my spirit and take my mind off the sad things of the world.

My greatest joy has been sharing my love of crafting and sewing with my children.  I have 4 girls and one boy and even my son was taught to cross-stitch and make plastic canvas crafts.  My hope is to continue to share this love of sewing and creating with all those who wish to follow. 
Welcome to my blog, I hope you enjoy it!