Tuesday, June 5, 2012

One Apartment Warming Gift Finished!

"Somebody" is using black and red for her new apartment.  I decided to make kitchen towels, but my Savory Swirls designs didn't look good in black and red.  I found these Asian embroidery designs, and I love, love, love how the towels came out.  Rather than paper wrapping, I made a fabric basket from some Asian inspired yardage I had on hand.
I bought a bolt of Huck toweling a while back at Joann's, prewashed the whole thing, ironed it, and put it back on the cardboard.  So nice  to have it in the house when I want it!  These designs are from The Embroidery Library.  I posted about making the Huck towels before.  You can see the dimensions I use here.

The fabric basket idea was from my sewing muse.  Yes, I have a sewing muse.  You have to get one!  I've adopted Sandra from Sandra Sews.  She's always using techniques, fabrics, patterns, and "things" that encourage me to kick my sewing up a notch.  Sandra made some small fabric baskets recently.  You can take a look here and get the link for the free pattern.  (Free is always great!)   I doubled the size of the pattern and used solid pieces of fabric instead of piecing squares.  My main pieces were 24x18 1/2.  The handles were double the size of the original pattern as well.

With the batting, my bag is a bit wobbly which doesn't matter if the basket is full.  Next time, I will probably  use a mid to heavy interfacing instead of batting, or, maybe, with the batting.

Back to my muse.  I would never have tried the twin needles if I hadn't seen how nice that perfect double line looked on Sandra's projects with batting.  I decided to try it on this fabric basket.  Sandra said it was easy and gave me a few tips.  I watched a few YouTube videos, too, to get up my courage.

Turns out, it IS easy! Doesn't that look nice?  I might try doing more of this on the next basket. That may well provide enough stability so that I won't need to the interfacing.  I shall let you all know!

I put in some red dish clothes--store-bought.  I CANNOT find terry fabric at the fabric stores that I like.  I make hair towels with Joann's terry cloth, which is okay, but it really "wrinkles" up with one use.  It doesn't look pretty hanging.  It works great, though.


Should the recipient see this before the gift arrives, there will still be a surprise.  There is something special under those towels!


17 comments:

  1. Are muses allowed to beam from ear to ear? :D Your basket and towels are gorgeous - I often resize the baskets to suit whatever project I have in mind :) I'm glad you liked twin needle stitching - you can even use it with decorative stitches, although I haven't tried that yet. Try it with variegated thread ;)

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    1. Beaming is definitely allowed! I am already planning another basket so that I can play some more with the twin needle stitching. I can't believe how easy it was to set it up! Thanks for the ideas and the virtual push to explore new things. As things are settling down here, I'm finally getting a few things done. How nice that is!

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  2. I just showed the girls. We love them!!!!!!!!

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  3. The towels are really nice, What a great gift idea!
    Blessings,
    Susie

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    1. And easy to do which is always good. A strip or ribbon or fabric would work instead of embroidery, too. Glad you like them!

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  4. What an awesome idea for kitchen towels!!! They look fabulous!!! I like your fabric basket, too... much better than wrapping paper.

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    1. My goal one of these years is to eliminate all the paper wrapping. It's pretty, but such a waste! I will get there yet!

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  5. Hello

    These are lovely, what a great present.

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  6. Great idea for ahouse warming present,love the embroidery. Red and black always looks good.

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  7. What a lovely house warming present. Stopping by from Creative Itch's linky party. Here is what I shared: http://craftybrooklynarmywife.blogspot.ca/2012/06/kids-roll-up-nap-blanket.html

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  8. I've featured your embroidered towels today...
    http://threadingmyway.blogspot.com/2012/06/threading-your-way-features_09.html

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  9. How exciting! Thanks!

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  10. These came out great! One of these days I will learn to sew!

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  11. Unique gift! And I'm sure it will be appreciated. Thanks for sharing at I Made It! Monday. Be sure and grab a featured button when you link up this week.

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  12. These look lovely, and what a great basket! Sandra is a fab muse, good choice!

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  13. Very interesting to read about this


    see hera

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