Happy Thanksgivings everyone!
Brother started ‘Dream 1000 Project’ by requesting folks to make a bag to donate to the kids affected by the Tsunami and Earthquake in Japan.

 You can find: How To: Dream 1000 Project Bag – Part 1

To create the straps of bag, take one of the 5″ x 20″ strip pieces.
Fold it in half, right side of fabric facing out and iron.

Open fold.
Fold each side towards just created center fold.
Iron in place.

Take both sides and fold together.
Iron into place.
Repeat for other strip.
Top stitch on both sides of strips.

To attach strap to bag, measure 5″ from side of bag.

Attach to inside of bag, pin and stitch a square for added strength.
Make sure straps are aligned with each other and are not looped.
Cut a piece of paper the size of the square and use it as guide to have uniform square stitches.

To attach the button, find center position and mark 1/2″ from top of bag.

Clover caulk pens are easy to use for all your marking needs.

Center button on marked line and mark on both sides of button.

Use buttonhole foot, marked as A. Buttonhole # 9 was selected for this type of fabric.

Cut open your buttonhole and make sure button goes through.
Attach button on inside of bag.

Attach button on inside of bag.

Bag is now ready for your final touches of decoration should you chose to add some.

Start of by removing any remaining pieces of the water soluble topper .

Add a few Swarovski Crystals or Rhinestones hot fix to bag.

Final touches:
Cut off any loose thread
Remove caulk markings

Bag is now complete.

Be proud! you just made a kid in Japan very happy.
Don’t forget, deadline to ship bags: December 8, 2011

For more details about ‘Dream 1000 Project’: www.artsandcraftsplaza.com/?p=689

 You can find: How To: Dream 1000 Project Bag – Part 1

Let’s create something!

Thanksgivings is fast approaching and with that spreading some goodwill.
Brother started a ‘Dream 1000 Project’ by requesting folks to make a bag to donate to the kids affected by the Tsunami and Earthquake in Japan.
Deadline to ship bags: December 8, 2011
For more details about this project: Dream 1000 Project

Are you a beginner sewer? Just want to check out how the bag is constructed before taking it on?
Let’s get started!

Suggested fabric: Denim or Quilting fabrics.
Start of by cutting your fabric to:
One 40″ x 20″
Two 5″ x 20″
Optional pocket, one 6″x 6″

As these bags are not lined, it is important to serge or overcast all raw edges of fabric.
For those without a serger, use a G foot and choose one of the overcast stitches.

Put your fabric against the metal part in the middle of your foot.
Use same color thread as your bobbin.
Suggested thread: Polyester Mettler.

How your raw edges of fabric should look like.

To create the pocket, we start by Embroidering it first.
Hoop a tear away stabilizer, use Spry adhesive to attach your 6″x 6″ piece of fabric.
On top of that put your water soluble topper with spry adhesive.

Embroider something you think the kid that will get this bag will appreciate.
Think about color combination and overall look of the bag.

Change the foot of your machine and select a straight stitch.
This straight stitch uses a J foot.
Experiment with a scrap of fabric first and then adjust width and length of the stitch.

Measure 1/2 an inch from top of pocket.

Fold to the back of pocket.
Iron in place for ease and better result.

Top stitch top of pocket.

Folder back other 3 sides of pocket 1/2″ and iron.
Find center position on front of bag and pin.

Stitch both sides and bottom of pocket to bag.

Should you have any marking on fabric like this fold on fabric on back side of the bag, it’s a chance to decorate.

Make a straight line mark with caulk on unwanted fold line.

Add a ribbon in matching or contrasting color.
You may want to add another piece of fabric instead of ribbon.
Top stitch ribbon on both sides to secure to fabric.

With right sides of fabric facing together, Stitch both sides of bag with 5/8″ seam allowance from edge of fabric.

Trim and access ribbon or any loose thread.

Iron open the side seams.

From top of bag fold towards the inside of bag 1 1/4″ and iron or pin.

Use straight or decorative stitch 1 1/4″ from top of bag.
This picture shows straight stitch.

To create depth to the bag, add a gusset.
At bottom side of bag, measure 1 1/2″ from corner and mark.
Mark other bottom side as well.

Stitch over line on both sides.

Turn bag right side out.
View of how gusset changed appearance of bag.

 You can find: How To: Dream 1000 Project Bag – Part 2

Let’s create something!

You love to Embroider as well as making your own Greeting cards? Why not combine your passions?

Start by hooping tear away or cut away stabilizer.

Using spray adhesive, such as, Sulky KK 2000.

Put a piece of colored felt on top of the stabilizer.

Take a piece of Solvy.

Using spray adhesive to put the Solvy on top of the felt.

This step is not a must but it will help achieve a better embroidery.
Add a border with wide stitches, bigger than the design you are about to stitch.
It will help prevent bunching up as well as shifting.
It is best is you use a similar color to your background.

You now have your creative license to change the colors that you are using from the suggested colors.

As it keeps embroidering it starts looking like a picture.

We changes many of the colors suggested, the cat as well as the Yellow for the light effect in the pumpkin.

Now that you are done with your embroidery design. Take it out of the embroidery machine.
For this project we used Brother PE-780 model.

We recommend using this type of scissors to cut your jump stitches.
Because they have a curve you will be better able to cut close to the design without cutting the stitches.

Take your design out of the Embroidery hoop.

We will start working on the back side of our Embroidery.
Take a seam ripper and remove the bobbin thread of the border.

Continue taking out all the stitches around.
This will give you better result then trying to take the stitches out on the front of your embroidery.

Once you have removed all the bobbin thread, the front thread will just come off as a long piece of thread.

Now that we have just our embroidery, it’s time to remove the Solvy from the top.

Tear it off as best you can, most of it should come off easily.

Since it’s water soluble, should you have any pieces left behind, a little water will take care of it.

We recommend using Pacesetter Embroidery thread.
You get great quality thread for a reasonable price.

We bought greeting cards that have a photo frame cutout pre-made.
Feel free to make your own. When you select what Embroidery you want to use, make sure it will fit the frame size.
Some machines will let you resize your designs, take advantage of that.

We start with a blank card and decorate it with several stamps.

The Words “Happy Halloween” with a stamp on top.

We chose to use Uniball silver metallic pens.

We fill the empty spaces in the letters with our Orange color pen.
You will end up with a blend of Orange and sparkling Silver.

We love to sparkle so we’re going to putt some Bo-Nash sparkles on our card.

Great shiny colors they offer.

For a more precise result we will use the Bo-Nash glue pen.

Once we have our stamps in place, we will trace a few lines with the glue Pen.

When you use the glue pen, the glue will come in Blue color.
You know it’s ready to use once it dries Clear.

Put a finger into the sparkles, they will attach to your finger because of the oils you naturally have on it.
Then just go over the glue a few times. You are done once you see all the glue has been covered.
A quick no mess easy way to add some sparkle.

Add as many stamps and decorations as you like.
Now it’s time to put your embroidery into the picture frame.
Cut your Embroidery to size and gently tuck it in.

Make sure your embroidery is straight. Secure with a few dabs of glue if needed.

Your project is now complete! enjoy.