Creative Challenge: Day Twenty

As I mentioned yesterday, I did some sewing over the weekend. It was so much fun! While my mom has been sewing all my life, I never seamed to pick it up. The good news is...there is still time.

Last year for Christmas my sweet friend Melissa made me (and a lot of other lucky individuals) an adorable apron. Sure there are a lot of cute aprons for sale these days, but this one was made just for me! How cool is that? What impresses me the most about Melissa's aprons are the different patterns of fabric she uses and how awesome they look stitched together. I know when I walk into a fabric store I'm overwhelmed by all the colors and patterns of fabric. At least craft paper is neatly organized into categories.

When Melissa moved to Arizona, she wanted to start selling her aprons at some of the gift shops near her house. As one of her biggest fans (personally and apron-wise) I was thrilled to hear the news. As she was tossing around ideas of how to get the word out, I offered to make business cards. Wanting to incorporate her work, I asked for her to send me scraps of material. Last week a packed envelope arrived and so the fun for me began! 

Since yesterday was like my first time sewing, I decided to just make a few samples. I made six different 3x3 inch square cards. Wanting the cards to be a true reflection of the aprons, my vision was to stitch 2 pieces of material together and then stitch the material to the paper card.

First thing I did was dig through the material and find fabric that coordinated well with another piece of fabric in the bunch. I then cut them down to small size and pinned one side to use as my sewing edge.

After a quick crash course from Debbie, I was sewing! She had to remind me a few times (rightfully sew) to make sure to remove the pins before I sewed over them. That would be a tragedy especially since I'd already used a whole sheet of glitter paper inside (gasp) and left quite the trail of glitter. Thankfully, no pins or sewing machines were injured during this project.

Once all the proper pieces were stiched together, I ironed the seams flat and glued them to the 3x3 cards.

I then added the final touch, stitching the paper and the material together. Although my lines aren't perfect (thank goodness for zig-zag) I love how they turned out! Here is a close up of the front of the card. If I make her actual cards, I will of course include her information on this side.

And last but certainly not least....the backs of the cards!

This has been one of the most fun challenges this month. I look forward sewing more paper and fabric in the future...at least in the card version. I'll leave the aprons to Melissa, because she does that best!