Embroidered Handkerchiefs

For my best friend's birthday, I wanted to make and personalize something special. Here's how I made embroidered handkerchiefs:

After choosing out some simply patterned cotton fabric, I cut out squares and hemmed the edges using a zig-zag stitch on my sewing machine.  I decided to use patterned fabric instead of plain white to help them appear clean after being used over time, and in shades with yellows since yellow is my friend's favorite color. To prevent lumpy embroidery after washing, I pre-shrunk in the laundry.

cut fabric squares

sewing machine settings

hemmed edges

bottom view

top view

completed square

After completing the squares, I chose yellow, lavender, and purple floss to decorate the corners. On the printed beige fabric, I monogrammed her initials with some floral detail in one corner, and continued the design onto the two side corners.

I embroidered her name and outlined a flower on the yellow/blue floral fabric, and kept the design simple since the fabric print was already busy.

I hope they last a long time! They can also be used to wrap small items or for other alternative purposes.

be green and use less tissue
<3 Mandy

Homemade Lavender Bath Salts

As holiday gifts for some women at work, I made some lavender bath salts and put them in little clear jars with locking lids. It was pretty easy to assemble, and makes a quick but lovely gift. The salts work great for a soothing bath or foot soak.

To make the salts, I mixed together:
- 1 cup coarse-grain sea salt
- 3/4 cup Epsom salt
- 1/4 cup baking soda
- 10 drops of 100% pure lavender essential oil
- dried lavender (collected during the summer and dried since then)

In a large bowl, I mixed together the salts first, and added baking soda to the mixture. I distributed the oils throughout the mixture while mixing with a spoon. After taking the dried lavender flowers off of their stems, I added them to the salts. There was enough to make 4 jars of bath salts.

<3 Mandy

DIY Felt Christmas Ornaments

I thought it would be cute to make personalized felt Christmas ornaments this year. All the ornaments I made are round holey baked goods (bagels or donuts).

My dad is from Montreal, and we frequently go there to visit family. Every trip, we always get Montreal bagels (Fairmount > St. Viateur), so I made my dad a Fairmount sesame seed bagel. The "ingredients" for the bagel are simple: two circles of tan-colored felt, white embroidery floss, and some stuffing. Before sewing the felt pieces together, I embroidered little white sesame seeds all over one piece of felt, and also added "DAD" to the top. I made a little braided loop to be able to hang the ornament. I first sewed the inner circle of both felt pieces, and then sewed around the outside edge to seal the bagel. Before finishing, I filled the bagel with stuffing.

back view of embroidery

I made my mom a chocolate-glazed donut to kind of match my dad's bagel. I first made the donut base (same way as I made the bagel, but without embroidering anything on). I cut out some dark brown felt in the shape of "glaze", and used different colored embroidery floss to make rainbow sprinkles. I also wrote "MOM" to look like it was made out of sprinkles.

Happy Holidays!
<3 Mandy

Knitted Fox Scarf

My aunt knitted adorable matching fox scarves for her grandchildren, and I helped her sew little black button eyes and a nose onto one of them. I liked the scarf so much, I decided to make one for myself (even though it's meant for young kids)!

Following a pattern by Gina Michelle, I knitted a triangle in cream-colored yarn, starting at the point and increasing stitches each row. Switching to a rusty orangey brown color, I knitted another few inches before switching to a ribbed stitch for a few inches. I switched back again to a regular garter stitch for the length of the scarf, and then switched back to the cream-colored yarn to form the fox's face. After casting off, I sewed the end to the edge where the colors changed to form a loop. I knitted little triangle ears and sewed them onto the edge where the colors changed, but on the opposite (prettier) side of the work. I sewed on a pink heart button nose, and black rectangular beads as eyes.

The head of the fox slips in through the loop until the ribbed neck portion, and slides perfectly over someone's head.

This project was fairly quick, and only took a couple of days to make. Now I can match my niece and nephew, or can give the scarf to a baby or young child to wear and enjoy.
<3 Mandy

DIY Money Lei

HR at work asked me to make a money lei for a holiday party prize, so I used 40 $1 bills and some Christmas ribbon to put one together.

I cut 2 strands of equal length of the ribbon, to thread through both sides of the bills to hold the lei in place evenly. I folded all 40 bills accordion-style and taped the sides into flowers, and threaded them onto the ribbon. I did 1 flower face-up tied with thin gold ribbon, and 4 threaded on, repeating.

Using a weaving technique, I braided 2 different colors of ribbon together to rest at the back of the neck for comfort.

I ended up winning the costume contest by dressing up as a Christmas tree (green dress, pom pom garland and hanging ornaments, and gold star in my hair) and got to keep the lei.
<3 Mandy