Sew Bittersweet Designs | Sewing and Designing in my BitterSweet World

Merry Disney Vacation

Posted on December 21, 2015 by Melissa Dunworth

Last week I was out of touch with the real world and lost in the beautiful world of Disneyland and California Adventures. We took my mom with us and had an amazing time! Dad was invited too but sadly, he couldn’t make it work (hopefully next time he can join us). Here are a couple of my favorite pictures from our trip.

We got to watch them light the big Christmas tree on Main Street in Disneyland, there is just something so magical about Disney, it doesn’t seem to matter what age you are, everyone feels that magic.

And Anne got to meet some of her favorite characters. All of the princesses plus a few Pixar characters too! We met Buzz Lightyear and learned something interesting, he does pictures but doesn’t do autographs.

I will share a few more pictures this week and also my finish for December, I was short on sewing time but was able to finish up a few sewn Christmas gifts before we left.

Happy Holidays!

Posted in Christmas | 3 Comments

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Posted on December 10, 2015 by Melissa Dunworth

Today I wanted to share with you a couple recent finishes for this month. They are all related to my Christmas Present sewing goal for this month.

I found this fun design over on the Urban Threads website. It is the first time I have embroidered t-shirts and I’m pretty happy with how they turned out. I actually ended up making three of these because I thought it might be cute for my mom, Anne and I to wear them and have our picture taken together with Santa.

This link for the design can be found here. I had a lot of fun making these!

Have you been making any holiday gifts? How are your December goals coming along?

Posted in 2015 Finishes, A Lovely Year of Finishes, Christmas, Embroidery | 9 Comments

A Lovely Year of Finishes – November Winners

Posted on December 8, 2015 by Melissa Dunworth

Congratulations to all of our winners from November! Shanna and I just love sending emails out and getting excited replies! A big thank you to all of our wonderful sponsors!

1. Thimblepie’s Quilt Supplies – Custom fabric package, 3 yards plus free shipping anywhere

Moneik – Moneik Quilts

2. Green Fairy Quilts – 3 pdf patterns

Yanicka – Finding myself as an artist

3. $15 gift certificate from Fat Quarter Shop

Deb – newcreativestate

4. PDF Pattern from Katy – The Littlest Thistle

Ella – Throw a Wench in the Works

5. One PDF Pattern from Meadow Mist Designs

Susan – Desertsky Quilting

6. PDF Pattern from Persimon Dreams

Pauline – Quilt-N-Queen

7. One pdf Pattern from Clover and Violet

Lisa – Quilts by Lisa

8. One Charm pack or $10.00 gift certificate to
Stitches n’ Giggles (winners choice)

Karen – KaHolly

9. Sew BitterSweet Designs one pdf pattern

Anita – Quilt in a not-Shell

10. One PDF pattern from Sew Sweetness

Kell – Kell

11. One PDF pattern from Honey, Bunny, and Doll Designs

Cynthia – Quilting is more fun than Housework

Congratulations to all of our winners and good luck with your December goals!!

Posted in A Lovely Year of Finishes, Fiber of All Sorts | 5 Comments

Because everyone needs giraffe pants…

Posted on December 4, 2015 by Melissa Dunworth

This week I made Anne a pair of giraffe pants. You may remember her giraffe hoodie I made last year.

Holy cuteness batman! I mean seriously!

Well, this weekend we were going through her pants drawer looking for sweats, only to discover that none of her pairs fit anymore. Not surprising since she has grown about 4″ from last winter. Happily I had just barely enough giraffe fabric left over to make her a lovely pair of pants!

If you ask me, she is still pretty darn cute!

I made my own pattern using a pair of her jeans and I serged them together on the Pfaff serger that I never use. Then I hemmed them and put in the waistband on my Janome 15000. I love that I’ve gotten to the point in my sewing where I am quite content to sew without patterns. It’s a nice morale booster for this lady!

So here is the first of my Christmas sewing, these are an early present to her so she doesn’t freeze during our Pacific Northwest winter.

Happy Holiday Sewing!

Posted in 2015 Finishes, Christmas, Clothes | 9 Comments

A Lovely Year of Finishes – December Goal Party

Posted on December 1, 2015 by Melissa Dunworth

Hello December! That wonderful time of year, filled with cheery lights and manic sewing. Deadlines to hit and not a single extra minute to spare. Those homemade gifts are always well loved and received because people know you went the extra mile.

My goal is to finish up a couple of gifts for family and teacher gifts too. No pictures to show other than to say, I will be spending some quality time with the embroidery unit on my machine!

How about you?

What one item will you choose?

You have two requirements to be entered into the prizes this month.

1. Link-up {on this post} the first 7-days of the month

Please choose ONE project

and

2. Link-up in the last 7-days of the month

Only with a completed, successful project. And yes the same one that you choose earlier in the month.

Add your blog post or flickr photo (with appropriate descriptions) to the linky party below.

Please grab a button or link back to Shanna and I so other people can join in the fun!

And if you are on twitter or Instagram tag #ALYoF

**Please note, the linky party is the same here and over at Shanna, so there is no need to enter twice **