Happy Patches.....

About a week ago, after a looong silence, I had mentioned some fun new patches that were added to the shop. I also mentioned that I would fill you in on the making of them, so here it is...

These little happy wonders are a great break from the normal sewing, cutting and designing. They are also a great way for me to use up those fun little scraps that i just cannot bear to throw out. These patches began as a way for me to avoid mending! I HATE mending! But with five kids, you can imagine the need for it. I am shocked sometimes at the things that can end up with holes in them! And I will show you one of them to prove what I claim! I also found that is was a fun way to get more use out of my free motion quilting foot on the dream machine.

When I make my patches, I do it in bulk, which I have found fills two needs...one it is the most efficient way to make a mess! It would be a bit of a tragedy to make such a huge mess for one little patch(haha) And second, I have way too many ideas that I just need to try out! So this last time, I believe the count ended up being over 30 patches in the new collection for the shop. I am still working on getting them all listed!

The first thing I do is to pick out some prints that I want for the background on the patches. I cut them into 6 inch strips and iron on interfacing. The interfacing, I believe, makes them durable which is really the point of a patch, right?
Then I cut them into six inch squares. I do make other sizes for special orders, but this is my typical size.
Such a fun little stack full of potential!
All laid out and ready to be built on!
I keep a crate full of fabrics that have been backed with interfacing. About once a month, I take around an hour to iron interfacing on to fabric scraps that I would like to use for patches, buttons, and appliques I use on clothing and totes. That way, I am not going back and forth to the cutting table, ironing board and scrap bins. Digging through the crate for the right fabric scraps is like putting a puzzle together-very fun!
Here are the patches starting to develop. Many layers are added to each one.

All set to head to the sewing machine. I did two full rounds of patches like this.
Here is the first batch all stacked up. I keep them sandwiched between two game boards until I can get them stitched. Keeps me from losing all their pieces. I takes me about a week to get them all sewn. I tend to work through one thread color at a time. Once I run out the bobbin of one color, I move on to other activities around the house.


Now remember I said i would show you what i have used them for. Well here it is. Awhile back, my girls had the basement covered in forts. They were doing their school in the shelter of them one day and as I was working down there, all of the sudden Joslyn jumps out of her fort and says, Madi's fort is on fire! Talk about your heart stopping! Well it was actually not on fire-YET! See, against my better judgement, I let the girls take a light into each of their forts so they could see, and I of course validated my own fears with this occurence. Now, I must make sure Madison does not take the fall for this, she actually did turn her light off like she was supposed to, but my little guy, the curious, angel employer, decided to figure out how to turn her lamp on and then leave the crime scene. As he fled the scene, he knocked the fort down and in turn almost started it on fire. Thanks to Joslyn's keen sense of smell, we were saved! So, when I say, you can't imagine what I need patches for, I mean it! So after being quite strong in my speech of absolutely no lamps in forts and no forts for quite awhile, and me getting the chance to thank Jesus about 20 times for protecting us, for having us all in the basement when the whole thing went down so that we could catch it before real disaster occured, thanking him for the nasty smell fabric puts off when it is MELTING, and then airing out the house of the burnt smell that was extremely nauseating, I cooled down enough to put some creativity into this disaster. I was so upset about my fun little happy blanket being melted! But, it was saved and now has a story to tell. It now has 3 fun patches decorating it.
And now!!!

I make the patches sew on. I have just never been to impressed with the iron on materials out there, they never seem to replace some good old fashion sewing. But the sewing is simple and the product is long lasting.