A note from Lezette Thomason, Children's Corner patterns:

Once again my sister and I are chairmen of our Christmas Bazaar at St. David's Episcopal Church in Nashville. One item that I am making this year are Bags for Baking Potatoes. I drew a little design, scanned it into my BERNINA DesignerPlus Software, and Presto!! I digitized it! So easy! Then using the Lettering tool wrote "Potato Girl" beneath the design. Hope you enjoy it!

Click HERE for the free ART and EXP+ embroidery designs.

Click HERE for the project instructions.

A note from Nancy's daughter, Sarah:

One of my best friends from college is getting married in a few weeks, and as her freshman roommate I was of course invited to all of the wedding festivities. I soon found myself a few days before her bachelorette party sans gift. The bride-to-be is a very fun, creative girl who loves do-it-yourself projects, so I knew that she would love something handmade. The only problem with my idea was the time crunch that I was under. I called another friend who would be going to her bachelorette party for some gift ideas. She mentioned that she was looking for a place to have a tote bag embroidered with our friend's new initials.

I immediately knew that I could give a similar gift for a fraction of the price...with the help of my mom's stellar BERNINA 830. So I went to Kohl's and found an inexpensive long-sleeved white cotton hooded sweatshirt to embroider on. I really liked the idea of including the bride's new initials as well as her new name on the sweatshirt. I have seen many bridal gifts that have included a personal touch like this, such as jewelrey bags or sweats that have included the bride or bridesmaids' names. I still wanted the gift to be something that she could wear while getting ready on her wedding day or while lounging around on her honeymoon.

I chose shades of blue and silver to use on my mom's BERNINA 830 and we hooped up the hoodie and got to work. We were able to play with the lettering and design on the lower back of the sweatshirt so that the size and orientation were correct. I probably drove my mom crazy by constantly changing my mind on what I wanted or where it should go, but we got it done. I ended up stitching her new last name across the lower back of the sweatshirt (a very popular spot on other garments I have seen in stores) and then the initials on the front panel. The designs took under ten minutes to sew and the automatic needle-threader made changing thread colors a joy. All-in-all the project took about thirty minutes.

When gifts were opened the night of the party I was happy that I didn't go with my initial thought of a spa gift certificate, as she received five of those. When she pulled my gift from the bag she immediately saw the embroidery on the front and then the rest of the room squealed when they saw her new name on the back. I really think that she liked the gift and it will be something useful as well as meaningful for her to throw over her shoulders on a chilly night in Italy while on her honeymoon.

Note: The initials on the front were selected from the sewing machine's monogram stitches, then taken into embroidery and overlapped to create a unique monogram. The alphabet on the back is Anniversay, and the design is from the built-in Susanne Mueller design collection. 

I've been wrapping holiday gifts, and - as always - have a few odd-shaped items that just don't wrap easily in paper. What to do? Raid my stash for small boxes and leftover ribbons so I can make embellished containers like this Special Occasion Box by Melody Crust. Use embroidery or fabric flowers to adorn the box lid, or gather some holiday decorations and greenery together to create a mini floral arrangement. Out of ribbon? I serge long strips of fabric along both edges to creat my own!

For larger items a simple solution is to make fabric gift bags, like this embroidered wine bottle bag from www.embroideryonline.com. This also makes a nice gift sack for a collection of small items in an empty Pringles container - cover the can with fabric or paper, fill, recap, insert into bag, tie to seal. You can embellish your bags with embroidery or decorative stitching and/or use a seasonal fabrics. Not only do both of these items make a nice gift presentation, but they're recyclable as well. I have some that I rescue from the recipients after the holidays, then pack away to use again the next year - our own little holiday tradition!