Many places are celebrating Mother’s Day in May! Make Retro Dress Garland fit for a Queen. I originally made these garlands to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee, but they make a lovely Mother’s Day decoration too. And shouldn’t our mum’s be Queen for a Day?! Here are the Mother’s Day garlands. It’s the same idea just …
Using fleece Fleece is the perfect material for this project because fleece doesn’t unravel. It comes is so many gorgeous colours and it’s washable. Always a great feature. To make these cute bunnies, first find a simple bunny pattern, I just Googled it. Cut out the bunny shape and trace it onto fleece scraps. …
Looking for a gift for book lovers? Book Sleeves are one of my favourite projects. They’re so much fun to personalise for people who love books! Here’s the perfect cover for a book sleeve – a tall Tales Book Block by Kate Basti. Inspiration There are lots of good Book Sleeve tutorials out there. Jessica …
I do have a soft spot for Valentines Day. Maybe it’s the colours and maybe it’s just a great excuse to spread some love around. I like to go beyond romantic relationships and include family and friends, sewing buddies, co-workers, teachers, even the post mistress! Valentine fabric envelopes are one way to show gratefulness to …
One of my favourite things about holidays is that they come around every year! So things that I didn’t get to do one year, I can find time for the next. And things that I did make last year, I can enjoy this year all over again. Last year we posted this Sew Sustainable Santa …
Hi. Martha here. I’ve been stitching some more festive Christmas napkins! There are NEW Rifle Paper Company Christmas fabrics this year. Our family is growing as our grown up kids keep bringing more and more people home for Christmas! We can always use more napkins. And I was desperate to add them to my collection. …
Emily at Brick Dust and Glitter found this great gift wrap idea on Pinterest. It’s a no-sew gift wrap that uses fabric you already have! Take a look at the simplest, prettiest, reusable wrapping! All you need is some fabric. You can raid your stash or use a silky scarf or up-cycle an old shirt …
Once you’ve made the Santa Sacks, what do you put in the bag? We asked the elf! This follow-up post to our Sew Sustainable Santa Sacks is full of Santa Sack filler ideas. So you’ll have lots of little things to put in the bag. Because we had lots of kids in our family, 6 …
Send a hug through the post with these straight-line quilted Christmas postcards. This straight-line quilting technique is super satisfying. And it doesn’t need special equipment. Anybody can stitch these Christmas postcards on their regular sewing machine. What you need First find some festive fabrics I’ve got a lovely selection of Christmas fabrics in my stash. …
Monster Knees mending is one of my favourite forms of visible mending. Knees often seem to be the first part of a pair of trousers that need mending. My kids could get rips in the knees the very first time they put them on! Monster Knees mending transforms the hole into a monster mouth, that …
Celebrate Halloween with our Window Pumpkins. This post from our archives is a super sewing project for kids. Perfect for Half Term. Hang them in a window and the sun shines through so they look like they’re glowing. Halloween window pumpkins look great on a lampshade too. This is a great chance for your children …
Upcycling vintage tablecloths are all the rage, especially with the latest episode of The Great British Sewing Bee. Jen’s upcycled vintage tablecloth top is still my favourite. A semi-finalist in GBSB series 5, Jen used a hand-embroidered vintage Scottish tablecloth and added cloth covered buttons in Nuno fabric to celebrate the opening of a Japan …
Whether it’s back to School or off to Uni, September is a month of new beginnings. Lots of us have been busy getting our kids settled in new digs. Creating cushion covers is a great way to make the Student Flat just a bit more homely. Top floor Student flat As we pulled up to …
Now that it’s back to school time, I am enjoying using pretty scraps of fabric to make some pretty back to school hair accessories for my daughter on the Juki MO 2000 overlocker. The rolled hem feature on the Juki MO2000 overlocker I really have fallen in love with the JUKI MO2000 Overlocker and seem …
It’s school time again. I get nostalgic when September rolls around and wanted to celebrate with a re-useable back-to-school lunch bag. So here’s a back-to-school Lunch Bag tutorial. The fun thing about this lunch bag is that it’s upcycled from a Tesco shopping bag. You know, those bags by the check out for when you …
We’re big fans of Tabara’s Rope Bags. We discovered them in her book Baskets by Tabara N’Diaye. You can read Emily’s post all about it. There was something so satisfying about making the first bags that we wanted to make more, this time with some variations. After a nice chat on Instagram, Tabara sent me …
There’s no place like home! And while all the rain is keeping us out of our gardens, it might be fun to tackle some sewing machine maintenance to keep our sewing machines in good running order. Let’s begin with some general sewing machine maintenance that applies to most machines. There are two equal and opposite …
Did you know that Scandinavian countries will be celebrating St Lucia’s Day next Tuesday? St Lucia’s Day is a Swedish Festival of Light celebrated on December 13th. In the old Julian calendar December 13th was the date of the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. Lucia or Lucy means light. Although it’s a …
Recently, I watched the Disney movie Moana and decided to transform the primitive wave motif that appears in the movie title, into a free motion quilting line design. I like to call it making Moana waves. Regrettably, I missed Moana the first time around. Our kids had passed their Disney princess stage when Moana came …
Marie Lawlor shares about her make of the ever-so-popular McCalls 7969 dress. Happily, a favourite fabric finally found the perfect pattern. The Pattern This McCalls pattern has been a sewing community cult favourite for over 2 years now, and I can finally understand why! I will admit, that when I first saw it, M7969 wasn’t …
Mercedes has a knack for Nickers! You can visit Mercedes and lots of other sewing celeb’s in Birmingham this month at Sewing for Pleasure. Juki is hosting a series of Sewing Celeb Workshops. Mercedes is offering workshops on her Fold Over Elastic techniques on Saturday and Sunday at 3:15. Making Knickers with Mercedes will help …
Meet Ellie Bannerman. We discovered Ellie on the @the.seam.uk – a cool site that helps people find sewists in their area who upcycle and do alterations. When I noticed that Ellie was using a Juki overlocker, I asked her if she would share about what she does. Here’s what she said. Starting out Ever since …
The Fabric Sewing with crinkle silk chiffon is possibly the most challenging substrate I have sewn with to date. I am the kind of person who can become bogged down in minor details, talk myself in circles and procrastinate on a seemingly difficult (or new) task. I was extremely lucky to have the opportunity to …
Here’s a tutorial for some fast and fun Baby Bunting. I love decorating with bunting and I’m always looking for new ways to make it. I needed to make some tiny bunting flags to go in a camper van that I was kitting out for our neighbours. But tiny pieces can be fussy to work …
Celebrate Easter with homemade Easter Bunny Bunting made from your favourite fabrics. I’ve got a soft spot for bunting. It’s an easy way to mark any occasion. And best of all you get to re-use it over again every year. What you’ll need I used favourite fabrics from my stash. All the other stuff is …
Here’s a fast and fun Easter Egg Garland project that let’s you showcase your favourite fabrics. The great thing about fabric garland or bunting is that you get to use it year after year. Even better, you can rearrange this kind of garland or add more to it later. The challenge was figuring out how …
Did you know that you can use tulle netting to raw edge applique? I’ve been loving Raw Edge Applique for the past few years. I enjoy how fast and easy it is to make a pop of colour! Usually, raw edge applique is done sitting down at the sewing machine. But this tutorial is different. …
