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 …
Make Retro Dress Garland fit for a Queen. Our village is planning a big Jubilee celebration and we’ll be including this Retro Dress Garland with all the other Bunting we’re using. I’ve put together three versions. One with pretty vintage style dresses, one in classic red, white & blue and another Platinum Jubilee style garland …
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 …
I saw some book sleeves on Instagram and decided to give it a try. So I looked around for some tutorials and made a book sleeve. I loved it! And I wanted to make more. So I rummaged through my leftovers and UFO’s to make some personalized book sleeves for the gals in my book …
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 ideas for Santa Sack fillers. So you’ll have lots of little things to put in the bag. Because we had lots of kids in our family, …
Did you know that Scandinavian countries will be celebrating St Lucia’s Day on Monday? 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. The Legend Legend …
Happy St Nicholas Day! In real life Saint Nicholas was a 4th century bishop in what we now call Turkey. Legends grew up around him about his kindness to maidens, children and sailors. By the Renaissance he had become the most popular saint in Europe. Dutch settlers brought Sinter Klauss to the American colonies. When …
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 festive fabrics fleece or wadding pretty thread + 100/16 Topstitch needle ribbons or rickrack printed postcards …
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 …
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 …
Celebrate Halloween with our Window Pumpkins. It’s 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 to have some supervised sewing …
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 …
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 …
This May we saw the opening of a new Japanese sustainability and textiles exhibition, Making Nuno, at Japan House, London. It features innovative fabrics by Sudo Reiko, one of Japan’s foremost textile designers who combines Japanese traditions with new engineering techniques and unusual combinations of materials including silk, handmade paper, nylon tape and thermoplastics. The …
Let’s begin with some general sewing machine maintenance that applies to most machines. There are two equal and opposite errors. One is never to clean, oil or change the needle on your machine. The other is to be too rough or to go too far. There is basic maintenance that we can do at home. …
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 …
We’re re-posting Jen Hogg’s wee Bunnies for Mini Stitchers. It’s a fun Spring project for sewing with the kids. Jen’s bunny recipe calls for felt and hand stitching. Further down the post, Martha offers a mostly machine stitched version using fleece. Using felt This bunny is made from scraps of felt, and is hand-stitched with …
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. …
I love making fabric postcards! I’ve been making them for years. It’s fun to send and receive postcards during the Valentine season. Here’s a post from the archives about a fabric postcard swap, hosted by Kate Brown @sparklestash. During a swap people get to make and receive fabric postcards from all over the world. During …
