Turn a LBD into your own personal fashion statement with the perfect holiday accessory: a stretchy velveteen belt adorned with a petal soft flower. Heading out to dinner…
Pile on the bracelets for spring! This soft cuff bracelet is easy, fast and inexpensive to make… especially when compared to the cost of similar styles in trendy…
When a box of faux leather arrived from Fabric.com, it ended up sitting on the floor next to a paper shredder. I had to wonder: do these two…
A plain cotton sheet set at a department store might cost $25-$30. But add a line of decorative stitching along the turn-down edge, and it looks like the $99+ set that came out of a fancy catalog. Maybe you don't care for fancy sheets in catalogs – but the point is: a little decorative stitching
These tiny clips are so handy for holding hair in place. They’re lightweight, inexpensive and available everywhere. On the other hand, embellished hair accessories are pricey, so why…
Ah, sheer fabrics. There's nothing like them for that light, airy look when you want simplicity with elegance. But many sewers avoid using them because you can't sew with them quite as easily as you can regular fabric. Yes, it takes some care and patience, but there's really no reason to fear the sheer. You
The contest for the kit ended 10/7/11. Even if you didn’t win, you can still make the cover with Bari J’s terrific tutorial… Yay! Bari J. is back…
Fifth in our Travel Accessories series, and weighing in at a mere 1½ ounces, this whisper light voile laundry bag is ideal for travel, taking up virtually no…
Just ONE seam is all the sewing required to make a Cattail Catnip Toy. Fill with catnip and tie into segments. Your kitty will lick it and pummel it with rapid-fire kicks in appreciation. Not every cat is into catnip, and kittens ignore it; but in a lifetime of living with cats, I've never had one who didn't
Spring is the best time to empty our closets of clothing we’ll never (or shouldn’t) wear again. Some of it can be donated or even sold, but what…
He’s a long-lasting alternative to his candy kin. A sugar-free, huggable rabbit is a fun addition to any Easter basket. Plus, no more dilemma over whether to eat the ears or tail first! A super beginner-friendly stuffable!
When you have small children at home, your most common question isn’t, “How do I make that?” – It’s, “How do I make that with a two-year-old and…
The Skinny Scarf. It’s the season’s must-have accessory. Bright and cheery, this scarf is perfect for using up small fabric scraps. Fight the winter blahs with some color around your…
Roller Foot. It sounds like it could be a malady common to professional skaters. (It may be for all we know.) But the Roller Foot is a presser…
Spoonflower allows you… yes YOU… to design your own custom-printed fabric. How enticing is that! As a designer myself, I’m almost afraid to try my hand at textile…
Kick off the birthday festivities by printing your own birthday invitations and thank you cards using our free PDF files. Download, print, trim, fill in the details and…
If you ask traditional quilters about quilt finishing or quilting (finishing is the fancy term for creating stitches all over the quilt top to keep the layers together),…
We’ve had quite a few requests for more quilts and have a number of them planned in the coming weeks. Today’s uses Fig Tree’s nostalgic Whimsy fabric collection…
When I was first introduced to outdoor sewing, I have to admit I wasn’t very enthusiastic about it. (And, no, I didn’t think it meant taking my sewing…
How many sewing rulers should you own? If you had asked me that when I first started sewing, I might have answered, “I dunno… maybe three.” After you…
Fasteners are generally not the most glamorous notions on your list, but they are very hard workers and necessary to many projects. Sometimes you just need a functional…
After covering this plain mat with a scrap of the stunning French General Rounneries Oiseaux Bird Roche fabric used in our French Desk Set, we gave it a…
Add a romantic touch to hair accessories, pillows, or as a pin on a sweater or jacket. You could even fill a bowl with these flowers as a gorgeous centerpiece. They’re super easy and take just tiny scraps of fancy fabric.
It’s only taken the Pendleton Company 100 years to become an overnight success. Recently ELLE Decor magazine chose Pendleton blankets as a ‘What’s Hot’ item. Designer Humberto Leon…
A design composed of one or more letters, typically the initials of a name, used as an identifying mark. Often embroidered on fabric to personalize articles of clothing…
I have to give credit for these cute wraps to my mother. She was the original recycler. She saved every little scrap of fabric, every button, every too-short…
Yesterday, I created the Valentine card that coordinates with this envelope. While the envelope looks a bit complex, it’s really not difficult to make. In fact, it took…
Create a pretty fabric mat for an inexpensive frame and turn a favorite photo into a showpiece. We patchworked eight squares from a charm pack, and added some…
A little bird chirps a heartfelt message to someone special. These sweet vase wraps turn fabric scraps into your personal message board. Tweet it as we did, or…
Upscale a plain cylinder vase into a sweet Valentine gift by using a few squares from a charm pack. These vase wraps are easy and quick to make.…
Patchwork or “pieced work” involves sewing together pieces of fabric into a larger design.
A white tablecloth floats silently onto the antique rosewood dining table like a wintery blanket of freshly fallen snow. Topped with sparking china, spotless crystal and polished sterling,…
It’s a good idea to keep your sewing machine covered when not in use. A cover helps protect the machine’s moving parts from dust and debris, and it…
Rather than a napkin ring, add a little seasonal splash to your napkins with a few simple folds and some inexpensive trimmings. These six festive napkins are all fast and easy to assemble, and they’ll fill your table with good cheer.
Welcome your guests to their seats with a stylish place card and a little surprise. These favor bags are so easy and quick to make; it took…
The distance between the beginning of one complete motif, and the beginning of the next one. It can be horizontal or vertical.
Once you discover the rotary cutter, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it. Seriously, this thing is like the sliced bread of sewing. I suppose, if push…
Once upon a time, a handmade baby gift was the norm; from crocheted booties to blankets and quilts. These charming gifts were often passed along from one generation…
In college, I once push-pinned a sheet over my apartment’s bedroom window and held it open when needed with a binder clip from my economics notebook. At the…
A charm pack is most frequently one 5″ x 5″ square of each fabric from a specific fabric collection, so the number of squares in a pack varies.…
A beautifully set holiday table needn’t be expensive. Our simple Citrus Holiday table is proof. We used fresh citrus fruits: lemons, limes, key limes, oranges, grapefruit, and clementines.…