If you have too many WIPs lying around, there’s hope! Read on for my tips on becoming a finisher.
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Conquer your fear of free motion quilting with the tips and tricks in this video tutorial.
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There is more than one way to make money sewing! Think outside the craft fair box and learn my favorite ways to earn an income with your sewing skills.
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Is quilting an expensive hobby? It doesn’t have to be!
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Last year I scored three boxes full of vintage sewing patterns on Facebook Marketplace for some crazy price, like $10 for the whole lot. I had the best time going through them and picking out what to keep, what was too mouse eaten to touch (ha!) and what to pass along to the next lucky seeker of vintage patterns at a thrift store somewhere.
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Have you ever wandered listlessly into your sewing room and wondered what happened to your sewjo? Or maybe you’ve wanted to sew, but just couldn’t seem to get started, couldn’t even see your cutting surface, or just didn’t have the materials you needed? If that’s ever described you, I have some tips for how to get your sewjo back!
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My teen daughter spotted a pink velvet flower shaped throw pillow in a photo somewhere recently and asked if I could make one for her room. Um, of course I could! I made her a velvet flower pillow AND THEN I went on to design a patchwork version using the fat quarters I’d just received from my Annie’s subscription. I loved how it turned it so much that I went ahead and perfected the pattern piece, filmed a tutorial for YouTube, and added the printable PDF pattern for these cute flower pillows to my shop, so you can learn how to sew a flower pillow too!
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Recently I designed a doll clothes pattern that includes a sun hat and market tote, which I really wanted to try making out burlap. Burlap is a fabric I had never sewn before! So there was some trial and error involved, but by the time I was finished with the pattern, I had written down several tips and tricks for sewing with burlap, so I’m going to share those with you today. I’ll include things like what needle to use, how to finish those raw edges so they don’t unravel, plus the thing I did very WRONG when I first started, ha!
AND, since doll hats and bags hardly take any fabric and I have quite a chunk of nice burlap left over, I set out to find more projects I can make with burlap, so I’ll post those burlap sewing project ideas here too.
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Sewing doesn’t have to be an expensive hobby. Although you can definitely save money on certain types of sewing like home decor, you might find you can’t make your clothes for as cheap as you thought you could. Today I’m going to share some tips for making sewing cost less, so you can feed your sewing hobby, even if you’re on a tight budget!
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Do you keep a sewing binder? I do! A sewing binder can hold all kinds of pattern pieces, tutorial instructions, sewing planner pages, and sewing machine setting notes. I’ve had mine for many years, but I don’t keep in it what you might think! There are some amazingly organized people out there who keep meticulous notes about patterns, future sewing plans, and stitch settings, but I am not those people, ha!
No, my sewing binder doesn’t have any pages of fabric swatches with washing instructions, but it IS a very important part of my sewing room, so I’m going to tell you about it today.
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As you may know, I spent a few years teaching kids sewing camps and classes. In total, I had around 80 children come through my sewing studio and finish countless projects successfully, so it's about time I share some tips with you. If you want to help the kids in your life learn to sew, whether they’re your own children, or you want to start teaching sewing classes, these tips for sewing with kids are for you. I’ll recommend the best sewing machine for kids, tell you what other supplies you’ll need, plus I’ll help you learn to just chill and let them sew, ha!
And, if you’re a parent who does not yet know how to sew, but your kids want to learn, this post will set you up for success so you can start sewing right along with them! If this inspires you and you want even more on this topic, I have another post here with all the content I’ve written about sewing with kids, including lots of project ideas.
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I have gotten asked so many times for advice on buying your first sewing machine that I should probably save my answer in a note or something so I can copy and paste it, ha!
I do have a few solid pieces of advice that I always give when someone is looking to buy their first sewing machine, or which sewing machine to buy for kids or a for a beginner, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to put all that advice here in a blog post.
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