If you’ve been sewing for awhile and don’t already own a serger, you may have wondered, “what the heck is a serger and do I really need one?” Also known as an overlocker, a serger is a special sewing machine that finishes raw edges of fabric neatly, to put it very basically. A serger is a great companion to a regular sewing machine, but it’s definitely not necessary for everyone and is more useful for certain genres of sewing than for others. Can you sew pretty much anything without a serger? Yes, you absolutely can! But there are some great reasons to add a serger to your sewing table, which I’m here share with you today.
Read MoreWhen my daughter Layla was a baby, she was the cutest little thumb sucker you ever did see! She would find the one tag on any of her blankets and rub it while sucking her thumb and it was the sweetest thing. I wanted to make her a blanket with lots of ribbon tags for her to play with and that’s how this little project started.
Today, enjoy this video tutorial for how to sew a ribbon tag baby blanket, where I’ll show you how to make a basic flannel baby blanket, step by step, with tags of cute ribbons all the way around it, sure to delight the little ones. I’ve made countless ribbon tag baby blankets over the years now because they make the best handmade baby shower gifts!
Read MoreI made you something! I was wanting some fun artwork for my sewing room, and while I was thinking about it, I also really wanted to create a freebie for you all, my readers, to show my appreciation for each one of you who reads, watches, or shops with me here at Pin Cut Sew Studio! So, I made you a little something, a piece of free, printable sewing wall art for you to download and print at home, or send to a print shop. I hope you like it!
Read MoreAre you a tote bag person? I have a small collection of tote bags that I use for various types of outings and purposes, as I think everyone should! i’m not a hoarder or keeper of many things (we move too much for that), so the tote bags I keep are absolute favorites and get heavy use. My best bags are handmade and have lasted for years now. So, I have a few absolute favorite tote bag sewing patterns to share with you today!
Tote bags are very fun to sew and can be easy or skill building (I like that term better than complicated, ha!) The tote bag patterns I’m sharing today vary in difficulty from easy to somewhat advanced, so there’s something here for everyone. I’ll share my top three recommendations for tote bag sewing patterns that I have made and love, and then I’ll share a few more that are on my wishlist. Bags make such great handmade gifts too, so my bag patterns tend to get a lot of use!
Read MoreWhenever my kids ask me what they can give me for a gift, I say handmade bookmarks; partly because I know their budget is nonexistent, haha, and partly because I really neeeeed bookmarks. As both a reader and a homeschool mom, there are books all overt the place, so bookmarks are a great gift for anyone, really. There are so many great DIY bookmark ideas, but I just love to make these little quilted ones!
These fabric bookmarks are very simple and can be made with scraps. They’re so easy to personalize with different fabrics for everyone in your life, and you can sew up a big batch of them in an evening. Below, you’ll find the bookmark sewing tutorial in two forms —- a video tutorial, as well as written instructions with photos.
Read MoreSewing an entire quilt can be intimidating, especially for a beginner who’s just getting their feet wet! The good news is, quilting on a small project involves the same quilting processes as making a big quilt. The cutting, piecing, top stitching and the binding go together the same way on small quilt projects as they do on a big quilt. You can learn to quilt on small projects, just as easily as you can on big ones.
Maybe you have the itch to quilt something, but don’t have the time, the money, or the fabric stash to make an entire quilt, or maybe you just want to sew something up in an evening or a weekend. This list of small quilting projects is for you! Here are easy, beginner quilting projects that aren’t big quilts!
Read MoreI’m about to confess one of my worst mom fails to you.
I still feel super bad about this, y’all. When my girls were younger, we had a big bin of Barbies, clothes and Barbie house furniture for the DIY Barbie house I’d made them (which I’ll share at the end of this post). About four years ago, when my daughter Layla was cleaning out her room, the bin got put in the living room … among a lot of other bags and bins that were destined for Goodwill. You can guess what happened next. Except we didn’t realize it had happened until a month or so later when she was asking where I’d put the Barbie stuff. We looked everywhere, even though I knew in my soul it was gone, because I’m not much of a keeper so we don’t just have bins hanging around in places and I knew I hadn’t seen it. I remembered telling my husband which things were to go to Goodwill and the Barbie bin must have gotten swept up in the process.
Read MoreThis is one of those sewing skills that took some real trial and error before I felt confident enough that I’d get it right every time. I did conquer the knit neckband, though, and I have a tried and true method that now works perfectly, so I’m here to share it with you today!
If you never quite know how to finish necklines and armholes of knits (that just means stretchy fabrics), this is a great solution for almost any knit fabric. There are of course other methods and I have a favorite way to “bind” the neckline of certain knit garments, but most of the time, especially for more casual clothes, I prefer a neck “band”.
Read MoreI’m here with an ultimate sewing lover’s gift guide for you, with gifts for any and every budget. I’ll start with the small, inexpensive sewing tools, include some fun Etsy sewing related gifty finds, move on to a list of great sewing books, and then finish up with some big ticket items that I’ve thoroughly researched and feel good about recommending. For more ideas, check out the Pin, Cut, Sew Amazon Storefront, which I keep updated with all my favorite tried and true sewing items, plus some that I have on my wishlist (maybe I should send this post to my husband as a hint-hint, ha!)
Read MoreBoy, do I have a good before and after for you today! If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve already seen this, but I’m so proud of it so obviously I have to share it here too.
My 16-year-old daughter Natalie got to go to homeschool prom! She was so excited for the opportunity, since she’s such a social butterfly and a total life-of-the-party type. A group of teens from church all went together and had the BEST time.
But, we had trouble finding a dress. We don’t live in a very upscale town and our shopping options are limited. Natalie recently got a job, is in driving school, and dances ballet 8 hours a week, so time to drive into Charlotte to shop was not presenting itself. We decided to go ahead and order a couple things from Amazon as a just-in-case backup plan. It turns out we didn’t need to go shopping because one of them fit her perfectly!
Read MoreI’m a part of a few sewing groups online and the thing I see people avoiding most when it comes to sewing skills is buttons and buttonholes. As for the latter, many sewists avoid them because they’re genuinely afraid of them, and while I have a longer post in the works about how to overcome your fears and start sewing buttonholes like a pro, that’s not what I’m going to talk about today. Today I’m going to spill a secret about sewing on the buttons themselves.
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