Prom and wedding season is upon us, which is always a great time to pull out the specialty fabrics for garments as well as home dรฉcor items. However, working with these fabrics does require a little special handling; they aren't always as user-friendly as good ol' cotton. We picked four of the most common categories:
Donโt laugh. This printable in our Cheat Card series is based on one of our most popular articles. Really! If youโve been sewing forever, and work with fractions every day, it may seem crazy to you that someone wouldnโt know how to read a measuring tape. But if you step back for a moment, and
Broken zipper = broken heart! Itโs a major frustration because it means something either wonโt close or wonโt open. The most common element to fail is the zipper slider; this can also be the easier part to replace.
For more basic Janome sewing machines (5mm and 7mm), this a fun, easy way to add little decorative stitch touches in pretty thread colors!ย Be the flower girl of the sewing accessory world, sprinkling pretty posies over any project.
Today’s machines can zip along at up to 1000 stitches per minute; you can see how a little length goes a long way. The shorter the stitches, the tighter the seam. The longer the stitches, the looser the seam.
We are very proud to once again be featured in the Handmade for the Home Kitchen column of Where Women Cook! We designed a brand new apron expressly for their readers. Tough canvas on the front with pretty cotton accents on the back, this classic cookโs apron has the style and substance to be at
Natural fabrics are amazing and beautiful. But sometimesโฆ you need an option that has a few more โsuper powersโ to help it perform in non-traditional situations. This is the first of a series of projects weโve developed using Oly*Funโข from Fairfield World. The fibers of this woven synthetic have been fused to create a flexible,
What’s the one thing you should do to keep your sewing machine running smoothly? Clean out the lint! It’s an unavoidable by-product of sewing but shouldnโt be ignored. Regular cleaning helps maintain smooth stitching.
Iย know I should be able to do math in my head; I also know I should eat more fruits and vegetables and actually use my gym membership. I could continue to pretend all these things are going to happen, orโฆ I could find some little workarounds. Our Cheat Card is a handy reference table that
Want to make the beautiful bag above? Then you’ll need some yo-yos: a small, ruched rosette. The easiest way to make them is with a yo-yo maker. We love these Clover options that come in a variety of sizes.
Here's a fast and fabulous Valentine's gift idea everyone will love, because it includes both adorable fabric and yummy candy. We created a cellophane bag topper from small fabric squares, stitched on a personalized message of love, and sealed it with a secret quick-release basting stitch. When it's finished its job as a bag topper,
Snaps are one of our favorite closures. They're small yet sturdy, like a cute little Corgi dog. But there's not always a lot of variety from which to choose. You can usually find nickel or brass, and the Western favorite: pretty pearl head snaps, every once in awhile, maybe a rhinestone alternative. But that's where
Buttons are among the most basic methods of fastening one thing to another. They also make a pretty embellishment all on their own. We love them lotsโฆ until they come off. And, they almost always come off, especially from store-bought items, which often seem to be sewn with some kind ofย โquick release thread.โ If
We’ve pulled together our top ten articles that show a variety of ways you can keep things closed.ย Locks, snaps, zips, buttons, and more. If you need closure, we have some great ideas. Let us know which are your favorites.
Cute accessories that finish in a flash. Stretchy elastic and rhinestone sliders add instant sparkle and color to wrists and hairstyles. Combine gorgeous ribbon and webbing with a slide buckle set to blast out a colorful belt.
Your project instructions call for two yards of 60" wide fabric, but the fabric you want to use is 45" wide. Hmmm... attempting to dredge up that old math lesson in proportions is probably not going to happen on the fly. Instead, print out our handy conversion chart for those times you don't have a
Learn this simple yet elegant napkin fold. Fill the cornucopia with fresh flowers or greens; a small gift; candy, nuts, and fruits; or whatever strikes your fancy. It’s a lovely way to finish your holiday table setting.
Accurate pressing is one of the most important parts of the construction process. Having a tool that holds precise, narrow folds and clean angles is critical. And, if that tool allows you to do that without your fingers getting dangerously close to the iron, itโs a must-have in our book! One of our favorite pressing
If youโre brand new to sewing, youโre probably also brand new to figuring out all the parts of a sewing machine. We review the basics, from unpacking, to setting up, to the names of the most common parts, to threading and testing.
This Janome accessory allows you to stitch directly on ribbon up to 1″ wide, so you can personalize the color and design of ribbon accents to create a super unique look. Decorative stitching on grosgrain ribbon is especially cute.
In our quest to continue bringing you the information youโre searching for, weโve been partnering with some of our pals in the sewing community to provide guest features on garment sewing. This is an area we donโt currently focus on at Sew4Home but for which we get a lot of inquiries. Itโs not that we
Garment sewing is not necessarily one of our focuses here at S4H, so we turned to expert, Carla Crim for some pattern-making secrets. We found her techniques fascinating, and it certainly inspired us to give it a try.
Hopefully, you're reading this article for one of two reasons. Either you know a teen who really wants to start sewing, or you know one you'd like to inspire to start sewing. In both cases, you can help them on their way with a little guidance. In this day and age, when young adults seem
A quilter extraordinaire, our friend Kim Niedzwiecki (aka Go-Go Kim) recently entered the world of garment sewing. Sheโs alive to tell the tale, and offers up her experiences, pearls of wisdom, and encouragement for you to do the same.
Tufting are those depressions made at regular intervals in a cushion by passing a thread through and pulling it taut. Simple, right? It can be. Start with the right tools and make sure you measure and mark with precision.
Thermal fabrics are the added layer in projects designed to keep hot stuff hot and cold stuff cold, such as oven mitts, lunch bags, shopping totes, etc. We take a look at options for thermal batting, fabric, and interfacing.
We are thrilled and pretty dang proud to be featured in the Handmade for the Home Kitchen column of the Summer 2016 issue of Where Women Cook! Yes, you read that correctly: Cook. Not necessarily what youโre used to seeing here at the site, right?! But this beautiful magazine is a sister publication from our
Often, the most exciting notions look rather nondescript inside their cardboard boxes and cellophane wrappers. Our goal with the Products We Love series is to break open the packaging, show you how to use these cool tools, and inspire you to add one or more to your own sewing basket.ย Theย Clover Hot Hemmerย is one of the
New project โ new needle! Itโs an important part of the process because a good needle in your sewing room is like a good knife in your kitchen. Learn the basics about sizes, styles, types, even the anatomy of a needle.
Creating beautiful handmade projects is what we all love to do. However, we probably donโt put in quite as much effort thinking about how to keep them looking beautiful. So we spent some time with our clever friends at Dritzย to explore their Clothing Care category, coming away with nine products that help smooth, dry, repair,
Ribbons and bowsโฆ is there anything happier?! Our friends at The Ribbon Retreat put together this fun Guest Tutorial showing you how to make bright and colorful bow tie bows in several styles, layers, and colors.
When you walk into a fabric store, you'll notice most fabric is wrapped around cardboard bolts that stand upright on shelves or racks. What you may not notice is that at the end each bolt is a label that provides important information about the fabric. If you want 100% cotton, read the label so you
One of things we are asked about on a regular basis is sergers. For many people, even seasoned sewers, they are equal parts tantalizing and terrifying. They can do so many cool things at once: seam, trim, and finish โ all at lightning speed. But to make it happen, there are a lot of threads
Using your sewing machine to join paper and fabric is surprisingly easy. If you’ve never tried it yourself, this is a great first project: not too complicated, yet still a very pretty way to send a special Valentine greeting.
It gives a fabulous softness to a wide variety of projects, from toys to pillows to blankets and more. Although not difficult to sew with, to create the very best results, it helps to have a few tips and tricks under your belt.
The technique is just as the name implies: the vast majority of the project, both sewing and embroidery, is done within an embroidery hoop. The elegant result is similar in rich color and complexity to a fine Jacquard ribbon.
Little pieces of fabric sewn together. That's truly quilting at its most basic, but it's just about as crazy as describing cooking as: tasty bits of food mixed together. The creativity (and the love) is in the who, what, when, where, and why of how it all happens. Our Quilting Basics series is designed to
We worked with our friends at Coats to put together a handy overview that can help you understand not only the standard thread choices, but some of the specialty options as well.ย Itโs part science and part art.
The Artistic Edge Digital Cutter makes it easy to get creative with your sewing projects in ways that simply weren't possible before. If you look just at what it does in appliquรฉ โ one of its many capabilities โ you're going to think of dozens... maybe hundreds of ways to use it. That's not an
How fabric is woven is important; fabric that is off-grain when youโre cutting can cause the completed project to stretch out of shape. Get a better understanding of how to identify fabric grain and tips on how to straighten it.
So many choices! This article helps you sort out the most common interfacing options for bags and totes. You’ll like the printable chart we developed. Post one copy in your sewing room and use another when you shop.
Most of the time, sewing is all about soft things, from beautiful fabrics to cushy pillow inserts. However, every so often, something hard comes along. It's not there to torment you; it's a way to inject an interesting new texture into the mix. We're here with a few tips to make working with these trims