When you want to keep a seamed edge sharp and clean, you understitch the inside piece to the seam allowance so it won’t roll to the outside along the edge seam and look all messy and unprofessional. Learn the steps.
Join us, along with our friends at Janome, as we pull together information, tutorials, and projects to rekindle sewing as a real life survival skill. Now is the time to remember, re-learn, and teach others how to create from scratch.
We’ve alphabetized 20 terms into a mini glossary. If you’re a pro, buzz through and see how many you know. If you’re new, use them as great vocabulary builders as well as to impress your non-sewing friends.
Covered buttons are cool! They add the special touch that says, “Stand back… I’m a home décor professional.” Making them with a kit is easy and inexpensive. We like working with the Dritz kits – available in lots of sizes.
We all love little cheats and hacks! Our popular Cheat Cards cover important, need-to-know sewing tips and/or techniques in a handy business card size: 2” wide x 3½” high. Get the six card set for just $1.99 in our Etsy Shop.
We created a beautiful abstract flower design with a bit of a whimsical feel – perfect to render in the soft texture of a quality wool blend felt. Rendered in striking solids, this appliquéd pillow makes a stunning statement.
One of the signs of a truly well-made project is that it looks nearly as good on the inside as it does on the outside. Finishing a project’s inside raw edges elevates the final appearance and adds to your sewing toolbox.
Create a square pillow with an embroidered peace symbol and a coordinating rectangular pillow with the word PEACE embroidered in a gorgeous floral flourish. Our custom embroidery designs are offered as free file downloads.
Mistakes happen to the best of us. The good news: ripping out a seam and starting over is something we all do all the time. With a little care and patience, it’s an easy fix and no one but you is ever likely to know it happened.
Learn to achieve tip top topstitching and enviable edgestitching. For embellishment or assembly, stitching visible from the right side is an important detail and its precision can make or break the final outcome of your project.
Sometimes the perfect webbing or strapping you’ve selected for a project is simply too darn wide for the D-ring or Swivel Hook you really want/need to use. Try this quick trick to bring your wide webbing down to size.
No matter what kind of sewing you do, sooner or later, you will likely have to sew a dart. To get the perfect contour a dart should provide, follow our professional tips for marking, stitching, and pressing. We review 6 styles.
Ah – decorative stitching… as long as you’re going straight, all is well. Then the corner approaches. If making a turn with a decorative stitch has you puzzled, we’re here to help with several ways to make a turn for the better.
For some reason, button-sewing by hand is stuck in our head as a dreaded, time-consuming task. That need not be true! Read on to learn our favorite, super speedy, five-step process to perfect buttons every time.
It’s a classic way to secure all types of straps and narrow panels: a stitched box with an “X” through the middle. The pattern provides strength and stability, and when done with precision, also adds a pretty detail.
Double the precision in half the time. A twin needle is basically two needles attached to a single shank. One is slightly shorter than the other so your bobbin can catch the thread from both needles. So clever that bobbin!
Rick rack has been at the top of the trim list for nearly 200 years. From elegant lace gowns to prairie pinafores, it’s a trim that’s weathered the test of time, and we have the best tips for adding it to today’s projects.
Start with a simple yet bold fabric, add some distinctive decorative stitching, and you can have a stunning table runner perfect for any holiday gathering or special occasion. Remember, “Life is short; use the good china!”
A straight line seems like the most basic sewing technique. But we’re amazed by the number of comments and questions we get about how to do it better, easier, and more consistently. Using the right foot for the job is the real secret.
For our Featured section, we’ve been focusing on projects that can use smaller pieces from your fabric stash. This lumbar pillow uses skinny cuts to create pretty strip patchwork. Wavy line free-motion quilting finishes the front.
Be ready for any small sewing emergency with a travel-size sewing kit that contains just what you need for a quick disaster fix – even a built-in pincushion kitty. Be prepared AND be adorable.
Whatever the task, a bit of hand stitching usually comes in… well, “handy.” We’ve outlined the tools needed along with seven of the most common stitches. Simple drawings and steps show how to do each one.
When you want a pocket’s motif to precisely blend with the panel on which it sits, all you need is a little extra fabric, some tissue paper, and those tracing skills you learned back in kindergarten. We show you how.
Definitely a Sewing Survival Skill! With the right presser feet and accessories, an understanding of seam grading, and the patience to go slowly and carefully, you can sew like a pro through thick and thin.
We all make mistakes, but many errors can be avoided with proper planning, attention to detail, and the wisdom to slow down. Take the time to consider the best practices that will provide the best results.
That giant display of bias tapes and bindings can be overwhelming. Single fold, double fold, blanket, quilt. Geeze! What’s what and why? The S4H Sizing ID Chart gives the basic facts about the six most common types of bindings.
If you’ve ever tried to work with fabric cuts are that are not straight and true, you know why it’s so important to square-up your fabric. Find our easy folding, aligning, and cutting tips plus ruler recommendations.
Most projects require at least some hand stitching. Often, it’s the final seam closure after turning a project right side out. A Slip or Ladder Stitch creates an invisible seam between two folded edges, or a folded edge and a flat edge.
Learn contortion pleating, which involves twisting the gauze into a bound bundle then drying it in a conventional dryer or a microwave prior to final air drying. Learn to crinkle, then learn to make this gorgeous tasseled scarf.
We’re here help with the steps you’ve forgotten since high school geometry: parts of a circle, how wide to cut fabric to fit a circle, how to draw a circle without a pattern, and how to convert decimals to inches to work with Pi.
Truly the Art of Thread; this pillow combines dense decorative stitching with machine embroidery accents and cool corner tassels. A décor or upholstery weight fabric gives the proper stability – a dark, solid makes the stitching pop.
