Add a graceful floral touch to pillow covers, linens, garments, and more. This free embroidery collection includes six different designs, each in two size formats. Cross stitch cloth was a perfect base fabric for the delicate designs.
When shopping recently for some pretty plants, we noticed most garden centers offered their inventory in round plastic pots… rather unattractive round plastic pots. Time for a S4H solution! Each of our small, medium, and large cuffed fabric baskets are designed to cover a standard plastic pot sitting on a drainage saucer. No need to
Learn how to create this unique edge finish with a padded satin stitch. It’s an easy technique that works especially well on the bias edges of scallops. The result is smooth, stable, and beautiful. We show both napkins + placemats.
If the mention of “scallops” has you dreaming of a tasty seafood dinner, you’re in for another type of treat. Our scallops run around the perimeter of a placemat and are finished with a padded satin stitch. There’s also a companion project available to create matching napkins. Make one or make both. The
In cooking, sometimes it takes just a pinch of this and a dash of that to bring a dish to its full flavor. It’s similar in sewing, where a splash of embellishment can be the finishing touch to make your project shine. For this classic single-layer apron, we used the Janome 3-Way Cording foot to
Finishing at just 7½” high, this scaled-down stocking is an ideal addition to your holiday decorating. Use it as table décor, a napkin + utensil holder, an elegant place card or to adorn a gift box. It’s a real stocking, which makes it easy to slip a few trinkets, sprigs or blossoms into the open
It’s the call of the wild! This adorable lumbar pillow pair features a Gregarious Gator and an Amiable Elephant. You’ll find all the steps for three different appliqué techniques: outline and stitch, raw edge, and reverse.
Applying initials to something to identify it as undeniably yours dates back as far as the signet rings of the ancient Romans. Although often pictorial in nature that long ago, featuring crests and coats of arms, engraved initials were also common, and as time wore on, actually became the more typical mark. We’ve all watched
Whatever you’re sewing, there are a lot of seams, edges, and layers happening in the background. If they haven’t been properly pressed along the way, your finished item will never have the crisp, smooth appearance that marks it as a professional looking project. What’s the difference between pressing and ironing? They are often used interchangeably
These bright + fanciful designs can add a splash of freshness to linens, garments, and more. Pick a Grapefruit, Papaya, Pineapple, Watermelon or Grapes. Use one or collect them all as a set. Free downloads in 8 formats.
We took a classic, box-style zippered case and embellished it with a blend of Sashiko style straight stitching and Sashiko style machine embroidery. Learn the techniques to simulate this beautiful handwork tradition with your machine.
Sashiko means “little stabs” and references the running stitch that is a defining feature of this traditional handwork. The style can be created by machine using a Triple Stitch, often found in your machine’s utility stitch collection.
We took at peek at some favorite cross stitch options from the experts at FQS this past Spring. The good news is: patterns are still in stock and many of the Stitch Alongs are available in their YouTube channel archives.
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. Done 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.
Learn our tips for using a pair of standard hemostats to quickly, easily, and smoothly turn tiny ties. Once turned, we also show you how a thin piece of cardboard is the perfect template jig for pressing the tie flat and even.
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.
We call this a "flat top" zipper. We've also heard it referred to as a set-in zipper and a recessed zipper. You can make up your very own name; the Penelope Zipper would be one option. You've undoubtedly seen this type of zipper on loads of handbags and totes. It sits below the top of
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.
Making adjustable straps can seem like a magic rope trick with all the threading this way and that. But, it’s really quite easy and makes the strap much more flexible. Lengthen to wear crossbody, shorten for a shoulder strap.
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.
A blind hem is exactly what it sounds like: a machine-done hem with stitches you can barely see. It’s perfect anywhere you want a clean finished edge. Good news: the specialty Blind Hem presser foot is standard on most machines.
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.
Keep a stark white pillow from showing along the end of a pretty pillowcase. This envelope style closure also helps keep the pillow from slipping out of an open end. Make it stay – and hide it away! The steps are fast and easy.