Choosing an Iron

The best irons hold a consistent temperature, produce plenty of steam and don’t constantly tip over when upright.

Pressing & Ironing: How-To

What’s the diff between pressing and ironing? Both can be done with your steam iron, but pressing and ironing are as different as jumping rope and roller skating.

Sewing Pins: Lots of Choices, Lots of Uses

Pins are an indispensable sewing tool. They’ll eventually poke you, but you’ll have to forgive and move on because they keep your pattern pieces in place, hold your seams together as you sew, anchor trims, and more.

Using the Right Presser Foot for the Job

Like any job or hobby, using the right tools makes your project go more smoothly and quickly, and usually yields a more professional finished product. Sewing is no exception, and one of the most important tools we have are the various machine feet. Sewing machine feet come in a wide array of applications. Sewing machine feet do not wear shoes. But, they do make common techniques so much easier.

Hand Sewing: Thread the Needle & Tie the Knot

What’s The Difference Between Piping And Cording?

Ask ten different experts the difference between piping and cording and you might get ten different answers. however, you can be sure it does NOT have anything to do with bagpipes or comfortable pants.

Checklist: Before You Cut Your Fabric

If only there were a tool that did the opposite of scissors… a handy tool that would uncut fabric after a mistake. How great would that be! Until this future sewing essential is on the market, a simple checklist will have to do.

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Fat quarter

A generously proportioned “quarter yard” of fabric that measures 18″ x 22″. To understand this you need to do a little math. Fabric is measured in yards. A yard is 36″. When you ask your fabric store to cut a yard of fabric, you get 36″ by the width of the fabric. Quilting cottons are usually 44″ wide. So, if you buy a yard of quilting cotton, you’ll have a cut piece that measures 36″ x 44″. Now, if you’d stepped up to the counter and ordered a quarter yard of fabric, you’d get a piece that is 9″ (36″ divided by 4) by 44″. But a Fat Quarter is actually a full quarter of that original piece we got when we ordered our single yard of fabric (36″ x 44″). If I divide that original piece (36″ x 44″) into four equal pieces, each one will be 18″ x 22″. A Fat Quarter.

Slip stitch

A Slip Stitch is a stitch created with a hand sewing needle rather than your sewing machine. It joins two folded edges (or a folded edge and a flat edge) together in such a way that the stitches are not visible. This stitch is commonly used in pillows to close seams after stuffing. It is also good for bindings, to close a lining, or to hand-appliqué invisibly.

Miter

A miter is a corner seam that comes together at a precise 45˚ angle, like a picture frame.

Pattern notches

Pattern notches are the marks (usually triangle shaped) printed on a pattern’s cutting edge. They are used to line up two or more pieces of fabric that you will be joining together.

Patchwork Pillows

Patchwork is a classic quilting pattern, but you can use a mini version of it to create a colorful pillow. Want a vibrant and fun toss pillow? Use a different fabric for every square – 25 in all. Would a more subdued palette better suit your room? Stick to just four or five patterns in a similar tonal family.

Floral Appliqué Table Runner & Place Mats

This project started with a plain beige table runner and place mat set from Target. A little boring all on their own, they made the perfect background for my own custom table linens, which I embellished with fabric appliqués and sparkly trim.

Nap

Nap refers to the short raised fibers on the surface of certain fabrics such as corduroy, velvet and velour. Fabric with a nap looks different from different angles, and therefore pattern pieces must be cut with nap going the same direction.

Drapery and Curtain Hardware: The Basics

My assignment was to write about window treatment hardware. You’ll notice that’s not the title of this article. Windows are a BIG subject and the more I dug, the less I knew. And, I’d thought I was well-versed in the ways of windows. It reminded me of another dig long ago…

Pillow insert

A ready-made cushion in one of a variety of standard shapes and sizes; the filling may be down, feather/down, polyester fiberfill, or bamboo.

Quick Tip: Lint Roller Tricks

The ubiquitous lint roller. Like most people, I keep one in my closet to remove lint and pet fur from clothing, and one in the laundry room for those times I forget to take that Kleenex out of my pocket. Now, I’ve discovered the lint roller’s sticky magic works wonders in my sewing area.

Quick Tip: Never Sew Over Pins, Try This Instead

Sewing over pins is faster than removing them, but it’s a gamble. Often, the machine needle misses the pin, but when it doesn’t it can break your needle, thread and worst of all, seriously damage your machine. It’s not unheard of for a piece of the broken pin or needle to end up embedded in your eye. So, NO, don’t sew over pins.

Family Napkins

Dining every night with a cloth napkin isn’t just for landed gentry and restaurant critics. It can be a fun and practical tradition for your family. At the same time you’ll save a few bucks and reduce the amount of paper products headed for the landfill. It’s something European families have been doing for decades.

Button Accent Pillow with Ruffle

This is a super versatile pillow that will work any room. Simple choose your fabric patterns and colors to create the appropriate “look”: novelty fabrics for the nursery, soft florals for a porch or sunroom, warm naturals for a bedroom or den.

Sham, Roll, Cushion, Throw – the Pile of Pillows Defined

The very first pillows were likely just heaps of moss or grass in our ancestors’ cozy caves. However, even the more recognizable fabric-stuffed pillow reaches far back into history. Wealthy Greeks slept with their heads and feet resting on ornately embroidered cushions. Ancient Egyptians, who believed the head to be the seat of life, not only spent heavily on lavish pillows for themselves, they also placed them in the tombs of their honored dead. The Chinese thought soft pillows robbed the body of its vitality and therefore made their pillows from wood, leather or even ceramic.

Today, our cushy lifestyles demand comfortable and beautiful pillows of all shapes and sizes. If you want to impress your friends and family, throw out a few of these definitions at your next holiday gathering. Everyone will be impressed… or, they’ll all just ignore you like they always do.

Woven Ribbon & Monogram Sheet Set

Take an off-the-shelf sheet set, stitch a series of vertical buttonholes along the top of the sheet and the open edge of the pillowcase(s), then weave designer ribbon through the buttonholes. Easy yet elegant.

Making the Right Fabric Choice

Shopping for fabric can be overwhelming. There are so many different colors and types of fabrics available, and the prices can range from a few dollars a yard to over one hundred. Home decor fabrics tend to be more expensive, so you want to be happy with what you select. Following a few basic guidelines will help you in your selection process.

Nine Essential Home Decor Measuring & Marking Tools

Whoever discovered you could use cheap spring clamps to hold your fabric for measuring and cutting is a genius. For me, they’re one of the Nine Essential Measuring & Marking Tools that make home decor sewing so much easier.

Contact Us

General Inquiries & Feedback

To contact Sew4Home for general inquiries and feedback, please send an email to feedback@sew4home.com

Please note:

S4H does not sell products. If you’re interesting in purchasing something you’ve seen on the site, please contact the company via the links provided in our tutorials.

We try very had to connect you to a source for the items we use in our tutorials. When creating tutorials, we use fabrics and tools that are currently available. However, like fashionable apparel, popular fabrics come and go. At some point, even the most gorgeous fabrics are no longer in stores. While we think S4H projects are just as relevant as a black sheath dress, you’ll simply need to put on your creative hat and choose from another wonderful fabric collection if you can’t find what we used. Hint: if you really REALLY love a fabric and think you can come back anytime to buy it… think twice and get it while can.

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About Sew4Home

Sew4Home is a daily website dedicated to stylish home décor sewing – we believe anyone can and should make their own home décor. S4H offers beginner-friendly sewing projects by making instructions clear and simple. At the same time, our creations are designed to appeal to all levels of capability for their to-die-for results.

Since launching in early 2009, S4H has attracted a rapidly increasing core group of devoted readers. Our step-by-step tutorials, tips & tricks, and inspiration are all free to the user. We feature today’s easy-to-use sewing machines, beautiful and readily available fabrics, plus clever notions and tools. The S4H team is an experienced group with long ties to the sewing and design industry. We hope you’ll be inspired by our tutorials to transform your space.

Copyright Terms and Making Items to Sell

All projects, patterns, photos, etc. on Sew4Home are copyrighted, so the instructions themselves and any associated patterns or pictures can not be reproduced or reprinted in any way.

This also means our tutorials cannot be re-printed as a handout for use within a class. It would be similar to copying pages out of a book to share with an entire group.

You can make small quantities for sale if you make the items yourself. They cannot be manufactured by others or sold through a third party. We simply ask that on the tag and/ or somewhere within the display or packaging and/or within the sales description online, credit is given for the item being created from a copyrighted design/pattern/tutorial from Sew4Home.com.

We also allow people to pick up a photo or two from our articles to use along with credit and a link back to our site. We appreciate this outreach.

Pattern and Project Alternation Requests

We’re sorry, but we are unable to create revisions to our patterns or projects for size or usage variations. It’s a challenge to change dimensions long-distance, especially without access to the item and/or person for whom the project is being adjusted. We would feel awful if we gave you inaccurate advice that caused your finished project to turn out less than successful. Our standard recommendation is to measure your item and/or person and compare those measurements to our original dimensions. Do the math to make adjustments and scale the original dimensions up or down. Then use these new measurements to make a prototype out of a muslin or another inexpensive fabric you have on hand. This is often the exact way we determine our own patterns and instructions. It is not only a good way to re-engineer a project, making a prototype is also a great practice run through the steps of construction.

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