Dyeing synthetic fabrics is a lot easier than I thought it would be. I am working with a blend of cotton and polyester which will result in subtle shades. I’ve wanted to dye fabric for a long time and had the opportunity this week. I have two table coverings that are around 50% cotton and 50% polyester. There are from my mother’s best friend who … Continue reading How To Dye Synthetic Fabrics
This challenge made me realize I need to get a physical subscription to Threads! I converted all my subscriptions to digital some time ago (except Burda, duh) to try and cut down on paper clutter. But after waiting 20 minutes on my iPad for EACH issue to re-download, and then having them all mysteriously disappear the next day so I had to wait for them to download AGAIN… I’ve had it with the digital subscription. Anywho… the thing that caught my eye was this tiny tip on the bottom of a page in the October/November 2014 issue:
Continue reading “January Challenge – Quick Bias Binding Tip from Threads”
Originally posted on The magical effects of thinking:
New pencil skirt Since I make a lot of skirts I’ve decided to up the ante and start adding in couture techniques or different elements to keep my skills moving forward. On this pencil skirt from Burda 8155 I used a couture waistband technique from Susan Khalje which is featured in the latest issue of Threads magazine (March 2013). The short… Continue reading Thread’s Magazine January Challenge – Easy couture technique for waistbands
I made a bunch of test swatches before sewing up the fagoted dress I posted on Friday, so I thought I’d share a tutorial with you… The first step was to sew a line of the stitch I wanted on some stabilized fabric. (I just put paper behind my fabric here – this is just to keep the stitch from bunching up and giving you a wrong measurement.) Get out a ruler and measure how wide you want the gap between your fabrics to be. In this case, I measured between the points of the ‘>’ shapes and got 1/8″. Continue reading “Tutorial – Fagoting by Machine”
Well the highly anticipated Brother Dream Machine is finally here! I think many potential customers are intrigued by the possibility of creating their own embroidery designs on the machine. And I am certainly one of them. So let’s see what it can do. Continue reading “Brother Dream Machine – My Design Center Review”
Volunteering certainly has its perks. Meeting people and making new friends while helping out in my community makes volunteering an enjoyable experience for me. But getting things for free doesn’t hurt either! Last week during my volunteer shift at the Humane Society Thrift & Gift store, my friend Sally noticed that one of the donated blouses had stained sleeves. Sally handed me the top and said “Here, we can’t sell this, but you could cut the sleeves off”. Yup, Sally knows me so well! Since the blouse was from Chico’s, my size, perfect except for the bleached sleeves, and in a color I love, I took it home for refashioning. Continue reading “Chico’s Blouse Refashion”
For the 24th post in my 
series, the letter X, I made McCall’s 6751, a summer top with a cool X-back design. Continue reading “X is for X-back Top: McCall’s 6751 – A Pattern Review”
For the 21st post in my 
series, the letter U, I decided to make underwear. (Believe me, there’s not much choice when it comes to items to sew that start with U!) Although I’d never attempted to sew panties before I had two underwear patterns in my stash, Jalie 2568 and McCall’s 5651. Jalie 2568 had 100% positive reviews on PatternReview, so I chose the Jalie pattern. Continue reading “U is for Underwear – Jalie 2568 Pattern Review”
I have quite a few 12″ quilt blocks that I’ve made just for fun. One of my favorites is a block from Carol Doak’s book 50 Fabulous Paper Pieced Stars book. The blocks have been sitting in my quilt block pile for quite some time, waiting for their future home. The time has come to turn it into a tote bag for my friend Paula. We’re planning to go on a cruise to Alaska next year and this block is the “Alaska” block from Carol’s book. I love the Frozen-esque colors! Continue reading “Tote Bag from Quilt Blocks”
This refashion started out as a white dust ruffle generously given to me by my dear friend Sally, whom I met volunteering at the Boulder Humane Society Thrift & Gift store. Sally gifted me with 2 identical panels, so I had 232 inches of 19″ wide 100% cotton fabric to work with. The dust ruffle conveniently already had a rod pocket sewn at the top which made me suspect these might be window valances made to coordinate with bed dust ruffles. Whatever they were, they could not have been more perfect for a skirt makeover! Continue reading “Ombre Dip Dye Dust Ruffle Skirt Refashion”
Choosing the wrong fabric for a pattern can ruin a garment for even the most experienced seamstress. I’ve been wanting to make the Antionette Pants by StyleArc since the pattern was released, but I haven’t been able to find any pictures of a finished pair online to see what fabric others have used and front pleats SCARE ME. There’s a fine line between slouchy cool and having enough room to be smuggling something down the front of your pants. Seriously, that is a dangerous area to accidentally have too much volume! Continue reading “Testing the Drape of a Fabric and StyleArc Antionette Pants”
Jane awhile back talked about her handpicked zipper that she did on Butterick 5917. I tend to avoid any hand sewing like the plague. My Sewing OCD comes out like crazy because I want all the stitches to be nice and even. Plus, I’m a horrific hand-sewer to begin with, OCD aside. So it was with great reluctance that I decided to put in a … Continue reading Handpicked Zipper Application – Tutorial
I used to think that applying appliques with fusible web was cheating. But at the same time, I am too impatient to ever apply appliques by hand. Hence, I would drool over those cute designs I’d see and wish that I could figure out a way to try them out without “cheating”. Well, I’ve had a change of heart and decided that fusible web is the way to go. How much fun would it be to be able to simply scan an applique design from a book and cut out all of the pieces you need without any tracing or cutting with scissors? Continue reading “Fusible Appliques with a ScanNCut”
Denver Sewing Collective 