Last Dress of Summer!

Now that summer is about over, I finally was able to finish the summer dress I have been working on. I used Simplicity Pattern 2615 yet again, as it is a comfortable dress and very easy to make. An easy to make garment allows me the time for some creativity that I might not have time for if the garment itself is a handful to make, especially as I am not an advanced sewer. Even though I have been sewing for the majority of my life, it has only been the last ten years or so that I have been trying hard to educate myself on sewing techniques and to be more careful in what I am making.

Although hard to see in the picture, this dress has a white background and small turquoise flowers and leaves. This fabric has been sitting in my stash for probably the last 15 years waiting for the right pattern as I realized that the project it was originally bought for wasn't going to work out after I made up the pattern the first time. I wanted the dress to be feminine, a little bit special but not over the top. I saw the lace insertion idea in a Sew Beautiful magazine from several years ago and thought that would dress it up a bit. Instead of the neck facings, I used double fold bias binding around the neckline. I like how it turned out, but I did have to refer to Claire Schaeffer Fabric Sewing Guide for information on the bias binding. I have dyslexia and that tends to get in the way of sewing at times especially when I have to do anything 'backwards'. Now the only thing to do is hope the weather is warm tomorrow and I'm feeling well enough to go to church and try out my new dress. annabelle, my dress model, needs to lose about 25# as I did and we don't have her readjusted yet. Yet another reason I like this dress. It can accomodate weight flucuations.

Great Embroidery Digitizer Has Died

On August 4, 2009, the world lost a great machine embroidery digitizer with the passing of Felix Zundt. You can read about this man and the plans for the future of Zundt Designs here. I remember the first time I ever saw one of their designs, I had to pick my chin up off the floor it was so beautiful. When you go to the site to see the biography of Mr. Zundt, you can also pick up a few free machine embroidery samples.

An 'Ouchy" Day

Yesterday had a problem while dusting and ended up sitting on the floor. With hubby's help after about 5 minutes, I was finally up off the floor and in a lot of pain that continues into today. It is amazing how little it takes to get the old arthritis flare up going! To me it is not only painful but frustrating as there were things I wanted to do such as finishing pinning down and then cutting out a dress. This is a summer dress I'm trying to make and at the rate I'm going it should be ready to wear just in time for Christmas!

I am happy with my little secondary sewing station downstairs though, as I was able to piece a few patches together. Not a lot of progress on this Project Linus quilt but at least I felt like I was doing something.

Except for that little bit of sewing, my sewing time has been involved with reading Kennth King's Cool Couture. This is a book that explains the process of techniques not projects. If you are a beginner sewer, you might want to read this book with an all round sewing book in hand as many things such as interlining, interfacing, etc. are not explained in any great detail. But, what he does explain in detail is very detailed. If you want to do piping, embellishing, pocket making in your sewing, he has some great techniques. He also explains how to sew on some of the more difficult fabrics and what types of fabrics he uses for interfacings and interlinings. There are a lot of line drawings and color photographs. What he does cover in the book is usually very thorough, but after my first look through several weeks ago and then reading through it again, I was left with a "Is that all there is?" feeling. I would have liked to have seen a whole look more techniques covered. Fortunately he also writes articles for Threads magazine so I know he has a lot more techniques up his sleeves that I have gotten to read about, but that doesn't help the reader who only can buy his book. This book definitely has some good ideas, but may not be what you are looking for.

Two by Four Quilts

I have been thinking a lot about what I want to focus in on with my sewing since I have realized that my To Do list will take me approximately 500 years and I doubt that I have more than 40 to go, tops! I don't want to waste my time working on projects that don't give me pleasure while ignoring the ones that do. Maybe I'm the only one that goes through this angst, but once you have chronic health problems, you find yourself being limited in many ways.

I finally realized that when it comes to sewing, number one on the list is sewing patchwork pieces together, preferably using 'scraps'. Scraps to me can be leftovers from any 100% cotton sewing project, pre-made scraps from new fabric, and scraps and leftovers given to me from people who know I sew. One of the things I do when scraps enter my life is narrow them down into workable sizes for quick and easy projects. Most quilts can be ‘quick and easy’ if you do most of the work ahead of time, little by little. So all scraps go through this process. I cut them into 2 ½”, 2”, 1 ½” strips, then 4 ½” squares, 4 1/2” x 2 ½” rectangles, and 2 ½” squares. Odd pieces wider than an inch but maybe having an odd angle, etc. are thrown in my string piecing box which has produced several string pieced quilts. The other strips are carefully places in boxes according to their size. When I have a few spare minutes (or sometimes just a minute!) I use the 4 ½”, 2 ½” squares and/or the 4 ½” x 2 ½” rectangle and design a block then sew it together. I call these my 2 x 4 quilts. I will go through this process until I run low on any particular size block unit and then see what I can make with what is left. When I get to the point that nothing is making a good color match I stop, but at this point I have usually made enough 8 ½” quilt blocks to put together at least a lap quilt or a Project Linus baby quilt. Then I need to do the not as much fun for me part of layering, quilting and binding. I’m currently in the process of machine quilting an over large Twin sized quilt and decided that from now on the majority of my quilts are going to be quilt as you go so I’m not having such an awful time handling a big quilt in my machine.

Up until 2 years ago I lived in a one floor house that permitted me to pop into my sewing room and whip up a quilt block in a spare minute or two. Sometimes I would just lay out a block to let the colors percolate in my mind and maybe when I get back to it I’d swap the smaller squares for something that looks better, or maybe I’d still like it and just sew it up using chain piecing. I realize of late that I wasn’t getting as much sewing down as I used to even with a large, well equipped sewing room. I blamed it on ill health, but that still didn’t seem right. Then I put on my thinking cap and realized that with my sewing machine upstairs, whenever I had a free few minutes downstairs I didn’t have the sewing machine to run to for quick work on a project. This was easily solved with a secondary sewing station as I am blessed with two good sewing machines, a Janome 6500 upstairs and a Janome 9000 now downstairs. Since setting up, I have whipped out over 20 quilt blocks and have had to bring out my box of precut Project Linus quilt pieces to start sewing together. I have enough cut out for probably 4 baby quilts at least and with my new set up, I know I will be able to get more done. Sewing is relaxing for me so I love having a chance to do it while waiting for something to finished on the stove or for hubby to get off the computer and let me use it.

As to what will be going on in the upstairs sewing room, I’m still thinking that through but I’m very happy to be back in the piecing grove again!

My Favorite Sewing Books

This is an initial list of my favorite sewing books at the request of some of the readers on the Threads forum. Since it was a bit of work, I decided to post it here also.. I have a large sewing reference library and have found that some books are better than others. Not all of you may agree with me as to the worth of these books. I suppose part of that is just because of your own knowledge base and experience and some books are better just because of the author and the editing. These books are basically basic sewing and sewing reference books that I have on my own shelves in my sewing room. I have found though that the very best resource I have found for learning techniques in sewing is Threads magazine.

1. More Fabric Savvy: A Quick Resource Guide to Selecting and Sewing Fabric by Sandra Betzina ISBN 1561586625. This book sits right by my sewing machine for exactly what the subtitle says. Whenever I am about to sew a garment in fabric that is unfamiliar to me, I can usually find it in this book. There is a color picture of a garment made in the fabric and on the other page across from the picture a simple guide to how to preshrink, layout, mark, cut, interface the garment. What types of thread, needles, presser feet, stitch length, etc. are also given. Seam finishes, pressing, topstitching, closures and hemming for the fabric are also noted. Each fabric guide sheet is set up the same way, so you don’t get lost looking for the detail you need. I find it extremely handy for the needle size and type, presser foot and stitch length. Of course, this is general information and you might need to change settings depending on your fabric, garment style and sewing machine, but it is nice to have a quick guide handy to get you into the ballpark especially if this is a new fabric for you.
2. Fabric Sewing Guide by Claire Shaeffer ISBN 089689536x. This is a large, heavy book. I have only recently purchased it and so have not looked up much in it. It is cross referenced so that you can look up the information you need by fabric type, fabric structure, fiber content, sewing techniques you want or would like to use. Lots of color pictures and LOTS of detail, some of it repeating itself depending on what part of the book you are in, but that saves you flipping through the book to figure things out. In Claire’s usual thorough style you get check ff sheets for sewing the fabric and fabric characteristics so you can judge if the fabric is suitable for what you are wanting to make. As noted I have only recently purchased this book and haven’t used it much yet. The only detriment for me using the book is the weight of it and my arthritic hands. The content is excellent though. If you don’t have problems with heavy duty books and you sew with all types of fabrics and want a good guide for sewing with them, you will want a copy of this book.
3. Shirtmaking: Developing Skills for Fine Sewing by David Page Coffin ISBN 1561580155. When I first had this book in my hands, it was a library copy. I read the first couple of pages, shut the book and went and ordered in on line so I could read the book at my leisure and be able to refer back to it. Maybe it is just me, but I think more men should write sewing books. Too many books I come across the women writing them make these huge intuitive leaps and assume you know how to get from point A to point G without help. This book was very detailed. I learned things I had never know before about ironing cloth. I got an idea on how to set up my iron spot for more efficient use of my ironing space. I learned about luxury men’s shirts and walked into the closet to compare my husband’s shirts with what David was writing about. You may think that this is a book about making men’s shirts and so doesn’t apply to you. If you ever make tops or blouses or shirts for yourself or others, there are a lot of great ideas and techniques in this book. Very well written.
4. Sweatshirts with Style by Mary Mulari ISBN 0801983924. Is this the best sewing book on the market. NO way, but it is one of the first sewing books I ever purchased that I have used the information in it for years. I like making lightweight jackets out of sweatshirts and this book showed me how. I’m a disabled stay at home kind of person. I don’t need (nor do I like wearing) tailored jackets, but I do like having something lightweight to keep from getting drafts on my joints. I have made many little jackets following the ideas in this book. If you have a loved one in a nursing home type facility a sweatshirt cardigan makes a perfect gift as it can be made to be pretty and feminine and yet is washable and easy care. I’m hoping to have a good supply of these made for myself long before I can’t sew anymore.
5. Couture Sewing Techniques by Claire B. Shaeffer ISBN 1561584975. Many of us have never had any formal training in sewing other than a miserable home ec class way back in the dark ages. Mine in particular stands out due to how many times my teacher made me replace my zipper and redo my hem. Were these classes set up purposefully to get kids to hate sewing? Hearing about couture techniques is not the same as sewing them in action. I have never owned a couture garment and doubt that I ever will. My budget is on the Walmart side if I did shop for clothes so the only way to see couture techniques is to read about them in a book. I enjoyed this book as it not only gave historical information but gave the information in making these techniques ours. We see pictures of designer garments inside out with the special finishes noted, then we are shown how to do them. Obviously you aren’t going to want to use couture techniques on easy to make clothes for doing yard work, but when you are making something special, you want to make it the best it can be and this book tells you how. I love books that inspire me and this one certainly does.
6. Palmer/Pletsch Couture: The Art of Fine Sewing by Roberta Carr ISBN 0935278281. I was very happy to find this book at a library book sale. It also shows many couture techniques only without the background and pictures of designer garments as the previously mentioned book. Instead the author uses garments she has made to demonstrate her techniques and designs. Lots of color pictures and black and white diagrams. Many of the garments are a bit dated looking by you can still see the inspiration behind the designs. There are lots of techniques in this book that can help you finish off your garments in novel ways or just in nice ways so you don’t go around with that ‘dorky homemade look’. I think none of us want our sewing to devolve into looking like something we had whipped up the night before when we should have been in bed. I know I am constantly looking to improve my sewing habits and reading books like this one and taking notes of the ideas have been a big help. I don’t get nearly as many “did you make that?” questions as I used to.
7. All About Machine Arts: Decorative Techniques from A-Z from Sew News, Creative Machine Embroidery and C&T Publishing ISBN 1571202277. This is good basic guide for when you want to make your garment or project have a little more oomph. However, I must caution you, if you are a long time subscriber to Sew News and Creative Machine Embroidery you will find many of the articles have been taken directly from these magazines or books published by C&T Publishing. It is nice having all the information in one book, but if you have already seen most of the information, do you really want to buy the book? If you want to be sure, borrow it from the library first to decide if this is a reference book you want. I know I have referred back to it many times since it is much easier than trying to find the old articles, but I do remember thinking I was losing my mind when I first looked through the book since so much of it seemed familiar. That being said, this book is full of ideas and inspiration in an easy to read format, set up in alphabetical order so it is easy if you are looking for ideas on using entredeux to look it up under E.
8. Encyclopedia of Sewing Machine Techniques by Nancy Bednar & JoAnn Pugh-Gannon ISBN 0806963654. First a note of caution, this book has been published with two different covers. Both have the exact same information. Don’t buy it again if you already have a copy of it—ask me how I know this! This is a great book for checking out how to do different sewing machine techniques. There are a lot of color step-by-step instructions and at the beginning of each section it tells you how to set up your machine, stitches, presser foot, needles, threads, tensions, etc. If you need to make your own entredeux, this book shows you how. If you want to make fake hand loomed embroidered insertions you can learn with this book. Want to learn how to use that ruffler that has been sitting in the box since you brought it home? Again this book shows you how. If you want a handy reference for machine techniques this is a good one. Even though they may not walk you through the entire project using each technique, plenty of pictures of the finished projects are shown so you can make your own version.
9. Fine Embellishment Techniques: Classic Details for Today’s Clothing by Jane Conlon ISBN 1561584967. If you are looking for some unique ways to use beads and braiding on your garments, this book tells you how and gives you the steps to accomplish it. Sometimes it is just one special technique that turns a so-so garment into a wow garment. Beads are all the rage these days and to make a fine bead detail on a special garment is a great idea and this book will give you the great ideas. If there is one thing I was disappointed in with this book is the lack of finished projects using the techniques that were written about. Most of the ‘finished’ garments were just rendered in a color drawing. I would have like to have seen many more full color photo illustrations which would have nudged this book from theoretical to practical. Nevertheless, I liked the great ideas and truly wish I had events in my life that necessitated a garment with this type of embellishing.
10. Sewing Companion Library: Easy Guide to Sewing Tops & T-Shirts ISBN 1561582395, Easy Guide to Sewing Skirts ISBN 1561580880 Easy Guide to Sewing Blouses ISBN 1561581089 Easy Guide to Sewing Linings ISBN 1561582255 the first two by Marcy Tilton and the next two by Connie Long. I’ve included them altogether as they are part of a series. There is also one on pants and recently three of the books have been republished in one volume. These books are all set up the same way and walk you step-by-step through making each kind of garment. No only will you learn the basics but you will learn how to alter the pattern to get the effect you want. You are shown how to adjust the patterns for correct fit. All the techniques are there for making a correct fitting and looking garment. Whenever I’ve about to make a garment, I pull one of these books down to check for techniques I can use to make my project turn out lovely instead of shabby.

I haven’t gotten to the point of all my sewn garments being wonderfully made and fitting clothes yet, but I’m sure past the point were I was 10-15 years ago where everything I made looked homemade. Now of course, since my clothes were made to last, you may still see me wearing the homemade looking clothes, but my newest garments that I have made are much better made that before. I credit these books as part of the reason that my sewing has really been improving. I have been educating myself once I realized that no magic was going to happen when I sat down at my sewing machine. You really do have to plan, measure, study, and take your time if you want a good looking garment. I hope you enjoy this list and that it is helpful to you.

Countdown to Christmas Machine Embroidery Club

Just got an email this morning from Embroidery Library one of my favorite machine embroidery sites. They are starting a new program to help us save money on Christmas designs. Depending on how much you spend with them over the next few months until Christmas, you will receive a gift certificate to spend at their site. On top of that they will be giving out free designs to members who have signed up for the program. Currently a lot of Christmas designs are deeply discounted too. I just picked up over $100 worth of designs for $13.50 including a 60+ design set of the North Pole Santa's Village and Train set. Normally over $70, for this week $12.25. Do I have any affiliation with Embroidery Library? Nope, I just try to urge sewers to check them out as they have been very generous to all of us over the years with MANY FREE designs.

When you see advertisments for new sewing/embroidery machines that have been released, do you get as confused as I do when it comes to comparing hoop size between different models? Some give their hoop size in metric and others in inches and it can be confusing. Embroidery Library to the rescue again. They have a page that lists all the top brands and even some older machines with the size of the biggest hoop the machine can use in both metric and inches. Click here to visit the page.

Bunnycup Embroidery: Designs From the Heart

I've been busy working on a quilt made from UFOs and it is turning out great, catching up on reading some inspirational sewing books I picked up from the library and last night went a little crazy buying books at JoAnn Fabrics as they were having a sale plus I had a 10% off coupon for the total purchase. I have also been really sick which stole a week of time. Anyhow, as usual I got behind on my blog. As soon as I get the time, I'll be posting pictures of the quilt in progress and a simple top I want to work on today. I'll also be posting some book reviews from this batch of books I currently have from the library and my new purchases. I love reading sewing and needlecraft books not only to learn but to be inspired by them. I really wish I could review them in exchange for free books but so far I haven't found anyone willing for me to do this for them so I have to buy or borrow needlecraft books. Hello publishers, send me your books and I'll be happy to share them with the sewing world!

In the meantime, for you out there that do machine embroidery for children and need designs for them, here is a great site: Bunnycup Embroidery. They have a lot of designs, most of which seem geared for children and also holiday themes that you can use in the kitchen and elsewhere. As they have advanced their digitizing skills, they have retired a lot of sets and instead of just taking them off the site, they are giving them away FREE. As of today they had 47 FREE sets! Take advantage of their generosity by trying out some of their designs and then purchasing them as you are able. Although I usually don't bother collecting children's designs, I downloaded a few that I thought I might be able to use in Project Linus quilts and also there were some really cute Gingerbread cookie designs that would be great for Christmas or for sewing them on kitchen towels for great hostess and impromptu gifts during the holidays.

My New Dress

I'm happy to report I finished a new dress and with very little tweaking of the pattern, it fits! Yahoo! Not only does it fit, it is a comfortable dress and it would be especially so if it were made in a non-staticy fabric. I purchased this fabric normally $10/yard when our local JoAnn Fabrics went out of business for $2/yard. There was something like 10 yards on the bolt and I have plenty leftover. I thought it was a beautiful color and looks great on me. My husband doesn't particularly like the color blue so I usually avoid it, but even he had to admit it is a lovely color as it is a crinkle silky polyester that changes shades as it moves. But, after years of sewing with mostly cottons, I wasn't prepared for the static this dress produced. With no Static Guard in the house, I took some tips from the ladies at Threads discussion forum to help control the static. What really worked for me was lightly moistening a fabric dryer sheet with water and gently patting the dress before I left the house and yet again when I got to church.

I made a couple of changes in making up this pattern. Since I am 5'10" and also starting to 'sag', I lowered the belt line about 2" and also remembered to lower the inseam pocket the same 2". Once I realized if I didn't I would have probably tied the pockets closed when tieing the belt. I also ditched the idea of the collar facings and made self bias binding and attached it to the neckline (the neckline area was stay stitched prior to this to help prevent stretching). Anyhow I love how the dress turned out and I still have about 5 yards of the fabric left. Many people say that with the price of fabric and notions there isn't much savings in sewing, but I beg to differ. This dress ended up costing me, including pattern, less than $15 and that includes the electricity for the sewing machine. I used Simplicity Pattern 2615. I think my next try with this pattern, I might take it in a bit more and have the ties coming from the side seam instead of the patch of fabric in the front. I really don't need anything to draw attention to my tummy!

New Scissors

I've been looking for a pair of applique or 'duck bill' scissors for several years now as they are always highly recommended in many quilting books for use in applique. Well on Mother's Day my son gave me a JoAnn Fabrics gift card and wouldn't you know I also got an email from them about a 30% off sale including Gingher scissors. Found the scissors and bought them (only had to add in a little S&H fee that the card ddin't cover). In the picture they looked flat like the ones I had seen in the store, but when I received them, they had the bent handles like embroidery scissors. I was happy about that as it seemed that the bend would make them more useful. Looking forward to trying them today I hope. I have an idea for doing some machine embroidery applique designs and want to see how the scissors will work for cutting out the fabric while still in the hoop.

But first I have to finish a dress I am making. I only have to hem it and do a neck binding. The neck is supposed to have facings which I always think looks sloppy and saw an article in Threads magazine on how to convert to a bias binding which I'm going to try.

Wanting to get this book to try out my new scissors!

Kate's Bag, My Version

I was able to pick up a copy of Handmade at my book store a couple of months ago and one of the projects captured me. I just had to make it. Since I rarely do anything but use magazines for my own inspiration, to follow the directions was a real change for me. This crazy patch purse was fun to make and I got to incorporate hand embroidery, patchwork, decorative stitching and regular sewing. I also got to figure out the pattern that was not quite correct and I misunderstood the directions in one spot too, but all in all I think it came out very nicely. It is roomier than it may first appear and it allowed me to carry my essentials plus I was able to fit a bottle of water and my Bible inside to go to church. As I am usually juggling, water bottle, Bible, purse and cane to be down to just purse and cane made things so much easier.

One of the things that I patted myself on the back for was not taking the 'easy way out' and using my embroidery machine to sew out the rose in the middle of the purse. I did it with my own two hand using a stem stitch and a large needle. I found that I can still do hand embroidery if I stick with a large needle and it is fun to have a craft back in my life that I had thought for a long time that I couldn't do any longer.

This project was featured in Handmade, Vol. 26, No. 5 and was called Kate's Bag on page 19. this is an Australian magazine in case you are wondering why you may have never seen it. I'm happy to see that Joann fabrics is carrying it currently.

Thimbleberries

I have seen Thimbleberries quilting books and items throughout the years and although they have wonderful designs, they always seemed a bit on the dark side for the types of quilting I like to do. However, after visiting their website, my mind is changing (a women's prerogative is it not?). I found some lovely quilt designs and also machine embroidery designs that I would be happy to sew out on their site. They even have several FREE floral designs in three sizes and in all the regular home embroidery machine formats for you to try out their machine embroidery designs.

Included in their free designs were two quilt labels also in three sizes and all the formats. You can of course, use these for your own quilts or use them in the charity quilting project that Thimbleberries is helping to support called Faith's Lodge. Faith's Lodge is a retreat for parents grieving for a serious ill child or one that has died. An effort is being made to provide a quilt of comfort for each family when they leave the retreat. If this sounds like something that you would be interested in helping with, just click here for more details.

As I have just about enough quilts that are needed for the beds in our home, and other than to replace them or to make decorative wall hangings, I realize that if I ever am to lower the level of my fabric stash it will be with making quilts for others. Perhaps you feel that way also. I know there are many charity quilting projects on the go, so please let me know if there are projects that I can post here to help get the word out. My obvious favorite, for myself, at this time is Project Linus as I enjoy making children's quilts since my boys are grown, yet I have no grandchildren to sew for at this point.

Project Linus Quilt

Well I am done with my Project Linus quilt for this year. It is about 40" x 40" square with slightly ripply edges--OOPS! I used yellow and white gingham that I had picked up one day at a yard sale for $2 for over 4 yards. The Iris design is from Janome Memory card 121 Floral designs, design #12. The swirling butterfly was purchased from Embroidery Library for $1. The threads were from my stash of Robison-anton and Sulky threads. I used a yellow and white varigated thread for the stippling.

After prewashing the fabric, I squared up the gingham by tearing it along crosswise grain. This left me with a square of fabric and great directional lines for placing the designs. I found it was much easier to get the machine embroidered iris designs just right when placing them in the hoop by following the fabric colored line and I didn't need to use fabric markers that I'm never sure will come off right. The butterflies, I just put randomly on the quilt top. If you have never attempted a machine embroidered whole cloth quilt before, I would suggest that you use a woven gingham fabric if at all possible as it really does add in placement. A printed design won't have the same effect especially if the fabric got printed off grain.

I enjoyed this project and hope the baby and parents that receive this quilt will enjoy it also. I don't generally get a chance to do much 'girly' sewing, so this was especially fun for me to do.

Cooper's Stitches

I ran into another machine embroidery site today. They have a small but growing site with a lot of sample projects, examples of how to combine designs to make a larger design or quilt block. They have some lovely floral designs (which I'm always a sucker for), animal and holiday designs. There is also a nice selection of FREE sample designs so you can do some stitch outs of their designs before you pay to buy one of their sets.

I think it is very important for machine embroidery design sites to have a good selection of freebies as money is too tight for some of us to buy something that isn't what we thought it would be. I have collected a massive amount of free designs and have also bought sets. I have never, however, bought a set from a digitizer that I haven't been able to do a sew out for free first. Probably one of the reasons I have been using and promoting Embroidery Library since it opened up. They give out free designs every month and they are very well stitched out. I also have bought many designs from them. Currently I'm just finishing up a Project Linus quilt that has a Butterfly in Flight design which was just perfect to go with the iris designs from one of my Janome memory cards. I'm almost done with the quilt and will be posting pictures as soon as possible.

Blog Update

It has been a long time since my last post as I have been BUSY. For the first time in years, I had enough physical energy to really do some significant Christmas sewing. I made my son and daughter in law matching winter scarves using the Funky Snow People from one of my favorite machine embroidery sites, Embroidery Library. These were free designs from last January and I knew as soon as I saw them I wanted to make something with them for my son and his wife. I did the embroidery on fabric and then appliquéd them onto fleece to make the scarves and then used decorative stitches to make snowflakes on them also. Someone had given me some beading supplies and so I used beads to decorate the snowflakes on my daughter-in-law’s scarf. I can see now why people can get ‘addicted’ to beading. It was fast and easy and in my case free. The only cost for these scarves was the fleece (bought as a remnant) and the thread.

As my younger son often uses our computer to check his checking account on line, I had noticed that he carried his check register separate from his checkbook and remembered that covers aren’t given out for free any more, I made him a checkbook cover with his monogram on it. My mother-in-law had mentioned earlier in the summer that she wanted an apron like mine that covered her whole front. I made her a butcher apron and matching potholder. I used a piece of lace insert that I had made earlier when making a top with a V-neckline to put in the V. Not being sure which color would look better, I had made two in different colors. The one I didn’t use I put on the top of her apron for a little bit of a girly look. The lace inserts were also Embroidery Library items although I think I actually paid for them. They were very reasonably priced as are all of their designs.

Knowing there was no way I could top the flashlight I gave hubby last year for Christmas (LOL) I decided that I would make him some throw pillows that would coordinate with the antique chairs he had recovered last year. I had great fun using decorative stitching, appliqué and machine embroidery to make him three pillows. They turned out very nice and he didn’t mind getting something that was really a present for the ‘house’. I also made him 2 pairs of pajama pants trying to use French seams to keep the fraying to a minimum. I discovered that trying to sew fabric with no right or wrong side in a solid color was an immense project for this dyslexic sewer. I didn’t tell him till later that actually the pants had been harder to make than the pillows.

What I did discover while making the pillows that my sewing machine is missing at least 4 of my favorite decorative stitches plus only has a minimal variety within the stitches that are there for when I’m in the ‘fancy sewing’ mode. So, I’ve been trying to find an older used Pfaff with lots of decorative stitches and the ability to create more on your own. I think I would like a Pfaff 1473CD, 1475CD or 7550. But haven’t had much luck with trying to find one to buy within my price range. The one I did buy, the box showed up at the house minus the sewing machine! So while the insurance company and seller battle it out I’ve been looking for another one and haven’t found it yet. If you have one in excellent condition that you would like to sell, please contact me!

Anyhow for me that was a lot of sewing for awhile and I have been very busy with getting our ecrater store up and going so we could leave ebay. Ebay has made so many changes in the last couple of years that it has become more and more seller unfriendly. Today we finally closed our ebay store. We have lots or inventory still to add to our ecrater store—conservatively 8000 more sewing patterns, so if you are looking for a pattern and can’t find it, please ask us if we have it as it could be sitting in a box waiting to be uploaded. Currently our entire New Look and Burda inventory is on line at ecrater and most of our Vogue Patterns. We just got in about 100 vintage Designer Original Vogue patterns that need to be researched and then listed and that should be a fun job. In the meantime, we have lots of McCall’s, Simplicity and Butterick patterns that are waiting to be uploaded.

With this move, I’m anticipating a bit more sewing and writing time as I’m also feeling much better than I have been. All apparently due to a change in the method of administering one of my arthritis medicines. Not completely well, but well enough that I feel like a person most of the time instead of a ball of pain

The Shack

Two days ago my husband came home with a book from the library for me. I didn't remember ever requesting it until hours later as it had taken awhile for my turn for the book to come. As I first held the book in my hands wondering how and why the library had sent it to me, I saw the author's name and as it seemed familiar, I flipped the book over and saw the brief biography for the author. Then I knew why the name sounded familiar! I had gone to college with this man (back in the dark ages).

The Shack is a New York times Bestseller and currently #2 ranking bestseller on Amazon. Of course, if a college mate of mine had managed to write a best seller, I wanted to read it and read it I did. It touched my heart and hope it will also touch yours.

This fictionalized account of a man meeting God is a fascinating story and if read with an open heart will help you understand the type of relationship God wants people to have with Him. I highly reccommend this book, which is why I'm talking about it in my sewing blog as if even one heart is touched by the reading of this book, then the time will be worth it.

Where did the summer go?

Where did the summer go? Suddenly it seems everything is colored orange, pumpkins are all over the place and the trees are changing color. I have been busy trying to make my hubby a pair of pajama pants. Should be an easy enough project right? Hardly when the pants are being made out of a solid color with no discernible right or wrong side and then throw in a dyslexic seamstress trying out a new technique. I never realized how many ways there were to sew something together wrong! Finally, I was done and I had certainly learned a few things--the most important being mark your right and wrong sizes before ever moving the pattern tissue!



Lingerie Secrets is a great book and certainly not the reason for my problems with sewing those pajamas. In fact I recommend it as I learned a lot from it. It has just enough text and photos to guide you along in trying some simple basic techniques. If you are looking for ideas on sewing lingerie, then this is the book for you as it covers camisloes, panties, slips, nighties, and boxers. It even goes so far as to remember the pregnant or nursing mothers with guidelines for them. The disabled with dressing problems even are shown some projects that give them more independence in dressing with a wrap half slip and a button/snap front full slip or nightie. As someone who has trouble getting her arms over her head, I was happy to see these ideas. I got my copy of the book from my local library and have a copy on my Amazon wish list as I do have a birthday and Christmas coming up. This book I would consider one of my personal top 10 general sewing books.

Apron Magic

I’ve never been the type of woman that thrilled to be doing housework. You kniw, the dusting, vacuuming and dishes. I always preferred reading a book or sewing. The one night I couldn’t sleep and at 3 in the morning found myself sewing a pink apron with white eyelet ruffles on the pockets. It was a butcher style apron that covered my whole front in case of splashes.

The first time I put that apron on something strange happened. I became Betty Crocker, June cleaver and the happy homemaker all rolled into one. I found myself cooking up a storm, thinking nutritious thoughts, cleaning and sweeping. I couldn’t stop myself. Every day that apron got more and more splashes and splats and I knew it was time to throw it in the laundry.

Now what? The old me started creeping back. What to do until laundry day? I went up to my sewing room and made another apron. This one had a white background with blue roses print. A pocket with lace and a blue rose embroidered from Janome’s Victorian Rose collection. I put that apron on and the magic returned.

I realize now that if I make a couple more pretty aprons I’m going to have a clean, neat house and lots of savory smells emanating from the kitchen. There’s just something magic about wearing aprons.

4-Hobby Machine Embroidery

I’ve found another interesting machine embroidery site called 4-Hobby. This sites has an eclectic selection of designs including Christmas, snowflakes, butterflies and flowers. It also has a Hebrew alphabet in two sizes, Hamsa designs, and other Judaica embroidery designs including Star of David and Chanukkah designs. I haven’t ever seen this type of collection of Jewish embroidery designs in one spot as it seems Jewish designs are fairly rare. They also have a nice selection of Freebies to so that you may try out their designs. This site would be worth your while to stop on in for a visit and a purchase.

Laura's Sewing Studio

Just found a terrific machine embroidery site, Laura’s Sewing Studio. I haven’t had the chance to check out all her designs, but I’m very impressed with the machine embroidered quilting designs. One is a Broken Star design that when put together looks very much like a Texas Star. The way the embroidery fills have been designed, they resemble fabric. She also has Grandma’s Garden, Double Wedding Ring, New York beauty and many more. If you are a quilter and a machine embroiderer, you have got to check out this site!

This weeks sewing

Little by little I've been working on them and this week I finally got finished with the large curtain panels for our 'sunroom' sitting area upstairs. They are made out of heavy decorator cotton and are lined. It is rather difficult to pin and sew something precisely when it is bigger than your cutting table, but one pair matched and were completely even at the bottom. The other set is off by about a 1/4". I would have agonized about that until I remember the curtains that we bought for our living room downstairs. Some of the pairs are off by over an inch or so at the bottom.

I still have to make the valances and tie-backs. The main curtains are a floral print and the valances are going to use a coordinating plaid/stripe fabric. Thankfully my brain got in gear just in time before I starting cutting that fabric and remembered that I had to cut them so that the repeats matched! Good thing that I remembered because when I was done cutting them, there wasn't an inch of fabric leftover!

I can hardly wait to get the curtains done as I have a stack of patterns that I want to try out and a closet begging for some new clothes!

We are also busy starting up our new store at ecrater. After many years at ebay we have decided that they are not the right place for us. It will take some time but eventually we want all our stock transferred over to ecrater where we be able to do things like have coupons for repeat customers. We love our repeat customers but have not had any way to show it prior to this move. In the meantime, visit us at both our sites for 1000's of New uncut sewing patterns!

Threads Magazine Back Issues

For a limited time only, Threads Magazine has many of it's back issues on sale. Threads is a fantastic magazine for learning how to sew, improving your sewing techniques and becoming a master of your craft. This is a great time to catch up on the issues you may be missing -- they just might have the answer to your latest sewing dilemma.

I have found sick days a perfect time to look through my back issues of magazines and have found even when my brain isn't functioning on all cylinders, that many or the articles and pictures penetrate and I learn something new that I didn't pick up the first time I read the magazine.

Gosia Designs

I just visited Gosia Designs and found that currently they have ALL their designs up for sale on one CD for $49.00. That is for over 2000+ designs! This company is great about regularly sending us notices that new FREE designs have been posted. I have used several of their monograms to embroider towels and they are gorgeous designs that sew out well. You can get their designs in all the standard home sewing machine formats, so this is a huge bargain. Even if you don't want to purchase the CD, sign up for the newsletter so you will know when you can pick up a free design.

I finished the top I have been working on and loved the fit and how it looks. The pattern has lots of optional ways to make the top, so I will probably be making this one again many times. It even has 3/4 length sleeves which I have found necessary even in the summer as my medications and sunshine don't agree with each other. I have to try my best not to expose too much and not to be roasting in my clothes.

I'm back to making curtains for one of our upstairs rooms. It gets most of the sunlight in the summer, so we need something up to help block the sun. I finished the lacey sheers and they make a big difference even without the main lined curtains that will be going up!

Butterick Sewing Pattern 5173

An FYI for anyone that has purchased Butterick Sewing Pattern 5173 in the past little while. Apparently there was a major problem with the pattern itself and it has been recalled. Please visit http://www.butterick.com/ for details of the recall. Our store Moonwishes Sewing and Crafts has never had this particular pattern in stock, so I don't know what the problem is. Just letting you know in case I can help one person keep from making a major mess of their sewing project.

Winter is rough for me. Arthritis loves this time of year but I don't. Even though it is now spring, as I type this snow is falling. I have been doing some sewing in 10-20 minute increments of time and am almost finished with a challis top. Compared to winter type fabrics, just trying the top on for fit felt like I was putting on a silk summer top it felt so cool and light-weight. When I finish this top, it will be the third one I have made since I started trying to follow the spirit of SWAP sewing even though I can't actually participate. I also have made 2 corduroy skirts from fabric that has been mellowing for a long time in my stash. I like the pattern I made them with so will be using it a lot. The best part was getting to make them 2 sizes smaller than the last time I made a skirt. That is always a happy day.

I managed to snag a couple Austalian Stitches magazines off of eBay and they were so much fun to read and look at. They have great articles and usually for more casual clothes which is what I need. I'll be looking for more of them as I can find them.

Planning a New Wardrobe

We are finally settled into our house enough that I can start thinking about other things than cleaning and unpacking boxes, although there is plenty of cleaning and boxes to unpack yet. I’ve been losing weight, my clothes are getting old and baggy and it is time for some new ones. While my sewing machine and supplies were packed away, I'd done lots of reading about wardrobes and wardrobe planning and decided it is time to put that knowledge into practice, with Sewing With A Plan (SWAP) as mentioned in Timmel Fabrics website.


Today I set a goal of what I wanted to accomplish. I need an easy-to-make, comfortable wardrobe of casual clothes. I can't have back zippers, no buttons, no excess stuff that makes wearing or caring for the clothes difficult. My life is complicated enough by arthritis that I don't want to make something that I can't get on or off by myself. According to the SWAP rules, I needed 6 tops, 4 bottoms, and a jacket. With those pieces, if made in coordinating fabrics, I should be able to have many outfits to wear. Well, we are on a budget and so I have to use the fabric in my stash so that will put some limits on the coordinating factor. However, as some stuff in my closet still fits me and I have nothing that works with it, I need to be solving that problem also.

My life is very casual. A big day out is going to church, the grocery store, a doctor appointment (way too many of those) or an occasional dinner out with hubby. When my uncle died about a month ago, though, I realized I didn't have a decent outfit to wear to a funeral and had to wear a heavy black winter skirt on a very hot day. I've had a bad habit of just making something whenever it catches my fancy so poor planning has been a problem when trying to get outfits together for those non-routine things.

I went through my own pattern stash, remarkably small considering how many patterns we have up for sale, but I try to leave some Plus sized patterns for our customers. So many patterns at first glance looked like good prospects, but I managed to narrow them down. Then I made a scan of the technical drawings from the pattern instructions. Here's where my lovely hubby came in handy. I showed him the technical drawings (no distracting model or colors) and discussed them with him. He has better taste than me and also is the one who gets stuck seeing me, so I value his input. After discussing with him the various patterns, I clipped out the different garments I wanted to sew and attached them to my storyboard. I then made notes about yardage and whether or not the garment used knit or woven fabrics.

This has been fun thinking about what I want and planning so that I have a nice variety of outfits. Now the fun part: picking out the fabrics to go with each pattern. To be continued...

Yard Sale Bonanza!

Do you ever dream of the perfect yard sale? It has all those sorts of things you have been looking for. Well I got to go to one last week. The lady, due to health reasons, was selling off many of her machine embroidery magazines, quilting books, and Burda World of Fashion magazines. Well I went a bit crazy and bought two boxfuls. I had a wonderful weekend going through the things I bought. I ended up with quite a few magazines to round out my own personal collection and those that were duplicates, I now have up for auction, so here is your chance to fill in the gaps of your own machine embroidery project collection. I even have some spare Jenny Haskins magazines up for sale. Check out the auctions at my store.

The Burda World of Fashion magazines, I'm still having fun going through and the thought of selling them kind of wrenches at my heart, so I may just keep those in my sewing room. I have heard of these magazines, but had never seen any in person before. Boy am I impressed. It is like looking through a fashion magazine, seeing all these great outfits on models, and knowing with the right attitude you can make everything in the magazine! There are even instructions on knitting the sweaters and fashion accessories that are shown. Each pattern in the magazine comes in at least 5 sizes, with a nice collection of Plus size patterns, men's and children's patterns also. You have to trace off your pattern pieces which seems to be the only difficult thing to do. My question is, does anyone have any handy dandy hints for tracing off the patterns pieces? Comments greatly appreciated.

I even got a large stack of quilting books, but haven't had time to even look through them yet. That will be for another day.

Vintage Butterick Patterns for Sale

Great news! We have new items up for auction on EBay. We have been listing some great vintage Butterick sewing patterns and thought you might be interested in checking them out. We have listed the appropriate measurements on each listing, so you don't have to be scared about what a size 12 in 1950 meant.

By the way, from what I can figure by comparing current standard measurements with those from the 50's and 60's, a size 14 now would have been a size 16 then. Even though the artwork on some of the pattern envelopes looks like the model only has a ten inch waist, the pattern will sew up to the listed measurement.

Factory folded in the listing means that the pattern has never been unfolded or used. The only way they could have been opened would have been by an expert map folder. Remember how when you used to open those old maps and could never again get them right, well pattern tissues are the same way, once they are open, they never can be folded to look the same.

Enjoy the auctions or purchasing vintage patterns straight from our store. We will be listing more vintage patterns as time allows, as vintage patterns take much more time to list due to researching their age and checking thoroughly into their condition.

Shop with us any time! Moonwishes Sewing and Crafts

The Joy of Sewing!

What a fun afternoon I spent in my air-conditioned tree house sewing room! I dug through my box of UFOs (unfinished objects) and found 4 quilt blocks in similar, though not matching colors to make some throw pillows. They will go with some older valances I made years ago that just went up in our entry room. And since I made them, I also have more fabric as I need to make one more valance. Only someone who sews can really understand being able to move into a new house, use older curtains, etc. and still have fabric to coordinate to make more things as the need arises.

I also plan on making a cushion to go over a storage box that will be nice for sitting on to put on shoes and dare I say it? -- Winter boots! It is horribly hot out now, but we have had so little summer, I hate to jinx things and have winter roaring in again.

I missed getting to sew for many months, but spent my time profitably reading many sewing books and magazines, so that now when it is time to sew, I can whip out projects without really having to think them through as I have been filing ideas away in my head for a long time.

Well back to the ironing board and sewing machine for me.

Finally!

After many months delay, we have finally moved as of the 1st of July. I love having all the room in our new house, but still have many boxes to unpack and put away (mostly books). I had to focus in on getting the bathrooms, kitchen and office in working order and then was finally able to start setting up my new sewing room. It is twice the size of my old one with a nice large closet. My cutting table is made from an old square grand piano circa the Civil War with the piano 'guts' taken out. My hubby the piano restorer (this one wasn't good enough to fix), set it up for me with a cut out space that my thread cart slides in and out. My sewing machine looks out over and past a huge walnut tree and into my in-law's back yard and woods. Since I'm on the second floor of the house, it feels like I'm in a treehouse.

Somehow prior to the actual move, I collected several more boxes and bags of fabric and quilting items, some donated and some purchased. Things are stashed neatly on the shelves for now, but some day I really will need to root through all the various boxes and get them organized and pull things that will never be used.

I have started my first sewing project, a simple crinkle cotton skirt. The fabric was $1/yard at Walmart and it survived prewashing, so I have high hopes for it. It is also in line with the SWAP sewing I have been planning to do. It is an olive green color which I normally wouldn't pick, but the green picks up the leaf colors in some of the tops I have. Even though it is a simple project, I of course, got side-lined by an arthritis flare-up brought on by way too much scrubbing of the old house to put it up for sale. And I definetly need some new clothes as I've been dropping over 5 pounds a month for awhile and things are loose!!!

Now that the move is done I'm hoping to start getting our ebay store restocked with a lot more patterns and sewing books. Visit us any time at Moonwishes Sewing and Crafts.

Aquamarine Ambience with Jenny Haskins

On my way to a doctor's appointment today, I picked up Creative Expressions #14. As I was looking through it this evening I was inspired to visit her website. I found the following message, that anyone who has purchased the book Aquamarine Ambience with Jenny Haskins by Simon Haskins would need to know:

"Stop Press: We apologise, it has come to our attention that design aa14, from Aquamarine Ambience is missing from the CD in the following formats; JEF, HUS, VIP and XXX.
Please download this file for the missing design" Click Here to go directly to the site.

I'm still separated from my sewing machine, but there is a project in this latest Creative Expressions that will make a wonderful project for getting reacquainted with my machine called: Jenny's Essence, Jenny Haskins Cheating Crazy Patchwork. It is an 18" little crazy stitch quilt using mostly decorative stitches and Jenny's Brand of stitch building. It would make a great practice piece for anyone who wants to get to know the decorative stitches on their sewing machines. Each stitch is diagrammed so that you can find it or a similar stitch on your sewing machine. Although it does use one machine embroidered design, it could be skipped quit easily with an applique in it's place.

New Free Embroidery Designs

Embroidery Library, has just released their new March Free embroidery designs plus a nice lot of Spring designs that you pay for (but they don't charge much!). Two of these new freebies are perfect for me. One is "So many scraps, so little time" for the quilter in me, and the other is "So many books, so little time" for the reader that I am. They also have a clover applique design with Celtic style embroidery on top. All in all a great bunch of designs and in two different sizes also. Don't forget that Embroidery Library's free designs are only good for that month and then you will have to buy them.

Fitting Book

Among the pile of sewing books that I got the other day, was The Busy Woman’s Fitting Book by Nancy Zieman with Robbie Fanning. I had seen Nancy demonstrate this fitting technique on television years ago, but didn’t have a written copy to refer to. As I have several body areas on my patterns that need altered when sewing, I have been reading up and trying to find a method that would work for me. I like Nancy’s approach that once you have fine-tuned this technique with classic style patterns, you will be able to add the same alterations to all patterns. I’m looking forward to trying out this technique as it doesn’t leave your pattern in multiple pieces and lots of tape attached to it and seems fairly simple and straight forward.

SewingBooks

Yesterday was sunny and an almost balmy 30 degrees. Time to get out of the house and to my delight a local town was having a Friends of the Library (FOL) used book sale. Hubby and I drove to it to see if we could find some good books to resupply our store. Unfortunately when we arrived, we found lots of books, but not many that would be an asset to our store.

We did come home with three boxes of books because I found quite a few books on sewing. Not really valuable books money wise, but valuable to me for reference when I'm sewing. I also found lots of those fun little mystery paperback books that can be read in an evening and provide more entertainment than a TV show. I even found a signed Tess Gerritsen hardcover book that will go into my own collection as she is one of my favorite authors.

My favorite find of all though, was The Complete Book of Sewing Short Cuts by Claire B. Shaeffer. I have one of her other books and was very impressed with it and have read many of her columns in Threads magazine, and so was happy to find another one of her books. The title is a bit of a misnomer as I didn't see many so called short cuts for sewing. What I did see was a sewing book author who thoroughly knows her stuff and presented it in a simple, easy-to-understand manner. The copy I bought is only illustrated by black and white diagrams, but perhaps a later edition may have colored illustrations. This book will definitely be referred to many times to help know the best way to sew an item.

Bought more fabrics today

Just because I don’t have my sewing machine handy, doesn’t mean I can’t plan and purchase stuff for sewing. I’ve really been thinking about the Sewing With A Purpose plan and have started planning some colors, picking out patterns and buying fabric. Of course, with the numbers of patterns I have to choose from in our store, I have to be careful not to try and hoard them all! I live a very casual lifestyle and so don’t need a lot of ‘dress-up’ clothes. Mostly I need clothes for around the house, grocery shopping, occasional nights out with hubby (dinner and a visit to Barnes & Noble) and church.

If a pattern has back zippers or buttons it didn’t even make the first cut. Formals and extremely complicated patterns also got the thumbs down. And while every article on wardrobe planning tells you that you need a tailored jacket, I don’t wear them and am not going to start now. I do like wearing my sweatshirts converted to a lightweight jackets as a cover-up although I only decorate them, I’ve never sewed one from scratch. Perhaps if I have success with the pink knit that I bought yesterday, maybe I will try.

Anyhow, I have narrowed my patterns choices down currently to 5. I want to make at least one dress, 3-4 skirts, maybe one pair of pants, 4-5 easy tops and a better blouse. Very ambitious plan for me. I do remember the summer before I started nursing school and needed something more than the ‘mommy’ rags I had been wearing, I made 11 items in 9 days and was watching 4-5 kids all at the same time so surely if I give myself some time I can get the above plan made.

My great hope is eventually get rid of the worn out, non-fitting, misfit items in my closet and instead have clothes that coordinate with each other at least to the point that each top or bottom has 3-4 matches. Currently I have some tops that only have one bottom that matches them and skirts with minimal tops to match.

At this point I am planning on using black and purple as focal colors with cream, pink, rose, light green as accents. I have some nice things already in the closet that would work already with those colors and my mother gave me a huge bag of fabric with some of those colors as solids also. Today I bought some purple crinkle Charmeuse, a cream cotton fabric, and a light color sheer with purple flowers on it. There is enough of the purple for a top. I was hoping the cream would be enough for at least a tank top but I’m about ¼ yard shy now that I have checked my patterns, but I will see how I can make it work. The light sheer I thought would be nice as a scarf, or accent fabric perhaps as godets in the dress I want to make. Anyways I feel like I am making progress at least in the planning of what I want to do and I think when things melt enough, my sewing machine is coming back home for awhile.

New Fabric!

I woke up today to blue skies, the temperature was a bit above 20 degrees, AND I felt great, PLUS Joann Fabrics was having a sale. I had a coupon for an additional 10% off of my whole purchase which was great on top of the sale stuff I bought. I bought two 3' x 5' cutting mats. One for me and one for hubby in his piano work. I'm going to try and learn to cut out garment patterns with a rotary cutter. I've used them for years for my quilting, but never for cutting out garments. Hopefully, the bigger mat will allow me to cut the larger pieces (I'm a big girl) without them falling off the mat or me having to shift the fabric in mid-cut. A friend gave me a new small rotary cutter which I hear is good for going around curves. All I know is that if I can't learn to cut out patterns this way, my future of making my own clothes will be ending soon. Trying to cut things out with scissors hurts my hands too much.

I found some pretty silky type fabric that I thought would make a nice skirt and was in the colors I've been thinking of using in my own personal SWAP--black, purple, rose. I thought there was only enough on the bolt for a skirt, but it ended up being almost 4 yards so I think I will have my choice of skirt or dress. I also found some pink knit 40% off and got 5 yards. I haven't sewn with knits much but I wear them a lot so this will be a project of learning to sew with them. I figure I have enough fabric for a wearable 'muslin' or a second project. Since pink is one of my very favorite colors I wouldn't mind having two finished items in the same fabric. Now to get my sewing room set up and be able to use my sewing machine again!

Too Cold, Too much Snow, Too many flare-ups!

It has been a strange couple of months for me and unfortunately not really good ones. My arthritis has been flaring up big time with periods of relief barely long enough to get the dishes caught back up. The cold and snow we have been having here in Pennsylvania hasn't really helped either as my artificial knees can't handle cold weather below 20 degrees. So week after week I have been sitting at home feeling miserable.

To make things worse, we are having permit problems with our new house and can't move in yet. This, of course, we found out after I had moved all my sewing things over to the new house. So I haven't even been able to do little projects.

The one thing I have been able to do is surf the internet for which I am very thankful. I have found some interesting sites including one that has a lot of information on Sewing With A Plan or SWAP. All about making some basic pieces for your wardrobe in coordinating colors for tops and bottoms and with eleven pieces you will have wonderful opportunities for mixing and matching clothes for all occasions. This is an area that I having been thinking much about as my clothes are all getting to be on their last legs so to speak. I want to have an organized approached to my sewing for maximine effectiveness. At the same time I also have to cater to physical problems which makes back zippers or buttons impossible for me anymore, tighter fitting pullover clothes are harder now to pull off. I also want to take into account clothes my hubby would like to see me in and clothes I would like to wear and find comfortable. I'm having a hard time explaining to him just exactly why jumpers are so comfy to wear.

SWAP is a fantastic idea for planning your sewing. Click on the links and read more about it. Timmel Fabrics actually is sponsoring a SWAP contest and even if you don't want to participate in the actual contest, there are lots of great ideas and photos to see what other sewists are making and will give you ideas for your own wardrobe planning.

Crafty Geometry

Crafty Geometry that explains how scientists are using knitting and crocheting to visualize scientific principles. Quilters have long known that they use the principles of geometry for much of their piecework, but seeing some of the designs in this article made me really appreciate the skill that goes into knitting and crocheting three-dimensional shapes. What an idea for teaching simple geometry to students!

Freezer Paper Stencil

Hoping this link works. It is a cute idea for using freezer paper to make stencils for decorating a onsie (or any other fabric). I found it in a blog called Crafty Daisies .

Moving my Sewing Room

I've been packing up my sewing room and moving it off to the new house. Of course, I would like to be working on a project but it would be a little difficult as cutters and scissors are packed plus some of the fabric and all my idea books. I didn't get any new sewing books for Christmas, but did get a Barnes & Noble gift card and then Barnes & Noble sent me a $10 off $40 coupon which needs redeemed by the 17th. which means I get a new book or two as soon as I can get to the store.

I want to wish all of you a very Happy New Year full of fun sewing projects and joy and peace in your home. Don't forget for your pattern needs to visit our store. As soon as our move is over, I have about 500 more patterns to add plus a lot of vintage sewing patterns. During our move, we are keeping our store open and don't anticipate any significant shipping delays.

Glass Dresses

Now here is a new concept. Make your dress out of glass. Actually this is an artform and you will need to click on each picture to see each of Karen Lamonte's creations in better detail. They are incredible! I saw mention of this site from one of my favorite sites: Dress a Day which is also an incredible site expecially if you love sewing or just looking at vintage dresses. Erin, the author of Dress a Day blog has an absolutely magical way of writing and you will soon get hooked. Too busy to visit these sites right now? Bookmark them for when you need some 'me time', you will be glad you did.

A New Christmas Apron

Perhaps it is because I didn't have a huge list of sewing projects to make this Christmas, but all of the sudden it seems I'm doing a lot of Christmas sewing in the past week. It helps to have the pressure off of having no 'MUST DO' list. Today I made a butcher style apron out of the most glorious Christmas fabric--bright red poinsettias on a black background with gold highlights. I used eyelet lace with red ribbon threaded through it and tied in a bow to decorate the pocket. I have to have pockets in my aprons.

I was a bit nervous when I saw the curved parts of the side that I would have to seam down. However, as it was bias cut, pressing the seam allowances under twice and then setting the needle to hit right on the left edge of the fold produced a beautiful seam. It will be fun to have a bright new apron to wear while serving dinner. Of course, after finishing the apron. I realized that the pot holders I made last night don't match the apron, but since they do coordinate fairly well, I should probably skip trying to make some matching ones.

I think at this point I have to get back to sewing curtains. Bathroom ones this time. Hubby wants something sumptuous.

Quick Christmas Gifts

After working on several huge, time-consuming projects, it has been a pleasure to sit down and make some quick Christmas gifts. Just in the last couple of days I have made 7 potholders/hot pads and three rice bags to stick in the microwave or fridge for soothing warmth or cold for boo boos and sore muscles. In between those I have made three flat valances for my sewing room that will be gathered on the rod.

Potholders: Take two 6 1/2" squares of matching or coordinating fabric, padding or backing (I had left over pre-quilted fabric) and a 25" strip of 2 1/2" fabric to bind the edges. Pin the fabric on either side of the batting right side out, sew a line of stitches diagonally from corner to corner--a good place to have fun with decorative stitches. Iron your 2 1/2" strip of fabric wrong sides together, fold about half and inch of the beginning of the strip to the inside for a clean finished edge. Place the strip behind your potholder with tops and edges matching and sew it down with about a 1/4" seam, then flip it over and sew it down on the front with a seam near the edge. Do this on all four sides and you will have a potholder. Repeat until you are out of fabric or out of your mind! If the corners are hard to stitch down due to the bulk of the fabric, just start where you can and then turn it around and finish sewing from the opposite direction. I had a head start on the potholders because when I opened my box of Christmas fabrics, I found leftover pieces from various projects including sufficient strips for the binding.

Rice Bags: I have made these in several different styles, but this week was a simple one. Take two wash clothes (I found a batch for something like 18 for $3 at Walmart) and sew around three sides. I used a triple stitch for extra security. then sewed up the middle of the bag and then at about the middle between the middle and the edge, ending up with 4 channels. These I filled about 2/3rds of the way up with cheap rice. and then sewed the top shut. Not exactly pretty, but very functional. You can heat them in the microwave for a couple of minutes to get them nice and warm and apply to whatever part of the body needs the soothing heat. Conversely, you can keep them in the freezer as handy ice packs that are reusable.

Happy sewing!

Sewing Techniques

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to purchase a huge stack, 10 years worth, of back issues of Threads Magazine. I enjoy reading them and learned lots of sewing techniques that I had never known before. It hasn't been until the last couple weeks as I have been doing a flurry of sewing that I realized how much useful information I had retained from reading 9 months ago. My sewing has definitely improved and I have learned to take advantage of some of the neat things my Janome 6500 can do. This may sound silly, but I never realized what the big deal was about changing the position on your needle was. My way of sewing was aim the needle where you wanted the stitches to be, why change the needle position. Why? Well, by changing the needle position, you are leaving more fabric under the presser foot for more even feeding of the fabric. This of course means more even, straight stitching, and no more falling off the edge of the fabric. I've been hemming an immense about of curtains and have found this to be a very practical item to know.

Anyhow I just finished sewing 2 valances for my new sewing room. I decided not to do full length curtains as I don't want to spoil my spectacular view. I'm using a chunk of fabric my husband had bought me as a gift several years ago--white background with multi-colored Morning Glories as the print. The selvage edge calls it Potpourri, 100% white weight cotton. It should add a nice fresh accent to the room which is painted a very pale pink.

Another Big Project Finished

Last night I finally finished the quilt I was making for my father-in-law for a thank you gift for helping us build our dream home. It is a scrap quilt using the strip piecing, sew and flip technique. Each block was sewn with the batting and backing intact so that when I was done I had 96 blocks to attach to each and TaDa a finished quilt. I used instructions from Sharon Pederson's Reversible Quilts and More Reversible Quilts books. Attaching the blocks to each other in the beginning was very easy, but as the sections got larger I had a lot of weight and drag that I was coping with. I remember when I was on a cruise with Doreen Speckman she equated machine quilting to wrestling an alligator. I felt like I was wrestling alligators last night. I think part of the problem will be solved by my new sewing room that I will be moving into soon where my sewing machine can be set up with more room to spread out the weight of a quilt. Up to the very end, though, I did enjoy using the technique and plan on trying it again only probably with a smaller nap or lap sized quilt.

The big surprise with this quilt is, as usual with a scrap quilt, you really can't judge what it is going to look like until it is done. I wanted a predominately a light and dark blue quilt with a touch of red for an accent. When it was all put together, the quilt shouts "here I am" and the red is what you see. It is such a bright and busy quilt, I hope he doesn't have problems sleeping under it.

My wonderful husband gave me my Christmas present yesterday. My own Log Cabin quilt that he had made out of granite and marble! Yes, you heard that right! At the bottom of our staircase in the new house is a landing that he cut up all these pieces of dark granite and light marble into a perfect rendition of a Fields and Furrows Log Cabin quilt. It is fantastic and a present that I'll always have to cherish--once we are in this house, I have no intention of ever leaving.

I've been very busy selling sewing patterns out of our store and I suspect a lot of people are going to find new pajamas, robes, scarves, hats and mittens under the tree made with loving hands. Things have finally slowed down a bit and so I have time to touch on a few things I've been meaning to post. The Embroidery Library has posted their new December free designs (see I told you I'm running behind) and one of the designs are some applique ice skates. This would be useful for trimming a gift for the young (or old) ice skater in your life. They are also offering a Christmas trio of a snow man, Santa Claus and a reindeer all together with a "Merry Christmas" greeting on it. I also just this evening got an email from Zundt Design and they have a lovely Freestanding Lace Angel for download. It really pays to sign up to be on the mailing list of your favorite design sites, as you never know when they might offer a free design that is just what you are looking for. I was able to decorate some new towels for our house with a great free monogram design that I had gotten from Gosia Embroidery Design and knew it was exactly what I had been looking for.

Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas!

Replacing things

Why is it when something has given you years of service, when it finally breaks you can't find the same thing again. Companies seems to tweak and change those items that work perfectly well. Why my mini-rant? After many years of service, my rotary cutter died on me. It had seen me through what felt like miles of fabric and many quilts. It was comfortable in my hand, and did what it was supposed to. Do you think I could find the same one again? Hardly! I went on line and tried to research the latest rotary cutters and they all had good and bad reviews. Anyhow I had a chance to get to JoAnn Fabrics today and found a Fons & Porter cutter made by KAI (like my last one) the handle feels comfy. It was on sale. I also found a Fiskars cutter that was cheaper but looked like it would be comfortable to hold. With arthritis in my hands, comfort is the optimal word when picking out a rotary cutter. Since I had a 40% off coupon, I went ahead and got both for basically the regular price on one. Now when I have the energy I can try both out and see which works best.

Even with my cutter broken, yesterday I managed to make some trip quilted blocks for the quilt I'm working on. They still need to be trimmed down and so it will be a good test of the new rotary cutters ability.

I had lunch with my mom today and in her late 70's she has taken up quilting too. So nice to have a quilting buddy, but very weird to have the woman who taught me how to sew asking me the questions now.

One Huge Project Finished!

Finally after several months of work my bedroom curtains for our new house are finished. I just finished the valances about a half hour ago and they look great. Once we move in and I get them hung, I will try to post a picture. I have never seen window dressings like these so I feel very creative! I took such a long time because of the massive amount of machine embroidery (about 20 hours worth) plus my own physical limitations (I can only sew for about an hour at a time). I have a great feeling of accomplishment and can hardly wait to hang them up.

Now to finish my father-in-law's quilt, curtains for the new bathroom, the sun room, the sewing room, living room, kitchen, office, other bathroom and so it goes. And somewhere in there I would like to make myself some clothes. Selling patterns everyday, I keep running into ones I'd like to sew but just haven't had time. My new sewing room has a huge picture window and I'm scared I'm going to be so mesmerized looking out the window into the woods that I will forget what I'm doing!

Holiday Craft Projects

Still looking for some great ideas for holiday craft projects? I found a site with a huge amount of project ideas. Check out This link to see all the great designs. They are based on machine embroidery and embroidery fonts. Even if you don't have machine embroidery capabilities, you could still use the ideas and decorate with decorative stitches, lace or appliques.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all. I did my cooking yesterday and have had time for a nap, a little reading, some sewing and some time updating my blog into the newer format. I'm looking forward to being able to add some extra content without the need for all the HTML!!!

I am so thankful for a wonderful hubby, my kids and family, a roof over my head, food in the pantry and hobbies that take my mind off of my infirmaties. God is so good.

Just a reminder for those of you how don't really like going out and facing the crowds shopping, we have some great items for sale in MoonwishesStore including lots of sewing patterns for great gifts, some premade items that you just have to add some embroidery touches, and counted cross stitch and needlepoint kits. Well, some of those kits might not be able to be made in time for gift giving, but everyone needs a chance for a little down time.

Free Standing Lace Nativity Set

Another internet search at 4 in the morning, but finally had a chance to check out The Embroidery Library latest newsletter. Just when you think they can't push the boundaries of machine embroidery any further, they come up with this, a Free Standing Lace Nativity Set! I can't seem to publish the picture, but it is worth it to visit the site to see. An industrious person could get this set sewn out in plenty of time for the holidays. The set comes in two sizes, for 5 x 7 hoops and 4 x 4 hoops and in multiple machine formats.

A Couple of Neat Sites

The other night, I was hurting quite badly due to my arthritis and couldn't sleep so figured a change of position might help. I ended up in front of the computer at 3 in the morning and somehow found a wonderful blog called A Dress A Day. Not only was it informative, it was funny and after about a half hour visiting there, I was ready to go back to bed and was able to sleep. Anything that relieves pain and helps me sleep is a good thing and I thought some of you might like to check it out.

I found another wonderful site today -- can't even remember how I got there (oh the wonders of the internet!). It is called The Frock and contains detailed photographs and descriptions of vintage designer garments. It is a wonderfully laid out professional site that could probably keep you drooling over the clothes for hours. The best part is you can actually purchase these clothes. They aren't in my budget, but to see the lovely pictures should be inspirational in our own sewing.

On the home front, I finally finished embroidering all 16 motifs on the valances for my new bedroom curtains. At that point I had an urge to do a little quilting so made four more quilt blocks for the quilt I am making for my father-in-law. Maybe tonight I can get back into the sewing room and work on finishing the valances so I can move on to other projects. I liked doing the embroidery, but realized it was a long stretch without doing any quilting.

Busy Summer!

What a busy summer it has been! If I wasn’t sick, I was busy packing and getting ready to move (hopefully in just a few weeks). We will be moving into a house with a lot of windows, so I have been working on making curtains. Since I’m not one to change decorations often in our home, it took me awhile to decide what I wanted to make and then do it. So far for the bedroom, I’ve made lacey sheer under-curtains, curtains with a two fabric border and now I’m working on valances. As the main curtain fabric is black with beautiful flowers all over I’ve been embroidering bunches of flowers at intervals on black fabric. Total of 16 motifs to embroider, each taking an hour to sew out assuming everything goes well!

I had read in one of my embroidery magazines that picking your embroidery thread by the color spots on the selvedge edge of fabric is a good way to be sure your threads match or coordinate with your project. I tried that and it has worked out well. It is hard for me to embroider the same thing over and over without changing so I, of course, ended up switching threads and thread types. This in turn has taught me more about tensions and directions of the spool of thread while sewing it out. I also learned that embroidering on black with lighter, finer weight threads didn’t give me the coverage that I wanted but I found by re-embroidering those areas in the same color before moving on, gave much better coverage and a brighter look to the embroidery.

One thing that I really wish my Janome 300E would do is signal when the bobbin thread is low. Unfortunately it doesn’t, so you find out that your bobbin thread is out when it runs out. When an embroidery motif takes over an hour to sew out, it is very hard to estimate if you will have enough bobbin thread. This may be an area if you are looking to purchase an embroidery machine that you check to see if it has a low bobbin indicator. I notice that Janome has come out with another embroidery only machine, but the ads don’t mention a low bobbin indicator. I’m not sure why they left off this essential item as many of their sewing machines have this technology.

Plus Sized Patterns

The August 2006 Sew News magazine came loaded with good information. The best was a review of Plus-sized sewing pattern companies. At our store we have over 200 plus sized patterns, but if none of those are what you are looking this list would be great to check out. I'll admit I went to every site and spent a couple of hours oogling. For your convenience I posted a links in their own section of my SquidooLens as a permanent resource for all of us nicely endowed ladies! Click Here and you will be taken to GaileteSews and the list.

While you are there, take a look at all the machine embroidery design sites that I have listed. Send me an email if I'm missing any of your favorites so I can add them to the list. I love using the Squidoo site for making permanent clickable lists as I tend to lose track of my sites.

If you have a plus-sized child, the current Sew News has an article on altering their clothes. This is something you don't see written about much and plus sized clothes are hard to find. Even while we have been stocking our ebay store, it has been very hard to find plus sized children's patterns. We have some, but not as many as we would like to see. If anyone knows of a good source for them, please let us know.

There was also an article on making your own dress maker's dummy using a garbage bag, duct tape, and paper tape. My hubby has already promised when life slows down a bit for him, he will help me make one!

Well my heading has been spinning with ideas after getting so many sewing magazines in a row (and I didn't even get my Threads magazine yet). I never even realized how many magazines I got till they came all at once and I tried to absorb all the information. My next project that I'm planning is making an embroidered coin purse in the hoop. This will be a first for me, and I'm looking forward to it.

This has been the week for mail which meant lots of new ideas for sewing or embroidering. I received my copies of Designs in Machine Embroidery, Creative Machine Embroidery, and my package of Creative Expressions with Jenny Haskins for resale in our store (I get to keep one copy for myself). Yet again, so many ideas and so little time. Plus our big library had it’s Friends of the Library sale where I got a lot more craft books and magazines. I need a couple of more lives to do all the projects that I would like to do. This why I sometimes get behind in blogging, I have way too many projects to do.

My latest personal project was making tassels out of pearl cotton to hang from some light fixtures in the house we are hoping to move into by Christmas. I’d never made tassels before, but it was a fun project except when the cotton got tangled up. I used about 10 different but coordinating colors to match some fabric that we will be using in the living room. The fabric we got was $10 at a yard sale for about 6 yards of great upholstery fabric and the pearl cotton was 80% off at our JoAnn’s Fabric store that has just gone out of business. I’m going to miss that store—I’ve shopped there for almost 30 years. All in all, the tassel project was an inexpensive one, yet it will add richness to the room.

In the latest Designs in Machine Embroidery, they have a great article on embroidering on blue jeans, including how to get around the pocket problem. Especially if you have a young girl or teenager in your life, you would appreciate the advice in this article. In the Creative Machine Embroidery magazine, they have all their usual great articles, but one really jumped out at me. It was about embroidering fabric to make unique piping. I probably wouldn’t use the idea for a huge project, but for something small like a pillow or one-of-a-kind purse it is a terrific idea. Creative Expressions with Jenny Haskins #11 is another great magazine with a special feature this month. The cover project, a topiary wall hanging, has not only the instructions for making the project, but a link to the FREE embroidery designs for making the project which makes this magazine an extra value! We only have 5 available in our store and you can get them by clicking here. We still have one copy left of Creative Expressions #10 as of this writing that you can purchase by clicking here.