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Extra Credit: Soothing Eye Pillows
We try to take a little time for self-care each day. Try… Whether it be exercise, yoga, reading a book, listening to music, or just taking a moment to close our eyes, we all need a little pampering every now and again. Even if it’s just a small thing, a few moments of self-care go a long way to making sure we don’t end up under the dining room table with a box of cheese crackers, a bottle of wine, and a gallon of ice cream. When you need just a…
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Wonder Pins
What is it? – Basting just may be one of the least enjoyable elements of the sewing process. So why do we do it? Well, we have to. Basting ensures greater stitching accuracy. It makes the difference between something we’re proud to show and something we quietly and secretly put in a bottom drawer somewhere and forget. Basting with either stitches or pins is like a practice stitch or a trial run before we permanently sew our final seam. Turns out it’s just the best way to temporarily join layers of fabric together while we adjust…
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6-in-1 Stick ‘n Stitch Guide
What is it? – Did you ever wonder why we have all of these sewing notions? All of these tools that we use almost every time we sew? Quilting, fashion, heirloom, home décor or crafts, it doesn’t really matter. There are tools that apply to all of them while some notions are very specific to just one in particular. But why do we need them? When we start any project, we envision exactly what we want the finished article to look like, whether we’re replicating a sample or have something more original in mind. We…
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Extra Credit: Sashiko Book Cover
We love books; cookbooks, novels, photo albums, and journals. Visitors to our home on more than one occasion have marveled and asked, “have your read all of these?” Yes, we have. Many times over… Because of that, we occasionally have to cover a favorite book with a homemade cover to keep it safe, just like we did with our science books in grade school. Often a simple cover will do but, for our favorite books and journals we give them a special cover. For this project, we are using one of our…
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Tailoring Tools
What is it? – Open any catalog of sewing notions and you’ll immediately be overwhelmed. There are so many specialty tools with each designed to assist us in our various sewing tasks. But as the “specialty” moniker suggests, they often apply only to a specific niche (or even micro-niche) of a particular sewing operation. But what about the other sewing tools, the ones we use all of the time? What about those sewing notions that have expansive applications to a wide spectrum of sewing requirements? Take tailoring or dressmaking for example. What are the operations common to most…
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Marking Tools
What is it? – Let’s think about it. What do we do when we sew? What comes after the creative vision is set and after finding the perfect fabric and the perfect accessorizing thread? We cut that beautiful fabric into smaller pieces and then, well, and then we sew it all back together again into a larger piece of fabric. But it’s the shape of those pieces and the way they are assembled that brings a smile to our faces. So how do we do that? Measure, mark and cut. The more precise each function is accomplished, the more…
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Extra Credit: Use the Mesh Transfer Canvas to make a Butterfly Shirt
If you all have seen our previous blog posts and Tool School Extra Credit projects, you know by now that we love a good embellishment! For this project, we are going to be using the Mesh Transfer Canvas from Clover and let us tell you… it is so easy to work with. Also, because it is clear, you can use it to trace an outline from any photo or printed design. Once your item is traced onto the canvas you simply place the canvas on top of your fabric and trace…