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I Sew For Fun
What is it? – What would you do if you wanted to give someone the gift that is sewing? You know, to enable an individual to achieve their creative expression through sewing, whether that be fashion, quilting, home décor or crafting. Or, for that matter, any variation or combination of all of the above. What’s important to have? What’s necessary? First of all for any project in any genre related to the use of fabric in sewing or crafts, the requirement for making accurate measurements is absolute. Being able to precisely…
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Wonder Fuse
What is it? – Welcome to the wonderful world of Wonder Fuse. What is it? It’s appliqué. Well, more accurately, it’s how you do appliqué. Why do we want to do appliqué? Unlimited creative potential. We can take any fabric, plain or with design, and cut it in any shape to represent pieces of any scene intended by the artist and then attach them all together permanently to embellish our finished project. What genres does it apply to? All of them. This art form is used extensively in quilting,…
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Roll & Press
What is it? – These are pressing issues. Shakespeare might even ask, “To press or not to press, that is the question.” Well, no matter who is asking the question, the answer is the same, a resounding yes to press. Some very important things happen when we press each seam as we sew it and they make all the difference between something that looks “finished” and something that looks much more amateurish. Pressing as you go allows your project to acquire the intended shape more quickly and allows you…
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Nancy Zieman Hobo Tote
What is it? – For today’s active life styles a handy tote is a required accessory. Satisfying requirements of both form and function they are both fashionable and useful. Totes of one kind or another are available everywhere. So many styles, so many colors, so embellishments. But therein lies the problem. Which one? Choices, choices, choices. Well, here’s another choice for you. What if you could make your own tote? Pick your own style, pick your own fabrics, pick your own embellishments. And what if you could have more…
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Air Erasable & White Marking Pen
What is it?– “The devil is in the detail”. It’s a common enough phrase. Perhaps some of us has even used it. But what does it really mean, “the devil in the detail”? How often do we start a project that looks like it’s going to be a snap, only to get bogged down in all of the details. You know, all the little things that consume so much time, make us a little crazy and eventually affect the quality of our finished project or maybe even determine if it gets…
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Chacopy Tracing Paper
What is it?– Fashion, fashion accessories, heirloom sewing, quilting and home decor. All of these projects are often one time or another blank canvases that are truly enhanced with the addition of the appropriate decorative pattern. Some of these pattern designs are professionally developed while others are original work we’ve created all by ourselves. Beautiful, often meaningful patterns for sewing, quilting and embroidery. But they’re all usually on paper and we are not sewing on paper. How do we move them to our fabric in a manner that allows us to…
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Magnet Pin Caddy and Dome Threaded Needle Case
What is it?– “I’m on pins and needles.” We’ve all heard the phrase and we know what it means. A sense of anxiety or suspense. But how could that possibly apply to sewing? Pins and needles of course. We all use them but they’re all armed with wickedly sharp little points. Hence the anxiety or suspense. We’ve all been stuck more than once while we’ve had to sort through a pile of pins or needles looking for the one we need. But it’s a hodge-podge of shafts and points all aimed…
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Best Premium Assortments
What is it?– We’ve all been to our favorite purveyor of all things sewing and been amazed by the extraordinary selection of sewing machine needle styles. Lots of names like universal, denim, stretch, jersey, etc. It all sounds impressive but is it necessary? Can we do it all with just a universal sewing machine needle? Yep, we can. Do we want to? Nope. Why? Picture this. You’ve engaged a world class gourmet chef to prepare dinner for a very special family gathering. You’ve purchased all of the ingredients she specified and…
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Best Premium Needle Anatomy
What is it?– Every Tool School is packed with valuable, useful information. But if you use a sewing machine at any point in your creative process, this one may be one of the most important. So pay attention because there may be a test at the end of class. If I were to ask you what you thought was the most important physical element of your sewing machine what would your answer be? The sewing machine itself? How about a quality thread? Perhaps even the needle? Well, they all work…
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Supersize 5-in-1 Sliding Gauge by Nancy Zieman & Clover
What is it? – Sequels. We love them. We couldn’t wait for the next Star Wars, Twilight, Bourne Identity, or Captain America movie to come out. We were captivated by the first one and couldn’t wait to see what was next. As usual Clover has what’s next in the sewing notions category. And it’s an award winner. You know the original. You loved the original. The original 5-in-1 Sliding Gauge became the “go to” tool for virtually any measuring application we needed to do, whether quilting, fashion, home…