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Extra Credit: Pom Pom Maker
Pom Pom Maker By Shannon and Jason Pom-Poms… those fluffy, puffy, wooly embellishments we all know and love. We made them during arts and crafts time at camp, attaching them to hats, and bags, and made wall hangings that were as campy as they were FAB. Just looking at them brings on a sense of nostalgia that is almost unrivaled. Okay… okay… Maybe our waxing nostalgic over yarn balls is a bit over the top, but we love them and an emotion such as love does not need to be justified, right?…
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Extra Credit: Top 10 Sewing Notions
Top 10 Sewing Notions By Shannon and Jason Take a trip to your local craft supply or sewing store and you’ll find hundreds of tools and toys that claim to make your crafting life faster and easier. But how many of these tools actually do the job they claim to do? How many of them are just taking up valuable space in your sewing room (I’m looking at you Potholder Loom). We’ve put together our list of the top 10 Clover tools we believe belong in any crafters supply closet.…
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Extra Credit: Pattern Cutting Guide
Pattern Cutting Guide By Shannon and Jason Like most crafters out there, we love our gadgets! It’s always fun to discover a new gizmo that speeds up a process or opens up new creative avenues. And, once again, Clover has created such a tool. Earlier this month they sent us a brand-spanking new product, a device we’re happy to add to our crafting collection, the Pattern Cutting Guide. If you’ve ever purchased a high-end pattern with no seam allowance, you know it can be a painstaking process to add one…
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Extra Credit: Embroidery Stitching Tool
Embroidery Stitching Tool: The Swag Tag! By Shannon and Jason We give you, the Swag Tag! NOTIONS AND TOOLS Clover Embroidery Hoop – Item #8812 Scissors – Bordeaux 130 – Item #4940 Embroidery Stitching Tool – Item #8800 3 ply Needle – Item #8803 MATERIALS Fabric Top – Plain cotton fabric or muslin, enough to fully cover the embroidery hoop. Backing fabric – recommend using felt or a paper textile like Kraft-tex. 6 ply Embroidery Floss 3-5 colors of floss (we used Aurifil Cotton Floss 18yd/spool). Colorful is the word…
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Extra Credit: Sweet `n Sharp Macaron
Macaron By Shannon and Jason So, you’ve been bitten by the creativity bug and decided that hand sewing is going to be your next foray into the maker world… WELCOME! There are so many styles to choose from… embroidery, sashiko, needlepoint, crewel, kogin-zashi, or cross stitch. Whether sewing is your primary form of creative expression, or you saw that one project which inspired you to pick up needle and thread, you’re going to love the versatility and vast range of projects that hand sewing encompasses. One thing that is going…
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Extra Credit: Embroidery Stitching Tool
Embroidery Stitching Tool: The Swag Tag! By Shannon and Jason We give you, the Swag Tag! NOTIONS AND TOOLS Clover Embroidery Hoop – Item #8812 Scissors – Bordeaux 130 – Item #4940 Embroidery Stitching Tool – Item #8800 3 ply Needle – Item #8803 MATERIALS Fabric Top – Plain cotton fabric or muslin, enough to fully cover the embroidery hoop. Backing fabric – recommend using felt or a paper textile like Kraft-tex. 6 ply Embroidery Floss 3-5 colors of floss (we used Aurifil Cotton Floss 18yd/spool). Colorful is the word…
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Extra Credit: Marking Tools
Pins By Shannon and Jason A quick glance at Clover’s website will show a plethora of items made just for marking fabric and projects…literally dozens. GAH! Where to start? We understand how confusing it can be. We keep a healthy variety of these marking tools at our cutting table, sewing machines, and workspace… just in case… which means we have a lot of marking tools. So, with all the options available to us, which tools do we reach for first when we are working in our studio? Glad you asked!…
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Extra Credit: Pins
Pins By Shannon and Jason It goes without much debate that the pins are the multi-tasking wonder of any creative space. And, more often than not, we tend to take them for granted until we can’t find one… or as the case might be, find the RIGHT one. Our philosophy in our art and life is to Embrace the Creative Chaos which means we have a w-i-i-i-de variety of projects going on all at once at any given time. So, for us, having the right pin at the right time…
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Extra Credit: Stack and Slash Pillow
Stack and Slash Pillow By Shannon and Jason This month’s Tool School Extra Credit focuses on that wonder of tools, the Clover Rotary Cutter. We have three sizes of the Clover Rotary Cutters in our studio. Three above our big cutting table, one on the smaller cutting table, and one 45mm in our portable studio kit. The project video for this month features the 60mm rotary cutter that makes easy work of multiple layers of fabric used for our Stack and Slash Pillow. What a name, right? Just wait… you’ll…
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Extra Credit: Hot Hemmer Square & Hot Ruler Large
Hot Hemmer Square & Hot Ruler Large By Shannon and Jason Well… Clover has done it again. Just when we were looking for a product, here they are with exactly what we need. They have expanded their line of pressing tools to include the Hot Ruler Large and Hot Hemmer Square. If you are a garment sewist, the larger ruler is something you are already familiar with, and it is this product we were JUST looking for to use in our own garment making as well as to adapt for quilting.…