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Silk Threads
What is it? – China, circa 3600 BC. That’s where it all started. A young Chinese empress expressed a desire for a luxurious new fiber and silk was the result. Threads of different types had been around for many years but this was different. In fact, silk was very different. It had a texture and luster that set it way apart from anything else. It rapidly became the luxury fiber distributed only among the powerful and wealthy. But the appeal was too great to keep under wraps and its use…
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Tool School: Pom Pom Makers
What is it? – Think of the stereotypical ski hat and you’ll realize that it just wouldn’t be complete without a pom-pom on the pointy tip.
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Tool School: Silk Threads
By Steve Butler What is it? – China, circa 3600 BC. That’s where it all started. A young Chinese empress expressed a desire for a luxurious new fiber and silk was the result.
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Tool School: Clover Scissors
By Steve Butler What is it? – Scissors. It’s hard to imagine doing anything in sewing, knitting or crafts without them.
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Tool School: Wonder Knitter
By Steve Butler What is it? – As children, most of us can remember having an old wooden spool with four rounded metal pegs protruding from one end.
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Tool School: Knitting Notions
What is it? – When it comes to knitting and crochet it’s all about knitting needles and crochet hooks, right? Not so fast. Take a quick look in your knitting kits or visualize the process of completing any project.
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Fusibles
What is it? – Interfacing is used in many sewing and craft projects to provide extra support, body, reinforcement or shape. Basically it enhances our creative potential by allowing us to do things beyond the capability of the fabric alone. A fusible interfacing is a specific type of interfacing that has a heat activated adhesive applied to it. This “fusible” type interfacing allows us to simply iron it into place. Clover and Nancy Zieman have taken this convenience a step further in the development of four really cool fusible…
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Stick ‘n Stitch Guide
What is it? – We take such great care with our sewn projects. Crafts, quilts, fashion, home décor, it doesn’t matter what. We envision exactly what we want to create. Once we have that picture, everything about it has to be just perfect. Patterns, fabrics, threads, and accessories are all selected with great care. We measure, mark, cut, pin and press with precision. And then, well, then we put it all together. We sit down at our sewing machine and put thread to fabric. And that has to be…
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Mini Beading Loom
What is it? – As children, many of us went to scout camp or attended other summer activities where beading was a staple activity. It was fun, fast, creative and we were left with something that was uniquely ours. Unknowingly that was our introduction to an art form that was thousands of years old. From the earliest of times our ancestors were accessorizing their clothes, their tools and even themselves with beads. They were worn, traded and valued by the owner. Happily bead weaving is alive and well today and…
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Create-a-Pincushion
What is it? – Pincushions have been a necessity for about as long as the needle and pin have been used. Picture someone sewing by candlelight in the Middle Ages. She puts her needle down to adjust the fabric or throw another log on the fire and when she reaches for it again . . . well, it’s nowhere to be found. Necessity truly is the mother of invention. The pincushion was developed initially out of a need to organize and store pins and needles and then developed into so…