Zip it Up!

The project for the Kids’ Club last weekend was a cute bag with a zipper!  Can you believe it?!  The girls did a terrific job and some thought the bag would be perfect for makeup, pencils, jewelry or whatever.  It’s the perfect gift to make for friends, too.

Back to School

Well, the kids are back to school and it’s time you figured out what you are going to learn this fall!  Check out our new class schedule and be sure to sign up early to guarantee your spot.   You can download the schedule at our website.

Embroidery Club is back in full swing this Sunday, August 22nd at 2 PM.  I’m scheduled to attend Baby Lock Tech in St. Louis on August 29th and for 4 days we’ll get a chance to see the newest products from Baby Lock.  I’m so excited to tell you that we’ll have automation for our Jewel long-arm quilter, some remarkable enhancements to our Baby Lock sergers and so much more!  I hope you’re able to join us for our Open House on September 10th from 6-8 pm.  Not only will we share the new products from Baby Lock, but you’ll get a chance to meet fabric designer, Patty Young.  Mark your calendars!

Sewing. Again.

This sudden rush of fabric in the store has given me cause for “sew much more” sewing that I’m hardly able to sleep these days.  So many ideas run through my head at all hours of the day and night I can barely concentrate.  I recently suggested to both of my daughters a tunic pattern by Cynthia Rowley for Simplicity patterns.  I haven’t sewn a garment for these young adults since they were, well, let’s just say it’s been a while!  They were both excited, really (I was shocked), and older daughter chose the 3/4 length sleeve version while younger daughter went sleeveless.  And, just to show that I can be a little hip and trendy, I suggested an exposed zipper.  Yes, younger daughter already had a dress and skirt with this application, so I was in!  But, who wants a tacky (no offense) plastic exposed zipper?  That’s not stylish.  So, I went on the hunt for something I loved.  I found some Riri zippers that fit the bill for me and ordered in a few for the store.  You should see the bronze and silver!  Wow!  I chose a herringbone zipper for her tunic, which I made from the Summer Soiree collection.  It’ll look a lot better on her, so I’ll force her to pose for a photo shoot when she comes home in a week or so, but I thought you’d enjoy seeing a few shots of the zipper.  It’s easy to do (in fact this pattern specifically called for an exposed zipper!) and I intend to make my skirt from the Mezzanine collection with an exposed zipper, too.  A beautiful zipper is a terrible thing to hide, don’t you agree?

The tunic isn’t hemmed but the bottom is serged so you can likely see the serger tails hanging, and it doesn’t look so great on the hanger, but I thought you should see the front, too.  I really liked how they put in the armhole binding.   It was easy and looks so great–my kind of sewing!

Summer Sew-In Finale

We sewed like crazy this week and every project turned out beautifully.  It’s amazing to see how far these girls came in 4 days time.  Karen led them through the construction of a sewing basket, a game cartridge (or jewelry) holder, a pocketed bucket (perfect for stowing “stuff”!) and a quilted pencil bag.  We had a few snafus, but what sewer doesn’t?  I’m impressed that every project was completed and looked great, too.  I think it was a fun week for everyone, including us!

Shhh–We’re Sewing!

The summer sew-in girls are back for another 4 days of sewing.  Wow!  It sure gets quiet in here while they’re concentrating.  They finished up their game wallet, although I suspect a few of them will become jewelry totes, and began their bucket organizer.  That project sure has a lot of sewing, so we’re planning to finish it up tomorrow, just in time to get some simple quilting done on Thursday.  Here’s a little view of what’s been going on!

It’s so hard to say “goodbye”

We bid farewell to Bailey today.  Bailey was with our Summer Sew-In group all week, but alas, has to return home to Georgia and will not be with us for our second camp session!  Her grandma treated her to a week of summer sewing; in fact, Bailey and her grandma have finished quite a few sewing projects, including a great corduroy jumper she made herself from our ModBlooms Corduroy by Patty Young!

The girls did 5 projects this week.  They started the week making a great little holder for their sewing gadgets.  That bamboo point turner got a lot of use!  And, the nifty square fabric tray will hold jewelry or even napkins in your kitchen, so it has lots of uses.  They also made a boutique tissue cover.  On Tuesday, the girls tackled a bed caddy.  Virginia was so generous to gift hers to her college-aged sister.  These caddies work well under the bed mattress to stash books, journals or remote controls, but they’d even work underneath your sewing machine for a mat and a storage area for your scissors and other tools.  Wednesday they fashioned a stylish bulletin board cover, complete with pockets and today, our final day, they experienced the WHOOSH! of Baby Lock’s jet-air threading sergers!  These budding sewers used a serger to construct a useful (& stylish) pillowcase.  Each one was a success, even Madison taught us a valuable lesson about the knife on a serger and how to patch creatively!  Claire reminded us to “always put the presser foot down”, as she discovered how awful it is if you forget!  And, Katerina began planning just exactly what purse or other pattern she was going to tackle for her next project.

So, most of our girls return next week for another 4 days of sewing fun, and we will enjoy the addition of a couple of new friends, too.  I think you’d agree that they did a wonderful job!

Summer Sew-In!

Here are some photos of our first two days of Summer Sew-In!  We’re on task and really, everyone is doing a fabulous job.  We had fun with decorative stitches today; the girls are using Audrey, Sofia, Grace and two machines from the Choice series, so they have quite a bit of stitch selections!

More Fabric Fantasies

Yes, I’m a fabric-aholic, an addict.  I’m sure that most of you knew that already.  The terrific Moda fabric rep just left and I’m feeling woozy.  Lucky for me some of the fabric I wanted was all sold out already, or it would have been a disaster!  But, I’m so very happy to say that we are going to have nearly every print in the Santorini line by Lila Tueller coming in August!  Fun new fabrics by MoMo and Sweetwater are slated for September, and by then, our fabric fantasy will be taking its full shape.  Until then, start planning your projects and check out the delightful tutorials on Moda’s Bake Shop blog.   You might notice that the tutorial for “Angela’s Diaper Bag” features the Santorini fabrics, just so you get a taste of what will be featured here at Sew Much More in August!  I love every piece of that line and it was hard to choose, but I think you’ll be able to create some wonderful and unique projects with this new fabric.  Check it out!

Community Service Sewing

Our Embroidery Club was asked by St. Joe’s to make up some little bags for patients with chronic, lifetime diagnosis.  So, at our last meeting, I asked the Club to start making these little bags…the concept is that in writing down their worries, troubles, & fears down on a slip of paper, then tucking the paper inside the bag, the patient can unburden his troubles and give them to a higher power.  These are sometimes known as “God Bags”, as in the saying “Give it to God,” but I think the concept of unburdening yourself to a higher power really works for any belief system.  These bags can be small, because the patients will keep the bags close with them and perhaps tote them along to counseling sessions or medical treatment.  We’ll take the bags to St. Joe’s after our August Embroidery Club meeting.  So, use up some scraps, test some embroidery and make up a few bags that will help provide comfort.  Here are a few samples of what we’ve already received!

For the love…Ellisimo!

I’m getting ready for Baby Lock Tech in August, so I have to practice the “for the love….” chant that Steve Jeffrey will lead throughout the opening ceremony.  It’s kinda corny, but really, Baby Lock’s tagline, “for the love”, really captures the essence of the Baby Lock commitment to its products and customers.  Yes, everything they do in these machines is “for the love”…of sewing, embroidery, serging, whatever.  And, frankly, sometimes we forget these little nuances.  So, when I recently checked out a customer’s Ellisimo, I rekindled my romance with Ellisimo.  You know, sometimes your loved one will give you that secret look that makes you swoon all over again.  Well, that’s what Ellisimo did for me!  This is one of the smoothest operating machines I’ve ever seen.  The sound of it humming along, while sewing or embroidering, is sweet.  If you don’t believe me, you should come in and test-listen for yourself!  What else did I rediscover?  When I took her embroidery unit out of the carrying case, I gasped at the “seat belts”.  I had completely forgotten about them.  And, they’re set up alternately, so you can fold them over and out of the way without that crazy velcro looping and getting stuck on itself.  How clever?!  I discovered a whole page of decorative stitches that would be terrific for machine smocking and remembered the cute character decorative stitches, including ladybugs, that’d be great for embellishing (try variegated threads for this!)  There’s a cool feature under the sewing alphabets, too.  You can actually control the spacing of the letters, without increasing or decreasing the actual size of the letters themselves.  This is a new twist and the machine remembers what your “favorite” spacing setting is, even after you turn the machine off!  The little door that covers the connection for the embroidery unit closes on its own, and what about that little screwdriver?  It sure is much better and easier to use than a nickel!

Maybe it’s time that you rediscovered the Ellisimo, too…for the love!