Teaching Sewing and Alterations for Fun or Profit
Last week I showed you my sewing room. Today, I ‘d like to show you how I organize it. I was raised by a very organized mother. She taught me well. When you are finished with something, it goes right back where it belongs. But I’m not as good as I used to be. I…
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Where do you sew? Do you have a designated room where you can keep your machine set up at all times? Is it in a bedroom, a basement, a dining room, an office? Is it well lit, roomy, comfortable and has lots of storage and all the tools you need to create the projects of…
Read MoreIn the last post, we looked at a technique on How to Mend What the Dog Chewed Up, Part One. In that scenario, I mended a few small spots on two Vera Bradley bags that a customer brought to me to fix. Her dog had chewed them both to pieces. Today, let’s look at one of the bags.…
Read MoreAre the sleeves on your shirts too long? Shortening sleeves is a quick alteration. This technique will work for men’s or ladies shirts that have cuffs on them. Let me show you what I did on this purple shirt: There are two rows of stitching on the top edge of the cuff It’s a little hard to see…
Read MoreI have a customer who loathes zippers in her robes. So, she asked me if I could take the zipper out and put in buttons. No problem, I answered. However, before I started, I wanted to make sure that she understood that she was going to lose some of the width in the front. Putting in buttonholes…
Read MoreThe last post was on how to hem a pair of pants with a vent or slit in the side. This post will give you instructions on how to do a vent another way. This technique can be used with skirts that have vents on the side or center back seam. Here’s what this pair…
Read MoreOnce in awhile, you’ll buy a pair of pants that have a vent (or notch) in the hem like these: The vent is a slit that is located on the side seam of the pants at the hem. You may want to hem those pants up, but you don’t know how to replicate that vent. It…
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This is what a serged hem looks like up close: Maybe you have a dress, skirt, shirt or even a scarf that really needs this type of hem. You can duplicate this look with your serger (and I’ll give some pointers for how to do this on your sewing machine at the end of this…
Read MoreI just love my rotary cutter. Do you have one? They are so sweet. They make your sewing life a breeze. Also your quilting life. They are like a pizza cutter, except that they cut fabric. They are easy to operate. This model is made by a company called Olfa. Dritz and Omnigrid also make…
Read MoreMy husband presented me with his golf club cover this morning. It has a big hole in it. If you watch the golf channel (like my husband does), you’ll notice the caddies take the covers off the clubs by grabbing the top of the cover and pulling hard on it. I bet that’s what happened with…
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The Sewing Garden 