With so many great techniques in one placemat, it’s challenging to pick a favorite. Is it the unique decorative stitching? The straight line quilting? The patchwork featuring Jelly Roll strips? The itty bitty binding? It’s all of the above!
You can’t beat the sewing ease and fashion versatility of a classic scarf. There are really only two steps: pick a fancy fabric, finish the edge. We show three ways to hem a square and a rectangle – as well as our fave cutting tips.
A set of plants in these cute and clever baskets makes a lovely gift idea. They’d also be fun as table decorations for a family gathering – or set up an assembly line and make matching baskets to adorn the tables at a wedding.
It’s the call of the wild! Our adorable lumbar pillow pair features a Gregarious Gator and an Amiable Elephant. You’ll find all the steps for THREE different appliqué techniques: outline and stitch, raw edge, and reverse.
Covered buttons are cool! They add the special touch that says, “Stand back… I’m a home décor professional.” Making them with a kit is easy and inexpensive. We like working with the Dritz kits – available in lots of sizes.
Learn to achieve tip top topstitching and enviable edgestitching. For embellishment or assembly, stitching visible from the right side is an important detail and its precision can make or break the final outcome of your project.
No matter what kind of sewing you do, sooner or later, you will likely have to sew a dart. To get the perfect contour a dart should provide, follow our professional tips for marking, stitching, and pressing. We review 6 styles.
It’s a classic way to secure all types of straps and narrow panels: a stitched box with an “X” through the middle. The pattern provides strength and stability, and when done with precision, also adds a pretty detail.
When you want a pocket’s motif to precisely blend with the panel on which it sits, all you need is a little extra fabric, some tissue paper, and those tracing skills you learned back in kindergarten. We show you the step-by-step process.
If you look down at the inside seam of your jeans, you’ll see a trademark flat felled seam. It’s a technique to make the wrong side of your seam look as good as the right side. Get our tips and tools for several versions of the seam.
If the idea of sewing a 2D item (a flat circle) into a 3D item (a tube) sounds like something from another dimension altogether, read on. We break it down into a simple step-by-step process and even show you two different methods.
Magnetic snaps are indispensable to the construction of bags and more. The secrets to success are: having the time and patience to work in the correct order, and using extra precision in marking and measuring.
There is one particular type of hem we receive more questions about than any other: the rolled hem. Not to be confused with a narrow hem, a rolled hem is created using a special presser foot. Great for edges on lightweight fabrics.
Rivets can hold thick layers together at points where it would be impossible to stitch with a machine. They’re the tough guys of sewing, but are actually quite easy to apply with the right tools and tips.
We based our tutorial on the words we hear whenever we receive questions about this topic: "How do you figure out how much fabric you need?" "How do you cut all the strips?" "How do you sew all the strips together?" "How do you put it on your project so it looks smooth and pretty?"
From getting the spacing right, to cutting holes in the fabric, to the actual installation process, we’re here to prove you can conquer this hardware at home and get a professional result. Plus you get to hit stuff with a hammer!
Today’s machines can zip along at up to 1000 stitches per minute; you can see how a little length goes a long way. The shorter the stitches, the tighter the seam. The longer the stitches, the looser the seam.
Snaps are one of our favorite closures. They're small yet sturdy, like a cute little Corgi dog. But there's not always a lot of variety from which to choose. You can usually find nickel or brass, and the Western favorite: pretty pearl head snaps, every once in awhile, maybe a rhinestone alternative. But that's where
A true Sewing Survival Skill! The word fussy sounds negative. But in the world of sewing, a fussy cut is a beautiful thing. It means cutting in a way that precisely captures a specific section of fabric for a specific purpose.
We’ve pulled together our top ten articles that show a variety of ways you can keep things closed. Locks, snaps, zips, buttons, and more. If you need closure, we have some great ideas. Let us know which are your favorites.
If you want a flat, stable base, an inset base panel is the go-to option. It’s easy, but you do need to carefully measure and mark, then sew each side independently during construction. Follow our steps to achieve an expert finish.
It’s a little bit like the ancient art of origami. You start out with a flat square (or rectangle), and after a few folds, flips, and slices, you have perfect bias strips ready to become custom binding for your next project.
Outdoor jackets, yacht covers, baby clothes – the humble snap does it all. They’re easier to use than buttons and more durable than Velcro®. Find out the best tools to use and tips to follow to make inserting snaps… a snap!
If you can imagine it, chances are you can appliqué it! With appliqué, you’re free to incorporate almost any kind of graphic into your project. Learn our favorite tips and techniques for finding designs, cutting, applying, and stitching.
We love the quilting art of superstar, Heather Jones. A while back, she was kind enough to give us her favorite tips on straight line quilting. It provides a clean, modern feeling to a design, and is especially cool when densely stitched.
Zip-A-Dee-Ay! Please meet one of our favorite zipper friends: the invisible zipper. Remember, this zipper is shy, and likes to stay hidden in the seam line of your projects. In fact, with the exception of its slender zipper pull, you’d never know it was there. It likes it that way... and you will too! In
Corners get a bad rap. You get backed into them, things go wrong when you cut them, and when you're bad, you have to stand in them. In sewing, when two exterior raw edges come together at 90°, you're faced with hemming around a corner. If you've always been fearful about what lurks around a
Before you start to panic, this technique does not require a bathing suit or a surfboard; all you need is your sewing machine... and a desire for unique texture and style! We’ve shown you numerous ways to take fabric from flat to fancy: pleating, gathering, shirring, and pintucks to name just a few (see the