How to Make a Tote Bag (with pictures) - wikiHow

How to Make a Tote Bag (with pictures) - wikiHow: "How to Make a Tote Bag Do you need a tote bag, or know someone who'd love it as a gift? Are you bored with the selections in the stores? Or perhaps just too frugal to pay twenty bucks for something you could make yourself? Find some fabric for sale (or any abandoned fabric in your closet will work, too!) and put that sewing machine to work!"

Creative Christmas Stockings, Special Fund Raising

Ms Smith has been involved with the festival for six years, but it
wasn't until this year that her creative energies really started to
flow – in the form of more than 100 stockings.


As the fabric flew and the stockings began to take shape, Ms Smith says she just couldn't stop herself.


“This year I wanted something a little different. I could make stockings, that would be kind of fun,” she says.


“Honestly, since we (she and her husband) got back from vacation there hasn't been any day I haven't been sewing.”


They got back from their vacation in the summer.


Since then she has been sorting fabrics and spending at lease four
hours a day making these Christmas keepsakes, hoping they will be sold
and featured at the show.


While festival officials and Ms Smith have yet to determine the exact price, these stocking will go anywhere from $15 to $30.


A small price to pay for healthcare, Ms Smith says.

“Everybody can benefit from the proceeds. We all need a better health care system,”

Read on here


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Brother's Project Runway Limited Edition In Time For Christmas.

If you're a fan of Project Runway then this may be something you want to put on your Christmas Present wish list. Brother have just released a new Project Runway Limited Edition sewing machine to coincide with the season 4 of Project Runway.

Stay tuned this season to see where these new Project Runway Limited Edition sewing 
machines take the fashion, sewing and embroidery world. Prices start around $300.  
These new, inspiring sewing machines have just hit the runway at participating 
Authorized Brother Innov-is Dealers, timed perfectly for the gift-giving season.

Read all about it here


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Sew For The Home, Tips and Hints

There are lots of tips for sewing for the home, things like

• Measuring the windows
• Fabric estimator
• Make a simple curtain and valance
• Many styles of curtains
• Cushions
• Slip covers for dining chairs
• A duvet cover
• and lots, lots more

Just take this link and see for yourself. Sewing for your home


Technorati Tags: sewing tips, sewing for the home, sewing hints,

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Learn How To Mark Your Pattern Pieces

This is a fundamental of sewing, marking your pattern

Marking the pieces for your sewing project is an important--and
actually timesaving --part of ensuring a successful project. Taking the
time to do a good job of it will ensure the best possible results. As
you become a more experienced sewer, you may choose shortcut
techniques, but don't avoid this step altogether.


YOU'LL NOTICE that pattern tissues are printed with a variety of
symbols and lines that help you lay out the tissue on grain, know where
to place pockets, match seams and more. You must transfer some of this
information to the fabric pieces to aid in the garment construction.
There are a variety of tools and techniques used in transferring
pattern markings onto fabric

Learn more Here>>>>


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Sewing 101 – Just the Basics

Whenever you are starting out to learn something new, it is always a
challenge. There is so much information online and in books that it can
feel a bit overwhelming at times. However, if you take the time to
start with the very basic information and build your knowledge from
there, then your skills will surely follow.

Some good information here read on>>>>>


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Instructables Weekly Project: Make an iPod Tote Bag--Spring Fling Bling-Bling

I just found this site, looks very interesting, shows you how to make so many things, click the title below and take a look for yourself.

Instructables Weekly Project: Make an iPod Tote Bag--Spring Fling Bling-Bling: "Weekly Project: Make an iPod Tote Bag--Spring Fling Bling-Bling

You know those iPod tote bags that were all the rage on the morning news shows a couple of years ago? Costing around one hundred bucks, most of those bags seemed more suited for a fashion show rather than slogging music through your daily life.

After that high-societal craze died down, a more fanciful iPod tote bag emerged. While reasonable in cost, some of these bags would be tough to imagine toting around on the street.

Today, edgy designers like Burton have taken the iPod speaker system concept and wrapped it up in a stylish bag that is both practical and functional. This is snowboarder chic. Unfortunately, these 'x-treme' totes can cost near $200.

There has to be a better (read, cheaper) way. And here it is. Your own iPod tote bag for less than sixty bucks. You can take it to the beach, you can pimp your bag, and you can crank it up.

Sewing Tips - Make A Cutting Mat That Doesn't Slip

When you are sewing, rotary cutting mats are great for cutting with a rotary cutter. However, when you are cutting slippery fabrics, it is difficult to keep the fabric where you want it.

Here is a sewing tip on how you can make your own non-slip cutting mat.

Create A Cork Top Table

Use cork sheeting as a non-slip cutting mat when you are sewing and cutting silky, slippery fabrics or anytime you are cutting with dressmaker shears. The fabric doesn't move around like it does on the rotary mat. Poke your pins right into the cork to hold your fashion fabric. This is great for tracing patterns, too. Stabbing the pins into the cork holds everything in place.

Find cork sheeting at your local hardware store like Home Depot or Lowes. Wider widths are available there. Craft stores usually carry only narrow widths. Have the hardware store cut the cork to the size of your cutting table.

Draw vertical, horizontal and bias lines on it with permanent marker if you like. Glue a tape measure along the ends for quick measuring.

Cork sheeting is flexible and lightweight. You can roll it up when not in use. Or, keep it on top of or under your rotary cutting mat so that it is handy when you need it. It will keep the rotary mat from slipping on the table if you keep the cork under the rotary mat when not in use.

Another idea is to use cork tiles to create a cork top table.

More Sewing Tips

Raise Your Table Legs

To help prevent back aches, raise your cutting table up higher by placing tall cans like juice cans under each leg. This helps tremendously.

If you want to permanently raise the legs of your table and the legs are tubular, you might try PVC pipe. Put caps on the ends of the pipe or use casters to keep the legs from marking the floor.

Tip! When you are in the middle of sewing a valance or drapery and you decide to line it, but nothing is suitable or large enough in your 'stash,' use the next best thing . .

Steady Your Sewing and Overlock Machines

Use a square of cork sheeting under your overlock-serger or sewing machine to keep it from moving around when you sew. This is also good on the floor to keep your foot pedal from sliding around.

Make A Portable Cork Cutting Mat

Glue some cork sheeting to the backside of your small portable rotary cutting mat so you can take it with you when you go to your sewing classes or travel. Then, you will have both mats available when you need them.

Make A Cork Bulletin Board

Make a cork bulletin board to post your sewing notes, etc. Recycle an old picture frame. Glue cork to a piece of cardboard and frame it.

Or frame the cork with some trim from your stash or glue measure tapes around it or old spools of thread.

It just makes sense!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

©2006 Marian Lewis - All Rights Reserved
1st Step To Sewing Success

Marian Lewis is a sewing instructor and the creator of an amazing new fitting method for hard-to-fit sewing folks. In her ebook, "Common Sense Fitting Method For Hard-To-Fit Sewing Folks Who Want Great Fitting Skirts And Pants", find out step-by-step WHAT you really need, WHERE you really need it and HOW to apply that to a commercial sewing pattern. It just makes sense!

For more information, go to http://www.1ststeptosewingsuccess.com/fitting.html

Marian is also the author of other eBooks related to sewing including, "Sew A Tee Pee And Accessories For Your Tribe Of Kids" and "Classy Designer Straight Skirt" where she teaches basic and advanced sewing techniques.

Tip! Marian Lewis is a sewing instructor and the creator of an amazing new fitting method for hard-to-fit sewing folks. In her ebook, 'Common Sense Fitting Method For Hard-To-Fit Sewing Folks Who Want Great Fitting Skirts And Pants', find out step-by-step WHAT you really need, WHERE you really need it and HOW to apply that to a commercial sewing pattern.

To learn more, go to http://www.1ststeptosewingsuccess.com/sewing.html

Subscribe to the free Sewing Success Newsletter at =>http://www.1ststeptosewingsuccess.com/news.html

Sewing enjoying revival among teens

05:19 PM PST on Thursday, March 8, 2007

By JANET ZIMMERMAN
The Press-Enterprise

It's Saturday morning in Redlands and a dozen teenage girls gathered around sewing machines confidently stitch up beach bags and backpacks and adorn tank tops with their own embellished designs.

Story continues here