I hope you got to take look at the clothes I made with quilting cottons in Part 1 of this post and learned which patterns are best to pair with them. Now let's get to my top 5 tips for sewing with quilting cottons, interspersed with pics of these two adorable sets I made for sisters! Tip #1: Prewash. Many sewists don’t prewash their fabric. I think this is partly because ...
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Quilting cottons are inexpensive as fabric goes, come in a huge variety of fun prints and colorful solids, and are very easy to sew. Don’t let the “quilting” part fool you - you can sew clothes with quilting cottons too! With some thoughtful pattern selection, you can have great results using quilting cottons for clothing. Obviously, don’t choose a pattern that needs stretch, because quilting cotton has none. Also, it has ...
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What's better than a handmade, designer-fabric Hawaiian shirt? How about two handmade, designer-fabric Hawaiian shirts? This time around I will show you how to perfectly match the fabric on the pocket to make it nearly invisible. There's a pocket on there! My husband loved and wore the first Hawaiian shirt I made him with Tori Richard designer shirting so much I made him a second one from the same pattern but a ...
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The weather is finally cooling here in Atlanta and I’m reminded that I don’t actually have a lot of cool weather running gear. Obviously, as someone who sews, this was something I knew I could, and should, rectify immediately. So, I pulled out my go-to sweatshirt pattern, Hey June’s Tallinn Sweater and set to work designing what I think may be a new favorite sweatshirt. You may notice that I’ve already ...
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My daughter was home from college for Winter break and you know that means she had another cosplay challenge for me! This one was for the character "Pidge" from Voltron. As soon as I saw the fitted, military-style jacket, I thought, too bad it will be stiff and uncomfortable! Then I hit up Cali for some solid wovens and was thrilled to find STRETCH broadcloth! I never even dreamt I would ...
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The evolution of the sewing blogging community has been an interesting thing to witness. I myself have been blogging about sewing (off and on) since 2011(!). In those early days, the phrase TnT, which stands for tried-and-true, was used quite a bit. Many of us made it a habit to use the same patterns over and again in a variety of colors or fabrics. Why fix what isn’t broken, right? ...
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A pattern with simple lines is such a versatile tool for wardrobe building. Change the fabric, and you change the look. When it's a pattern you know fits you well or that you have spent time adjusting to your perfect custom fit, it's great to be able to sew it over and over without looking like 'that lady who always wears that same skirt'. Here are two different looks from a ...
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I love finding designer fabrics on Cali Fabrics! When the designer is named, it's fun to use some Google-fu to find how the designer used the fabric and let that inspire me. When I found this playful zebra-printed stretch twill fabric from Hudson Jeans, it was easy to find the designer's make by searching "Hudson Jeans zebra" and I found they used it for ... whadda ya know, jeans! It's a ...
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Hello again, friends! I hope you've all been enjoying Chambray Week so far! When we first started planning this theme, I knew I'd be prepping for a trip to the French Quarter Festival in New Orleans, so of course, a loose, casual dress was in order. I'd had a grey linen option on my queue, but when I saw this blue and white micro stripe (now sold out, sorry!), it jumped ...
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Isn't this bicycle print lawn just the cutest? I love everything bicycle so I had to have some. Turns out that after moving to my new house in Austin, I also needed a shower curtain for my tub-style shower. This was a quick and simple sewing project that takes only a couple of hours, but made a huge difference to my bathroom. I paired the bicycles with a white lawn to ...
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