News and Notes From Cool Stitches

Do you get the chance to watch the British Sewing Bee? I only get to catch others' snippets on Twitter and then click over to YouTube because it doesn't run here and I haven't plunged into the adventure of doing the work arounds to see it live. What I did see this week was The Buffet Dress.  I've never heard the term Buffet Dress, but I sure liked the silhouettes presented by Sewing Bee contestants in the highlights I saw! That took me on an e-journey to understand what makes a dress a buffet dress. And I like it. It...

I had so much fun today creating a DIY Easter Eggs for our Easter brunch centerpiece this weekend. I love decorated eggs and of course, I love all the stitch patterns on my sewing machine. Add to this the ease of accomplishing DIY projects with my Cricut Maker and this was a no brainer.  I gathered my old spool of colorful threads and some cream color pearlized cardstock and stitched rows of various stitch patterns across the width of the paper. I secured and covered the backside of the stitching by placing large adhesive labels on the back of the full...

This past Monday, March 15th, we launched our latest sew-along with the Florida Sewing Sew-ciety Fleming Island Chapter and had a blast. The initial group was small - or just right. It was an honor and so much fun to take the lead on this fun event that will span the next couple weeks as we sew along together to construct McCalls M7120. Let me bring you up to speed on what we covered in case you want to work on this project with us.  If you do want to sew along with us, we will meet each Monday evening...

As promised, I've assembled our first Furoshiki Handbag Kits and I'm pretty excited about them and our future ideas for them as well. First of all there's the concept that you can have a nifty and spacious carryall with a few folds, tucks, and knots of a piece of fabric - a different fabric every time the mood strikes you! Then there is the idea of having a versatile finished cloth to use for so many other things too: wrapping, spreading, covering. It's a nice thing to get into. That's where the furoshiki term comes in.  Here's a wikipedia excerpt on...

In case you haven't noticed, Michaels is moving into the sewing market space with their new offerings in sewing machines, fabrics, and supplies. They carry models from Singer, Brother, and Janome. A couple of the best reviewed models are on their shelves:  The Singer Heavy Duty which is quite popular and consistently receives high reviews. It's regularly priced at $229.99.  The Brother Cs5055Prw Project Runway Limited Edition Computerized Sewing Machine is a easy to tote mid-range model. (I'm a Project Runway fan - are you?) Great if you have to clear your sewing space to share a table, or bring it to...