What do you want to learn?
Kelly

This post contains affiliate links.

At some point, we were discussing organizing magazines and Bobolots (her forum name) said these were great for magazines. I checked them out and they are great! More on that in a moment. Check these out!

When they first arrive, six of them are stuck together:

So you pull them apart:

Then you take out the middle piece – this is where the magazine pages will slide through.

And then you need to poke out the little holes for the binder rings to go through. You can stack a couple of these together and push them out.

I put mine over a couple of my pattern weights because it’s easy to push through the holes that way and the little plastic pieces don’t go flying all over.

For the children’s issues, I use two binder holders because it just seemed like it needed the extra strength. I’m not sure it was necessary, but I had enough, so I just went with it. :)

You can just slide them over one corner a bit…

And then all the way to the middle of the magazine:

Hopefully you slid it through with the holes on the outside:

And then the holes just go in the binder rings!

Stick them all in binders and you’re set. So pretty….

I highly recommend the seller named rvbookseller listed in the “new from” link, especially if you want to get a whole bunch. That seller also offers them in a pack that contains 120 of them for a very reasonable price. When you buy them individually, the shipping is killer. The seller shipped quickly and answered my questions with lightning speed as well. The link is a Sewing Mamas affiliate link, but I’d recommend the seller even without it. :)

You didn’t notice that my Ottobre changed to three different issues along the way, did you? No, you’re too nice to mention it, thank you! ;)

Happy Organizing!
Kelly

Two pieces of “pattern” right sides up, as they would go together

Fold the piece that will go on top under about 1/4″ – 3/8″ (the green one here):

Lay just barely over the top of the bottom layer, raw edges meeting on the bottom and stitch:

Back side:

You can get the same type of results by stitching right sides together, pressing seam allowances to one side then coverhemming, but this is much faster and the way it’s basically done in the factory….with some modifications.

Thanks so much to Heather for sharing this quick tip with Sewing Mamas!
Happy Sewing!
Kelly

Michelle Patterns has a $5 Friday deal this week that includes 21 patterns she’s retiring. Yup, you get 21 patterns all for $5!

Happy Sewing! Pattern Stashing!
Kelly

This is one of my favorite sewing tools:

Yup. It’s a little razor blade from my workshop toolbox. I suppose it’s more of an un-sewing tool. It is wonderful for slicing out seams. In this case, it’s the seam on the waistband on my husband’s favorite sweatpants. The elastic made that crinkly sound when stretched, where you know it’s no longer going to bounce back.

I really dislike mending and normally I would not take apart three waist seams to replace a drawstring elastic, but when your spouse is starting to workout you want to encourage him, so his favorite sweats must be saved!

What’s your favorite non-sewing sewing tool?

Happy Sewing!
Kelly

I could just show you this little bit and you might think it was okay –

But then when I showed you this other part, which is more representative of the rest of the piece…

…you’d see there is room for improvement! See those green lines? That’s where the stitching should have gone. My stitching in the ditch was more like strolling all over the road. We practiced for a bit and then moved on to other techniques. (Whew!)

The next thing we did was the diagonal lines on our 9-patch block. I think this was called “line of sight” quilting, but that could be completely wrong. I should have written it down!

Anyway, I started at one corner of the block and kept an eye on the corner I wanted to go to, focusing on the corner rather than the machine’s presser foot. That turned out like this:

After we did the center diagonal lines, they were used as a guide to make the stitching lines on either side of them. This worked out pretty well. I ended up with this nice set of squares on point in the middle block:

The next bit seemed to go better.

For this one, we put down strips of masking tape to make our guidelines. Aligning the edge of the foot with the tape, I was able to make nice straight lines. Then we marked dots between a set of the lines and practiced making a zigzag between the lines. The nice thing about this is that it’s okay to just consider the dots to be a suggestion. It didn’t matter if the stitching didn’t make it right to the dot since they were just washable marker spots no one would know the original intent!

Straight zigzags like this were pretty easy – just stitch a straight line and then stop and pivot by leaving the needle down and lifting the presser foot up. The next thing we tried were curves.

These worked well when stitching wide, gentle curves. But when the space was narrower, my nice curves seemed to trip a bit.

The last thing we tried before moving on to free motion quilting was using one of the machine’s decorative stitches.

This time the stitches were aligned with one of the straight lines from earlier. They are nice, but it takes a looonnnng time for those decorative stitches to stitch. This would make a neat border, or maybe something fun for just a few places on the quilt, but I don’t think I have the patience to do much more than that!

The second half of the class was about free motion quilting, but I’ll save that for another post. :) Have you tried quilting with a walking foot? I think the biggest thing was practice, practice, practice! Did your stitching in the ditch turn out better than mine?

Happy quilting!
Kelly

The latest press release from Burda seems to indicate a new focus for the Burda Style brand.

From the April 11, 2013 press release:

Immediate initiatives for Burda Style USA include:
· Creation of a Burda Style USA publishing program; encompassing the Burda Style magazine, various e-mags, books and e-books, as well as themed PDF pattern collections, using interactive content and the extensive library of patterns and instruction programs
· Developing and launching direct-to-consumer online products and services – including extensive online education programs, a pattern release program with upwards of 20 new projects per month, as well as transactions in sewing related products
· Growing the US online audience through comprehensive SEO/SEM campaigns, email list optimization, social media activities, editorial promotion
· Creating exclusive Burda Style USA sewing kits and VIP programs

You can find the full release here.

What do you think? What would you like to see?

Exciting!
Kelly

Craftsy is having their Spring Sale! Up to 75% off classes! What do you have on your to-take list? Here are a few of mine:

Magical Jelly Rolls – I’m hoping this will magically turn the jelly rolls on my shelf into something wonderful! (It could happen, right??)

Stupendous Stitching – quilting class

Pattern Drafting from Ready-to-Wear – I’ve tried this on my own with little success, maybe this class would help?

Sew the Perfect Fit – sounds lovely!

The sale starts today (Friday) and goes through Monday, April 8th, with different classes each day, so check to see if the ones you want are on sale today and check back tomorrow for more! I’ll be keeping an eye out, too. :)

What do you want to learn?
Kelly

This post contains affiliate links.

Enter your original fabric designs (up to 10 per person) to join their Fabric Design Contest between April 1 – 22, 2013. You could win a custom run of your fabric by Benartex and a new Bernina 710 sewing machine!

Check out the info over at WeAllSew.com

Good Luck!
Kelly

Supplies:

• lots of scraps
• a two-piece basic pants pattern
• fabric for the pants pattern and elastic for the waist
• coordinating fabric to line the insides of the side panels

Step 1.

Start with your scrap basket and find scraps that are at least 5″ wide and 3″ tall. All of them should be cut to 5″ wide, but the height can vary if you want the side panels to have different sized patchwork. I cut mine 3″-5″ tall. Then, line them up in the order you’d like them to be, from top to bottom, and serge them together. I do pin mine before serging–I’m a pin freak. You need to make two strips of patchwork; one for each side of the pants.

Here is a photo of some of the scraps before serging:


After serging, from the backside:

Step 2.

Once you have serged all of the scraps together for the side panels, measure them and make sure each side panel is at least as long as the outseam measurement of your pants pattern.

Here is one entire patchy strip, after serging, from the backside:

Step 3.

Take the coordinating fabric and cut two long rectangular pieces to fit each strip of patchwork. Pin and serge around all 4 edges for each side panel.

Here are the strips pinned to the coordinating fabric before serging:



And after serging:

Step 4.

Set aside the patchwork panels, and cut out the pants. I used medium-wale hemp/cotton cord which I coffee-dyed last night. It’s a little darker than the original natural color. Some people take in the width of each of the pieces when they are cutting them, but I like the pants nice and full, so I cut out the pattern without any changes.

Here are my pants pieces, right sides of fabric together:

Step 5.

Take one patchy side panel, one front pants piece, and one back pants piece. Pin one side of the side panel to the outseam of the front pants piece. Pin the other side of the side panel to the outseam of the back pants piece.

Step 6.

Serge along where you have pinned, attaching the side panel to the outseams of the front and back pants pieces.


Repeat with the other side panel piece and the two remaining front and back pants pieces. You will end up with two mirror image pieces of the above photo, and here is what they will look like on the right side:

Step 7.

Right sides together, pin the front and back rises of the pants.


Serge the rise from back to front.

Step 8.

Open up the pants so that you can pin the inseam from ankle to ankle, making sure you match the crotch points exactly.


Serge the inseam from ankle to ankle. Turn right side out, and your pants will look like this:


At this point, I have also serged around the waist and around each ankle hem to finish the fabric and keep it from fraying.

Step 9.

Turn inside out. Turn waist over about 1″ (or enough to accommodate the width of your elastic), pin, and stitch, leaving enough of an opening to feed the elastic (which is shown here with a big safety pin). I’ve also added a size tag and a decorative sun tag.

After you feed the elastic all the way through, overlap the edges of the elastic slightly and stitch to attach them. Then, stitch closed the opening in the waist.
It will look like this:


I’ve also added a decorative leaf tag on the outside of the back of the waist–the colors really matched the side panels:

Step 10.

Now you’re ready to hem the ankles.


All done!

When you’re all done, come share them in our Runway!

Happy Sewing!
Kelly