Sewing Kits for Kids

I feel fortunate to live my adult life in a time when sewing is cool again. When I was growing up in NY back in the era of parachute pants and Michael Jackson, no one I knew sewed anything, except for my grandmother. However, it was not passed on to me. Living my adult life during a sewing, knitting, and crochet revolution means my kids are going to grow up knowing how to do these things. They will know how to do these things simply because I’ve learned how to do these things, and I’m determined to pass on this beautiful knowledge to them. It is one of my gifts to them.

You might have the same desire, but how? How do we pass on the gift of sewing without getting frustrated and spending hours trying to put something together for our kids to sew? I introduced sewing to my girls at a very early age, but to be honest we haven’t had a really good variety of sewing projects. Basically, they have sewn dozens of felt pillows by hand and more recently on the machine. There is nothing easier for kids to sew than a rectangular felt pillow. If you are looking for a quick and free way to teach your kids to sew, this is a great option. However there comes a time when kids graduate from felt pillow making and want to make something a little more challenging. My ten year old daughter is at this point right now. So needless to say, when I received an invitation to join the Blue Fig Sewing Challenge by Kristin Link from Sew Mama Sew, you better believe I jumped on it!

I am one of the six Blue Fig University Learn to Sew Challengers. Here is a list of the other Challengers who are blogging about the Blue Fig Kits they made with their kids:

LiEr of ikatbag
Alicia Brown of Felt With Love Designs
Kristy Garceau of Simply This Life
Rae Ann Kelly
Vanessa Lynch of Punkin Patterns

As of right now, Blue Fig has about nine different sewing kits for kids. Blue Fig University Learn to Sew Kits

My daughter could choose which kit she wanted, without much hesitation she chose the Lil’ Ruck BackPack. When the package arrived, my daughter couldn’t wait to open it!

Open sewing kit for kids

It came with a very easy to understand step by step instruction book with lots of pictures. We looked it over carefully and made a plan.

Blue Fig sewing kit instruction book

The bag is made of felt, not just a cheap synthetic felt either, this is a very dense high quality felt. I was impressed. Being that it’s a felt bag, it was nice not having to worry about a lining, fraying fabric, or dealing with a right and a wrong side. In order to keep things straight, we labeled each piece as you can see in the picture below.

labeling sewing pieces

When it was finally time to start sewing, my daughter was down right giddy, can you tell?

Happy to start sewing

She took this project very seriously. She wanted turn out really nice.

concentrated on sewing

There were moments of doubt and uncertainty.

And moments of rejoicing over making her first zipper. I felt privileged to share this victory with her.

Then came the silliness! Check out the quick little zipper song she sang on Instagram @livingdiystyle.

In about an hour and 1/2 or so she finished the bag. To celebrate her success, we went for a hike at a near by canyon here in AZ. Here she is proudly wearing her new Lil’ Ruck Backpack like a gold trophy.

I’d like to think, as she looks out at this beautiful landscape she is being inspired to create something amazing, whether it being sewing, painting, sculpting or whatever else her hands decide to make. I think this young girl has a bright future of creativity and joy ahead of her thanks to little projects like this.

Thank you Blue Fig and Sew Mama Sew for creating this fun and confidence building experience for her!

Lil' Ruck Backpack Blue Fig I would highly recommend Blue Fig Sewing Kits for kids to anyone!

5 Essential Machine Quilting Tips for Beginners

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Machine Quilting Tips

So after months and months of carefully sewing together your quilt top you have finally finished and now you are at the point where you are ready to move on to quilting. After all the work you’ve put in to this quilt top you certainly don’t want to screw things up now!

I found myself in this very situation just a few days ago as I was finishing up a secret anniversary quilt for my husband. This might sound odd, but I have made quilts before, I just never actually “quilted” them. In the past, I took the fast road and used the yarn tie knot method to hold it all together. If you don’t know what I mean, check out Bloomin’ Workshop’s colorful flannel yarn tied quilt.

I finished the anniversary Gather ‘Round quilt yesterday. Here’s a picture of it. As you can see, I still need to steam block it to straighten out the edges so it lays flat, but overall I’m really happy with how it turned out.

finished quilt 6

As I mentioned earlier, this was my first machine quilted (or any kind of quilted) blanket. As I was happily quilting along I was thinking about what tips I could pass on to my readers. The tips and tricks I came up with are fresh on my mind, so I figured it was a good time to share what I learned.

5 Essential Machine Quilting Tips for Beginners

Figure out your basting method. This is how you’re going to keep all the layers in place. It is common for those who quilt by hand to baste by hand to keep everything in place. However, when you’re machine quilting you can either use quilting safety pins or adhesive spray to keep your layers from shifting during quilting. I used safety pins and I am positive that next time I will use spray adhesive to save time and to prevent pleating on the back side.
Start out with a new needle. This is a good idea not only because your needle has a lot of work ahead of it, but also because I noticed as it starts getting dull it skips stitches and more problems ensue. I used a Schmetz Universal Needle size 80/12 and that worked well for me. I changed it out once for this quilt.
Keep your needle down when pushing your quilt through. You will be stopping to push your quilt through often, when you stop make sure your needle is in the down position and then push the quilt through to finish out your line. If not, you will end up with zig zigs instead of a straight stitch. Ask me how I know. Hehe.
Use a high quality cotton quilting thread. You won’t regret this. When you’re looking for a quilting thread for regular machine quilting, look for a thread weight between 40-50. Keep in mind that the higher the number the finer it is, the lower the number the heavier it is. Most hand quilters will choose a heavier weight thread, around 28 to endure the stress of pulling and tension that’s goes along with hand quilting, but that weight is not necessary for machine quilting. If you choose a high quality 40-50 weight cotton quilting thread you will have nice smooth lines with very little lint to speak of.
Consider getting a walking foot. I did not have this luxury when I was sewing my quilt, but I wish I did. The reason you would want to use a walking foot instead of just a standard foot is because a walking foot has feed dogs that help evenly pull the quilt through the sewing machine, thus straighter lines. While I did not have a walking foot, I made a few adjustments to help pull the quilt through as evenly as possible. I lowered the pressure dial so that the presser foot had less pressure, thus making the quilt slide through a little bit easier. I also used the cheap little quilting guide attachment that came with my machine. It helped me keep my lines ~~straight~~ mostly straight. For my next quilt, I will without a doubt be investing in a walking foot.

So those are the five main tips I wanted to pass on to you. I hope it helps to save you time and unnecessary frustration.

What kind of quilt do you plan on making? I would love to know, please leave a comment below:)

How to Make Crispy Roasted Duck

Secret Anniversary Quilt

How to Make a Coffee Cozy Tutorial Video + Free Pattern

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Sometimes it’s nice to have a go to project when you just want to say “thank you” with a handmade gift. In my book, a handmade thank you gift is something quick and easy. No fuss. This is why a coffee cozy makes a great thank you gift. It’s both of those things- quick and easy.

Coffee Cozy Pictures

Personally, I like to make them for my kid’s teachers at the end of the year as a small appreciation gift. Sometimes I’ll even buy a little mug (usually from the Dollar Store), and then make them a coffee cozy to go with it. Combine that with a thank you card and a Starbucks gift card, and you’ve got yourself a teacher who finally feels appreciated!

Sew Coffee Cozy

I don’t know about you, but if I were a teacher, (while I would appreciate their thoughtfulness) I think the whole apple themed everything gifts would get old real quick. I’m proud to say, I’ve never bought my kid’s teachers anything with an apple on it. No offense if you have, I just want to provide them with someone variety:)

If you sell at your local Farmer’s Market or craft fairs, this would also be a quick sew and has the potential to be a good profit maker. Feel free to use this free pdf pattern to make coffee cozies for gifts, craft fairs, or to sell finished coffee cozies on Etsy.

Ready to learn how to make a coffee cozy? Let’s get started! Watch video below for a step by step tutorial.

How to Sew Knits Without a Serger

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So you want to sew stretchy fabrics, but you don’t have serger. Is it possible to sew knits without a serger? Absolutely! And today I’m going to share a video with you to show you a side by side comparison of different stitches that can be used to sew stretchy fabric. This video will help you figure out which stitches hold up the best under stress, and which seams will look the best on a garment. If you do an internet search about how to sew knits, you will find a variety of testimonies saying that this stitch or that stitch is the best for sewing knits, but I think you will find that there are a variety of factors that effect the final outcome. The stitch is important, but there are other things to consider. Please watch the video below to learn more.

Print the free pdf below and keep it your sewing room as a reference.

Colette Pattern Review for Parfait Dress

How to Make a Clutch Purse with Garland

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Have you ever wanted to make a fun little clutch that you can whip up quickly, but looks amazing? If so, you are in the right place.

In the picture above here, you can clearly see that I am ready for a night out with my hubby. I’ve got my cute little clutch in hand, my skinny jeans on, and my new red leather ballet flats on (that I made from my Ballet Flats Sewing Pattern). It’s a good day!

Let keep things simple. Click on the orange link button below to download the free pdf sewing pattern to make your own Two-Tone Clutch.

Here’s what you’ll need for this project.

Now that you’ve downloaded the pattern and gathered up your materials. Let’s get started!

So at this point you should have cut out: 2 top front accent fabric pieces (polka dot fabric), 1 lining strap closure, 1 exterior strap closure, 2 bottom front clutch fabric pieces (black fabric on top right), 2 lining pieces (yellow multi colored fabric, and 4 fusible interfacings pieces, and 1 strap interfacing piece.

Iron on the strap interfacing piece. Then place strap closure pieces right sides together and sew around, but not all the way around. It can be difficult to turn the strap right side out if you sew a complete “U” shape. Let’s leave some wiggle room to turn this right side out. We’ll sew the edge up in a minute.

To help our curved seam to lay flat when we turn it right side out, let’s use some pinking shears to trim off the excess seam. If you don’t have pinking shears, just make little notches along the curve of the seam with the tip of your scissors.

Just to confirm what the picture above suggests, turn the strap right side out, pin the open edge, and topstitch around the strap as I have done here in the picture above.

Lay the strap and bottom front clutch pieces right sides together. You can sew a basting stitch to keep your strap in place if you’d like, or you can pin it. Then as you see on the right side of the picture here, just lay the top pattern right side down and sew across.

Once your done sewing the front of the clutch and pressing the seam, topstitch across as you see in the picture below.

Below is a photo I took after I sewed on the garland. You can sew the garland on with your machine, or you can hand sew them on if you are new to sewing. I used embroidery thread for the garland hanging line.

Here’s a picture of how my garland hanging line looks from the back.

Time to add some stability and structure to this clutch!

We want more space inside of our clutch, so let’s make this clutch three dimensional by boxing out the corners.

I’ve turned the lining right side up and upside down to show you how the boxed corners should look once your done.

As I mentioned before, you will need to repeat step 8 for the exterior clutch as well. Once they are both boxed out, insert the lining into the clutch as shown below. When you look inside the clutch, you should be looking at the beautiful lining side of your lining fabric.

Let’s finish this pretty little clutch off with some 1/4″ double folded bias tape to hide those raw edges on top.

Now we are ready to slowly and carefully secure our bias tape in place. Start with the raw end (meaning: not the end you just folded in the picture above). Start where you see the pink binding clip in the picture below. Press and pinch the bias tape in place to secure it as you wrap it around the top. Secure with binding clips, pins, or bobby pins. Whatever you have.

After a few minutes the glue should be dry. Sew the bias tape in place.

Sew on your button.

Measure your button and then prepare to make a button hole. You can make a button hole with your machine or you can make a hand sewn button hole. Just do a quick search on Youtube for a tutorial on how to do it.

Congratulations, you’re all done! Please share what you’ve made with me on Instagram or in my Facebook group. I want to see what color combinations your coming up with and your fantastic creation!

Living DIY Style Giveaway

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I’m so excited to be hosting my first Giveaway on my blog today! For quite some time now, I’ve been wanting to be become a Sew Mama Sew contributor, and it finally happened. I’ll be sharing a picture of what I contributed at the end of this post.

Ok, so here’s what I’m giving away. I’m giving away three Living DIY Style Sewing Patterns!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Video Tutorial + Free Pattern both up on the Sew Mama Sew website right now!

Best Wishes everyone!!!

Link

If you’ve ever wondered how to finish off a pillow, a purse, a stuffed animal, or baby shoes with a hidden stitch, you’re in the right place! Please enjoy this video that I created to help you understand how to hand sew an invisible stitch:)