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Finally, A Show About Garment Sewing! Sandra Betzina is the Best!

Sunday, February 25, 2007

How To Sew A Picture Window - An Unusual Home Decorating Idea

How To Sew - Home Decorating Idea

Hi Sewing Friends:

I have been sew busy trying to get ready to do a sewing program for our chapter of the American Sewing Guild. I am preparing lots of sewing tips and techniques for them. Making the samples is a lot of work.

At the same time, our house is for sale and we have had quite a few people come through during open house. It is amazing how many are into sewing, crafts and hobbies. They fall in love with my sewing room. It is so great to have a place where you can sew and not have to put everything away every day. However, lately, I have to keep things more neat because of these unexpected visitors. So, that is a pain!

I get a lot of compliments on my curtains, draperies, pillows and home dec items in the house. But I think the most comments are about something that I did in the master bathroom. So, I thought I would share it with you. Maybe you can use it, too.

The unusual decorating idea that everyone thinks is so very clever is in my master bathroom window. . .actually the lower half of the window.

I'll never understand why builder's put large windows directly over the bathtub, but that's what so many do. I guess they don't have any place else to put it, but it seems dumb to me. You can't get out of the shower, bathtub or do anything else in the bathroom without closing the blinds first or you will expose yourself to your neighbors and the world.

I hated the thought of having the shades pulled closed all the time and I didn't want shutters, so I decided to do something a bit different.

While strolling through the mall one day, I spotted a painting of some swans on sale that had the colors of my bathroom in it. It was a large painting and I thought it might fit in the lower portion of my window, so I bought it. My husband thought I was crazy!

When I got it home, it wasn't quite large enough, but almost. My husband was upset!

So, I covered some really fat cording with fabric from some of my bedroom pillows and stapled that around the outside of the picture frame. Perfect! Now, it covered the window and no one could see in. My husband even liked it! Thank goodness!

Then, I thought how ugly the back of the painting would look from the outside. So, you guessed it, more fabric to the rescue! Isn't it really cool what we can do with fabric?

I completely covered the backside of the painting with a striped fabric that coordinated with my other window coverings in my master bedroom on the same side of the house. Great! It looks like a fabric panel from the neighbor's house.

I set the painting on the window sill and secured it with picture frame wire to the latch on the window so it wouldn't fall down just in case one of my grandchildren bumped it when they used the bath tub.

The upper half of the window lets in lots of sunshine and light, so it works well. I added a valance at the very top of the window to dress it up. And, I didn't really need to have any shades at all.

Even with all the steam and moisture that is in the bathroom, after 9 years, that painting still looks great and everyone loves it.

Maybe you can add a picture in a window somewhere in your house. People will be impressed with how clever you are!

When we sew, we have sew many choices and it is sew much fun!

To Your Sewing Success,
Marian

PS: Let me know if you use this idea.

How To Sew - Home Decorating Idea

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Finally, A Show About Garment Sewing! Sandra Betzina is the Best!

Sunday, February 18, 2007

How To Sew Permanent Creases in Your Pant Legs

Hi Sewing Friends:

Do you like your pants to look neat and well pressed but hate to have to iron them all the time?

Would you love to have creases that never come out of your pants even after you wash and dry them in the dryer?

Sew permanent creases in your pant legs.

These creases will hold forever and make you look taller and slimmer with the vertical lines dividing your figure.

You can add permanent creases to ready-to-wear pants or to pants that you sew yourself. It is easy to do.

Here is how to sew permanent creases in your pants.

1. Press Creases In Pant Legs

Press creases in the front and back legs of each section of your pants as soon as they are cut out before you even begin to put the pants together.

  • Press front creases up to the bottom of the front waist dart.
  • Press back creases up to the crotch level.

2. Set Up Your Sewing Machine

  • Remove the sewing needle in your sewing machine.
  • Insert a double machine needle.
  • Place sewing thread that matches your pants on the sewing machine.
  • Fill two bobbins.
  • Put one on the bottom in the bobbin case as usual and put the other one on top of the machine and use it to thread one of the needles.
  • Use the thread from the spool to go through the other needle.
  • Set the stitch length to 12 stitches to an inch.
  • Slightly tighten the upper thread tension.

3. Sew The Creases In The Pant Legs

  • Open up a pant section so it lays flat with the right side of the fabric up on the bed of the sewing machine. You will sew through this single layer of fabric.
  • Center the pressed crease between the two needles.
  • Stitch straight down the pant leg the length of the crease. You are actually sewing a tiny pin tuck to create the permanent crease.
  • Press the stitched crease fold again. (If the thread matches the fabric, the stitches will be almost invisible.)
  • At the top of the stitched crease, pull the threads to the wrong side of the fabric and tie them into a secure knot.
  • Repeat this procedure for all four pant sections.

4. Continue to sew your pants

  • Press up the hem of your pants in each section to set the hem crease at the bottom. This makes it easy to turn the hem up when the leg is in a circle.
  • Turn the hem back down.
  • Now, continue to sew and complete your pants as you normally would.
  • After you finish hemming your pants, give them a final press.

5. Enjoy the compliments!

Your friends will wonder how you keep your creases so sharp and neat. They may even ask if you lost weight because you look taller and slimmer.

It just makes sense!

To Your Sewing Success,

Marian

Sew Permanent Creases In Your Pant Legs

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Finally, A Show About Garment Sewing! Sandra Betzina is the Best!

Friday, February 16, 2007

Sewing Courses from Sewing Success

Sewing Courses

Hi Sewing Friends:

Are sewing classes a waste of time and money for you? Do you have trouble getting anything out of a class? Do you find it difficult to keep up? Can you read and understand your notes the next day?

Do sewing pattern guidesheets fail to tell you what you need to know to complete your sewing project and not have it look "homemade"?

Try a different method to learn how to sew or improve your sewing skills. Check out step-by-step detailed sewing course ebooks that you can download and use at home whenever you want at your own pace.

If you have questions, your experienced professional sewing instructor is only an email away.

Check out the sewing courses from 1st Step To Sewing Success . I am working hard to make them fun and informative for you. We just added a couple more new ones that we think you will enjoy.

Don't be fooled by the titles. There is so much more to the sewing courses than the title. You won't be disappointed and you might even be surprised what you will learn to help you achieve sewing success.

Read more about this entry on the Sewing Project Tips Sewing Blog

or go to the 1st Step To Sewing Success website for more information

Post your comments and let me know how I can help you with your sewing. What courses would you like?

To Your Sewing Success,

Marian

PS: If you prefer, you can contact me here.

Sewing Courses

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Saturday, February 10, 2007

Easy Sewing Project - Revive Your Closet With Designer Garment Bags

Sewing Project - Garment Bag

Hi Sewing Friends:

Here is a fun and easy sewing project for you even if you are a newbie at sewing. It is all straight sewing. You can do it!

Why not recycle your old garment bags into designer garment bags? It just makes sense!

Get these new bags ready to put away your winter clothes.

Ready the rest of this entry for sewing instructions. . . .

To Your Sewing Success,

Marian

Sewing Project - Garment Bag

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Wednesday, February 07, 2007

How Do You Protect Your Pretty Buttons From Bad Dry Cleaning Experiences

Buttons

Hi Sewing Friends:

A dear friend of mine recently sent a dressy suit to the dry cleaner. It had three very pretty buttons on it when she sent it, but when she got the suit back, alas, the buttons were quite ugly and ruined.

The dry cleaner claimed the buttons were already in that condition when she brought in the suit. Needless to say, she no longer sends her good garments there.

Of course, the best way to avoid any problems with dry cleaning solutions is to remove the buttons before you send off the garment to be cleaned. That is the safest option.

However, if you don't want to do that , you might want to try one of these two methods to protect your buttons.

Method I

Wrap a square of aluminum foil very carefully and completely around each button.

Method II

For each button:
  • Cut a square of Velcro (hook and loop tape) that is a bit larger than the button.
  • Cut a slit in the center of the loop section of the square just like a buttonhole.
  • Push the button through the slit.
  • Now, cover the button with the hook section of the square putting the hook and loop tape together around the button to secure it between the tapes.
This should protect your pretty buttons from a bad dry cleaning experience.

It just makes sense!

To Your Sewing Success,

Marian

Buttons

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