Sewing Technique - How To Sew A Pillow

Sewing Technique - Tutorial - Pillows

Sewing Friends:

Pillows can be very expensive to buy. You can sew beautiful designer pillows that match your decor and add a touch of pizazz to your home very easily. Pillows also make great gifts.

You can make a pillow out of almost anything. Teens are making tee shirt and old jeans pillows. Here are instructions to Recycle a T-Shirt and Sew A Throw Pillow

Preserve that favorite "blankie" or what's left of it in a pillow for your child to keep. They can take it off to college with them. You would be surprised how many "blankies" go to college.

Shop around the finest home decor boutiques for pillow ideas. Carry a small notepad with you to write or sketch the ones you want to copy. The details make the difference as well as choice of fabric and trims.

Many pillow sewing instructions include a zipper in the middle of the back piece. Instead of a lapped or centered zipper, try sewing an invisible zipper in one of the end seams to make the pillow reversible as in the recycled tee shirt pillow.

Here is another good tutorial on how to sew an invisible zipper in a decorative designer pillow.

Sewing Tip: To help keep the zipper from slipping while you sew it, fuse Lite Steam-A-Seam to the zipper tape. (This is a paper backed fusible web.) Fuse the zipper in place and then stitch it. This technique works for all types of zippers. Try it!

Note: Be sure to see How To Sew Ends Of Satin Twisted Cord Trim On Pillows

Check out this site to Learn How to Prevent Dog-Eared or Floppy Corners on Pillows

Go to this site for sewing instructions for three great pillows by Linda Lee from The Sewing Workshop.

See "How To Sew An Easy Decorative Pillow Cover" to make a pretty Harem Pillow.

Shop Amazon. For some good books on sewing pillows, see: Christopher Nejman's Pillows: Designer Sewing Techniques or Sandra Betzina Sews for Your Home: Pillows Window Treatments Slipcovers Table Coverings Kids' Accessories or Simply Pillows (Simply) or Sew Sensational: Pillows

Search Amazon for more books on sewing pillows.

For tons of ideas for pillows, go to Sewing Pillows is a Fun Home Dec Project.

From beginners to advanced, from no-sew to the most intricate sewing techniques, everyone loves pillows. Follow these guidelines to make your own gorgeous designer pillows.

It just makes sense!

To Your Sewing Success,

Marian Lewis

PS: Share your pillow ideas with us.

Sewing Technique - Tutorial - Pillows

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Sewing Technique - How To Do Couching for A Decorative Look

Sewing Technique - Couching

Sewing Friends:

One of my students asked, "What is couching?"

Couching, according to Wikepedia is defined this way:

"In embroidery, couching and laid work are techniques in which yarn or other materials are laid across the surface of the ground fabric and fastened in place with small stitches of the same or a different yarn."

This technique is well known in the hand sewing world. But, it is also very popular in the sewing machine world as well. You will see it on a lot of sewing projects.

Couching is one of my favorite sewing techniques. It is fast and easy and it can make a garment truly unique and special.

All you really need to know is how to do the zigzag stitch on your sewing machine. You are just zigzagging on top of some loose threads or yarns to hold them down on the fabric. It is that simple.

I like to use a clear monofilament thread on the top of my sewing machine to couch over decorative yarns or threads. Slightly loosen the tension so the bobbin thread doesn't show either.

Whether you are sewing a garment from a sewing pattern or deconstructing and sewing a makeover sweatshirt or jeans, or even doing home dec, try couching some decorative threads, yarns, trims, braids, ribbons, etc. to really jazz it up and give it a whole new look.

The Home Sewing Association has a great article on couching. Click on the link to get some good tips on how to do couching.

Check out ready-to-wear and home dec items for couching ideas. Now that you know what it is and how easy it is to do, have fun with it. Try couching on your next sewing project.

It just makes sense!

To Your Sewing Success,

Marian

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Sewing Technique - Couching

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Sewing Shawl Collars - How To Notch It To Sew A More Youthful Look

Sewing Technique - How To Sew Shawl Collars

Sewing Friends:

Let's face it! Shawl collars in general have a matronly look. They remind us of our old great grandmother's dresses. No one wants to deliberately look "matronly". . ."motherly" is OK, but not "matronly"!

So, what can we do to change the shawl collar to a more flattering youthful look? It really is very easy to do. We need to break the long plain line of the shawl collar with a notch. If you do that, you will see a world of difference in the appearance of the shawl collar.

You can do this technique on tops, dresses, jackets, coats . . . wherever you have a shawl collar. A simple pattern change will change the shawl collar into a notched collar that has much more pizazz.

How to add a notch when sewing a shawl collar.

• Cut everything as per the pattern instructions.
• Apply the interfacing to the facing.
• Draw and cut a paper or cardboard triangle pattern of the finished size of the notch that you want to add to your shawl collar. You can copy this from another garment if you like.
• Determine where on the shawl collar that you want the notch to be.
• Find that place on the interfaced shawl collar. Lay the notch pattern down and draw it on the interfacing. Do not cut out the notch area. Just mark it.

NOTE: You might also want to mark your shawl collar interfacing pattern piece now so that you have it for future reference.

Pin and stitch the shawl collar facings to the garment

• Pin edges of shawl collar and garment together so that they meet.
• With interfacing up at the machine, stitch the facing to the garment.
• Follow the drawn lines around the notch area.
• Shorten the stitch length to 18-20 stitches per inch about 1/2 inch before the outside corner of the notch.
• Take one or two stitches across the corner.
• Continue with shorter stitches to the inside point of the notch.
• Again, take one or two stitches across the inside point.
• Continue with short stitches to sew the last corner the same as the first.
• Return to regular stitching about 1/2 inch beyond the last point.

Trim and press the seams

• Trim and grade or stagger the seam allowances and points.
• Clip the inside point up to the stitching.
• Press seams open.
• Turn facing to the inside.
• You may wish to understitch the garment along the longer edges.
• Press with seams on the edge with the iron on the garment, not on the facing.
• If using a heavier or stiff fabric, you may need to flatten the edge with a pounding block.
• Topstitch if desired

Hope you enjoy your flattering notched shawl collars!

It just makes sense!

To Your Sewing Success,

Marian

Sewing Technique - How To Sew Shawl Collars

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Sewing Technique - Sew Sleeve Caps Without Puckers

Sewing Techniques

Sewing Friends:

I know some of you hate to set in sleeves because you get puckers and the garment screams, "Homemade!" It isn't always your fault.

Unfortunately, sewing patterns are not consistent even within the same company. Some sewing patterns just have too much ease in the sleeve caps. You really should check each one. A good guideline is about 1 to 1-1/2 inches of ease in a sleeve cap. Eliminate the excess, use a good easing technique and you will be more successful setting smooth sleeves.

If you want to sew smooth sleeve caps without puckers plus learn more about how to ease fabric, check out the sewing technique at this site:

http://sewingprojecttips.com/2006/12/06/sewing-techniques-sew-smooth-sleeve-caps-easing-sleeves-the-easy-way/

To Your Sewing Success,
Marian

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Sewing Technique - Discover An Easy Way To Gather Fabric Or Sew Ruffles

Sewing Techniques

Sewing Friends:

Sewing gathers into a flat piece of fabric, especially if it is a long piece like a gathered skirt or a ruffle can sometimes be a challenge. Find out how you can make it easier with just a few minor changes in the way you sew the gathers.

To learn some great techniques on how to gather fabric or make pretty ruffles the easy way, check out this article on Sewing Project Tips.

To Your Sewing Success,

Marian

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