by Sherri Sylvester | Nov 27, 2015
I’m so excited to offer links to all these Black Friday Sales from my amazing sponsors today! These online shops sell everything from fabric to patterns and notions. They’ve provided amazing deals for you this weekend. If you’ve been eyeing something special, don’t wait! I know I’ve got my favorite things picked out and ready to go. (P.S. These are all Canadian Online Fabric Stores, most of which ship internationally. If you are in the US, the $ exchange is amazing!)
For the sake of fairness I have listed the shops in alphabetical order.
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10% off your entire order with Promo Code: thx2you10
from Friday Nov. 27 – Sunday Nov. 29
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25% off everything in store for the full 4 days of the Black Friday/Cyber Monday week-end! Promo Code: bfcm
from Friday Nov. 27 – Monday Nov. 30 |
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There is a different 50% off sale happening each day! To find out what is on sale today, click over to the Dinkydoo sale page.
from Friday Nov. 27 – Sunday Nov. 29 |
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All fabrics 50% off, both in-store and online. (Yes! ALL fabrics! No exceptions!)
One day only – Friday Nov 27, 2015
Plus we also have a Cyber Monday deal. Free Shipping* on all orders over $79.99 (* Promotions excludes deliveries to USA, Northwest Territories, Yukon, Nunavut and some very remote areas.) |
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35% off EVERYTHING in store! Promo Code: BLACK15
from Friday Nov. 27 – Monday Nov. 30 |
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20% off everything including new collections, sale fabrics, patterns, kits and bundles! Promo Code: woohoo
from Friday Nov. 27 – Monday Nov. 30 |
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Visit to see all of our amazing deals! Specially priced for Black Friday through Cyber Monday, no coupon code necessary!
from Friday Nov. 27 – Monday Nov. 30 |
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Madiba’s Range on sale for $16.00 per metre (20% discount) For every metre sold, we make a donation of $1.00 to Grandmothers to Grandmothers.
from Friday Nov. 27 – Sunday Nov. 29 |
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15% off everything in store! Promo Code: blackfriday
from Friday Nov. 27 – Monday Nov. 30
PLUS Find doorcrasher deals throughout Friday on Facebook only! |
by Sherri Sylvester | Nov 26, 2015
Turns out I’m still here. (of course!) Happy Thanksgiving to everyone celebrating today. I am drooling over your mashed potatoes and turkey pictures on Instagram!
I wanted to write a quick note to say you should watch out early tomorrow for my Black Friday Sale post! You will not believe how generous these amazing Canadian shops are being with their sales this year. Charge your devices people – you’ll be shopping for a long, long while!
As for the crazy unplanned week and a half break? It was forced by 7 days of fever and rest, leading to me being diagnosed yesterday with Pneumonia of all things! Craziness. Thankfully antibiotics are fast working and I’m feeling better already today. On a brighter note, though, we did manage to put up our Christmas things on Saturday. And all this forced resting has allowed me to get my Christmas Making fabric yardage list ready for the sales tomorrow. It’s not all bad!
by Sherri Sylvester | Nov 17, 2015
Having the correct supplies for your job is important. Firefighters need boots and helmets, dentists need that crazy metal picking thing they use. I need fabric for my job. (along with lots of other things!) That makes keeping track of it all an important part of my life. And, as with all supplies, they need be taken care of properly.
As I re-organized my sewing room a few months ago, I found a lot of fabric sitting in the bottom of the closet because it wasn’t pre-washed. I didn’t want to mix the washed and pre-washed becuase there wasn’t a fail-proof way to distinguish the two. #sewistproblems I also realized that I didn’t know important information about the fabrics in my apparel fabric section – like what they were made from, or if they were suiting fabric or chambray, or where I bought them.
That led me to design some simple labels that I’ve been using for a few months now. Pre-print a few pages of them and use them as the fabric goes onto the shelf. They are quick and easy to fill out. And I found it’s really helpful to know the exact details of at least 1/2 of my fabric. (I decided only to label the “stuff on the floor”. Yes, imagine 1/2 of my stash on the floor… yikes!)
Since I’ve loved using these I thought I’d share them with you. Click on the link below to download the free PDF and print some of your own! I used standard 1″x2″ label sheets from my big box office supply store. If you don’t have any, print these on plain paper, cut them out and pin or paperclip them to the fabric instead. In case you are worried about sticky residue from the labels – so far they haven’t left anything on my fabric and are removed easily. (You may want to test your own brand of labels though!)
How do you keep track of your fabric?
by Sherri Sylvester | Nov 13, 2015
Making softies for babies is fun. Making softies for my friends’ coming-soon baby that mimic their dad’s real-life photography job is even better!
I am really happy to be part of the Swoodson Says PDF Pattern Blog Tour today. This tour is promoting her Quiet Play Softies and the cutest Little Collector’s Backpack. All really great Christmas gifts for the littles in your life. (And on sale right now – see below! Just sayin’…)
I haven’t made many softies, I think I was scared of all the pieces, kinda like quilting! Truth is though, sewing up this Little Photographer Camera was really fun! I love puzzles, and appliqueing the dials, buttons and lens allowed me to let my inside-perfectionist out for a little while. You don’t need to be a perfectionist to make one, though, you just need a little monkey that enjoys imaginative play! Or a friend that is a photographer maybe?
The fabric for this project is a mixture of textures and thicknesses. The outer body of the camera is made from scraps of my Ella top, a nice heavier weight cotton. Of course, I had to use the best camera fabric ever (from Double Decker Fabric) for the front accent and camera strap. The lens is a mixture of faux black leather and 2 layers of white rip-stop nylon (to make it more opaque). It is fun that each one has a different feel to it. Hopefully the baby will think so too!
Speaking of perfectionism, for some reason I decided to go a little crazy and 2-step-miter the corners of the bias tape edging for the back window, instead of following Stephanie’s instructions. Don’t do it! It took f-o-r-e-v-e-r…. #thatllshowme I did do two things that helped speed up the project, though. I interfaced the outer camera pieces with a medium-weight fusible to make the fabric stiffer and easier to stitch everything to. I also used my favorite fusible web before stitching. If this project was for an older child I think you could use it alone and skip the applique stitches!
Oh, and I can’t forget to mention something new I found on my Janome Skyline S5. It has an amazing applique stitch and satin stitch foot. I even slid the speed down to super-slow while sewing around the lens circles. So much simpler and professional looking than I would have made with my old machine! It has even inspired me to plan some appliqued Christmas projects.
Win the Patterns, or Buy them at 40% off!
Stephanie has provided a coupon code: ‘SewAllTheSofties’ – for 40% off all patterns, expiring Sunday 11/16 – valid both on Etsy and Swoodsonsays.com. #buyallthethings And if you are feeling lucky you can enter below to win 4 Swoodson Says patterns!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Other Blog Tour Stops:
Monday, November 9th: Friends Stitched Together / Sew Happily Ever After / The Crazy Tailor
Tuesday, November 10th: Felt With Love Designs / Sew Not Perfect / House of Estrela
Wednesday, November 11th: Lulu & Celeste / Handmade Boy / Rebel & Malice
Thursday, November 12th: Rebel & Malice / create3.5 / Free Notion
Friday, November 13th: Paisley Roots / The Wholesome Mama / Amazing Adventures With Bubba and Bug / Thread Riding Hood / Hugs are Fun
Disclaimer: I received the Little Photographer Camera pattern for free in exchange for this review post. I only feature projects I love. Thanks for reading and supporting Thread Riding Hood!
by Sherri Sylvester | Nov 11, 2015
When my oldest went back to school I got a burst of sewing energy and decided to make her several school-related projects. There’s something very satisfying about sending your child to school with unique and useful things. I’d love to make her backpack one year, but I’m worried it would get beaten up really quickly, and they like to pick them out store-bought anyhow.
Each project is made with fabric she chose herself – after a bit of (possibly unwanted) consultation with me about matching/not matching combinations. We used some of my favorites, since I’ve decided that stashed fabric is not useful fabric, and should be off the shelf. Easier said than done when acquiring new fabrics is kinda my job!
1) Pencil Case: This one is my favorite, took the longest and looks the least exciting when photographed. (#argh!) I love how this little case turned out. It’s so cute! Now that the pattern is drafted for one, they would be really quick to make again. The front and sides are stabilized by a rectangle of vinyl place mat so they stay up. The inside raw edges are finished with bias tape. I even got to use the fancy letter stitching on my Janome Skyline S5. Each project has our last name stitched right into it! The only thing I think I would change is to add a tab to each end of the zipper, so it is easier to open and close.
2) Marker & Pencil Crayon Case: The most annoying thing when making art is having to find colours when they are all lying down. Many thanks to ikatbag for posting instructions on how to make this amazing stand-up marker case! It zips-up flat and then the sides fold back to let it stand up. The base has a piece of plastic in it as well, similar to the pencil case, to allow it to be stable. The inside of the case is made with rip-stop nylon – wipe-able to keep it clean. The construction, let alone the pattern drafting, is not the simplest. It’s easy in theory, but has lots of layers and finicky bits, including the bias tape edge finishing. Definitely worth making, but be prepared to spend lots of time on it.
3) Dry Erase Marker Eraser & Storage: Sorry, I’m not quickly coming up with a better name for that one! They use dry-erase pens instead of chalk boards in her school, so she needed “an old sock for erasing” and dry erase markers to take to school. Of course my child is not going to use “an old sock” to erase with! (Hee hee!) I made a little lined zip pocket for the pens and backed it with a piece of a towel. Erase with the towel, store the pens for next time. At least I imagine that is what she is doing… though I can’t be certain until everything comes back home in June!
4) Clear Binder Pocket: This project was meant to be for teacher notes and homework. Unfortunately, there’s a pocket in her agenda book for that, so currently it is in her binder looking pretty. Ah well! I got to use scraps of her favorite unicorn fabric in it. And it reminds her that her mom loves her when she sees it, right?! Maybe she’ll need it next year?
I have in the back of my head that it would be fun to make a sale-able pdf pattern for the Pencil Case and Clear Binder Pocket. (Maybe the Dry Erase Eraser as well if it looks useful to someone else.) Would that be something many of you would be interested in? Maybe in time for next year’s back to school push…
What handmade items do you send your kids back-to-school with? Or do you prefer to buy everything?
