by Sherri Sylvester | Mar 19, 2014
As some of you may have noticed, I have started accepting sponsors for Thread Riding Hood. This is great because that means I can take a little time to give you a little background on some shops I’m really excited about! You will notice their logos on the right side-bar, so you can click over to visit them, but let me give you a bit more information here as well.
It is always exciting when a new fabric shop contacts me – and I always go straight to their shop website to check out their stock. When I checked out Fabric Spark I was in awe. Daryl’s shop opened 1 month ago and her selection is fantastic! It is obvious from the options available that she loves colour – with an appropriate amount of grays available of course!
I can’t say too much in this introduction because we’re planning something exciting coming up in the not-so-distant future which may-or-may-not (hee hee) involve fabric and a giveaway! Head on over to visit Daryl at Fabric Spark – and let me leave you with three of my favorite fabrics from her collection to get you started! (Seriously – you’ve got to head over there and see how much she has for sale!) You can also follow Daryl around on Facebook and Pinterest.
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I’m also excited to get to feature Seams Sew Laura. I met Laura while we were walking our kids to school a few years ago and randomly found out later at the park that she liked to sew. Hooray! She’s started a shop almost a year ago and has been expanding what she sews – everything from pillowcase dresses to art kits to these super-chic headband stands.
Laura’s main seller has been personalized hooded towels. She has made one for each of our girls as birthday gifts and they are amazing. The girls love them because they have their own name on their towel and I love them because they are cozy and huge! The perfect size to use after a bath or swimming lessons. Laura can personalize these with different appliques and fabrics – so they better match their owner!
Laura asked me to pick my favorites from her projects to feature and I had such a hard time choosing! I thought I would end with her purse organizers because they are such a great gift idea. She has designed the pattern herself and it shows how careful she is to think of everything and make sure the details are perfect. They have inside and outside pockets – so you’ll never lose anything again!
You can visit Seams Sew Laura’s shop on her Facebook page to see more great products. Oh, and here is a link to her photo gallery, where you can see the different types of projects she has for sale. We have become really good friends over the years and I appreciate you letting me show off what she’s been up to! (P.S. I love the “hip” boy doll she put together last December, he looks amazing in his bowtie!)
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Thanks most definitely goes out to the sponsors. And thanks goes to you as well for reading! I appreciate you – and, though I am being paid by my sponsors, will not accept an ad that doesn’t fit what I think you would like to hear about. I carefully chose the content of this post to reflect what this blog is already about and I hope you like being introduced! I’m sure you’ll get along just great!
by Sherri Sylvester | Mar 17, 2014
Wow – I feel like it’s been a while since I posted something on Monday. I’m so glad the weather is sunnier and we can all start looking forward to spring – if it decides to show up! Since it’s still pretty chilly here I made a little shirt over the weekend to hold me over until I can wear my summer things again. How is your corner of the world doing?
I think I have had this stripey knit since the fall – but of course I’m only getting to it now. It’s a lightweight sweatshirt fleece and is amazingly cozy. I’ve worn this shirt two days in a row now and there might be a third in it’s future since I haven’t had a run-in with a small set of sticky hands yet! Is that bad?! I could tell you I washed it in-between, but I suppose that wouldn’t be true… hmmm…
I’ve been eyeing the abundance of drop shoulder shirts out there. Especially in sweaters this winter. So I pulled out my self-drafted High-Low Chevron dress pattern to start and went from there. The new shirt is shorter and has almost no high-low hem, though I did make it about 2″ higher in the front – you can’t really tell. And obviously this shirt has long sleeves. The body of a drop shoulder shirt is actually quite similar to a dolman sleeve shirt, in fact I suppose it could be exactly the same, though my research tells me I am only half right. Apparently the drop shoulder shirt generally has a more structured underarm area that leads to the sleeve, where-as the dolman tee is usually looser and has a large armhole that continues to where the cuff is attached.
Anyhow… I have discovered that I love the drop shoulder for two reasons. First – it is really great for me because I have broad shoulders. I tend to have trouble buying fitted shirts because my shoulders just don’t fit. This means I gravitate towards raglan, dolman and now – drop shoulder – type sleeves. They don’t have a seam at the shoulder so I don’t have to worry about fit there. Second – they are super comfy, likely because they are mostly (exclusively?) made from knits! If there is anything I like it’s a comfortable top. I am most definitely not one of those people who will wear something uncomfortable because they are supposed to. (Though I think I tried to do that a lot to fit in in high school!)
I aimed to match stripes, but I purposely didn’t try too hard because I wanted the shirt to be more relaxed looking. I cuffed the sleeves and used my double needle to top-stitch around them and the neckline. I also used it to hem the bottom of the shirt, because I decided I didn’t want to add a cuff to the hemline because it would look too “casual sweater” and not so much “shirt”. The back of the shirt has a seam down the centre – which for some reason I did not photograph – sorry. The seam helps to shape the shirt and I really like how it looks. The extra seams add that extra little detail to make your shirt look more professional.
I am happy to tell you that these are really easy to make, since there is no “easing in” of a sleeve. The sleeve fits into the place where you would normally sew a cuff on a dolman tee and extends from there. I likely should make another one and show you – but that may have to wait until the fall when I will hopefully/maybe/possibly sew another one of these for myself! If you want to try it you can use the Dolman Tee tutorial I have written on how to draft and sew a dolman tee. Or you can get a great Dolman tee pattern from Sew Much Ado and add some sleeves. To add sleeves, I put the finished (no cuffs added) dolman tee on and measured from the armhole to my desired sleeve length along the inside/underside of my arm. Then I traced a sleeve from a sweater I like, marked the length from the hem of the sleeve up, made sure the armhole and top of the sleeve were the same size and sewed them together. Hmmmm… maybe not so clear unless you are super adventurous? Let me know if you want one and I will put the tutorial on my list.
One more shot of me being model-y with awesome squintey far-away eyes. (how embarrassing!) I must thank my husband (no relation to the previous sarcastic comment intended) for going out and taking these photos. It was -6 degrees Celsius out, that’s 21 degrees Fahrenheit, and he was kind enough to carry my coat so I could try to warm up between shots! Super chilly – but the outdoor pictures are so much nicer that it’s totally worth it. Oh, and let’s leave with this one… me staring at my shoes at dusk in a deserted area – with no purse, coat or hat in the middle of winter… Eek! I’ve got to think up some more realistic settings!
by Sherri Sylvester | Mar 15, 2014
Alright, it’s time we get this thing back on track. It’s been an entire month since the last survey and I had to go back to remind myself what it was even about! Thanks for joining in, let’s see what you said waaaaay back in February!
Last Survey’s Results:
We asked “Where are most of your sewing patterns from?” The majority of you (40%) use free downloads and tutorials online. My favorite too! A huge thanks to all of the amazing bloggers that take the (enormous amounts of) time to tell us how to make something. Second place goes to our local fabric store patterns with 25% and a close third with digital downloads from the blogging community at 20%. Huge kudos to the 3% of people who said they draft the bulk of their patterns!
This Week’s Question:
I’ve been a tad overwhelmed lately at the amount of screen reading I’m doing. Seems I’ve managed to fill up my Bloglovin’ list with 38 blogs – which doesn’t sound like a lot, but when they all decide to post something it really adds up! And of course all of them are indispensable – trust me, I checked!
I’ve got 132 unread posts as of today and it will likely take me about 2 or 3 hours to get to the bottom of that list if I was to sit down and read them all at once. I suppose 2-3 hours may not seem like a lot either – but I don’t seem to have that kind of time all at once right now. I’ve gotten caught up before, but it always gets away from me (kind of like cleaning my house!) I’m curious what your approach is. I want to stay on top of the blogging trends and information, but haven’t got a great process worked out just yet to do that. In keeping with the “survey” I’ve thought up 4 different ways to approach the problem – but I know there are more ways than that so I’d love you to comment and let me know what you do – and maybe how many blogs you follow so we can see who follows the most!
[polldaddy poll=7882814]
And I’m off to sew something for me! Hooray! See you next week…
Want to have your Sewing Project or Blog featured on Sewing Survey Saturday? Send an email to sherri@threadridinghood.com that includes your sewing related multiple choice question, your name and where you live (if you’d like it included). Please send your question with 3 to 5 multiple choice answers. Also send your blog information including which post you’d like me to link up to if you are featured! If you do not blog I would love to post a photo of one of your recent projects, so please send it along with your question. (Note: I may also feature a photo from your blog post (if applicable), if you do not want a linked photo please let me know in your email.)
by Sherri Sylvester | Mar 13, 2014
Welcome back to Week 4! Today we will start our second page with the materials listing. It’s the Mitten Page – another simple one! And I thought we should complete the peek-a-boo theme we started with the House Page, kids love surprises! Of course faces are especially interesting to the little ones, and having a photo of themselves (or any other random baby!) is very exciting.
The mitten on this page is large enough that I can fit my hand in it. I liked this feature when my daughter was younger, since I could show her how to use it and we could play together. The vinyl photo pocket is created in a way that allows the photo to be changes by you, not the little fingers you are making the book for! Ready to get started? (If you are just starting find all the information you need on this Sew-Along page.)
Before I go into the details – here is your shopping list for Week 4. (Click the list, Print it, Find your fabrics!) I’m loving how scrappy this is, it’s emptying my scrap bin little by little! If you chose to make this book with the cohesive look, you will need to use your cohesive fabric for the background of this page. ** Update: You will also need a small piece of ribbon for the side tab! It is not on the list as I missed it the first go-round. Cut 1 piece 3 1/2″ long, or use the extra length from your photo edging ribbon.
Shopping List Details:
I recommend that the background for this page be a quilting cotton weight so it is not too thick later when you stitch the pages together. I made my mitten from flannel, because it is soft, like a mitten! And the mitten cuff is best in a knit fabric, so everything is soft for your little one. Match the fabric’s number in the photo with the description below for more detail.
For each of these fabric pieces I have given you a scrap size that is larger than you will need, except for the fabric background and interfacing – this is noted in the list below.
- Page Background – 1 piece (quilting cotton recommended) exactly 9″x9″
- Page Interfacing: 1 piece exactly 9″x9″ square, medium weight fusible interfacing (you will have this from your Week 1 shopping list)
- Photo Vinyl: 1 piece clear vinyl 5″ x 7″ (I used 12 gauge, but I’m sure 8 gauge would be fine as well)
- Photo Edging: 20″ 3/8″ wide ribbon (grosgrain recommended)
- Mitten: 1 piece fabric 7″ high x 16″ wide (flannel recommended)
- Mitten Cuff: 1 piece 3″ high x 9″ wide (rib knit recommended, a very stretchy knit will do fine as long as it is not very thin)
- Baby Photo: 3.75″ x 3.75″
That’s it for this week. Be sure to go out and find the cutest baby you can for the photo! Likely yours?! And, how are you enjoying the sew-along? I’d love to see your finished pages. Please check the Sew-Along page for ways you can share your book.
As usual, please let me know if you have any questions: email sherri@threadridinghood.com or leave a comment.
by Sherri Sylvester | Mar 12, 2014
In case you are wondering, I haven’t disappeared! I’ve been working on some fun graphic design projects for our company that have been using some of my sewing time. I’ve been bitten by the “spring sewing” bug and have lots of plans… I just need to hit some deadlines first!
I thought I’d pop by today to let you know why I’m super excited! Remember the little zakka-inspired Scalloped Edge Basket I made last year?
I’ve written a tutorial for the basket for Sew Mama Sew and it posted today – now you can make one too! I’ve added an optional handle to the tutorial too, which is perfect for a little Easter basket. (Just in case you are planning ahead!) The basket on its own is great for a little gift basket, or for collecting all of those little things in your house that need a home. It’s a good size, so it holds a lot without being too huge. And – bonus, it uses your favorite fat quarters!
Right now, since I managed to win the rights to the gray one, I have filled it up with my wooden spools and vintage measuring tape. It looks so cute sitting in my sewing room! The kids have had words over the pink basket already and now I need to make another one so they can both have one for Easter. I hope you like it! Find the tutorial on Sew Mama Sew.
