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 5, 2014
When I started this blog I figured I would eventually tidy up my space enough to let you see where I work. After all, I’m always super curious about where other people sew, naturally I think some of you might be too! Since my machine went in for maintenance earlier this year I caught a break and a little time and I was able to clean and clear out the whole space. I have also discovered while looking at these photos that I love colour, comfort and being able to see everything. Just in case that wasn’t already obvious. (hee hee!) It’s interesting because I spend a lot of time making the other parts of my house as minimalist and simplistic as possible. I likely have too much to say about my space, so I hope you are okay with a bit of a novel today. I edited it down to this – really!
My husband and I share this 10 x 10 ft room. We used to take up space in the basement, with some of the kids toys and our TV. Since we both work from home we decided about a year ago that it was healthier to have a door on our work space. That way we could make our basement and main floor into a relaxing space instead of being reminded of work every time we were in them. After much discussion with the girls (who agreed it would be fun to move in together) we bought bunk beds for them and took over this little “nursery room” on our third floor. The result has been a much better home/work balance – so nice! It’s been especially nice that I’ve been able to keep my space clean for a month now, amazing for my husband who takes up only a little more than 3 square feet of one corner of the space and likes to work in a clean environment!
My desk is actually a mash-up of 2 Ikea Expedit shelving units along with some hollow core doors from our hardware store. Somewhere out in blog-land is the wonderful woman who suggested using a door for an inexpensive table-top and I will be forever grateful – if I could only find her again! We have cut the doors into multiple pieces and mounted the centre one on two Ikea table legs. The back of each door is screwed into one long 9 ft pre-primed piece of mdf that holds the whole thing together. Quite a feat in a small room, but it’s so heavy it doesn’t have a chance of falling apart! One day I will paint the edges of the doors, and maybe the tops too, but since it is a work-space the chances are slim on that one. This also means the counter is table height and I mostly sew standing up. I love the freedom I feel to move around, iron things when needed and generally feel more active.
The side wall holds my favorite framed book cover – the Singer Sewing Book from 1972. Another one of my husband’s grandmother’s things I was lucky enough to acquire. Eventually the frame will be painted – maybe black? I’ve also hung my thread holder and a drawing of a sewing machine that my oldest made, probably 2 years ago now! This wall is also where I try to stay organized and the clipboards hold my schedule and thoughts in check. They are move-able so I can take them down for scheduling and then put them back up as needed.
Stash much? As much as I love fabric, surprisingly I don’t have more than one shelf length of gorgeous quilting cottons! All my fabric is folded onto boards as mini-bolts and shelved on this bookcase I found my local Re-Store for only $20. It sits in the room’s closet space, though we have removed the closet door. It was pretty dark in there and the colour matching wasn’t going so well! Everything is loosely arranged in rainbow colour order. Flannel/Canvas on the top shelf. Quilting cottons and fleece on the 2nd shelf. The third shelf is dedicated to apparel fabrics and the 4th is for knits, though I ran out of room on this one and had to start a basket on the floor! The bottom shelf holds fabrics that I have rolled up because I have lots of them, and all of my interfacing, batting and fusible web. Outside of the shelving I’ve got rolled up vinyl to the right and my ironing board and iron are stored on the left wall. I’ve also got a bin for things I have made that don’t have a purpose yet. What do you do with “extra” projects? Do you have any?
The top of the closet holds the clothing I want to re-purpose, stuffing and all of my daughters’ flannel receiving blankets that I hope to one day make something from. Oh, and you get to see the lovely colour the walls were when we moved into our house. Very “unisex nursery yellow”.
The back of the door is right next to the closet and opposite my sewing area. I’ve hung the artwork my mom made me and I keep some sewing projects there. Especially my cargo duffle, which is really one of my most favorite projects that I have made to date. I think the artwork was meant for my kitchen, but I love it here, it reminds me of my family (my parents live quite far away in Texas) and the saying is so true. I need to be reminded that keeping a clean house is not worth the effort sometimes!
Back to the desk area then? I’ve got so many bins and containers here it’s pretty crazy, but they all have a purpose. The flowered tins hold my scissors and seam ripper, camera, miscellaneous receipts and my calculator – among other things. The blue box was my grandmother’s and I have an office divider to hold all of my rulers. Inspiration and my Canadian Online Fabric Store business cards are kept on the bulletin board I made at least 7 years (and no blog) ago that just happens to perfectly match the wall, I must like that colour!
The bottom shelf holds all of my re-purposed 80 oz pickle jars, and the jars hold everything from ribbons and elastic to zippers and Velcro. I’m slowly expanding my book collection and I’m excited to hopefully pull off a top from the Stylish Dress Book soon… we’ll see!
The top shelf is saved for storing my girls’ quilts-in-progress and my fat quarters are stored in a shelf that used to hold diapers and nursery items. I’ve also put up some pretty things, ribbon and my selvage jar, which will one day become useful and make itself into something!
Last but not least it’s my sewing machine. It’s not fancy, but it does everything I need it to and I love working with it. I’ve also got my favorite cartoon character to stare me down while I sew – Marvin the Martian is hilarious. I’m not sure why I like him so much, but it was a bit of an obsession when I was just out of high school and I may or may not have 3 stuffed ones hiding in the girls’ closet (one of them as tall as my kids!). The handsome face on my bulletin board is my husband, such a fun Instagram pic he posted I had to print it out.
That’s about it I think. I’ve got baskets of scraps and drawers with fabric paints, pencils and bias tape makers under my machine. One dedicated to all of my patterns tucked neatly into dollar store yellow envelopes. Too many bins of projects waiting to be finished hiding everywhere and of course more thread and tracing paper too. More things than you would ever care to read about I’m sure!
I’m such a curious person – where do you hide/keep all of your things? As I sew more I wonder where and how people without a dedicated room keep their stuff. Of course, if I didn’t collect projects so easily I would have less stuff, something to think about!
I hope you enjoyed the tour. I’d love to hear about your space. Do tell!
by Sherri Sylvester | Feb 19, 2014
Hooray! Our Quiet Book Sew-Along now has a Flickr group to hold all of your progress photos! I debated a link system on each post, but I think this will work better and it has bigger pictures, so we can see all of your hard work better! (I know there are mixed feelings on Flickr, but it seemed best seeing as how both blogger and non-blogger friends have joined up and it will be easier for the non-bloggers to use Flickr to share their work.)
If you already use Flickr you can access the Quiet Book Sew Along group here.
If you don’t have a Flickr account it is easy to set up, join the group and add photos. I’ve written out the steps, so you have no excuses – kidding! In reality, I was frustrated the first time I tried to join a Flickr group, so I thought it would only be fair to let you know how if I was going to invite you over!
Step 1: Go to Flickr and create yourself an account.
Step 2: Once you are in, click on the “Communities” menu item. Choose “Search Groups”.
Step 3: Type “Quiet Book Sew Along” into the search bar and press “Search”.
Step 4: Click the small “Join?” text under the Thread Riding Hood “Quiet Book Sew-Along” Group.
Step 5: It will ask you if you really want to join. Click “Join This Group”!
Step 6: You’re In! Now to add Photos… Click the white button that says “+ Add Photos” next to the title.
Step 7: Click “Upload Something Now”.
Step 8: Drag & Drop your photos onto the screen or select “Choose photos and videos” to find them on your computer.
Step 9: Name and caption your photo by clicking on the text.
Step 10: Add your photo to the “Quiet Book Sew-Along” group by clicking “Add to groups” on the left menu bar.
Step 11: Choose “Quiet Book Sew-Along” in your groups list and click the “Done” button at the bottom of the box.
Step 12: You should now have a little Red and the Wolf button under “Groups” indicating the photo will be added to that group.
Step 13: Look at the top right hand side of the screen to find the “Upload Photo” button. Click it to save your photo.
Step 14: Flickr will double-check that you are sure. Click “Upload to Photostream”.
Step 15: You should now be in your main screen with your uploaded photo(s).
Step 16: To get back to the “Quiet Book Sew-Along” group page click “Communities”-“Groups List” on the menu bar.
Step 17: Select the “Quiet Book Sew-Along” group button.
Step 18: Comment and favorite all of the amazing Quiet book page progress!
That’s all there is to it! Hope the little tutorial helped inspire you to share your book. Come on over and join. It’ll take you about 10 minutes but you’ll be using it until the end of November. The amortization of time on that transaction is amazing! Please let me know if you have any questions, I’d love to help.
by Sherri Sylvester | Feb 14, 2014
I had a whole bunch of extra pictures from the Bunting Tee tutorial that I couldn’t pass up – so I decided to save them for today, lucky you! I truly hope you feel loved and have a happy day today. Don’t forget that all of the chocolate will be on sale tomorrow! Happy Valentine’s Day from our house to yours.
by Sherri Sylvester | Feb 7, 2014
A couple of weeks ago I received an amazing gift. My mother-in-law was going through some of her storage space and came across her mother’s sewing things. Since she would not be using them, she asked me if I wanted to have them. I could not have been quicker to say ‘YES’ – I was (and am still) so excited to have been given this amazing vintage sewing stash.
This thread shelf was made by my husband’s grandfather for his wife – and it’s likely to have been commissioned specifically. Because of it’s shelf system, I can store it flat on the wall, and it holds multiple heights/styles of thread. And, speaking of thread, it came fully stocked!
I love wooden spools – I think these will be stored in a(nother) glass jar on my shelf so I can look at how pretty they are. And, maybe only to be used if I am desperate at 1 in the morning for a particular colour. (Did you see the cat spool? My favorite!)
Again with the thread… but did you see those prices? The winner is… pink at 30 cents a spool! (Can anyone enlighten me as to what Boilfast means?!)
The pricing on this vintage stuff is the best part. I think if I ever use these I will have to save the packaging as long as is usefully possible. I’m not so good at throwing things away anyhow! Check out the elastic – it’s washable – super handy if you want to wear your pants more than once!
I will enjoy using the Zephyr Lightning slide fastener one day. To be honest, again it’s a question of disturbing the packaging – but it seems a waste to just let it sit because I can’t open it… What would you do?
These buttons are my favorite. I wonder what they were destined to be used for? Did she have a plan when she bought them, or were they an impulse buy? It would be so fun to know! I love this buckle too, and the neat and tidy buttons, all together – not like mine with multiples all floating around in the jar. The dressmakers tracing paper is a perfect example of vintage design and the graphic designer in me may have to frame this one, too bad the cover is torn.
I think my favorite things in the stash are the ribbons and rickrack. I really love trims, but don’t generally keep them around (or remember to use them!) These will be a great addition to my growing stash. My favorite? The baby rick rack. I promise I will have enough patience to sew it on one day!
Now, you may (or may not) be wondering what I have used as a background for these photos. I am pleased to say that I now have an antique pattern cutting board that is 2 yards by 1 yard. Amazing for photo shoots, and maybe I will use it for cutting out and altering patterns, if I can bear to put holes in it. I don’t think she’d mind, it’s got some already. I also love my new ruler and vintage measuring tape. Oh, so much fun! And, there’s the oh-so-soft yellow dot fabric I also acquired, soon destined to be a summer dress for my youngest.
Aside from my obvious infatuation/love of vintage things, I do have more appreciation for these items than that. I am grateful that my mother-in-law and I have a really good relationship and that she chose to give me her mother’s stash. She takes wonderful care of my daughters and of course, my in-laws both raised my husband, who (of course!) turned out amazing!
I am also thankful to have a connection to my husband’s grandparents, who I never met. Having their things in my sewing space makes me feel more connected to the art of sewing. In a (possibly strange) way – it reminds me of a time when every woman knew how to sew, and it was more a way of life. Not so much a hobby, as it is mostly seen now. Back then life was busy, but time was consumed differently – not spent so much on commuting or buying a “faster” way to make dinner. We were more connected to the people directly around us, instead of always knowing what our 700 friends are doing.
I’m not against social media in any way! Of course if I was, you would not be here – and that in itself is amazing to me. I appreciate you more than you know. So, now that this has turned into a blog post about the state of life instead of my new vintage sewing gear…. to lighten it up – check out the smile on this girl… think happy thoughts… (Like vacations on the beach!) Until next time…
by Sherri Sylvester | Jan 15, 2014
If you are reading this, think back to 15 days ago – remember what you were doing? Now, pretend it’s still 15 days ago and keep reading – yes, really! I’ve been planning so much around here it’s been all admin and no fun sewing. So I thought I would post my semi-overdue (unless you are still pretending) post on 2013.
I have been reading a lot of “Top 5” or “Top 10” posts, some are based on the most popular from the previous year and some are the blogger’s chosen favorites. I am torn, because some of my favorite projects are not the most popular – but I want to highlight reality… so… I’m going to do 2! So as not to subject you to a novel, I am going to choose to do a “Top 5” version of each.
Before I continue, I would like to say a huge THANK YOU to YOU. Without you here to read about my projects and comment on everything I would not have nearly as much fun as I do! I truly appreciate each and every one of you for making this blog possible.
TOP 5 POSTS (by the book)
Super Hero Cape (free pattern + tutorial)
Canadian Online Fabric Stores Pinterest Board
Diaper/Tote Bag (free tutorial)
Sunny Glasses Case (free pattern + tutorial)
Reusable Snack Bags
My FAVE FIVE (totally random)
Ruffled Plaid Madness Dress
Butterfly Backpack (pattern to be released by Spring 2014)
Scallop Edge Basket
Twirly Scirocco (tutorial)
Long Sleeved Sally Dress
Wow, what a lot of memories are tied to these projects! Going through them it was so hard to choose only 5 of my favorites. But looking back at the list, it was an amazing year and I’m excited to start another. This year you will be seeing more of me – I’m going to do my best to provide you with more great projects and helpful information. I’m going to tell it like it is a bit more. I want to get to know you better, and to help us use the amazing ability we have to share information with each other – so we can gain and share our knowledge for the benefit of our community.
I’ve started by creating a way for you to share your blogs and projects on Thread Riding Hood, and I’ve got another surprise coming up in the next few weeks. See you soon. And again, thank you so much for reading! You are deeply appreciated.
