Ultimate quilt binding tutorial with step by step instructions to show you how to make quilt binding and how to attach the first round of binding. Includes 10 tips for success and a lits of tools you'll need to make your own quilt binding.

Although pre-quilted fabric generally doesn't come with a huge array of quilted patterns, if you're choosing to quilt your own fabric for our Grainger Coat, then you've got a lot more room to play with your quilting pattern! Get 15% off any pattern when you become a Muna and Broad Maker or Insider on Patreon. Self-Quil

The Jen Kingwell Gypsy Wife Sew-along kicks off next week (August 3) and I thought it would be a good...

Wheelchair and Walker Sewing Patterns and Quilt Patterns to Make for Personalized Gifts and Charity Giving

Make folded Danish stars from fabric to decorate for the holidays! With just one straight seam, even the kids can get in on this holiday project.

Have you ever wondered what the little ball is for on your seam ripper? Learn how to use a seam ripper and the little red ball.

Enjoy the latest tips, techniques, projects, and patterns from QUILTsocial! Includes The picnic bag & tablecloth, Pretty pin cushion, Sewing borders, 5 stellar features on a new entry level sewing machine, The super accurate way to make flying geese quilt blocks, The friendship star block, The 3 most important tips for binding, Do you use these 9 sewing habits?, 2 quilting techniques to improve speed & accuracy, The embroidered word and quilting, and much much more!

Pressing and Ironing are common terms in sewing but do you know the difference? Using the wrong one could ruin your project before it’s even finished.

In today's culture of disposable fashion, the simple art of basic darning and mending has been all but forgotten.

Creative Arts Blogger Michele Bilyeu shares her sewing, quilting, and crafting journey from Alaska to Oregon and back again.

Today I'm sharing a tutorial for a scrappy sawtooth star quilt block. This is the perfect block for using scraps, lots of colors and prints.

A quilt top which I’d started on ages ago had been shouting at me to get it finished as it’s for a Christmas present. When I began making it, my 3yr old had kept saying how much he love…

Take your sewing projects to the next level using these sewing tips and tricks.

Half Square Triangles are the blocks of choice for this week in the Jen Kingwell’s Gypsy Wife Quilt Sew-along. I...

Hello and happy Thursday! While doing a little cleaning in my sewing room this week I happened upon my stash of orphan blocks. Orphan blocks are extra blocks made to test block patterns or blocks that were made for quilts or projects that never got used. As I was sorting through my found “treasures” I […]

Tips for making traditional Flying Geese Quilt blocks - including 4 at a time no-waste method and foundation piecing with Triangles on a Roll.

I was photographing a quilt this weekend and thinking through all of the photos to take of a quilt. I thought I would share my quilt shot list here since others might find it helpful and want to know how to take photos of quilts. *Want to see more photos of these quilts? Just click

For some reason, I’ve always been a little afraid of Y seams, but they really aren’t all that awful. A Y seam is exactly what the letter looks like – a place where three seam line…

A blog about the Exploration of Quilting and Design

Someone has kindly brought to my attention that in Section 6 of the quilt construction in page 28 of Gypsy Wife Booklet there is a strip missing. I am so sorry for this - I was proofing the pattern be

Well it's the end of a busy week! I don't know about you, but I'm pooped! But I'm pleased to say we've had some gorgeous, sunny days here in N.I. this week, and there's a lovely Autumn feel to the air! As always, the things I've been working on this week I can't show you yet (soon I promise!), so I'm going to give you a wee tute on how to use up every last wee bit of fabric shavings, you know those bits that end up all over your cutting mat after trimming blocks and hsts? We'll here's a cool way to turn them into a new type of fabric. As far as I know this product doesn't have an official name - I learnt it at college and it wasn't called anything then, but if you know the official name of this craft, please let me know. 1. Save up your fabric shavings & wee bits of offcuts that are too small to be useful (you can also cut up wee bits of fluffy wool, ribbon, sparkly threads etc.). Bigger pieces will need to be snipped down smaller. 2. Take a piece of plain sheeting/calico and lay a load of shavings on top. You can colour code your savings as I have done here, or have a multi-coloured mess! Make sure it's thick enough to cover the backing fabric, but not too thick to sew over. 3. Lay a piece of water soluble fabric over the top and pin/sew round the edges. This stuff is really cool - you can get different brands in a craft shop or online. I've used Avalon Water Soluble Embroidery Fabric by Madeira. 4. Now sew, sew, sew over the top of the w.s.fabric, either by free motion quilting or straight & wavy lines all over. Try not to leave any big gaps where the shavings can later escape from. 5. When you have stitched this to within an inch of its life, take the pins out and under a luke warm tap or in a sink/basin, allow the w.s.fabric to melt away (it goes a bit slimy as it melts off so rinse it well). 6. Give your new piece of fabric a good squeeze to get the water out and then allow it to dry on the radiator. 7. When dry, draw your desired shapes on the back and cut out. If you want to, sew more stitching on top to highlight details, for example veins in leaves, or sew on beads, sequins etc. 8. You can now use your fabric shapes to embellish/decorate cards, cushions, make letters or Christmas decorations etc. etc. The possibilities are endless! Another way to use this wonderful water soluble fabric is to roughly sketch a shape on to it & then put it into an embroidery hoop. Repeated sewing and shading with thread will close all the gaps, so that when you take the fabric off the hoop and dissolve the w.s.fabric you are left with a completely embroidered shape. Have fun & let your imagination run wild!

How to Diagnose and Fix Tension Issues and Get Perfect Stitches Every Time! Does your machine’s stitching look a bit off? That can be due to tension, and an easy adjustment will often fix the problem. However, before you jump into adjusting the tension make sure the machine and bobbin are threaded properly, change the …

Updated 4-25-12 with new and improved pictures! In honor of Sew, Mama, Sew’s quilting month I am finally getting around to posting this pictorial tutorial (say that 10 times fast!) on how to …

A blog about the Exploration of Quilting and Design

Messy stitches. Loose threads. Clanking metal. Lint clogs. When you’re in the quilting groove, there’s nothing more frustrating than an out-of-whack sewing machine. Luckily, there are a few tips and techniques that can get your machine up and running in no time, and Rob is just the guy to show you how! In fact, he gets pretty excited about taking care of his machines! This week Rob has released a series of three video tutorials to guide you through do-it-yourself repair and maintenance. He’ll also help you diagnose problems that require professional attention. With over 15 years of experience as a sewing machine technician, youRead More →

Before you run out to buy that sewing notion you thought you couldn't live without, here are eight common household objects that double as unorthodox sewing tools.

Full instructions for an hourglass quilt block, complete with step-by-step pictures, video tutorial and printable cutting chart.

Stitching in the ditch is a quilting technique, but it’s a good one to know for other sewing projects as well. I don’t use it a ton, but occasionally when I’m making …

Today, in part 4 of the Getting To Know Your Featherweight Series, you will learn how to thread a Singer Featherweight Sewing Machine from start to finish.Suggested Products:1) Crosswound Spool of thread: Aurifil or Presencia2) Thread Stand or Thread Post3) Schmetz Needles4) Thread Cutterz or Thread Snips5) Super Easy Machine Needle Threader6) Singer Featherweight Instruction Manual 221 or 222 To begin, you will need to turn the handwheel (which is technically called a “balance wheel”) towards you until the thread take-up lever is at its highest position. Turning the handwheel in the proper direction is something important to remember! You always, always, always want to turn the handwheel towards you and not away from you. Even if you are sewing in reverse, the handwheel will still be turned toward you – in the same direction and manner as in the video tutorial. If you ever turn the handwheel away from you it causes the thread to catch incorrectly around the bobbin assembly and can result in a thread jam…. But not to worry if that happens accidentally, because there is a video tutorial (from the Featherweight Schoolhouse page) to help with removing the jammed thread. Now you will need to determine what kind of thread spool you are using. Is it a stacked spool or a cross-wound spool? A stacked spool has thread that is wound round and round stacking the thread strands one on top of the other. A cross-wound spool has thread that wound on the spool in a crisscross pattern. If you are using a stacked spool of thread then place the spool on the spool pin. Your thread will go directly from the spool to the first upper thread guide... Like this: If using an Aurifil cross-wound spool then it helps to remove the bottom orange disk so the thread doesn’t get caught on the bottom and will unwind smoothly as it goes to the needle. With a cross-wound spool then it is highly recommended that you use a Thread Stand or Thread Post that is designed specifically for the Featherweight. There is has an excellent video tutorial on the Featherweight Schoolhouse on the importance of using a Thread Stand. Shop Thread Stand for Singer Featherweight 221 or 222 HereShop Thread Post for Vintage Singer Sewing Machines Here Cross-wound spools require the thread to be lifted off the spool, versus pulled from the side (which causes a wobble of the spool). Bring the thread strand first to the stand’s upper guide then back down through the hole at the base of the shaft, then directly over to the first upper thread guide on the machine. NEW, Updated Thread Path! Now your thread won't slip out of the Thread Stand guide whether you use it for a spool on the top of the machine or with a cone at the back! Simply thread the hole through the base of the shaft before going to the first thread guide on the machine. Like this.... When using larger cones - you simply adjust the placement of the Thread Stand to accommodate front to back, which allows the thread to flow easily off of the cone from the table as shown below. The remaining steps for threading the machine will be the same for all spool types. Place your right hand on the thread to hold it taut for the next couple of steps….. Using your left hand, grab the thread and bring it straight down and slip it between the tension disks. Make sure it’s between the disks and not in front or behind them. Bring the thread around and under the take-up spring, continuing on around. The take-up spring should raise up as the thread is brought all the way around and into the retaining fork on the tension unit. Then direct the thread behind the wire thread guide (directly above the tension unit). Next, go up and through the take-up lever from right to left. Bring the thread down and into the eyelet on the faceplate. Usually, you can catch the thread from the back of the eyelet. Continue threading to the next lower wire thread guide as well as the last needle clamp thread guide directly above the needle. Some Featherweights have this last guide situated in such a way that the thread enters from the right, but most Featherweights have the thread entering this last guide from the left. Remember from our last video how important it was to have the flat side of the needle facing left? Well, this last threading step is just as important, too, for proper stitch formation. The thread goes through the needle from the right to the left – or an easy way to remember is INSIDE OUT. From inside the machine to the outside. If the thread or needle is difficult to see then be sure to try our super easy machine needle threader in the shop. It takes away the hit & miss guesswork and easily threads the needle! The instruction manual says to draw about 2 inches of thread through the eye of the needle, but we recommend pulling several inches to have more to work with before you sew. Once you get used to threading your machine the proper way, you’ll zip through machine threading every time, no matter what kind of thread spool you use! Be sure to review video #1, 2 and 3 in this Getting To Know Your Featherweight series because our next tutorial will be all about how to pull the bobbin thread up to the surface and prepare for sewing! NEXT: Getting To Know Your Featherweight Part 5: Prepare for Sewing

I’m a sucker for bias binding on everything for one simple reason – it wears better than straight grain binding. Quilts made years ago are still holding up!

Learn how to create a perfect mitered fold while sewing corners by using an easy double fold hem method. Stacy Grissom shows you how.

How to Sew Perfect Scallops. A photo tutorial to help you learn how to sew scalloped edges for the Highland Avenue House.

Assemble an 8" Sawtooth Star block.

Inside: Sewing a straight line is so much harder than it looks. Here are the best tips for how to sew straight lines, including how to improve your sewing technique and tools to help you along faster. When I sat down to sew in my high school home economics class, I thought sewing straight lines was easy. Seriously, how

Make a difference in the world by sharing your talents - a list of charities in need of sewing and quilting and fabric donations.

I thought I would share the quick and easy tutorial I did for the Riley Blake Design Team earlier this spring for my DIY Resuable & Washable Baking Dish Covers. These come in super handy when you are headed to a potluck or summer picnic and you can’t find your lids!!!! (Not that that has […]

Are you a crafter, quilter or garment sewer and ever wondered how to sew with linen? I've listed out the tricks, tips and tools you need for success!

Don't stress over the tension dials on your sewing machine. Find out when and how to set and adjust thread tension.

I've been a quilter for sometime now and I worked in a local quilt shop for about 7 years. I always loved helping quilters and/or their bewildered deer-in-the-headlights loved ones pick out gifts at C

These stays are certainly the most complex cording project I've done, so I wanted to share how I've been going about it! First off, I'm using a totally different cording method than the ones shown in my Making a Corded Petticoat post. In both methods shown in that tutorial, the cord was put in place first and its channel was sewn around it. Those methods work just fine for a corded petticoat, but won't work very well for these stays. Instead, I'm sewing channels into the fabric first, then inserting the cording afterwards. As a reminder, this is the pattern I'm working with: Fabric Prep Since the criss-cross cording is the most difficult part of these stays, that's what we'll focus on. Each of the squares that make up the criss-cross pattern are only 0.25" wide, so they're very small and difficult to sew accurately. The space between each square forms the channel that the cord threads through. I'm using a green shot cotton as the pretty outer fashion layer of the stays, with two layers of thin but tightly woven white cotton as the strength layers. My stitches will go through all three layers of fabric, but the cording will be run between the two white layers of cotton. The first challenge was figuring out how to mark the stitching guidelines on the fabric. I could have made all the markings on the back of each piece, but I find that the top side of my stitching often looks a bit more precise than the back, so I needed a way to mark the green fabric so that I could stitch accurately, but not have the markings visible later. Squares marked with water soluble pen, with a penny for scale. At first I tried using a water soluble fabric marker that had a relatively fine tip. It showed up very well on the fabric, but since it is a marker and the fabric wicked the ink out a bit, the line it left was fairly thick. The thicker line made it very hard to see where exactly to stitch. Some of my test squares were more parallelogram than square, and the width of the squares varied between 5/16" and 3/16" wide. It may seem like I'm being overly picky, but that is a difference of 1/8", which means I was off in some areas by the width of half of a square! When working at such a small scale, even a little bit of deviation becomes extremely obvious. Wibbly wobbly stitching due to wide fabric marker guidelines. I considered using a fine mechanical pencil to draw more precise, accurate lines, but there were two potential issues. One, I was worried it wouldn't wash off well, leaving me with pencil lines all over my stays. Two, it's actually pretty hard to draw an accurate line on this fabric with a mechanical pencil, as the pressure of the lead warps and distorts the fabric as you're trying to draw. Can't draw a straight line b/c the pressure of the lead warps the fabric. Luckily, I was able to solve both issues at once with my favorite secret weapon: Mah super-sekrit weapon. Shh, don't tell! Starch has saved my butt on many a sewing project. Here, it serves two purposes. First, it stiffens the fabric so that it is almost paper-like, so now I can easily draw on it using the mechanical pencil without the fabric distorting. Now I can get perfectly straight, thin, highly accurate stitching lines! With starched fabric, no distortion! Comparison of marker lines vs mechanical pencil lines. Second, thanks to Lifeofglamour's various experiments with tinting starch for use on ruffs, I know that very often, pigments and dirt that are mixed in with or sitting on top of starch wash out without staining the fabric. When I tested this theory on my fabric, washing the starch out washed the pencil marks down the drain too! You can buy spray on starch or the liquid kind you dip your fabric into from the store, but thanks to Frolicking Frocks (dude, check out those petticoats!) I'm a convert to making my own out of cornstarch. My test stitching proves much more straight and accurate with the pencil guidelines, and after washing all evidence of the pencil lead is gone! Now that I've got that settled, the last step before stitching is to use a lightbox to trace my design onto the fabric. Stitching My original plan was to hand-stitch the stays, but I came to my senses after attempting a sample. I tried using my modern sewing machine, but it's very hard to stitch a line precisely 0.25" and stop in exactly the right place using the pedal control, so I pulled out the little Singer 99 hand crank machine I refurbished a few years ago instead. Remember this one? Isn't she pretty? With a hand crank, it's really easy to stop right at the exact number of stitches you want. A lot of fiddling and several tests later, I settled on a stitch length calibrated to precisely 1/16 of an inch, giving me squares that were 4 stitches wide on each side. Getting the correct stitch size is no mean feat on these old machines, since you set the length by screwing an unlabeled knob in or out as needed. That knob is the stitch length regulator. Notice the distinct lack of numbers or any useful markings of any sort? Now that I've got the length set, sewing each square is now as easy as starting the needle in the right place, sewing 4 stitches, sinking the needle on the 4th stitch, raising the presser foot, turning the fabric, putting the foot down again, sewing 4 more stitches, etc, all the way around the square. This leaves a bunch of thread tails all over the place. Of course I can't just trim them because the stitching would come out, so the loose threads are pulled to the back and tied off. Since I'm a bit paranoid about the knots coming undone, I put a dot of Fray-Check on each to prevent unraveling. Remember to test the Fray-Check on an inconspicuous spot first! My layers are thin, and on the first few knots I used too much and it soaked through to the front. Threads pulled to the back for tying. At first I was tying the threads after each square, but it's more efficient to sew several squares, then flip to the back and start pulling through/tying off. The problem with doing it that way is that those loose tails get in the way of stitching, and if you sew through the tail of a square a few rows down it's a mess to untangle. Luckily, I'm owned by two exceedingly furry felines, and thus have a clothing de-furring brush that doubles as a way to clear all my loose threads off to one side with a single swipe. Guess the fuzzbeasts are good for something. There's something like 200 tiny squares on just ONE front panel, plus more on each side panel, so you can see why this has been taking me a while! Cording After washing the starch out, drying, and pressing each piece, it's FINALLY time to stuff some cord in there. I'm using the same Sugar n' Cream cotton cord that I used in my corded petticoat. You'll want a cord of a width that fits fairly snugly in your channels, so choose accordingly, or stitch your channels to accommodate the cord you wish to use. I'm using a thick, blunt needle with a wide eye. Tapestry needles are perfect. The eye should be large enough that the cord just fits through it, but not so big that the needle won't fit through your channels with the now doubled cord in tow. I also have a pair needle nose pliers, because despite my best efforts, the eye of my needle still gets stuck in the fabric sometimes. When I made my last pair of corded stays, I broke the only good needle I had and swapped to one that was nearly the same, only sharp instead of blunt. It sorta worked, but the sharp tip kept shredding the fabric on both sides, and those scrapes later unraveled into larger holes, allowing the cord to poke out. I wouldn't have minded if they were all on the inside, but most of them were on the pretty outside! If all you can get is a sharp needle, grind the tip down. Holes in channels caused by sharp needle shredding fabric. Sadly, these are on the front, so they show when I wear it. On the backside of the stays, I poke the needle through just one layer of fabric right at the start of a channel. Since the needle is blunt, with some fabrics an awl is needed to start the hole. It takes a bit of practice to get the tip to go through just one layer of fabric, but practice makes perfect, right? Using an awl to start the hole. Threading the needle into the channel. Once inside, the needle is pushed down the length of the channel, dragging the cord behind it. It's tight, and I have to moosh (super technical term) and manipulate the fabric around the needle to move it along. Sometimes the pliers are necessary to pull the needle through the channel too. The eye is stuck at the entry to the channel, so I use pliers to help it along. At the opposite end, I poke the tip of the needle back out through the back fabric and pull it out, taking care to not pull all the cording out with it! The pliers are also super useful here, as the eye of the needle generally gets stuck on the way out. All the pushing and pulling on the needle is pretty rough on my fingers; using the pliers instead solves that problem. The downside is that I'm more likely to break a needle when pulling on it with the pliers. It's easier on my fingers to just use the pliers to pull the needle out. I don't trim the cord close to the fabric just yet; instead I cut it so there's about 1" still hanging out, then move on to the other channels. The places where the cords cross are a bit tricky to get through, but it's doable. Eventually I end up with a small forest of cord ends growing out of the back of the stays. Well that's a right mess. Once I've got a whole section done, I start trimming the stray tails. I cut the cord pretty close to the fabric, but not right flush with it. There are till some tiny tails hanging out. Trimmed close, with just a little bit hanging out. Then, without holding onto the cord, I tug on both ends of the channel, stretching the fabric slightly. Most of the tails pop back into their holes and disappear. A few are still sticking out a bit, but this is the inside of the garment, so I don't care overmuch. Gently stretching each channel. There are still holes at the start and end of each channel, but again, it's the inside, and they close up a little with time anyways. No more tails! Wow, that got lengthy! If any part of this tutorial isn't clear, let me know and I'll try to unmuddy it a bit. If you've got a cool cording project you're working on, show us in the comments! I've still got a few panels to go, so I'm off to the sewing table again for another late night.

Diagnose and solve poor sewing machine tension with this step-by-step checklist.