A Modern Sewing Blog.

Monday, March 31, 2014

So Much New Fabric...

Today I finished putting all the new Moda fabric in our online shop. We have so much new fabric! Wonderful, lovely, colorful fabrics. I know that at least one of them will become a summer blouse for me but I have no idea how I will decide. 

This is "Mirabelle" by Fig Tree and Co. Really pretty vintage looking fabrics. The lacy one reminds me of some of the fancy papers for scrapbooking. Click HERE to see it online or come in to the shop.

This is the "April Showers" collection by Bonnie & Camille. These umbrellas make my heart happy. Wouldn't the umbrellas make a fabulous little girls dress with the green gingham as the collar and cuffs? Click HERE to view online or come in and ogle it in the shop like I've been. 


This giant collection is "Color Me Happy" from V and Co. This is the first collection of theirs we've carried and as you can tell we really like it. This isn't even everything, there's more at our website! This is probably going to be the collection that wins out for summer blouse territory. One of the Floral Boquets, or Floral Sprouts, I think those two look really vintage but in a fresh sort of way. I just love a fabric that harkens back to the 1940's and one of my favorite summer blouse patterns is a 1940's reissue from Simplicity #1692, sounds like a match made in heaven to me. Click HERE to see all of Color Me Happy.

Wooly Lady Fabric, Pillow patterns and bundles.


Lastly, we are now carrying Wooly Lady wool fabric. We'll be selling it in three sizes: $6.25, $12.50, $25.00 and we'll continue to get more colors in, as she releases them. We're also carrying a few of her kits and several of her patterns. Come into the store to see all the pretty colors. We've got one of the kits online click HERE to see it.

Happy spring, and happy sewing,
Love,
Jessie and Sue.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Pinterest and Sewing

If only...

I (Jessie) was out of town for five days. I don't know what it is about vacations but I always feel like I'm about a month behind when I get back. I sit around wondering, "what do I do all day? Where do I even start?" Surprisingly, yesterday I was very productive. I'm moving through my piles of Craft Show projects and even though there's still a ton to do, at least now I feel like I have something to take. I find that jelly beans are pretty helpful, my tip: put them in a mug so your kids think your drinking coffee like a grown-up.
Need some ideas for homemade gifts. Check out our
"Homemade Gifts" Board

Because I don't have anything new to show you, and I'm sure your sick of my craft show projects (I'm pretty sick of them myself) I thought I'd highlight some of things we offer on Pinterest. Here at Sew Unique Threads we treat out Pinterest boards as a place to bring together lots of free patterns, inspirations, ideas and links from around the internet. Instead of surfing the web you can browse through our organized boards and click the links that tickle your fancy. So far we have 27 boards, categories like "Hand Sewn For Children" "Christmas" "Embroidery" "Apparel" "Quilts" "Hand Sewn for Baby" "Hand Sewn for Home" "Costumes" just to name a few. You'll notice our most recent pins are showcased to the left of this post here on the blog, but there are so many more Click HERE to see all our boards.

This is from my favorite board "Sewing Spaces"
because I love inspiration and pictures of beautiful
creative spaces.
I hope that these "pins" can inspire you through all your crafty endeavors.
Happy Sewing,
Love,
Jessie and Sue.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Amy Butler's Weekender Bag

This post is coming to you a day early because I'm leaving for a long weekend to celebrate my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary. I'm riding to MD with three of my lady cousins and I think it's going to be a smashing time.

Perfect opportunity to pull out my Weekender Bag that I made a year or so ago. The title to this bag is really misleading because you can fit so much in it. I'm an over-packer especially this time of year (weather forecast to go from mid sixties to forties in one day). I was able to pack enough clothes for five days! Plus all my hair stuff etc. I love the shape of it, and I get compliments on the bag whenever I use it.
Sweet dog, wish I could take him with me.



The pattern is in the shop and online, click HERE to view. I am a much more advanced sewist now then when I first made this bag, and I was still able to put it together in a few days (nothing like a deadline to motivate  you. I think I had bought the fabric and pattern months before but then had a looming trip and made it really quick) You'll definitely want to use a heavy duty needle and a good machine. I made this on one of those small Kenmore starter machines and I'm pretty certain it was the nail in it's coffin. That was fine with me I had been needing to move up to a bigger machine for a while anyway.

See the pattern HERE.
The pattern calls for home decor fabric but in true Jessie fashion I fell in love with a quilting cotton. I simply fused a heavy weight interfacing to the outer fabric and it seems to be holding up fine. I used Moda's Dominique II fabric. We still have several yards of this in the shop, I LOVE this fabric. For the handles, trim and inside I used a polka dot also from moda (but am unsure of the name).
This is the weekender that Sue made.
She has such an eye for a modern look!

This bag reminds me of why I love sewing so much. Such a unique and completely, Jessie, piece of luggage I couldn't have obtained any other way.

Happy Sewing friends, I hope your weekend is as enjoyable as mine will be.
Love,
Jessie and Sue.

Monday, March 17, 2014

Quilt Show

Come see us at marshall's Stitches in Time Quilt Show. This weekend March 22-23 10-4 at the marshall middle school. There are going to be so many great things at this show, all new exhibits, vendors, raffles and a presentation by Marshall's own Edyta Sitar, designer of Moda's Laundry Basket line!! The cost for admission is $7. We're going to be there with LOTS of new precuts including Jelly Bean from Laundry Basket. We're also bringing along our Christmas fabric and selling it for 30% off.
Lots of precuts including Laundry Basket coming to the quilt show!

I think the artistry of quilt making is so wonderful and the community it builds is really exciting. I hope you can come.


I'm also excited to announce that we're now carrying Riley Blake fabrics online and in our shop. We've just got a few to start but lots more is on the way.
charm pack click HERE



Fat Quarter Bundle Click HERE
How fun is this french themed fabric, and the mustaches! How wonderfully nerdy and old-world at the same time. Click HERE for more information.
On sale $8!

Also this week we added all of our Kwik Sew patterns to the website and put them on sale for $8.00! Click HERE to browse through, spring is on the way, it might be a good time to sew yourself something new to wear.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Paint Chip Notebook Tutorial

Today I'm bringing a small, fun tutorial. These are Paint Chip Notebooks. They're really cheap to make, paint chips are free from most hardware stores, one ream of paper will last you forever and a little thread. The idea is based off of Asian book binding specifically Asian Stab binding (only our way is much easier).
Traditional Asian bookbinding, very beautiful but also time consuming.
If your interested click HERE
for more information.

What you'll Need:
Larger Paint Chips (I used the ones from Home Depot they seem to be the biggest and thickest)
10 sheets of nice paper (notebook paper would be to flimsy I used Drawing paper from creatology)
Heavy Duty Needle used for sewing Denim (70/10)
All purpose thread.

Step One: Cut your paper just smaller then the dimensions of the paint chip. If you have access to a paper cutter then all the better.


Step 2: Fold the Paint Chip and the paper down the center. Take your time to really crease the pages.

Step 3: Put your machine on one if it's decorative stitches. I find that this one (H on my machine) works really well with the paper. 

Step 4: Unfold the paper and paint chip and put it all together. Center the crease in the center of your machine. Slowly sew down the flattened notebook being sure to keep everything centered. This part is a little tricky. The paper wants to shift around so just take your time.


Step 5: Refold the notebook and Voila! You have your very own notebook, the prefect size for a small portable sketchbook or notebook for your purse or bag.







Monday, March 10, 2014

New Moda Coming!

Hello sweet sewists! I've got exciting news, we've got an entire new line of Moda on it's way! It's the Color Me Happy collection. If you can't wait for the bolts to arrive we have some charm packs all ready to go. Click HERE to buy online or see. Otherwise check out these pics and rest assured that they're on the way.


These fabrics make me "happy" I can't wait to see all these
lovely prints on the bolt! If you can't wait we've got the charm packs on sale
Click HERE!

I've also been busy putting more of our Sale fabrics online. This week I put on Moda fabrics that aren't in print anymore. This is your chance to see if we've got any of the fabrics you might have missed. Click HERE to view. 

I love this peacock fabric! So wonderful
quite the surprise when I pulled it out of the sale bed.
See it HERE.

And last but certainly not least is the new Woolies fabrics. All online and on sale see it HERE.

I'm hoping to make a real dent in my projects for the craft show. What plans do you have for this week? 
Happy Sewing,
Love
Jessie and Sue.



Thursday, March 6, 2014

A Slow Week.

I'm slowly making way through my craft show projects. I've got three messenger bags finished and two more nearly finished. Still so much left to do, I have to try and not think about it. Especially because there is something going on every weekend in March and April! Some people thrive on those kinds of schedules, but not me I'm more of a slow and steady kind of girl. I love people but I also need lots of quiet, I suppose that's why sewing and writing appeal to me so much.

I didn't get a lot else finished this week. I have family coming from out of town therefore, much of my time was spent cleaning and doing horrible things like mopping. Also, my youngest boy is turning five this weekend (hence the family visiting, and all my tears!) and a big birthday party. If we're all well, fighting off colds now which is just so very frustrating!

Will spring ever get here? Way down on my list of things to sew, is a new outfit for my anniversary (at the beginning of June). Of course it's what I really want to be sewing but priorities are what they are. What about you all? What are you sewing these days? What are you planning on sewing? Leave us a comment, maybe your inspiration can inspire me despite the cold.

Happy Sewing,
Love,
Jessie and Sue.

Monday, March 3, 2014

Sale Fabric!

FreeSpirit fabrics on Sale for $7 a yard!
Did you know that we have a bed of sale fabric? No really, it's an antique crib and it's got all our bolts of sale fabric in it, and we refer to it as the "Sale Bed." I love that kind of thing, quirky names that are specific to one place. Makes me feel sort of "in the know" to reference the Sale Bed. Everything in the Sale Bed is $7 a yard. A great place to get backings or other things that require lots of yardage.


I started putting some of those fabrics online because we realized a lot of it is fabric that's really hard to find now. In other words there's a lot of new fabric in the "On Sale" section of the website. It might be something they're not making any more and you've been looking for everywhere! Right now it's mostly FreeSpirit fabrics but we'll have more up in the next couple weeks. Sale fabric is $7!
Kit and Pattern available on our website.
We also put kits and the pattern, on the website for the Hippy Hippy Shake Shake quilt. The kits include precut fabrics from Moda's Curio collection for the quilt top and fabrics for the middle of the cute daises along with the pattern. Click Here and Here.
I'm loving this Owl fabric and I'm thinking
it would be perfect for a summer skirt.
Fun, flirty and 100% cotton!

We continue to be in a deep freeze here in Michigan but Spring has to be getting closer. I can't wait! I keep dreaming about warms weather and new flowy skirts and breezy blouses. If your looking for a spring project or spring time fabrics come on in, or shop online. Don't forget our Pinterest Boards for project ideas and inspiration, great ideas organized and in one location click HERE.

Happy Sewing,
Love,
Jessie and Sue.