Sew Spoiled

This year has been great! Can't wait to see what next year will bring! We started with the Sew Spoiled Twist Apron  pattern in January. We finally reviewed the Bunny Bag from    The Makers' Journal Etsy Shop , in Australia . This is such a cute bag and they make adorable bridesmaids gifts.  February and March had school events happening! We had students attending the All-District Band clinics and we performed The Wizard of Oz at a local Community College! My daughter entered the #KidsCanLearn2Sew Contest! She did not win but we felt like winners because it was a fun project for us to work on together! June through August we were fundraising for a Tuba for our band and we successfully raised over $4,000! See I am a band director, you can't fake this stuff. 😀 We took our students to see the Orchestra! Every kid should go to see the orchestra at least once in their elementary career! The NC Symphony Orchestra provides education concerts and expla

Do you need some inspiration for your embroidery? Below is my Embroidery Pinterest Board! I update it frequently and it has over 340 pins! We have 744 followers but we highly advise you following this board so you can continue to receive inspiration for new embroidery ideas. Best wishes and tons of stitches!

Let's embroider a project!                                                 Wait a minute, wait a minute! Let's set up everything first. Set up the design for the embroidery machine. You will need to get your design ready for your machine. I use Embrilliance Software to move letters or move design pieces around and size things. I like to center everything in the hoop graph on my computer software so that it will transfer that to the machine. I also baste all of my designs. If you do not have the software you can use stitches directly from your embroidery machine, you can purchase files online and transfer them to your machine via SD card, USB or with a cable.  Hoop the stabilizer, leave a little excess around the hoop. Make sure the stabilizer has a little tension like a drum. I do not hoop my fabric or project. I baste the project down first and then my machine runs the embroidery files. That way if the baste stitch is the wrong size or if the design is not center I

I got an embroidery machine now what? First, you need a few items to make your machine work. Make sure you have a stabilizer, my favorite is tear-away !  Embroidery Thread ! Embroidery thread is different than sewing machine thread. It is shiny and made out of polyester, it is better for your machine because the thread has fewer fibers that will clog the machine. Also, You will also want the shine from the thread to stand out above the fabric. If you want to embroider towels, or anything fuzzy, then you will want to purchase Water Soluble Embroidery Stabilizer . This stabilizer is for the top of your embroidery work so the thread will stand up on top of the fluffy fibers of a towel. Embroidery Machine Scissors , these will make it easier for you to trim threads. Sometimes an embroidery design will move across the hoop and you will have extra thread across your design, trim them away while the project is in the hoop. Baste Design!  I use this for almost every design! I will s

Let's get creative! Do you have someone on your list that has everything or will buy it? Handmade gifts are the best and truly come from the heart. That is why Sew Spoiled is cutting our pattern prices for the holiday season! You can get any Sew Spoiled Pattern for $5.00 , without a coupon code! Happily Handmade!

Hobby Lobby took this wonderful picture for the Simplicity Pattern 1338 or "It's So Easy, It's Simplicity" 1190. I love the rich fabrics, my favorite colors! The handles have trim sewn onto the webbing which gives it a more finished look. The fabric design was also centered very well. Looks Fabulous!

This summer  McCall's and PatternReview  are sponsoring a sewing contest just for kids called #KidsCanLearn2Sew. In order to enter to win patterns, fabric, and a new Janome sewing machine you have to submit a 1-minute video of your child learning to sew. This video project was so much fun and gave us a goal to work on while the girls were on summer vacation. There were a lot of stages of the project like picking out the fabric and pattern, it took my daughter forever to look around at JoAnn's. Luckily, we knew what pattern she wanted, M7426 , because we had shopped online but when it came to the fabric she surveyed every knit fabric choice three times at least.  I was shocked when Kinsey showed me her choices. Inside my mind, I was screaming, "Leggings?? You want to sew knit leggings? Are you sure you don't want to sew a cotton shirt or dress?" but I kept my cool and acted like it was totally fine.  Which... guess what...it was fine.  My older daughter

One of my favorite things to do on the weekend is to pull all of my favorite fabrics out and patchwork small pieces into a beautiful work of art. Most of the pieces I pulled are from earlier collections of Amy Butler Fabrics. These fabrics are out of print and hard to find so I never throw them away. This weekend I created two beautiful patchwork Tic Tac Toe Pincushions. These pincushions are 7" square, large enough for all of your pins and needles. They last forever! I still have my first Tic Tac Toe Pincushion and it is by far my favorite sewing accessory! The Tic Tac Toe Pincushion design is available free  here  on this site. If you make one we would love to see it. Tag your Tic Tac Toe Pincushion with #SewSpoiled so we can view it. But if you want to buy a Tic Tac Toe Pincushion already made with a Sew Spoiled Label, the hard to find Amy Butler and beautiful indigo blue pincushions are available in my Sew Spoiled Etsy shop . These two gorgeous pincushions are ready

If you have little girls you know about My Little Ponies. They are much cooler now, than when I collected them. They also sell My Little Ponies in a multitude of sizes. We recently purchased a Pinkie Pie and Flutter Shy from the Build a Bear shop at the mall. These are larger ponies and of course after buying the pony you have to dress them up. However, my girls are a little different. Instead of  dressing them at the store, we get ideas and make stuff at home. The tutorial I am going to share today is the My Little Pony Cape, for the large ponies at Build a Bear. This pattern is also reversible so you can make one with two totally different sides and flip flop it for different looking capes. Print the PDF Template Here . Materials: 2- Fat Quarters measuring 18" X 22" 1/4" wide elastic    

Key Fobs are so easy to make and make excellent gifts for family and friends.  Here is my Key Fob Tutorial.  I love embroidering using the same color thread as the webbing color.  

The first trending style this spring is the jumper! The picture on the left is the McCall's 6083 by Margo from Creating In The Gap . If you are looking for this look in a different design, the Carly Jumpsuit by Style Arc . The picture on the right is a jumper from  Cato Fashion , cost is only $21.99. The next trend is ruffly sleeves or fun cuffs.  McCall 7542 , sewing pattern on the left, gives you a lot of choices of different sleeve types. There is also sewing contest for this pattern from now to May 7, 2017. Simply create a top using this pattern and then post it on social media; Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram to enter to win. The winnings are a $100 gift certificate to Vogue Fabrics  and $100 worth of McCall Patterns! On the right is J. Crew's, Ruffle Sleeve Top  for $39.50 with a coupon code;  HOPTOIT.  This Pamela Palm Linen Poncho is from Chico and couldn't be easier to make. At Chico it will cost you $89.00. By the way, this is not linen, at least

We decided to try Kid Pik . If you haven't heard of Kid Pik it is a company like Stitch Fix , where you enter information about yourself (or in this case about your daughter) and a fashion consultant sends you a box of 7 items. We received a light sweater, sandals, a bubble top, a tank top, one pair of shorts, a pair of jeans, a headband and a stripe/ floral top.  Super cute sweater, with hearts knitted into the fabric. This is the shirt my daughter fell in love with. Love at first site! It also matches a lot of the items already in her closet. She is also wearing a sparkly navy headband. We decided to keep both! This is my favorite, beautiful flower fabric sewn to the back of the shirt. This was a free gift! She received 5 pins she can place on her bookbag, purse or denim jean jacket! Many of the items were placed in cute bags! I loved this item the dot swing tank but my daughter didn't. I was hoping she would keep it. This part was hard. I listened to