Fall is always the first season to call me to the sewing machine. It’s an especially inspiring time for quilts and my quilting friends also find this to be true. It could be the shorter days, the cooler weather, or the upcoming holidays. In any case, if you’ve never quilted before I encourage you to start checking into it this fall.
Three Uncommon Tools for Home Repair and Hobbies
If you own a home or even live in a rental property, you know that repair and maintenance tasks are never ending. To keep up with that honey-do list, most people at the minimum have one of those orange Home Depot tool boxes loaded with a hammer, a couple of screwdrivers, a pair of pliers, […]
Why Bother Lining Garments?
It’s often tempting to skip linings. They can almost double the time it takes to sew a garment; they may not show from the outside, and lining fabric costs money. On the other hand, linings can do more than just give a professional finish. You’ll notice that couture clothes and the more expensive types of […]
How to Sew a Simple Library Tote
Krista Maurer is a writer, photographer, seamstress and boutique owner. She loves fresh flowers, Christmas lights, good seafood, wrapping presents, and hostessing parties. You can find more of her ideas and tutorials at KristaMaurer.com. Whether it’s the dog-days of summer or the start of a new school year, every child needs their very own library […]
Home Canned Peaches
Start With Small, Fresh PeachesIdeally, the peaches will be picked right off the tree. More realistically, they will be purchased at a farmer’s market or the local grocery store. Be sure they are fully ripe, but still fairly firm. The heat of processing the peaches will cause them to soften. To can peaches whole, the […]
Fairy Houses…Everywhere Book Review
“Fairy Houses…Everywhere” by Barry and Tracy Kane is a photographic guide to fairy house building. That’s right, you can create houses that will entice fairies to your yard, or so the book proposes. This concept of building fairy houses, according to the book, was created by New Englanders decades ago to entice woodland friends to […]
How To Make a Paneled Skirt Without a Pattern
A paneled skirt is a very versatile type of skirt. By choosing more or fewer panels and widening or narrowing those panels toward the bottom, you can make a skirt that is almost straight or an incredibly twirly full skirt. Because the fullness comes from tapered panels, this skirt has no gathers or bulk around […]
How to Make a Dirndl Skirt Without a Pattern
A dirndl skirt can be made using either one piece of fabric or two. Essentially the skirt is a tube, gathered at the top; if the tube is made from one piece of fabric it will have a single seam, placed at the side or the back. Many people prefer to sew two pieces of […]
Do You Really Need a Sewing or Craft Room?
As renters, we’ve moved house three times already in just over three years of marriage. Our last home had lots of spare rooms, and I planned to turn one into a sewing room. Then pregnancy and a baby came along, and by the time we left I’d gotten no further than painting the walls. Sewing, […]
Five Small Christmas Gifts to Start Knitting Now
These easy knitting projects are good for relative beginners. Most of them knit up in a few hours, ready to be popped into a drawer for safekeeping. The projects are also small, making them ideal for using up scraps of wool from your stash. Bowtie Scarf These cute scarves are equally appropriate for children and […]
How to Make Homemade Sour Cream From Raw Milk
As a child, I was always puzzled by the descriptions of sour cream and sour milk in the Little House on the Prairie books. When our milk went off, it didn’t smell sour – it smelled like garbage! The culprit, of course, is pasteurisation. Heat-treating milk turns it from a living substance teeming with benefcial […]
Soap Making 101: How to Make Handmade Soap at Home
I began experimenting with making my own soap several years ago, firstly as something to sell at craft shows, secondly to save money. I began with melt-and-pour glycerin soaps. They were easy to do and looked nice, but people still wanted lye soaps, so I branched out. Supplies for Making Lye Soap There are a […]
