Category Archives: Sewing

As Seen on TV: Style Snaps (Stink)

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I’ve been seeing a commercial lately for a product called Style Snaps. The first time it came on, I was immediately drawn to it, wondering what kind of sewing-related product would be exciting enough for an “As-Seen-on-TV!” style commercial. Within seconds I was less than sold. Watch for yourself:

I just don’t get why these Style Snap things are supposed to be so amazing. The “finished product” – or faux hemmed pants – LOOK like a faux hem. They don’t look nice at all. It LOOKS like the pants are folded under, which is exactly what I’m trying to avoid when I hem my pants.

One more thing – what is up with the borderline-provocative visual right around 0:59-0:60? “Sexy and tight for a look that’s DEFINITELY right!” Ugh, I’m sorry, I thought I was watching a commercial about HEMS.

Of course, I had to look up the reviews for these things, and they are terrible! Not only are oodles of reviewers complaining about being scammed as far as the shipping and handling costs go, but the product isn’t even working well as advertised. The snaps have a sticky backing that either don’t stick to the fabric at all, or leave sticky adhesive behind when they do.

Beware Style Snaps! (But if you MUST try them even after reading this post, get them from eBay or Amazon and steer clear of the “official” site, BuyStyleSnaps.com – that is where most reviewers are getting scammed with misleading shipping costs)

Could you see yourself trying Style Snaps?

The Friday Five: 5 reasons why sewing is like planning a trip to Walt Disney World

Posted in Friday Five, Sewing by

Disney Postcard

This week’s Friday Five comes to you after a week of massive snowstorms all across the country… in every state except Florida. Vacation on your mind? Here’s a few reasons why SEWING is like planning a trip to Walt Disney World…

1. There’s a perception that you have to be a certain age to enjoy it: Walt Disney World is for kids, and sewing is for senior citizens… NOT! I’m an almost-27-year-old who enjoys both immensely. Anyone who is familiar with the Disney theme parks or can foresee creative sewing possibilities knows that both sewing and Disney are for everybody!

2. It’s worth the wait! You may have to wait an hour to meet Tinker Bell, and it may take weeks or months to complete an extensive sewing project. But the end results are priceless: a meet and greet with a magical, famous fairy, or a one-of-a-kind, handcrafted item created by you. I’ll take all of the above, please!

3. Preparation (and anticipation) are key. Know how much time I spend roaming fabric stores? A lot. Know how much time I spend Googling sewing questions? A lot more. Do you know how crazy a person would be to visit a Disney theme park without preparing ahead of time? Very.

4. For many, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime deal. Most families only get the chance to visit a Disney theme park once in their lives – if that. And while there seems to be a big network of sewers all over internet message boards, it’s more common to run into someone who says, “Oh, I sewed a ____________ once.” Fill in the blank with the appropriate common once-in-a-lifetime sewing experience: Halloween costume, button-on-a-shirt, project in home ec class.

5. Both Disney and sewing are good, clean fun. In my teenage and young(er) adult years, I may have been more hesitant to admit that I preferred good ‘ole family-friendly fun over whatever inappropriate/undignified trendy activity my peers were partaking in. These days? Please. Every morning, my toaster burns Mickey Mouse’s face into my toast. I write a sewing blog. I like good, clean fun, and I’m not ashamed to admit it! 🙂

Inspirations and modifications

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I get the most brilliant ideas in the most inopportune places. Having a lightbulb-over-my-head moment is so inconvenient when I’m pushing through the last few minutes of an evening run, driving 70mph on the highway or rinsing conditioner out of my hair. I have to wonder how many wonderful ideas float out of my head, never to return again simply because I don’t have a means of writing them down when they come into my life.

But it’s understandable that ideas would come to me during these times. Let’s face it – running, driving and showering are boring. What else is there to do other than think? (and sing to the RENT soundtrack… which is usually blasting in all of the above scenarios)

Luckily, one shower-sewing-inspiration a few months back was so promising that I started mapping out a plan in my head before my hair was even dry. My dear friend’s birthday was approaching and I wanted to make her something memorable. Because we share a special understanding about the magic of Disney, I used Minnie Mouse for inspiration and made a Friendship Bag using the same modified measurements I wrote about a few posts back.

A variety of black calico prints + a red/white polka dot fabric + a magical, inspirational mouse = One successful sewing project!

For an extra magical touch, I added a mouse-head applique using a really amazing product called Heat’n Bond Iron-On Adhesive. It’s available near the ironing supplies in the fabric store for around $10/roll and comes in a variety of adhesive strengths to turn any fabric into an iron-on piece. Since I planned on stitching around the border, I only needed to use the lightest strength to iron my applique in place. Non-sewers would appreciate Heat’n Bond Ultra Hold adhesive – no sewing required!

And last, I created a little coin pouch – my first experience with a zipper. I had to mix and match a few different online tutorials to create the exact quilted zipper coin pouch I had in mind, but overall it wasn’t very difficult. Zippers look more intimidating than they really are!

What I learned from this project:

  • Inspiration can strike anywhere!
  • Heat’n Bond is an amazing product for creating appliques, and may even be useful for non-sewers.
  • Zippers are not scary!

Am I the only one who gets inspired in strange places?

Pixie dusted panels

Posted in Disney, Sewing by

This past weekend, I traveled across the country for a friend’s wedding and stayed with my parents. Not only did I get to raid my mom’s fabric collection (consisting of scraps dating back to Halloween costumes of the 80’s past) but I also got to visit Hancock Fabrics, a fabric store that I do not have in my area back home. Being a huge fan of the movie Peter Pan, and especially anything involving my favorite character Wendy Darling, I was immediately overcome with joy when I saw this 48″ x 60″ fleece panel:

Not only was the fleece panel amazing and magical, but it was ON SALE. So, although my fellow airplane passengers didn’t realize it, the return flight was sprinkled with a little pixie dust as Peter Pan, Wendy, John, Michael and Tinker Bell rode along inside my suitcase.

So now, the big question: what will become of the magical fleece panel? I imagine it will end up as a blanket, but simply sewing a solid fleece panel to the back seems…. boring.

Any suggestions for a creative touch?

A monster of a project

Posted in Disney, Holidays, Sewing, Tutorial / Pattern Reviews by

I think it’s a given that anyone who sews will eventually make a Halloween costume. It was only a matter of time after I bought my sewing machine in July that I started racking my brain for Halloween costume ideas.

Since I planned to attend Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party with a friend at Disney’s Magic Kingdom Park, we really wanted to come up with a fun Disney pair that was slightly outside-the-box. A prince-and-princess just seemed too cliche for our creative personalities. After coming up with a lot of ideas, we finally decided that Mike Wazowski and Boo from the Disney-Pixar film Monsters, Inc. was the winning duo.

I started with Simplicity 7415,  a vintage pumpkin / tennis ball / baseball / ice cream scoop / pincushion / Humpty Dumpty pattern from the early 90’s. (Side note: I’m happy to report that this is the first official pattern I’ve mastered thus far. Woohoo!)


I followed the instructions for the tennis ball costume, primarily using lime green broadcloth for the body, and lined the inside with felt to add a little shape. I used white, black and kelly green broadcloth to create the eye, which is glued on and lightly handstitched around the edges. We stuffed the costume with crumpled newspapers contained in trash bags, and elastic at the neckline and the bottom of the costume kept the innerds from falling out during our trek around the Magic Kingdom.

In a dream world, I would have sewn a shirt and pants for Mike Wazowski using the same lime green broadcloth as the body – but in the end, it was just more practical to wear a pair of mint green scrubs that he already owned. My entire Boo ensemble consisted of lucky finds at Walmart – no sewing involved.

Mike Wazowski and Boo costumes

Can you believe I was lucky enough to attend the Halloween party with Nick Lachey?

Although only die-hard Disney fans recognized me as Boo, the Mike Wazowski costume was a HUGE HIT. I couldn’t believe how many “Mike Wazowski!!!” shouts we heard from afar. Little Monsters Inc. fans in strollers gazed up at Mike Wazowski with wide eyes. My friend was quick to brag about my skills to strangers, telling them that I had sewed the costume, but I was secretly glad it was dark outside so that nobody could see my imperfect stitches up close!

What I learned from this project:

  • To fulfill a creative vision, it’s sometimes necessary to shop for out-of-print patterns on the internet.
  • I used bias tape for the first time. I still can’t say I completely understand the purpose of fabric “cut on the bias,” but for the purpose of this project, it was incredibly useful to have long strips of pre-cut, folded fabric.
  • This costume was the biggest and most cumbersome project I have made to date. It was also the most time consuming, and let’s face it, a lot of the steps were repetitive and not very exciting (sew lots of solid colored panels together… zzzzzzzz). Feeling burnt out from a specific, monotonous project is probably normal. But it sure helped my sewing soul to take some days off to work on other projects, like cutting fabric for new Friendship Bags, before returning to the Halloween costume.

All in all, I love how the Mike Wazowski costume turned out, although it is a little strange to have a monster hanging in my closet!

What are you dressing up as for Halloween this year?

LindsaySignature

The Friendship Bag

Posted in Sewing, Tutorial / Pattern Reviews by

In my first few weeks of sewing machine bliss, I was lucky enough to stumble across p.s. i quilt, an inspiring blog with lots of incredible tutorials. I was immediately drawn to the Friendship Bag tutorial. Not only was the bag adorable, but I read the instructions ahead of time and understood each and every step thanks to the wonderful photos included throughout the tutorial. Plus all of the fabric pieces were rectangles that I could easily measure and cut myself without having to print a pattern.

I eagerly chose a variety of “fat quarters” at the fabric store. I have since learned that “fat quarters” are a quarter of a yard of fabric… duh, makes sense. But that means they are not always the best deal at $1.99 apiece, as that would be about $8/yard on the bolt! A little pricey for a beginning sewer, prone to disaster, who is just experimenting with a new project. But alas, the fabrics I chose complimented each other perfectly, were very “Lindsay-ish” with their cutesy blend of browns and pastels, and therefore worth every penny.
I made the bag and was shocked at how tiny it was. But my euphoria about making a successful bag outweighed the fact that I hadn’t really paid attention to the measurements, which clearly indicated how small the bag would be. Since I had plenty of fabric left, I later recalculated the measurements and made a larger bag.
What I learned from this project:
  • There are lots of awesome, free tutorials available on the internet, thanks to savvy sewers on the web. Wahoo!
  • Pay attention to measurements in order to get an idea of how large or small the final product will be. Don’t assume!
  • “Fat Quarters” may look like a wee little economical choice in the store, but that is not necessarily the case. That doesn’t mean I’d ever pass up an adorable Fat Quarter, but I’ll never pass up an adorable fabric on the bolt out of convenience, either.

And now, I will leave you with the measurements for the larger bag. Follow steps in the p.s. i quilt tutorial, with a 1/4″ seam allowance.

  • 16 strips, 9.5″ x 2.5″
  • 1 bottom panel, 17.5″ x 9.5″
  • 1 lining, 16.75″ x 25″
  • 2 straps, 24″ x 4″

Happy sewing!

LindsaySignature

The search for a beginner’s sewing machine

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Some months ago, I was surfing the incredibly addicting craft site Etsy.com. I started looking at a purse made with some cute, Japanese Peter Pan fabric, but wasn’t quite sure I wanted to pay $35+ for one that wasn’t exactly what I wanted. I suddenly thought, “If only I could get the fabric myself, I bet I could make a better one.” I’m not really sure why that thought popped into my head, as I had tried to learn some basic sewing machine skills from my mom in junior high and was an admittedly lazy student with crooked stitches and impatient knots and tangles. But I couldn’t get the thought out of my head as I started browsing sewing blogs and pattern review sites. The wheels in my brain started cranking full-speed, imagining all of the purses, clothes, accessories, home goods, and gifts I could create if only I had the proper tools, determination and maybe some professional instruction, but I still wasn’t sure that my instantaneous ambition justified the purchase of a sewing machine and related supplies for a few hundred dollars (all of the sudden, that $35+ for the Peter Pan purse didn’t seem so bad).

I let the idea stew for about a month. When I still couldn’t stop looking at patterns and concocting ideas, I started researching sewing machines. In my research, I realized that sewing machines are a lot like cheese soup recipes: everybody has a really differing opinion about what’s the best, and a person’s level of satisfaction really depends on their background and what they are seeking. I also realized that there are a lot of lousy sewing machines out there, and while buying a brand new machine can be expensive, it’s extremely common to get a lemon when buying used.

I decided that a brand-new machine would be my safest option, so I did a lot of research to find the most economical beginner’s machine available. I ended up with the Brother CS6000i for around $160, as it had a 4.5 out of 5 rating on Amazon.com, compiled from about 400 reviews.

Now, I have only been using my Brother CS6000i for a few months, but I have really come to adore my little economical machine. It came with a handful of helpful accessories, perfect for a beginner. The computerized functions are definitely a step above the older machine I tried to learn with in junior high, although a tiny part of me worries that when there’s a computer malfunction, the whole machine will be shot. I try not to think about that. Overall, I am incredibly satisfied with my first sewing machine purchase and really proud of the pieces this little beauty has helped me stitch together.

How do you go about justifying and researching major purchases?