Grace has a wonderful kindergarten teacher who often wears aprons.  So awhile back when Grace wanted to give her a gift we decided to make her a "fancy" apron with her initial on it. We started with a premade, canvass apron. And some Tulip Beads in a bottle: Then I drew out her initial on some copy paper and placed it where we thought it looked best on the apron: And then we started to make dots! The dots were easy to make we just squeezed the paint straight out of the bottle and ... View the Post

A few weeks ago I shared this handmade gift over at Riley Blake Designs, but today I am bringing it home..... Here's the story behind it.  I was recently helping my mom clean out her craft room and we kept finding loose crochet hooks around the place.....one here, one there and quite a few more in her crochet basket.  And an idea was born.  She was in desperate need of a crochet cozy! I used just under a half-yard of fabric and it took about 1 hour to make---which is just the kind of ... View the Post

When we were asked recently if we wanted to review Nancy Zieman's new book...the answer was undoubtedly YES!  Nancy Zieman....she is the queen of all things sewing and I grew up watching her series on PBS.  And her book is exactly as I thought is would be...delightful. She talks about her growing up on a farm in Wisconsin, overcoming Bell's Palsy, and her sewing career in all its paths.  And how it all started with one 4-H demonstration of showing how to put on a waistband. She says, "There is ... View the Post

I have been very overdue (hee...hee) for some baby gifts for some friends so I sat down one afternoon last week to play catch up.  I first made two of these little dresses.  I did  two sizes 12-18 months mostly because these babies came last fall and I haven't been on the stick enough to get them a gift.  So, large sizes were in order!  I hope that they will fit next summer.... I added some cute pink rose trim that I found in the stash.   And some matching pink buttons ... View the Post

I am not a coupon-er, although I wish I were. I have some really good friends that are mind-blowing at it....but I just couldn't keep up. The clipping, the filing, the wrong math additions (that's a personal issue) was just more than I could do---which is completely my fault. But I know that there are good savings (my brain says it)! And every time I walk into a store, part of me wants to follow someone around with a coupon binder to soak in all of their couponing knowledge because let's face ... View the Post

Today we have an extra special guest as a part of our "What I Wish I'd Known When I Started Sewing Series".  It's our friend Melissa from the Polka Dot Chair.  We've been lucky enough to spend a lot of time with Melissa...talking, eating, sewing...all even though we live hundreds of miles apart.  She is warm, fun, and the kind of person that you not only want to be friends with...but to sew with as well!  So we are so very happy to have her here today sharing some of her sewing advice with us.  ... View the Post