Sarah J. Doyle's Blog

Awesome Holiday Giveaway

Sarah Doyle — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:43:00 GMT

As you know, I am co-owner of the SewingBusiness blog, and we are very excited to announce our Holiday Giveway for this year. You can read all about it here - http://sewingbusiness.com/2009/11/06/enter-to-win-a-gorgeous-pair-of-collectible-gingher-scissors.aspx

You can enter to win a gorgeous pair of 8″ Gingher Designer “Sarah” Series Dressmaker’s Shears in a gift tin with sheath, PLUS a length of pattern paper. The “Sarah” series has been retired and currently retails for up to $99.99, and the value of these collectibles tend to rise as they become more scarce. Use them as a special gift for the holiday’s, or keep them as a gift for yourself. Better yet – USE them to make gifts for other people.

Head on over to the blog and read all about the Holiday Giveaway and put in your comments for the entries into the giveaway -- Here's the link again to get your name into the giveaway: http://sewingbusiness.com/2009/11/06/enter-to-win-a-gorgeous-pair-of-collectible-gingher-scissors.aspx

WOW! Perfect timing for a super gift for somebody VERY special on your gift list -- or keep as a collectible item for your own sewing room.

I'm On A Collar Roll

Sarah Doyle — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:54:00 GMT

I find myself getting certain types of projects going, then get on a roll and don't know when to quit --- until the next set of cool projects strikes my fancy.

This time I'm on a "collar" roll -- it started when I decided to make the Reversable Collar tutorial for a collar that can be used on any number of dresses, blouses or sweaters.

Today I've started a series of "collar" posts at our SewingBusiness blog, starting today with the types of collars (did you know there are only THREE types of collars?). From here I'll be doing tutorials on how to attach and sew the collars, so be checking into our SewingBusiness blog to get all of the collar construction information.

All of the collar information and tutorials are an excerpt from our Basic Clothing Construction book.

Happy Halloween!

Sarah Doyle — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 01:10:00 GMT

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!

My little grandson (big 5 year old brother of the 4 year old quads) got to go trick or treating tonight for the very first time. He wanted to be a robot, and wanted to make his own costume. So, we bought a couple of gift bags (2 different sizes) and he sat down to decorate it with stickers and even colored an "American Eagle" picture to put on the front of the costume.

Here he is in his costume --- now is that cute or what!!!!!

The little ones will get to go trick or treating next year --- Jacob spends most weekends with us, so he just happened to be here on the right day; however we'll need to make different arrangements next year so they all can go.

By the way - when we got back to our house, Jacob informed me that he could have 4 pieces of candy and the rest needed to be put in a bag so he could share it with the babies and Mommy and Daddy. Way to go Jacob!!!

How To Make A Bow Collar

Sarah Doyle — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:05:00 GMT

Some of you may know that in addition to writing this blog, I am also co-owner of another blog, SewingBusiness.com which I write with my daughter.

We try to pass along interesting information about the business of sewing, website reviews and interviews of those blog / website owners who we feel would be an inspiration to our readers.

Today, however, I would like to blow my own horn a little -- I've done a "How To Make A Reversable Collar" tutorial for our sewing business blog, and I want to pass it along to you. This collar can be worn three ways - it's reversable, plus can be made into a bow collar.

Here's a picture of the "bow" collar -- you'll need to run over to the blog to get the step by step instructions on how to make it "custom" for your size and for the basic pattern that you'll be using to make the collar.

The collar can be made out of some of the scraps you have, or head on down to your fabric store and get 1/3 yard of a nice print fabric and 1/3 yard of a co-ordinating solid fabric.

Once you've made this collar, you may want to visit PatternsThatFitYou.com to check out a variety of additional collar patterns that you can make to go on your basic blouse or dress.

Sewing For Holiday Craft Bazaars

Sarah Doyle — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:07:00 GMT

How many of you participate in Holiday Craft Bazaars? Or do you have little craft / gift exchanges at work, within your family, at Church or in your neighborhood or clubs that you belong to?

With the economy / money so tight it might be difficult to run out and purchase those items for each of the gift exchanges. I would recommend that you begin now and MAKE some gifts for the exchanges. Patterns2Go has a huge variety of gift items that can be made (gifts for children, teens, men and women - take your pick).

Also check out PatternsThatFitYou, in the FREE patterns section, for additional ideas for gifts.

If you have a number of children (grandchildren, nieces and nephews, etc) that you need to have gifts for, you may want to check out the NurseryRoomProjects book (for babies and toddlers), SewingWithLeather book (for teens and adults), and even the LearnHowToSew book has many gift projects that can be made.

There are many sites, in addition to the ones listed above, that have a section of FREE tutorials and projects that you can look through and find dozens of gift ideas that you can make for this years' gift exchanges.

By MAKING the gifts you are spending a little time, but saving a lot of money, and you'll have a lot of people thrilled to have a special gift that YOU took the time to make for them.

Cold Weather Equals Warm Lounging Garments

Sarah Doyle — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:33:00 GMT

Well, the weather has definitely turned fall, and we've had much colder weather than normal here in the "sunny" south! And my native Nebraska has also felt the effects of the colder than normal weather.

All I can say is "bring out the flannel sheets and the warm lounging clothes". I've talked before about our uni-sex pajamas / lounging garments patterns, and now is the perfect time to say it again --- these are absolutely the best for making into lounge wear and gym sweat pants and tops. Check the patterns out at BigBeautifulPeople and get some made for yourself.

Get out the fleece and make a lounging dress or the "baseball" look v-neck opening sports sweat pants and top. Whether you make lounging garments or pajamas / nightshirt, you'll be toasty warm this winter.

Christmas Is Closer Than You Think!

Sarah Doyle — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:43:00 GMT

In years past the stores would bring out all the Christmas decorations, trees and specials around the first of November (at least get the halloween stuff put away first). However last year and this year especially I've noticed Christmas stuff up right after the first of October. Of course there were halloween decorations / costumes, etc, but overshadowing that are the Christmas offerings!

I've heard that people better not wait until the last minute to get certain items because the stores aren't bringing in large inventories as they've done in the past because they've been taking a big "hit" having to discount their merchandise just to get people in the store to buy anything.

My suggestion for this year -- because of all the layoffs, cuts in hours and lack of spending money - is to do more "frugal" and "personal" gift giving. For example, get out your Christmas gift list, and instead of trying to figure out how to buy those big electronic gadgets and espensive "toys" for the adults and kids, how about being practical and try the following suggestions:

* For those on your gift list that sew or do crafting, how about a sewing machine repair book - they will be thanking you all year because of the practical and useful gift.

* We all know some folks who either have lost their jobs or got their hours slashed, and would really like to do something out of their home to make extra money. For those folks, depending on their interests and talents, think about the "How To Make Cash From Your Crafts" book, or "Clothing Alterations as a Profitable Home Business" or "Sewing Machine Repair as a Home Business". These books would be much more meaningful than a trinket or something they don't need and really have no use for.

* If you have teens and pre-teens that want to learn how to sew or are in the process of trying to make some items, "Learn How To Sew" would be an excellent choice for them.

* For the younger children, why not invest in a book or two instead of trying to compete with those who are trying to "outspend" everybody with the electronic toys. Books will help them more in the long term than the games!!

By being frugal and "personal" in your gift giving, I'm thinking you will have more grateful recipients than if you just go out and pick up "things".

Graduation Day!

Sarah Doyle — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:02:00 GMT

I've mentioned before, our Daughter Denise (and our business partner) has been taking college classes, working on a bachelor's degree. She takes online classes from Columbia Southern University in Orange Beach, AL. The entire process has been slow for her as she works full time and also is an online instructor for Boston University, IN ADDITION to taking care of the 4 year old quadruplets and her older son who is 5. It makes me tired just thinking about all the stuff she can pack into every 24 hour day.

She actually finished her bachelor's work in December 2008, however because of the way online studies work with students completing their various degrees throughout the year, Columbia Southern holds one graduation ceremony each year in October -- and today was the day.

I have a couple of pictures of Denise -- graduating Summa Cum Laude! She has worked very hard to get that straight 4.0 grade average, and I applaude her for the effort she put into each and every class!

Denise is now about 1/3 through the Master's Degree program, with a goal of completing the program by June of 2010, so it looks like we'll be attending the 2010 graduation ceremony next year in October when she gets her Masters Degree. I KNOW you can do it Denise!!!

We love you Denise and are very very proud of you and your accomplishments!

How To Make A Quilted Skirt

Sarah Doyle — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:45:00 GMT

When my daughter was in the second grade I made a quilted skirt for her. She simply loved the skirt, and when she wore it to school three of her friends wanted one just like it. I ended up making three more skirts! The quilted skirt looks like this:

Quilted skirts are very simple to make:

1. Cut the skirt pattern pieces out of muslin, or a white cotton fabric. (I used a basic A-line skirt and put the front and back on the fold).
2. Using scraps from your scrap bag, cut various size pieces and pin them onto the muslin skirt front and back, overlapping the pieces.
3. Sew around the scrap pieces using a satin zig zag stitch. Depending on whether the scrap pieces are light colors or dark colors will determine whether you use white thread for the satin stitching or a darker color.

NOTE: Do not mix types of fabrics for this project. In other words, don't use cotton/polyester, woolens and knit scraps. For best results use cotton / cotton polyester fabric scraps.

Just writing about this project has made me want to pull out the scrap box and make TWO quilted skirts - for Sarah and Sienna (the girl part of our now 4 year old quadruplet grandbabies)!

You can also check out numerous other "quilted" scrap projects at Patterns2Go in the "Sewing" and "Quilting" categories, including the following:

Have You Visited Sew Village Lately?

Sarah Doyle — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:26:57 GMT

Many of my readers have "cottage" businesses, or work from home businesses, sell items on ebay or etsy, etc. And for all of us working from our homes, the "name of the game" is to get the word out about our products. The quotation "the more you tell, the more you sell" is certainly true here!

SewVillage.com is one of of those places where you can find information about hundreds of products AND put in a free listing of your website, blog or etsy store! SewVillage is a sewing and crafting search engine, which makes it an outstanding place to tell the world about what you have to offer.

Another important thing to consider when spreading the word about what you have to offer is to post on forums that are in your niche. Those of us who are in the sewing and crafting area would look for sewing forums or crafting forums. In this regard check out SewTalk and SewForum -- both of which are great for passing along your tips, help to answer other peoples' questions and in general get to know others that share the same interests and businesses that you have. SewTalk's theme is "so talk about it" -- in other words, log in there and "talk" -- help somebody that has a question, help somebody find products or notions they're looking for, OR if you're needing a little help or advice, this is the place to ask your question.

Take advantage of the places where you can get word out about your products and watch your own sales increase.

Do You Have Difficulty Pulling Needles Through On Handsewing Projects?

Sarah Doyle — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 09:48:00 GMT

Depending on the thickness of the fabric you're trying to do handsewing on, it can be very difficult to pull the needle through. In the past I've tried keeping a small piece of a 2x4 in the sewing room so I could push the needle down on it, but even doing that it was very hard to pull the needle through with your bare fingers.

A suggestion that I found that works great is this: before discarding old rubber gloves, cut off a 2" length of the thumb and needle fingers. These two thumb/finger pieces work great on those hand sewing projects where the needle is hard to pull through the fabric.

Of course, if you want the "real deal" and would like to make leather thimbles, I'd recommend you visit the SewingWithLeather website -- there you can find kits to make custom leather thimbles. Can't beat that -- CUSTOM FIT - the kit includes leather and pattern that you can use to make your own leather thimble that will fit perfectly. All you supply is the thread.

Whichever way you go, I'm sure you'll find it much easier to do handsewing on those thick heavy fabrics!

How To Make "Self Fringe" To Finish Hemlines

Sarah Doyle — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:21:00 GMT

An attractive way to finish the hemline of a skirt, the bottom of a blouse or hemline of a jacket is the use of "self fringe". You can make the fringe anywhere that the fabric has been cut on the straight grain -- do not try this on any piece that has been cut on the bias! The best type of fabric to use is the type that is loosely woven, or the threads may break during the fringing process.

To find the straight edge to begin fringing, pull a single thread from the edge you want to fringe (A). Use this line as the guide to cut the straight edge, so the fringe will be perfectly straight. After cutting the straight grain line, begin fringing by pulling the threads out, one at a time, until the fringe is as long as you wish it to be (. This is also great to use on woolen scarves to make and give as gifts.

For a variety of additional sewing, craft and pattern making tutorials, visit PatternsThatFitYou.com.

I LOST a whole month!

Sarah Doyle — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 00:29:00 GMT

For those of you who read our SewingBusiness blog, you've probably read about my run-in with poison ivy and that I spent nearly two weeks going to the hospital every day for high powered IV antiobiotic treatments, and the month so tired I could barely do the basics (like get out of bed to the bathroom, then from bedroom to living room). Boy howdy, the poison (infection) from the poison ivy got into my system within a couple days after apparently coming in contact with it (I never knew I'd touched it or that it was even there), and once in my system really did a job on me.

So, the whole month of September I battled the infection (IV treatments plus 2 additional antibiotics, plus antibiotic cream for the rash itself), and now I'm ashamed of the five measly posts that I did here. I'm still taking one of the antibiotics and using the cream to try to get rid of the rash around my ankle, but thank goodness I feel MUCH better!!!

I thought at the beginning of this month that I'd better try to double up on the work I'd not gotten done, but then I realized I'm not totally "out of the woods" with this nasty poison ivy, so perhaps I'd better take it a little bit easy for a few extra days.

The good thing is that October starts our fall festival schedule, with the first festival tomorrow. My daughter, Denise and I work them together, which makes it a lot of fun. The cool fall weather seems to bring everybody out, so we're anticipating a good and busy day tomorrow -- supposed to be sunny (no rain!), so that's a good thing.

If any of you do any craft fairs, festivals, horse shows, etc, let us know about them and how you did.

Pattern Changing Classes Are Great Alternative To Buying New Patterns

Sarah Doyle — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 23:13:00 GMT

How often have you finally gotten a basic pattern to fit just the way you want it to, then realize that you can make only so many dresses or blouses in that one style? What are the options? Buy more patterns with different necklines or sleeves, etc and have to start over on the "altering the pattern" process.

The BEST option to changing up that basic pattern is to try our Pattern Changing / Pattern MakeOver Classes at PatternsThatFitYou.com. We have classes that show you how to change one basic short sleeve into TEN different styles; a class that teaches you how to make EIGHT different necklines from your one basic pattern, plus a class on how to make collars to add to that basic dress or blouse pattern.

And, just to show you how easy it is to make changes to the necklines, sleeves, etc, we have a section of FREE mini classes that help you get started doing the pattern makeovers.

In addition we have information on how to make changes to the darts in that basic pattern, so you can get them to fit correctly; or raise the darts, lower the darts, or even remove the dart completely from the pattern.

Save some money --- change up the patterns you already have instead of running out to buy more patterns, just to have a new collar design or sleeve design.

Sewing Machine Repair For The Home Sewer NOW Downloadable!

Sarah Doyle — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 10:36:00 GMT

WHOOHOO!!!! For several years now we've had people writing literally from all over the world wondering if our best seller, Sewing Machine Repair for the Home Sewer was in downloadable format. I totally understand the questions because with the ever increasing cost of shipping, it now costs close to $15.00 to airmail that book to Australia, not to mention all the other countries around the world.

After months and months of reviewing and updating the Sewing Machine Repair for the Home Sewer, we NOW have this book in digital, downloadable form. This means that once you've made your payment for the book, you will be taken directly to the link to the book so you will have immediate access to it --- AND NO SHIPPING FEES!!!

To make things even better, since September is National Sewing Month, we will be giving you a huge discount on the downloadable version of this book through September 30, 2009.

The regular price for the download version is $24.95 (same as the printed version) - HOWEVER, for the rest of this month, until the 30th, the special price of the download version is only $18.70.

Check out the sale at http://sewnfit.com/pinnaclecart/index.php?p=catalog&parent=4&pg=1 and grab the updated, downloadable book at the super special sale price!

Send the link to your sewing friends, but be sure to let them know the sale ends Sept. 30, and the sale price is for the downloadable version only - not the mail out version.

Teach Someone How To Sew, Or...........

Sarah Doyle — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 09:53:00 GMT

This is National Sewing Month, so the push is on to teach someone how to sew, OR learn how to sew yourself, if you haven't already learned how to sew.

I'm very lucky to have had a mother and grandmother who knew how to sew (my grandmother was into quilts and my mother made all of the clothes my sister and I wore, in addition to shirts for my brothers). I learned how to sew at a very young age and have enjoyed all the aspects of sewing, quilting, crafting and anything to do with fabrics.

From what I've read, it appears that used sewing machines are a hot commodity now as people have literally no money for the nice new machines, but do want to learn how to sew, if for no other reason than to fix and repair their current clothing garments. Then once they've gotten hold of a sewing machine, the "want to sew" goes way beyond just simple mending jobs.

We can also tell, from the sales of our Learn How To Sew book, and the companion book, Basic Clothing Construction, there are indeed many many people wanting to learn how to sew.

If you don't already know how to sew, consider these basic sewing books so you can also be able to save money by sewing and repairing your own clothes and those for your family.

If you DO know how to sew, consider teaching someone else how to sew. They will be forever grateful that you took a little time to help them, just as I am with my mother and grandmother.

Tube Cushion Tutorial

Sarah Doyle — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:24:00 GMT

Tube cushions are great for rocking chairs, bar seats or just to use as a pillow!

Materials needed for one tube cushion:

Assorted print and solid scraps
white thread
polyester fiberfill stuffing
Completed cushion will be approximately 15" in diameter

Cut 12 strips 4" x 18". Fold them right sides together and sew the long edges, using 1/4" seam allowances. Turn the tubes inside
out. Satin stitch one end closed on each of the tubes.

Stuff each tube lightly with polyester stuffing. Satin stitch the open end to close the tube. Pin the tubes together, then zig zag the tubes together at the ends.

After sewing all the tubes together, begin the circular cushion by folding the first tube into a small circle, and begin to position the other tubes in the circle, as shown below:

Using safety pins, pin the tubes together as you make the rounds, in order to keep the tubes in place. When finished making the "rounds" of tubes, and pinning as you go, the cushion will look something like this:

To complete the project, begin hand stitching at the center of the first tube. Make the stitches small and as "hidden" as you can. Hand stitch each of the rounds to secure all the tubes. The finished tube cushion will look like this:

You can make your cushion with any color scheme you'd like -- to match a breakfast area, patio, child's room - wherever you plan to use the tube cushion.

Do You Save Campbells Labels?

Sarah Doyle — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 10:52:00 GMT

For years I've saved the Campbells soup / spaghettios labels just KNOWING that some school needed them! Every once in awhile one of my grandchildren's school would have a drive on asking for the labels, and I was always so happy I'd saved them. Well it's now been a few years and everybody I know that has kids in school tell me they don't collect them, so they (the labels) just hang in a bag in the garage.

NOW then, I have a very different story -- my little grandson who just started Kindergarted (the Quadruplets' big brother) brought home a paper the second week of school outlining the schools' "drive" for collecting the Campbell's labels and the cereal "boxtops for education" - and all I could say was WHOOHOO!!!!!

The labels, like the ones above, when enough are collected, can get "free" stuff for the school, like books, computers, school equipment and playground equipment.

I'm here to tell you that with the schools all over the country having to let personnel go (including nurses and teachers) due to a lack of funding, how quickly will playground equipment be upgraded and maintained? Or how many new computers will the schools get if they can't even keep teachers onboard?

PLEASE, whether you have children or grandchildren in school or not, please start saving the cereal boxtops (appropriate ones are labeled with "boxtops for education") and Campbell's product labels. Call the schools in your area to see if they are collecting these labels, and start on a "mission" to help collect them.

IF there is no school in your area collecting them, could you please email me at Sarah@SewWithSarah.com and let me give you my address where you can send the labels for our school. Jacob has just started Kindergarten, and next year we have 4 more starting (can you believe our little quadruplets will be starting school already!!) -- so I'm really on a mission to collect the labels, etc and help our school! And, by the way, you don't even have to save the whole label (although it's ok if you do - I can cut off the label) -- all we need are the little labels like you see above. You could get dozens of them in an envelope and mail them with the cost of a regular stamp.

How To Use Buttonhole Elastic

Sarah Doyle — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 01:03:00 GMT

With school just starting, we've had to do LOTS of altering of Jacobs school pants. He is tall and big - only 5 years old, but size 6 clothes don't fit around the tummy, while size 8 are a little bit big around the middle, as well as too long. And, because you just can't have a child starting school with pants (size 6) that fit so tight he can't get them fastened, the only alternative was to alter the next size - size 8.

We all know how to shorten the legs on pants and shorts, but the "too large waist" can be an issue, especially if you're talking school uniforms or jeans, and not something you're making from scratch and can alter the pattern before doing the sewing.

Well, thank goodness for Buttonhole Elastic!!! This is the best stuff since sliced bread!! Here's a picture of buttonhole elastic -- then we'll move on to what to do with it.

Take the regular waist band on the pants / shorts -- cut a small "buttonhole" type slit on the backside of the band, just behind the first belt loop on both sides (the slit has to be 3/4" wide in order to slip the buttonhole elastic through). Hand stitch the slit opening all the way around to keep it from raveling. Sew a small button about 1/2 inch from the openings for the elastic. The buttons will need to be between the slits and the center front of the pants.

Cut a length of buttonhole elastic about 1" smaller than the child's waist, then thread the elastic through the openings from one side to the other. Button the buttonhole elastic to the buttons on each side. Now, try the pants / shorts on the child and pull in the buttonhole elastic on each side until the pants waist band "gathers" to fit. Button the buttonhole elastic into the appropriate buttonhole to secure the elastic and the waist, as you can see in the following picture.

You can see how much we've had to gather the waist on Jacob's pants and how the elastic is secured with the buttons. Now he's ready for this year, and most likely will be able to wear the pants next year as we adjust the buttonhole elastic to make the waist a little larger, and let out the hems in the garments.

You can find buttonhole elastic on ebay at very reasonable prices -- just click on the link and do a search for buttonhole elastic.

Buttonhole elastic has many more uses, such as waists on maternity clothing, making the rounded corners on fitted sheets and much more.

What are your favorite uses for buttonhole elastic? Let us know and we'll be happy to pass the tid bits along.

No Sew Shrug From A T-Shirt Tutorial

Sarah Doyle — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 10:50:00 GMT

A new garment and no sewing? Recycle an old t-shirt into a shrug with no sewing at all? WOW! That sounds almost to easy -- and my kind of project!!

Denise, over at Multiple Mayhem, has a really good project tutorial on how to turn an old (or a flea market find) t-shirt into a great shrug -- and just in time for the cooler weather that's just around the corner.

The complete tutorial for the "easy breezy no-sew shrug from a T-shirt" has step by step directions on how to cut the t-shirt to make this great looking comfortable shrug. Hold on! I have at least half a dozen sweatshirts in my closet in various colors that no longer fit that would be perfect for this project.

I'm sure you all know that Denise is my daughter and partner of our Sewing Business blog, and the mother of the 3 1/2 year old quadruplets and big brother, 5 year old Jacob that I write about all the time. She is just so creative and honestly, I just wonder how many hours she can cram into a day, in order to get all the things done that she does. You make me tired just thinking about it, Denise --- but WAY TO GO!!!