Thank you for attending our Summer Class Preview!

We closed the doors yesterday on another successful class preview, albeit with a few snags on Thursday night.  Lori is ready to start the Hawaiian Luau party!

We hope you enjoyed your gift bag goodies and the included complimentary Hawaiian shirt issue holder.  Thanks to Heirloom Creations for this fabulous idea. I did make a few extra and embellished them with the decorative stitches on my icon.

You either received a 12" square piece of fabric or a 9 x 18" strip of fabric.  Here is the basic cutting layout for both pieces.

Here is what your cut pieces should look like when finished.

Following the directions for folding the sleeves and the collar, I pressed them and topstitched the edge of the pieces.  I then placed them onto the one 4" x 6" piece and held them in place with Wonder Clips.  The raw edges of the sleeves are placed outside the piece and will be cut off after stitching.

I then placed the two folded top pieces on top of the the shirt.  Note the folds face the center of the shirt.

The last step is to stitch  a 1/4 " rectangular seam following the raw edges.  Trim corners and extra sleeves and turn right side out. EZPZ! I glued a tiny button from my stash using fabric glue and added the tissue pack.  

Here are a few other pictures I found on the site.

Feel free to use up your scraps and add decorative stitches to your shirt.  They make great gifts and stitch up quickly.

Again thank you for coming to our Hawaiian Luau.

Stabilizer Savvy

Sometimes life sends you for a loop and unfortunately I picked up Bronchitis from my little guy.  So, to make up for the missed event-thanks to Cindy S. for filling in for me - I will create a series of blog posts to share what information I had created.

There are all kinds of stabilizer on the market today but I am going to concentrate on Floriani and Inspira because those are the two brands we sell at Scrap & Sew.

There are basically 5 categories of stabilizers:

1. Water Soluble
2. Cut Away
3. Tear Away
4. Specialty
5. Batting

Inspira has a system to help you select the right choice for your project. They color code the labels to make it easier to identify the stabilizer type.

Lavender - Tear A Way, Tear A Way Light etc.
Coral - Specialty such as Clean n melt, Tear n Wash, Hydro stick etc.
Lime Green - Cut Away (including No Shop Mesh)
Blue- Water soluble

You will also notice the symbols  such as a water drop or scissors.

The larger 10 yd Value rolls have a color flower motif to denote the category of stabilizer.

They also have an app called Creative Cue and on your icon and JoyOSAdvisor on your Epic machine as well to give you additional information about the stabilizers.  Such a handy feature!

Pfaff Creative Cue

JoyOS Advisor

Floriani stabilizers are not so easily identifiable, but they have a wealth of accessible knowledge to help you decide what is the best stabilizer for your project.

Inside each tube of stabilizer is a handy 8.5 x 11" sheet of pertinent information regarding the use and care of each stabilizer. Here is an example of one from the Wet n Gone stabilizer.

Here is a link to the workbook and guides that they have created for you to download. I recommend that you download and print the Quick Reference Guide- is the tool I use all of the time.  The workbook is handy but you can create your own workbook as you collect the inside sheets from your stabilizers.

There is also an app for your Smart Phones- follow the directions to dl it to your phone.  It is nice to have  quick video explaining how to use the stabilizer.

Of course there was not enough time to go over an example of every type of stabilizer but I highlighted a few and I will share some of my examples in the coming weeks on the blog.

If you don't want to miss a post, then sign up for the email notification in the top right of this blog.

If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment and I will try and answer your questions as quickly as I can.

OSQE Highlights

Whew!  What a busy week and if you were unable to attend the Original Sewing and Quilt Expo, you missed a fantastic, inspirational event!

Here we are ready to start the day!

It was wild, it was crazy but we had a great time!

The classroom was so big and filled with the Creative icons.  So you know everyone had lots of room to be creative.

The booth was also filled with inspiration from our store but more importantly from Pfaff.  Our display included garments that have been featured in their marketing ads.  Imagine the squeal of delight from some of us who were up close and personal with these beautiful dresses.

Dress filled with ribbon stitches.

Floating stitches used to seam the dress pieces and silver metal zippers used to accent the edges.

Embroidery fit for Cleopatra! Their design work was absolutely stunning.

We are already planning for next years Original Sewing and Quilt Expo.  You will not want to miss it so check back with us after the first of the year for the dates.

A little bit of Irish!

St Patrick's Day is coming soon!  Are you ready?  Whether or not you are Irish we all love to celebrate this holiday.  Here is a perfect project from Terri at Terial Magic. Making fabric shamrocks!



She has listed several formats for you use at the end of the video.  Hey - Silhouette users- load the svg file into your Designer edition software and get cutting!

Download the svg file here. Load it into the sSilhouette software and drag the button placement off to the side.  

I would love to give this a try but it is going to have to wait until after the weekend as I am 'sew' busy making samples for the Expo in Lakeland.  I hope to see you there!

Valentine Table Decorations

Happy Valentine's Day!

I like to decorate my table even if no one sits down for a fancy dinner!  To be honest, I decorate my house for every holiday and I have since my kids were little.  Now my grandchildren enjoy each holiday and I am happy to celebrate with them as long as I can!

I love Kimberbell designs and stitch them often.  This collection includes the traditional cutwork technique and can be completed in no time with purchased napkins.

Last fall I taught this class using a Thanksgiving theme and it is so versatile, it is perfect for any holiday. So I switched up the fabric and designs and added a cutwork napkin to create a whole new look.

It was quite easy to stitch out two of these in the 200 x 200mm Quilters Hoop.  I hooped Cut Away stabilizer and stitched out the first step with the napkin outline and the heart decoration.  Be sure to use Rayon thread in both the top and bobbin!  Trim the extra fabric and then add the backing and stitched the outline again.  Trim out the back as well (not shown).

After completing the stitch out for both napkin holders, I then used a heat tool to trim close to the edge of the stabilizer.  If you use Polyester thread, it will melt the thread.

I love adding my buttonholes in embroidery and I can say I have never used the manual button attachment.

Stitching the cutwork design was quite easy following Kimberbell's directions.

The design collection contains both a pumpkin and holly and berry designs.

I am always excited when our customers share their projects and Melanie's photo sharing her Valentine stitching with us is perfect.

I found this cute Valentine cross stitch design on the Aurifil site.  I no longer cross stitch by hand but in my Premier+2 software!  Download your free pattern here and have fun.

I hoped you enjoyed this SEW special Valentine event and if you are ever in the Tampa Bay area, please visit us.

Director of Design and Creativity

Felting on my Pfaff - it may become an addiction!

This month at our Sewing Sisters event, I featured adding Fiber Arts to our designs.  In a previous post I shared the felted bag that I had designed and created.  

Sandy K shared a project that she has felted with fleece and that inspired me to make one of my own.  Her project was an Embroidery Club project from 2014 and perhaps some of you may have actually made this knitting basket.

Since I was busy doing other projects at that time, I missed an excellent opportunity.  So I decided to take advantage of this new found project and make my own.  The original project was made with felt but I loved Sandy's project so much that I decided to use fleece instead.

Since I didn't have the directions at the time, I decided to 'wing' it!  The  first step was to hoop a layer of Aqua Magic in my 360 x 260 mm hoop. I placed my white fleece right side down and then the pink fleece right side down. 

I pinned another layer of Aqua Magic to the 3 layers to hold it in place.

I selected my design on my icon, but this is an sample from the Endless Felting collection #487 from Pfaff.

I duplicated it and lined them up precisely using the X and Y coordinates on the machine.  I sent it to the software to make sure it was lined up accurately.

I then stitched it out and it was quite large, over 45,000 stitches and I slowed the machine down and it seemed to take forever to finish.  I removed most of the stabilizer, rinsed it completely and dried it in the dryer.

Then Sandy's email arrived with the directions! LOL!  Apparently I needed one more design as this basket required 3 repeats to make the basket.  SO this time I followed the directions and used my 180 x 130 mm metal hoop and NO stabilizer.  I used Precise Positioning and was able to line it up perfectly!

I then followed the directions to finish it, albeit not quite exactly what the directions said.  Sadly, I am not 100% happy with my project, so next time I will read the directions first!  I filled my fleece felted basket with some yarn and two projects I am going to work on for my grands who live in colder climates.

Did I tell you that I am addicted to the felting technique? No?... well I am!  Expect to see more projects from me with this fabulous embroidery set.

Director of Designs and Creativity