sewing.com news

Issue 22

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 21:40:00 GMT

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!

I am very excited. I got a new sewing machine from my husband for Christmas! As you'll read in the January Sew 'n Tell newsletter that's just been released, my old machine suddenly stopped working. What would you expect after a good 30 years of service? Of course the only part that went in that old "metal machine", was the one little piece of plastic it had in it. The repair guy said that there was a very slight chance that he could find a new replacement part, and it would cost over $100 to fix. With such an old machine, and the repair guy saying that he wouldn't suggest putting the money into it, I thought I'd cut my losses and ask for a new one for Christmas. I can't wait to start sewing on it!

Also in this months Sew 'n Tell publication you'll find a fascinating read by this months sewing author Connie Crawford. It tells of her story from plane crash survivor, to world renowned designer. We have a New Years article by personal trainer Kathy Olin, on getting started exercising, so that you have even more energy for your sewing projects. This months free sewing project is for a zippered pillow for your couch or bed. You'll even see pictures of the really old Singer that I had to use to make it, because my other machine died. There are healthy recipes, a very tricky puzzle, and lots of other great stuff packed into this issue. Remember, publication is free, just sign up at the link above to receive it.

Have a wonderful New Year from all of us at Sewing.com.

Lisa-Anne - lisa-anne@sewing.com

Stuck with a sewing project? Need sewing advice? Why not use the knowledge and expertise that our sewing community has to offer! Perhaps you can even offer a little know-how! Visit www.sewing.com/forum and join up now...it's free!

Issue 21

Sat, 01 Dec 2007 21:32:00 GMT

Thanksgiving is over so it's time to start planning for Christmas!

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving day last Thursday. Hopefully you had as much fun as we did. My son is home from college this whole week so I am so happy to have him at home.

We had Thanksgiving dinner with my husband's side of the family this year, there was about 20 of us, which made it such a festive season having everyone together.

Have you thought about what you want for Christmas yet? Santa said that sewing machines seem to be very popular gifts this time of year. If you are planning on putting a sewing machine on your list, but you don't know which one to get, let me help guide you with some pointers on sewing machine buying in the next Sew 'n Tell issue.

I've been to the fabric store a number of times lately. I've been in looking at fabrics for the project for the December Sew 'n Tell publication. I've found some beautiful shiny, sheer fabrics (some with sparkles) that I can't wait to sew up.

In the December issue we'll have a pattern for wine bags! What better way to be ready for a party than to have a gorgeous home sewn bag to throw a bottle of sparkling cider or wine into for the hostess of the next Christmas or New Year's party that you're going to.

Issue 20

Sat, 03 Nov 2007 18:07:00 GMT

Thanksgiving is getting nearer!

It's now time to put away the Halloween decorations, and time to start setting out the Thanksgiving decorations. In the last issue of Sew 'n Tell (November) there was a very easy to make table runner which was done up in a Christmas fabric. It's a fast piece to construct, so why not make one out of a fabric that will compliment the Thanksgiving placemats you are making from our instructions in our October Sew 'n Tell publication?

The placemats that I made were of a Fall print and the colors were in burnt oranges, and browns. It would be very pretty to make a runner out of the same fabric as the placemats, or pick one of the colors from the placemats and make a solid color runner to compliment them.

When you are finished, get some gourds, place them in a basket, and place them in the middle of your table runner. You'll have a beautiful table to admire until it's time to switch to your Christmas decorations!

I would love to get your feedback on the November Sew 'n Tell publication. Drop me an email and let me know what you thought about it.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Lisa - lisa-anne@sewing.com

Message from the team at Sewing.com

Sewing.com contains a whole load of great features like the sewing community forum (where you can share your sewing knowledge with others), the projects page (with step-by-step photos), the gallery full of fantastic sewing related photos, and of course our newsletters full of useful sewing information. There are a few nice features that you've not seen here in the past like our extensive calendar of sewing events, and our very own newly constructed HUGE dictionary of sewing terms, (which at last count had over 300 sewing definitions), so please feel free to explore the site to see all of the new stuff!

Another new feature we've integrated into the site recently is a great sewing tips page - there's all manner of hints, tips and ideas for your sewing, from buying a pattern to ironing your finished garment - be sure to check it out - there's some great info there for you!

Some of you may have noticed our new RSS 2.0 and Atom 0.3 feed links on the projects and newsletters pages. What are these, I hear you ask!!?? Put simply, they're a format used to publish and download fresh content which is updated frequently, such as blogs. Using an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed will give you the ability to keep up to date with our content automatically. All you need to have is a feed reader, or aggregator software on your computer and our projects and newsletter feeds will be sent to you directly as soon as they're updated! It's like a fully automated way to keep up with the new blogs here at sewing.com!

We want to make this YOUR sewing site, so please send us any suggestions or comments you have. If you'd like to submit your own great sewing tip, photos for our gallery or if you just want some sewing advice, feel free to email us at content@sewing.com or alternatively you can use our new easy suggestion tool that you'll find at the top of the page, and we'll do our best to help you out!.

Issue 19

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 13:19:00 GMT

Halloween!

It's almost Halloween!

I imagine that many of you are in the middle of working on Halloween costumes for your kids or grandkids (or maybe even yourselves). With the release of the 3rd Pirates of the Caribbean movie this last year, I bet that there will be a lot of pirates roaming the streets on Halloween night!

I would love to hear if any of you are going to Halloween parties this year. If you are, let me know what are you planning on going as. Will your costumes be really elaborate, or simple? Let me know! Lisa lisa-anne@sewing.com

One year I went to a family Halloween party as a country singer. I wore jeans, boots, and had a western shirt on with lots of shiny sequins sewn to it. Then to top it off my sister glued long fake eyelashes on me. When we got home from the party, I got changed, washed off my makeup and then tried to get my fake eyelashes off. Well, my sister glued the fake eyelashes to my eyelashes rather than to the skin right above the lashes. As you can imagine I was in a panic. Not a little panic, but a big one! We tried getting the eyelashes off with the glue removers without any luck, and my sister tugged at them a bit (while laughing), but they just wouldn't budge. I finally got them off by loosening them up from the base of my eyelashes, and then very, very slowly slid them up each eyelash. It must have taken an hour! It felt like a small disaster then, but it really was very funny. I can imagine that if I reminded my sister about it, she'd deny ever putting the lashes on me.

I would love to get your feedback on the October Sew and Tell publication. Drop me an email and let me know what you thought about it.

Happy Halloween everyone! Lisa - lisa-anne@sewing.com

Issue 18

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 16:55:00 GMT

October Sew 'n Tell has been released!

In the October issue you will find both a Halloween project and a Thanksgiving project. We know how pressed everyone can get for time, so our aim is to present you with each months project one month ahead of time! You'll have plenty of time to get your sewing done then!

I went to the fabric store again the other day. I love to take a walk through a fabric store to see what is there, and also to feel the textures of fabrics. Do any of you do the same thing? When I lived in New Zealand there was the most amazing fabric store there. It was a huge shop full of expensive fabrics from all over the world (It felt like a huge designers fabric showroom, but anyone could go in). I would make a journey there usually once a month to take in all of the rich beautiful fabrics, and think about what I'd like to make out of them. I remember one fabric that looked like fine burlap (I'm sure it was silk), and it had huge shiny circles hand sewn onto it. (It was about $400 per meter). Oh, there is nothing like a good fabric store!

Lisa lisa-anne@sewing.com

Issue 17

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 21:42:00 GMT

IT'S BACK TO SCHOOL TIME !!

Where has the summer vacation gone? It's hard to believe that the kids will be back to school so soon. We must all look at the bright side though….now there is more time to sew and go fabric shopping! :)

Last week I made a trip to the fabric shop. I was there looking for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas fabrics. There are some really nice fabrics out already for all three occasions. In the past I would have been a bit upset seeing Christmas fabrics out this time of year, but then I though what a great opportunity to start collecting some beautiful fabrics to have on hand for holiday projects (Christmas isn't that far away for those of us who like to sew for that time of year)

I'm going to let you in on why I was looking for holiday fabrics. I'm putting some sewing projects together for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. These free projects will be published in our new monthly Sew'n Tell publication. (Keep your eyes open, signups for the publication will be on www.sewing.com soon). Each project will provide easy instructions, and photographs on how to make each item. Doesn't that sound like fun! Watch for the Halloween project, it will be an easy to make Trick-or-treat bag. Be ready to surprise your little trick-or-treater with a fancy bag.

Issue 16

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 23:09:00 GMT

Our boy is going to college !!

Hello everyone! The rainy weather has finally been replaced by sun here in the Pacific Northwest. Now we finally get to enjoy some good weather as well as green grass!

I can't believe it, we are driving our first child off to college today. I'm sure there are many of you in the same situation. I am going to miss the pieces out of my son, he's been a real pleasure to have around the house. You should see the huge pile of bedding and clothing ready to be packed into the van, and driven away to his new home. I keep wondering if he has everything he needs or not. I'm sure I'll find out by the first call from him saying "Mom could you please send me…..?"

One of the last things I washed up for my son was the big knitted blanket that his grandma made him. It is really pretty in greens, browns, and dark reds. She has made each one of the college bound grandchildren one. As each kid graduates from high school they can't wait to get a handmade blanket from their grandma. I think that is a great tradition, don't you? Be it college, camp, new house, or whatever new adventure your child is taking write to me and let me know what special things that you have sent off with your kids, I'd love to hear about it, Lisa - lisa-anne@sewing.com

Message from the team at Sewing.com

Issue 15

Sun, 22 Jul 2007 08:45:00 GMT

Hello everyone!!

I hope that everyone's summer is going well. We had a heat wave in the pacific northwest a week ago, and now we're getting a lot of rain. At least now I don't have to spend my time watering my lawn (I can now spend time with my sewing).

I ran into a relative this weekend who will be getting married next week. She was at the mall with her sister picking out make up for the girls in the wedding party. It brought back memories of helping get things together for my sister's wedding. I had the honor of making all of the dresses for her brides maids. It took a lot of planning getting the girls over to the house for measurements, figuring out the amount of fabric each girl would need, as well as sewing and fitting the dresses. It was so satisfying seeing all of us in the wedding photos dressed up in that rich purple jewel tone fabric.

It is wedding season. Are any of you making a bridal dress, or bridesmaid dresses? Send me an email and let me know how it's going for you. I'd love to hear from you, Lisa - lisa-anne@sewing.com

Message from the team at Sewing.com

A new feature we've integrated into the site this month is a great sewing tips page - there's all manner of hints, tips and ideas for your sewing, from buying a pattern to ironing your finished garment - be sure to check it out - there's some great info there for you!

Issue 14

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 08:26:00 GMT

Welcome to the New-Look Sewing.com !!

Hello everyone! We'd like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your wonderful contributions made to our site over the last few weeks, since our newly refurbished site was released.

We hope that you are enjoying the new and improved Sewing.com. We are so excited to see that the forums are starting to grow, and that we have so many members taking a look around the site. Please, don't be shy! We know that there are many of you who have just begun to sew, as well as those of you who have spent most of your life with a needle or sewing machine in your hands. We'd love to see all of you at the community forum asking sewing questions, or sharing what you already know.

Have you taken a look around the gallery yet? There are some very beautiful pictures there that Melanie has collected. We are looking forward to adding pictures of the projects that you have made as well. So…show us your stuff! :) Act soon so that you can get your pictures posted by the end of this month.

How many of you made your father something for Fathers Day? Did any of you make him the red, white and blue barbeque apron that is on our sewing projects page ? If you didn't have time, get your sewing machines out now as you've still got a couple of weeks to get it done for your 4th of July party! You can make it as we've described plus you can really jazz it up with some white stars or stripes, or both !! Let your imagination run wild --- we'd love for everyone here to see your hand-made apron so feel free to send us a photo of it and we'll publish it in our gallery!

Have you made any of the other free projects on offer here at Sewing.com? We'd love to see your photos of them too!

Issue 13

Tue, 29 May 2007 08:19:00 GMT

Welcome to the New-Look Sewing.com !!

Message from Lisa-Anne

Hello everyone, welcome to Sewing.com !!

We have some very exciting things happening here at sewing.com!

It's been a long time since I've written to you. I'd like to introduce myself again, I'm Lisa-Anne. Knowing how much I love to sew, my husband bought sewing.com for me over 11 years ago. He actually woke up in the middle of the night one night with the exciting idea of buying the sewing.com domain name. He ran down to the computer at 1am with his wallet and purchased it! A few years after that, we finally got the site up and running. The site has had a few facelifts over the years, but has always been run more as a hobby. But now we've got some wonderful changes happening .

First and foremost, I'd like to introduce Melanie. Melanie has recently moved over here to the U.S. from Australia to be a partner of sewing.com. I'm so excited to have her here, she has such great input and so many wonderful ideas for sewing.com. Welcome Melanie!

As I mentioned above, there have been some big changes for us all at sewing.com. We've put our heads together, done some detailed research, and have designed a new sewing site for your enjoyment.

We know that sewing projects are at the top of your list. Be sure to check out the projects area frequently for new ideas. Easy sewing instructions will come with each project, so get your sewing machines ready to sew! Be sure to drop by the sewing community forum and meet other sewers with similar interests to you. If you have sewing questions, or would like to share your sewing knowledge with others, this is the place to do it!

We want to make this YOUR sewing site, so please send us any suggestions or comments you have. You can either email us directly at content@sewing.com or alternatively you can use our new easy suggestion tool that you'll find at the top of the page.

Welcome again!!

Lisa-Anne lisa-anne@sewing.com

Greetings to you all at Sewing.com!

Hello everyone - My name is Melanie and I am a co-partner with sewing.com. I've recently moved from Australia to the United States with my husband, two cats and one dog! I've enjoyed sewing and other crafts ever since my mum taught me as a little girl. In fact I still have an embroidered pillow, a very basic framed crossstitch, a few handmade soft toys and a couple of garments that I made in my childhood years. I'm very excited about the wonderful technology integrating it's way into the world of sewing. I certainly wished I'd had one of the wonderful embroidery and quilting machines that are on the sewing market these days!

Both Lisa-Anne and myself have been working very hard on sewing.com's dramatic makeover and we really hope that you love the new look as much as we do.

We've retained a lot of the great features from the past, like the sewing community forum, the projects page, the gallery full of fantastic sewing related photos, and of course our newsletters full of useful sewing tips and techniques. There are a few nice features that you've not seen here before, like our extensive calendar of sewing events, and our very own newly constructed HUGE dictionary of sewing terms, (which at last count had over 300 sewing definitions), so please feel free to explore the site to see all of the new stuff!

Our sewing gallery has all manner of sewing related photos but we'd love for you all to share your photos with the other sewing.com members, so please feel free to email us at content@sewing.com with photos of your finished sewing projects and we'll put them up on the site for all to enjoy.

Hopefully over time I'll get to know all of our sewing regulars, but if you're new to the site please say hi, melanie@sewing.com, and also let us know your thoughts about the new-look site. If you've got some good ideas for the site, or you'd like to submit a sewing article for our newsletter, photos for our gallery or if you just want some sewing advice, feel free to email us at content@sewing.com and we'll do our best to help you out!