Craft Corner in the making

To make room for baby, I had to find a place to move my craft/sewing room and we had the perfect spot that was being occupied by a broken piano (I had a piano tuner come out and tell me that it would cost as much as a new piano to fix it). So we had to get rid of this beauty. 

We were thrilled to find a smaller piano that we could put in our front room,

 ...hence making room for my craft stuff (or craft crap according to my husband ;-)

It is still a work in progress but here is what we have so far. Huge thanks to my supportive husband, IKEA cabinets, plastic storage bins from Target, and my handy-dandy label maker!

In between the cabinets I will add a table (on wheels), pegboard, and a few  shelves. I am getting so excited for it to be finished.

This is my sewing cabinet. It is so nice to have all my fabric and sewing notions in one place. The other cabinet is for all my craft/scrapbooking supplies (I am still in the process of organizing that one).

Happy Organizing to you,

A wonderful pennant!

Dallin's carnival birthday party will be here before I know it, so today I made a fun pennant that will adorn some ez-up shade tents at the party. 

The things you will need:

- 1/4 yard each of FOUR coordinating fabrics

- 5.3 yards (16 feet) of 1" fold over binding/bias strip in a coordinating color (or you can get 1 yard of the fabric you would like as your binding strip and make it yourself following these simple instructions). Please note that I use the word binding and bias tape interchangeably.

- thread in coordinating color to match the binding

- pinking shears

- measuring tape

- disappearing ink fabric marker

- straight pins

Step 1:

Cut your fabric, using pinking shears, into pennant shapes (mine are 8" across the top and the point is 10" down from center). Cut 4 pennant shapes from each piece of fabric. You should have a total of 16 pennant flags. arrange your pennant's into the order you want them.

Step 2: 

Make your bias tape (follow these awesome directions). If you are using store bought binding/bias tape simply unravel it and start attaching the pennants to it (you may need to sew pieces of bias tape together to make it one continuous strip.

Step 3:

From the start of your bias tape measure in 9.5" and that is where you will insert your first pennant into the center of the binding. 

Secure it with straight pins. Continue pinning the pennants to the binding, being sure to leave a 3" gap in between them. Once the last pennant is secured , measure the remaining bias/binding tape to be sure it is 9.5". Cut off any excess.

Step 4:

Sew the binding/bias tape closed, while attaching the pennants to the binding.  

Step 5: 

Enjoy your cute pennant flag. You could even adorn it with felt letters to spell out special greetings. 

I hope this tutorial makes sense. Leave me a comment if you need me to clarify anything.

Happy creating, Megan

HELP!!!

I have two sewing machines (I am so grateful for them), and I have created many fun things on them (pillows, aprons, purses, toothfairy pillows, skirts, pants, etc...). I am sad to report that they are both having issues and are in the shop being cleaned and repaired. So I am preparing myself for the inevitable - the cost of repairs may be as much as getting a new machine.  Which leads me to my HELP!!!!!

If you sew and have a machine that you just love or wish you had, please leave me a comment and let me know what brand, model number, and what you like about it.

Preferably not one as old as this darling Singer...

Something more modern would be great!

As you may know, there are so many machines on the market with so many functions to choose from - it can be quiet overwhelming and since my sewing machines were given to me, I have never had to search for one. Any tips you might have will be much appreciated!