Winter Fabrics, Patterns and Current Sales

Heirloom Fabrics

Silk Dupioni in winter colors, red/green gingham dots and red check gingham is on sale at 20% off!

You can find Silk Dupioni in many places, with different prices and different qualities, but remember, not all Silk Dupioni is the same.

The Silk Dupioni we carry is from the Martha Pullen Co. and it is the best we have ever seen. It is a perfect weight for clothing and makes beautiful special occasion heirloom garments for children and for adults.

See the solid color Silk Dupioni and the gingham silks.

Swiss Wool Challis is another good selection for winter special occasion garments. It is lightweight, soft and drapes beautifully.

See the Swiss Wool Challis.

Swiss Flannel is another all-time winter favorite and is often used in children's clothes. Unlike other flannels, it is lightweight and very soft.

When people see it for the first time, they often say "That's flannel???" Add a touch of English Lace for embellishment and it makes a gorgeous holiday dress!

See the Swiss Flannel and English Lace.

Featherwale Corduroy is a long time favorite for children's winter clothes, both casual and special occasion. It's sturdy and hold's up well with repeated washings.

The Snow White is beautiful, many people remark about how much it resembles velvet. You can save 15% off the regular price!

See the Featherwale Corduroy.

Silk Satin Ribbon

Embellish your garment with buttery soft, double faced, silk satin ribbon. Save 30% on the 2 inch wide Red silk satin ribbon! Yes, it is real silk and it is gorgeous!

See the Silk Satin Ribbon.

Hand Embroidery Designs

Wendy Schoen's Embroidery Designs For Christmas is on sale at 40%!!! This 24 page, soft cover book has over 150 designs that can be used on collars, bibs, baby blankets, placemats, pillowcases and more.

Order yours today and at this price, you can order one for a sewing friend too!

Heirloom Patterns for Girls

Do you need an elegant heirloom dress pattern for a young lady?

Maryanne and Victoria Lynn, both by Kay Guiles are very popular and will please even the most picky young teen or preteen.

Both of these patterns are for sizes 4 - 14.

See the Maryanne and Victoria Lynn patterns.

Sewing With Kids - Yes It Can Be Fun!

Several months ago, feeling very brave, I invited all 3 granddaughters to my sewing room. I needed a project that could be sewn fast and would capture and hold their attention.

The pull-on skirt in Martha Pullen's Sew Kool 4 Kids was chosen for the pattern. Hannah and Maleah wanted red skirts and Ashleigh wanted a blue one. We used Featherwale Corduroy, but any medium weight fabric would have worked.

All three of them wanted to decorate their skirts with machine embroidery and decided on a butterfly design. For the younger girls we used a butterfly design from Martha's Mini Collection. Ashleigh wanted a larger butterfly and chose the one from Dainty Designs.

The machine embroidery turned out great. It was very easy using the Floriana Wet and Gone Tacky. With this particular stabilizer, you do not hoop the fabric. Instead of hooping the fabric, you hoop the stabilizer and place the fabric on the sticky stabilizer. Very easy!

Because I didn't want the embroidery stitches to sink down into the corduroy fabric, we placed a water soluble stabilizer on top of it before stitching. The girls were absolutely fascinated with the embroidery machine!

That was Hannah's first time at seeing a piece of flat fabric turn into a cute skirt that she could wear! At only 4 years old, she loves clothes.

Managing Children in Your Sewing Room

The secret to managing energetic kids in your sewing room is to "de-energize" them! Earlier in the day, I sent Ashleigh and Maleah over to my son's (Hannah's daddy) house where there are acres and acres for them to run and jump and play to their heart's content!

When they returned, along with Hannah, they were more than ready to sit still and relax in the sewing room!

In the following video, you can watch them de-energizing before our sewing session.

Have a great weekend!

Winter Heirloom Fabrics and Black French Lace

Wool Challis

We absolutely love the beautiful, festive Red Wool Challis from Bear Threads Ltd and we think you will love it too!

Those little square graphic scans of the fabrics on the website don't do the heirloom fabrics justice. The red wool challis is sooooo pretty! It would make up into a gorgeous holiday dress. It's lightweight and drapes beautifully. Very nice. We want you to try it so we put the red wool challis on sale at 25% off.

And speaking of red............

Featherwale Corduroy

The Red Featherwale Corduroy from Fabric Finders is in stock now. These are great fabrics, you can dress them up or dress them down. They are strong and durable, yet almost look like velvet.

The Snow White featherwale corduroy is beautiful! The last time we stocked the Snow White color, it sold out almost immediately.

Black French Lace and English Netting

Since there seems to be a rising interest in black French lace and black English netting, we thought you might like to try some. This is the same heirloom lace that you've being using in white, ivory and ecru, except this is black. It is elegant and pretty.



Stay tuned....................... coming up next, for beginners, a mistake-proof tip on how to sew lace to lace and end up with perfectly straight seams!