Sewing Supplies and Fabrics for the Thrifty and Green
If you love thrift stores and garage sales, this is the column for you. There’s gold in them thar hills—sewing gold! Change your perspective a little and look at the world as one big fabric store and you’ll find all kinds of treasures to add to your stash. – Have a closet full of old bridesmaid or prom dresses? Use them to make a quilt or a patchwork pillow. Give the bride a memento from her wedding by printing her wedding details on a piece of printable fabric. Then, use fabrics, trims, and even petticoat tulle from the bridesmaid dresses (or even the bride’s dress if you have scraps from alterations) to artfully dress a pillow she can keep always. Give your daughter a memento of her high-school dances with a quilt made with fabric from her dresses. Create an appliqué of a dress to put in each square using the fabric from her gowns. – Handkerchiefs, gloves, scarves, bandanas, lace & linens. When I was a child, we had to have a new embroidered handkerchief and a pair of white gloves every Easter. Sew these mementos into projects to create an artistic memoir. Trims can often be pricey when new, so take them off of old garments or lingerie and re-use them. Make a dress from a vintage pillow case or from a bandana. – Used Clothing...
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Learn How To Make A Pillow
Decorative pillows are the perfect way to add a personal touch to any room. However, despite their small size, these pillows can be quite expensive, especially when you buy three or four of them. Luckily, it is quite easy to learn how to make a pillow. The first step to making a pillow is to select your fabric and trims. You will also need to select a filling for your pillow, decide what shape you want your pillow to be, and whether you want your pillow to have a removable cover. As you select your fabric, keep in mind that many decorative pillows are made using at least two contrasting fabrics. Of course, for your first attempt at making a decorative pillow, you may only want to use one fabric. There are several important things you should keep in mind when you are choosing fabrics. 1. Knit fabrics and slippery materials are hard to work with. 2. Thin cotton fabrics do not usually make a spectacular pillow unless you are using a quilt block design. 3. Geometric prints are more difficult to work with than random designs, since you will need to match the prints up. When you are selecting your pillow’s filling, you will need to decide whether you will be making a removable cover. If so, a pillow form is the best choice, since you certainly wouldn’t want to have to remove loose...
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