Two weeks ago, I trimmed down my bamboo shades and realized that I had in my hands the most wonderful leftover–bamboo sticks! Well, okay, maybe not THE most wonderful but pretty excellent. My mind started spinning with all the things I could do with these piles and piles of sticks that are connected. And then [...]

Jason knew as soon as we moved into our new house that we needed some blinds fast for the master bedroom and main bath. We just needed a little more privacy so we would stop having to get dressed in the closet, haha.

Here’s how I shortened, trimmed the width and length, and made these neatly natural blinds more private.

I forgot to sew the bodice right sides together and turn it out before top stitching, so I was left with all these crazy raw edges, woops. I could have redone it, but once it happened it was like “well, this would look better with a little trim anyway.”

Here is a quick easy way to add a bias tape trim to a raw edge to finish it off and make it look great.

Working on the mural reminded me of my first painting professor and of the importance of brush cleaning. After 50 different people worked on the mural (awesome) all our brushes were trashed. Paint up the handles, crusted, dirty, and half dry. Is there any coming back from that? We had about 10 nicer brushes and some fine tipped brushes of mine that I was intent on saving from being paint sticks.

Last week I posted about my fight with pillow stuffing and how I’ve gone on a quest to figure out what works best. Shredded Paper Shredded Fleece Plastic Bags All Sorts of stuff – bits of yarn, thread, fleece, paper, and dryer lint. After making 4 small pillows and stuffing them, I think I’ve finally [...]

I’ve made a few pillows over the years. Seriously, just a few. And I’ve not liked a single one. It’s not that the designs weren’t cute, they were. It was that they were lumpy. With each one I tried a different way of stuffing them: Pillow stuffing method 1: Huge chunks because I didn’t know [...]

{Note: I’m totally sick today, so I’m taking the day off. Today’s post was originally published as a guest post for Craftzine in September. Enjoy!} One of the things that many experienced yarnies take for granted is how to know what hook or needles to use for the yarn you have. This is especially important [...]

I had so much fun making this little advent calendar. Unfortunately, I didn’t think to make one until Monday! So now you need to get on it and make one today to have it ready to tomorrow ;) It’s a really fun project to do with a friend or your kiddos too. You simply  print [...]

Last month we had the final Ames C.art Sew n’ Swap of the year. We get together and bring fabric, patterns, books, and sewing notions to swap, then we hang out and sew for a few hours. It’s a great way to meet people, get new-to-you supplies for free, and learn some sewing skills – [...]

Now that Thanksgiving is over, I am happily jumping straight into Christmas mode, and part of that is getting a tree up and decorated. A little Christmas cheer to start the season out right. So what happens if you open up your box of homemade ornaments, or hand-me-down extra special ornaments, and find them broken? [...]