Posts in tutorial
How to Sew Easy Kitchen Tea Towels, 2 Ways

I have a great, easy kitchen sewing tutorial for you today! I wanted to sew a little something for Mothers Day gifts and I had the best little border print in my drawer, just perfect for some pretty, sewn tea towels. DIY kitchen towels are so easy and they make such sweet gifts. Also, these tea towels somehow last a very long time. I received a few from my sister when I was first married and while other kitchen towels have come and gone, I still use the ones she made!

I’ve since made even more tea towels for myself after scoring a couple of fun prints and a heathered linen at Hobby Lobby in the clearance bin recently. A ruffle and/or fun trim take these kitchen towels to the next level, so I went ahead and filmed a video tutorial to share with you here.

Read More
Sew a Heart Quilt Block || A Beginner Friendly Tutorial

I got the quilting bug recently and really wanted to make something for the Valentines season that I could share with you here too. I came up with a simple heart quilt block incorporating scraps of fabric. I turned my first version into fun mini quilt to hang up in my sewing room, but I’m planning to turn my second version into a pillow. It’s in the prettiest pinks and purples, so it will look so cute on the comfy chair in my sewing room.

Quilting doesn’t take any difficult skills, I promise! If you can use a sewing machine, you can make a quilt. In this tutorial, you’ll learn to make half square triangles, which is a common technique in quilting. Once you learn that, you can make so many different blocks! All those star blocks you see in quilts use half square triangles.

Read More
Moleskine Cahier Journal Cover Tutorial

I’ve been using the basic brown Moleskine Cahier Notebooks for many years. I’m a big fan! I like that they’re small and lightweight, the lines are the perfect distance apart, and best of all, the covers are a blank slate, easy to decorate or embellish!

I’ve given these notebooks as gifts with pretty art or quotes Mod Podged to the front, but I recently came up with the more reusable idea of sewing up some simple journal covers for them! These covers turned out so sweet, were very easy to make, and were a great way to use some single quilt blocks I had lying around. I can see myself making these for Christmas gifts next year, with a Moleskine journal included, of course.

Read More
What to Sew for Men: 4 Gifts I Made My Husband for Christmas

In one of my recent YouTube videos, I said that I had made my husband several things for his Christmas stocking this year and enough people asked to see what those ideas are that I went ahead and made another video to tell you what I sewed for my husband this year!

Men can be hard to buy for and maybe even harder to sew for, but I’ve made my husband several things over the years that he’s loved and has actually asked for more of. So I’ll share those ideas with you here and then hopefully it may spark some other ideas for you if you’re stuck on what to sew for the men and boys in your life.

Read More
Sew a Drawstring Bag for Game Pieces (or whatever)

Last week I posted a tutorial for how to make a small circular drawstring pouch for hair accessories or jewelry when you travel, or your quilting pins, or anything like that. This week I’m back with another drawstring bag tutorial, but this one was designed specifically to board hold game pieces: tokens, tiles, dice, or other components! It has a square bottom and is interfaced, helping it to stand upright on the table when you pass it between players.

Of course, you can use this little pouch for lots of other things! It would even make a great little gift bag that’s like a gift in a gift! The recipient can keep the bag to use for whatever they like.

Read More
How to Sew a Little Drawstring Travel Pouch

I have such a fun little tutorial for you today! My girls’ dance recital is coming up and Natalie and her friends like to give “cast gifts” to each other. We came up with the idea to make small drawstring pouches to hold their hair pins and other hair accessories. (If you have a dancer in the house, you know how important these things are and how hard they are to corral!)

This small pouch makes a great travel bag for jewelry and hair accessories, or you can use it around the house or in your craft room. It’s a perfect container for your Wonder Clips or quilting pins! They also make great small handmade gifts for little ones or teens. I know my girls loved carrying little things in cute little purses when they were little, and they still love receiving bags of any kind now that they’re teens.

Read More
How to Sew Pillow Cases (the easiest way!) || A Video Sewing Tutorial & Printable Pattern

If you’re wondering what to make your family members for Christmas, I have a great idea for you! I’ve been making pillow cases in fun fabrics for many years now. I’ve taught kids to make them, I’ve made them as gifts, and I even make my husband Star Wars pillow cases every year for Christmas, and now I’m going to teach you to sew easy pillow cases too!

Read More
How to Sew Easy Pot Holders with Hand Pockets

I’m reviving a tutorial from my old blog for these handy, easy to sew DIY pot holder mitts. I sewed a bunch of these up for Christmas that year, so I tried to create a design that was easy to mass produce — no fussy bindings or anything like that! I think it would be fun to whip up another batch this many years later, to gift to my current local friends, which is why I went looking for my old tutorial!

I love this style of pot holder in particular because it has pockets for your hands, so you’re not in as much danger of burning yourself as you are when using a basic square pot holder. Also, when cooking with kids, these mitts are great because they can grasp pans more easily that when wearing huge, clunky oven mitts!

Read More
How to Sew Simple Baby Burp Cloths: A Video Tutorial

My husband has a few coworkers who have recently become parents and he asked I'd like to make them some little baby shower gifts. He suggested burp rags and although I made many of these when my own kids were babies, I've never made a tutorial for them. So here we are! How to sew easy baby burp cloths: a totally beginner friendly tutorial.

I realize this is a very simple project that most people can figure out on their own, but I wanted to create this easy sewing tutorial for those who may not really know where to start. In fact, this would be a great first sewing project for someone just getting started! We'll cover the best fabrics to choose for burp rags, whether or not to line it for extra absorbency, and what size to make them.

Read More
How to Sew a Shirred Dress (It's easier than you think!)

I’ve hopped on the shirred dress train! If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll have seen the shirred dress I made recently using a vintage pattern from the 70’s. Shirred dresses are so comfortable for summer, it didn’t take me long to want to add another one to my wardrobe!

I picked up some tips and tricks for shirring when I made that first dress, so this time I recorded the process to share with you in a video tutorial for sewing an easy, rectangular shirred dress with your sewing machine! I’ve posted the video below along with a list of the tips and troubleshooting ideas so you can refer back to it easily.

Read More
How to Sew a Ribbon Tag Baby Blanket

When my daughter Layla was a baby, she was the cutest little thumb sucker you ever did see! She would find the one tag on any of her blankets and rub it while sucking her thumb and it was the sweetest thing. I wanted to make her a blanket with lots of ribbon tags for her to play with and that’s how this little project started.

Today, enjoy this video tutorial for how to sew a ribbon tag baby blanket, where I’ll show you how to make a basic flannel baby blanket, step by step, with tags of cute ribbons all the way around it, sure to delight the little ones. I’ve made countless ribbon tag baby blankets over the years now because they make the best handmade baby shower gifts!

Read More
How to Sew Easy, Quilted Fabric Bookmarks (a scrap friendly project!)

Whenever my kids ask me what they can give me for a gift, I say handmade bookmarks; partly because I know their budget is nonexistent, haha, and partly because I really neeeeed bookmarks. As both a reader and a homeschool mom, there are books all overt the place, so bookmarks are a great gift for anyone, really. There are so many great DIY bookmark ideas, but I just love to make these little quilted ones!

These fabric bookmarks are very simple and can be made with scraps. They’re so easy to personalize with different fabrics for everyone in your life, and you can sew up a big batch of them in an evening. Below, you’ll find the bookmark sewing tutorial in two forms —- a video tutorial, as well as written instructions with photos.

Read More