Video: An Easy, Flat Fly-Front Zipper - Threads

Video: An Easy, Flat Fly-Front Zipper - Threads

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Fly Front Zipper

I'm going to test a few different fly front techniques. Like many of you I have an extensive sewing library. I plan to choose a few different books with the technique and see which one is the easiest to do, has the clearest instructions and has the best effect. Stay tuned!

February Road Trip-- Superbowl Sale at Cottons Etc.

Winter has arrived!

Happy New Year to one and all!

It is hard to believe that it is the start of a New Year already. December flew by it seems with so many twists and turns.

Now we are having a rather cold, blustery period of truly brisk January weather.

I hope everyone is doing well and had a lovely holiday season, but now is staying as warm as possible since lake effect snow tends to keep the air shall we say a bit chilly!

"Real life" had determined what activities got accomplished during this past Fall into the start of Winter, but now I hope to get caught up myself on some project work since the holiday happenings are fewer. "Little Christmas" is coming right up and then after that, things should slow down a tiny bit.

Likely many of you are in similar situations. January is a time when you probably work on some projects you had set aside when the hustle and bustle of the holiday season took over your lives and meant putting many things "on hold" for the duration. Now each of us can settle back into our more normal routines and get back to those unfinished projects we all have.

There is one project that is in the planning stages that I hope to get to very soon. It is a project which involves the use of Machine Embroidery (ME) and I have worked on the actual design setup using my computer and machine embroidery software. Hopefully, shortly I will sort out the details of stitching out this project since I feel I have gotten the "look" of it where I want it to be. Finalizing the color scheme is the next step and I have toyed with some options, so for the fun of it I have posted the options I am considering above. See which one is your favorite and which you think would look best.

I want to give full design credit to Eliza Wheeler and Elaine Myers. The jpgs are only of machine embroidery designs that are licensed solely for personal use.

Eliza Wheeler is a graphic artist who created a lovely greeting card that was the basis for the girl in the coat in the midst of the snow flurries with the drifting snow beneath her feet and the bird flying overhead on a Winter's day. Kindly note that she owns the copyright to the original greeting card graphics and that she has an arrangement with the firm that used revised graphics for digitizing purposes and all rights are retained by the respective parties.

Elaine Myers created the wonderfully simple Winter Tree design with the original font choice for the word WINTER and she works with a specific design mall and all rights are retained by the respective parties.

Eliza chose to allow a digitizing firm to use a graphic for machine embroidery purposes to create the design of the girl in winter, while Elaine did her own digitizing.

I simply combined the designs and then duplicated the word "WINTER" to then place it around the combined inner designs. I don't digitize myself, but I certainly appreciate the efforts of those who do a good job of it.

Here's hoping YOU get to all the projects you are wanting to do this winter and that by Winter's End, you will have fewer UFOs (unfinished objects) in your "to do" section of wherever you do your sewing, embroidery and other creative craft work.

Make the most of your precious creative time indoors this winter,

Stephanie in Fayetteville

Holiday Fabric Craft Ideas

Hello everyone!

Kathy invited me to post here at our ASG Syracuse Chapter blog.

Since I was under the weather and missed a nice Neighborhood Group (NG) mtg yesterday (Sat. 11/14/09) of the DeWitt Darts, I thought I would contribute some links to the blog that I found while I was home sipping tea and surfing the www this weekend.

My name is Stephanie and I live in the F-M area East of the city. I'm a newer member of this local ASG Chapter, although I have been sewing since my teenage years (I won't count the doll clothes I made before that ;)

Over the decades, I have continued to enjoy dabbling in various arts & crafts, although as it happens, I lack the drawing skills of actual artists and sometimes feel a bit challenged to fully grasp the total effect a series of various color and texture choices might have on a finished design. Needless to say, I am always learning!

With the Fall & Winter Holidays coming up, I was looking for some fun fabric projects one could do that don't necessarily involve Machine Embroidery (ME). Now I happen to love do to ME work, but I know that not everyone does. Another time I'll post about some ideas that are for ME work, but today I thought that I would share some more general types of holiday craft project ideas.

Over at the Hewlett Packard (HP) site, I found an interesting Vintage Santa Wall Hanging. It incorporates vintage images from yesteryear that are printed off on specially prepared fabric to create a beautiful holiday theme item. I know some gals buy the ready-to-print type fabric, while others prepare some fabric themselves for this type of printing process, but either way it is a neat idea.

You'll find the link here:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/acProject lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&extsubcat=holidayandspecialoccasions&extcat=quilting&extproject=vintagesantawallhanging

or just use a search engine and enter something like the following and the site will come up:

Hewlett Packard Vintage Santa Wall Hanging

Next I found a cute casserole carrier with a country moose design at the Thimbleberries site:

http://www.thimbleberries.com/pdf/THP00173.pdf

After that, I found a couple of versions of a Holiday Card Holder in a Christmas Tree Shape (done up like a memory board) at:

http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/holiday-card-holder-669662/

or

http://www.allcrafts.net/f.php?url=www.wrights.com/wrights/class/12_xmas/treecardholder/treecardholder.

A Victorian Angel Card Holder Fabric project I came upon was here:

http://www.sewing.org/files/project/victorian_angel_card_holder.pdf

Then a Folded Star Trivet Tutorial for a neat pair of folded star trivets that intrigued me were here:

http://lieslmade.wordpress.com/2006/11/18/folded-star-hotpad-tutorial/

Of course, Thanksgiving is coming up around the corner, so finally, here's a link for a very nice looking Harvest Table Runner that anyone would love to have on their Thanksgiving table:

http://www.sewing.org/files/project/harvest_table_runner_cranston.pdf

and another table runner found here is also quite attractive:

http://www.cranstonvillage.com/uploadedFiles/falling-leaves-table-runner(1).pdf

Another time I'll share some more ideas I have found on the www, but I'll wrap up for today.

Here's hoping your Fall & Winter Holiday sewing is going well!

Time for some more soothing lemon ginger herb tea,

Stephanie in Fayetteville

Soup recipe from October Meeting

I got this recipe from one of those newspaper inserts where they advertise all the contractors and talk about taking care of your yard and winterizing your house-- I think it was in the Post Standard.

Gro Good Garden Vegetable Soup

Makes 8 servings

Prep time 10 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour 40 minutes

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large yellow onion, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

1 bay leaf

3 medium carrots, chopped

2 parsnips, peeled and chopped

1 medium turnip, peeled and chopped

1 pint Brussel sprouts, trimmed and quartered

1 3/4 pounds fresh tomatoes, chopped (can substitute a 28-ounce can of whole tomatoes with juice, chopped)

2 quarts chicken broth or vegetable broth (I used Wegmans vegetable broth)

1 cup baby lima beans

One 15 ounce can of great Northern or cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Heat the oil in a stock pot over medium heat.

Add the onions, celery, and bay leaf and cook until the onions are tender, about 5 minutes.

Add the carrots, parsnips, turnip, and Brussels sprouts and continue cooking until the vegetables are just tender, about 5 more minutes.

Add the tomatoes and their juices and the stock.

Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 1 hour.

Add the eans, salt, and pepper, and simmer for another 30 minutes.

November newsletter is out!

http://premium.fileden.com/premium/2009/11/12/2648865/November%20Newsletter.pdf

November 2009 Newsletter