Top 10 Big Ticket Items Every DIYer Should Own: day 1

For the next few days in addition to Shoe Sugar Month. I'm going to do a mini-series about 10 big ticket items every DIY crafter/sewer should own.

This list will not include power tools which is entirely separate post of its own. The items I list I consider to be worth their weight in saving time, money and stress for DIY crafters everywhere. 

Sooo, the number one big ticket item for a DIY crafter....................

Source: but-honestly-em.blogspot.com

1. A Sewing Machine. Duh. Why not start with the most obvious? Seriously. You can't sew without one....unless you are making really, really small projects. But any semi-serious crafter has a sewing machine. Even if they don't know exactly how to use it.

I've received the occasional post asking for advice when purchasing a sewing machine. Now, honestly, I can't speak to which brand is better than the other but what I can offer is advice as to what to look for in your new machine.

One of the best new features I've seen is an automatic threader. I can't tell you how invaluable this has become for me. Now there are semi-automatic threaders (which my last sewing machine had) which require a little hand eye coordination on your part. And there are full automatic threader (which is what I have now) which a monkey could do. Either way, your new sewing machine should have one. They're amazing.

Another neat amenity is an automatic thread cutter. When I'm doing a project I'm often in a hurry and miss a lot of long threads. An automatic thread cutter will cut your bobbin and top threads simultaneously before you even take the fabric out of your machine.

Obvious things: Droppable feed dogs, easy bobbin winding (on top), adjustable stitch width and length, variety of needle positions, tension of thread adjustment, a button for sewing backwards, a removable flat bed so you can stitch small openings such as sleeves, drop in bobbin, fast threading system (one where you just move the thread up and down the front of the machine to thread.)

Different stitches. Aside from the standard straight and zigzag stitch, your new machine must have at least a one step buttonhole stitch, a blind hem stitch, a stretch stitch and preferably a few decorative stitches.

A variety of feet that come standard with your machine. Blind Stitch, buttonhole, zipper. And also look for a machine that has presser feet that you snap on instead of screw.

Adjustable presser foot. This regulates how tightly the machine holds the fabric while you sew. This prevents puckering in fine fabrics and stretching in knits. My machine actually doesn't have this function. But I'm curious to know how it helps with knit fabrics.

Another neat feature is speed control. My new sewing machine has this and I don't find it totally necessary but it is nice to have. Set it to slow and no matter how hard you press the presser foot it won't go any faster than your set speed.

And don't worry about buying a machine with plastic parts. Metal parts require regular lubrication and maintenance. Especially if you don't use your machine for heavy fabrics, plastic isn't always bad. In fact I recommend a lightweight machine as I am moving mine around often.

Finally, your warranty. Some inexpensive sewing machines only have a 90-day warranty. I'm pretty sure mine has a very limited small warranty. But then again, it was a lot cheaper than some machines that have better ones. The industry average is 25 years on the machine head, two years for most other parts and one year on labor. Usually, you get what you pay for. The higher the warranty the more expensive the product. If you are a beginner I recommend the limited warranty. If your sewing machine breaks, take it to a sewing repair man. I've found that repairing the machine is less than buying an expensive machine to begin with.

That's all I got. Hopefully I've helped someone out there who were overwhelmed about the idea of purchasing a new machine. Look for another "Big Ticket Item" soon.

The Perfect Print

How many times have you gone from fabric store to fabric store looking for that perfect print for a project you had in mind and left empty handed or with something that you settled for? For me, too many times to count.

For my book I'm planning the fabrics that I will be using with the garments I will be making and OF COURSE, there are one or two fabrics that I CANNOT find. I'm considering using a service like Spoonflower but it can get kind of pricey for silk (which is what I want to use). But I just stumbled upon this book by Lena Corwin entitled Printing by Hand and am considering making my own silk printed fabric. After all, I have a yudu machine and I only need one or two yards.

Image

Shoe Sugar Month: Day 17 Insole Heaven

One of the downsides to buying shoes at the thrift store is that they often don't have the prettiest insoles. And honestly, I don't really care about what my shoes look like on the inside unless I'm photographing them. But I'll admit that I've been drawn to shoes in the store that have a pretty pattern on the inside.

 If you love to have your shoes look as good on the rack as they do on your feet you can try this simple tutorial for making custom insoles.

 And BTW, I bought these Apt. 9 shoes for only $1.50! I love their pinkish but neutral hue.

You can use pinking shears to do this but they must be the quality fabric shears you buy at JoAnn's and not the kind for scrapbooking. Those barely cut paper. And if you're really ambitious you can buy this SCALLOPED rotary blade or these scalloped fabric shears for an even more polished look.

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Aaron is Answering Your Questions

Aaron Wood who I've wrote about a couple weeks ago is starting a new discussion on his blog and/or youtube account. If you want to ask him any question about being a quadriplegic he's open for discussion.

I think it's also cathartic and therapeutic for him to keep posting and he says no question will be offensive or embarrassing. See him answer the first question here.

Email questions to: aarons.journey@hotmail.com

Shoe Sugar Month: Day 16 Bees Knees

I made these with simple necklace hardware I found at Michaels.

The shoes I got at thrift store for only $2!! They are from the Ann Taylor Loft. And admittedly they are a bit too small but I just couldn't pass them up.

Michaels has a couple lines of antique looking broaches and necklace baubles. I bought these for only $2.49 a piece. They had even cooler looking antique beetles but they were in the midst of restocking so all the good ones only had one remaining. But perhaps the Michaels  in your area is all stocked up.

I don't have to really do a tutorial for this. All you have to do is hot glue the bauble to a shoe clip. But if your bauble doesn't have a flat bottom like mine which was hollow underneath, just hot glue a piece of felt to the underside and cut any fabric that shows. Then hot glue the clilp to the felt.

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More from Kathleen Frances of Grosgrain:

My kids would just die if I made this for them

I wish this were real

Iwwww....but clever

Eye Sugar

No, I didn't sew a flower for my eyes:) Please don't be anger with me but I don't have a shoe sugar post today. I'm going to try and get caught up with some stuff I had been getting backed up with and spend some time with Molly.

But I did want to show you my new eye sugar.

Ever since I started to wear contacts I've longed to change my eye color. I tried the Acuvue colored soft lenses but they barely made a dent in my dark brown/almost black eyes. And in the daylight they were almost imperceptible. So I gave up on ever having green eyes.

But recently I came across hand painted lenses. From what I could tell in photos they completely changed the color of the eye in a more natural way. But at the time they were just wayyy to expensive. Since then, they've come down in price, a lot down, and I finally decided to invest in a pair from FX Eyes.

And after many weeks of waiting I got them in the mail today. They are everything I had hoped. But don't get me wrong, I still love my brown eyes and wouldn't change them permanently even if I could. Sometimes it's just nice to change things up a bit. Sort of like a new sweater or dress, ya know?

I won't wear these all the time. Perhaps for special occasions and some photos. I ordered them with a smaller pupil but now I can see a little bit of the color in my vision. I wouldn't wear them driving but if you wanted to have a larger pupil to avoid that issue it's no problem. If I ever get another pair I might order a larger pupil so that I can wear them more often.

If you have dark brown eyes and have always wanted to change your color I recommend checking them out. They even have youtube videos for each lens so you can see what they really look like. They have an amazing assortment of natural looking colors. Mostly ones with different hues in the iris.

And if you'd like to see more of my finds check out: 

This now has the highest priority on my DVR.
How Clever for small spaces.
More bunk bed love.

Shoe Sugar Month: Day 15 Golden Fringe

I bought these shoes at the Community Aid Thrift Store for only $2 and painted them a periwinkle blue.

 I made the yellow pompoms with simple yarn and used Day 11's pompom tutorial.

 You can see how I painted the shoes here. I recommend using a flat or satin spray.

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And if you're interested....

Wish I had the carpentry skills to make this. 

This is VERY expensive to buy but very doable if you have an abundance of wool.

This would make a magical honeymoon night.

Have Your Sewing Room in the Burdastyle Book

Image via Burdastyle

In case you didn't hear about it yet, Burdastyle is putting together an amazing book authored by select members of its community.

And although their projects have already been chosen they are also adding a section of beautiful sewing rooms. If you are a member of the Burdastyle community and are proud of your colorful, organized and beautifully lit sewing room I urge you to submit it to Burdastyle at the email address below. 

Your studio can be big or small, beige or bright pink! It’s not about the space itself, it’s about what YOU have done to the space. They are looking for creative solutions to decorating and organizing. Hey, like this little detail. Share your sewing room with the world!

Images must be at 300 dpi (high resolution) and at least 6 inches wide. Remember, these will be for print, not web! Email submissions[at]burdastyle[dot]com with the subject line “My Sewing Room” by January 24th.

Go grab that camera and get snappin’!

Clever Idea for Craft Room

This is just the most clever idea for your craft room!

via spunkyjunky

speaking of clever ideas....

Do you have more family than home? 

Try this in your bath.

Or do this under your staircase. 

Or use the space between your walls to build these.

 

Shoe Sugar Month: Day 14 Ballet Day Shoes

So these aren't "clips" but I do consider them to be shoe sugar. And if you sew them on they are easily removable with a seam ripper. Just two straight stitches one inch long.

 This is a great little thing to do to plain flats. Or plain pumps. Best with nothing on the toe already. You can also add the ribbons to the outside of the shoe instead of the inside for a "wrap around" look. I'd use hot glue if you decided to do that instead.

And okay, I just have to mention this. I'm totally enjoying the #altsummit twitter stream. It has some great advice and discussions but I have to admit it's really bittersweet. I'd love to be there. I'm going to try to save up for next year. It's something that I really want to do.

 And in case you are interested I'm starting to post on my home/design blog The Tumtum Tree again.

My new inexpensive lake house.

These are just too clever!

I need to figure out a way to make me one of these!

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Shoe Sugar Month: Day 13 SIZZIX BIG SHOT GIVEAWAY!!

I'm so delighted to announce that Sizzix is offering one lucky Grosgrain reader a Sizzix Big Shot Machine PLUS one free die of your choosing!

I can't tell you how nice it's been to use this machine in my embellishing. I only wish I had it last month for the sweaters. You've all seen the neat things you can do with it. Day 7, Day 5, Day 3. And I'll have more to show you probably sometime next week.

The reason I've liked this machine so much is because it will cut FABRIC. Which of course is a big deal for me. Did you ever see those little felted flower hair clips for kids on etsy? They take like...5....minutes to make with the Sizzix. Doing an embellished sweater like this? Have all your flowers look perfect and done in a few minutes. You can layer the fabric as you roll it through the machine. Depending on the thickness you can do up to 24 flowers in one turn of the crank, which I did using the nylon chiffon. And if any of you have ever tried to cut chiffon, you know how difficult it can be.
To use, just sandwich your die and fabric between two plastic boards provided and crank through the roller. Voila! In just a few seconds you have literally dozens of shapes. Compared to cutting by hand which takes me 3 minutes to cut three at a time with far less precision. It's pretty neat.

Even uses many other brands of dies. I just bought two recently from Michaels for 50% off. Check out all their amazing dies here. You of course can also use it for paper crafts, vinyl, as well as embossing and great gift ideas. I'd love to use these girl and boy figures with either felt or magnetic paper and make felt board dolls as gifts for the kids.

Winner will be announced at the end of Shoe Sugar Month!! Day 30!

Grosgrain Giveaways can be entered by any ONE of three ways

1) By linking about this giveaway (to your blog, facebook, or any other site) button is below.
2) By leaving a comment
3) By FOLLOWING Grosgrain using this link or THE LINK IN MY RIGHT SIDEBAR.

4) *NEW* By following me on Twitter 

Just remember to please leave me a comment telling me what you did so that I can go back and look for your entry. Either give me the link that you posted for the giveaway to or tell me that you began to follow me. 

If you are leaving a link just use the 'create a link' at the bottom of this post or simply creating a post on your blog and including this link.If you use blogger just use the "create a link" link at the bottom of this post. If you don't use blogger, that's fine too. Just create a link on your page as you normally would.

Create a Link 

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Shoe Sugar Month: Day 12 Forest Berries

So, I love the way these turned out. Would look great paired with this dress. 

It snowed big here. Lily has been sick all last week so with the weekends, the holiday and her absences last week, she hasn't been to school in 11 days! Feels like another Christmas vacation....minus the excitement....plus coughing/fevers.

I wanted to let Grosgrain readers know of TWO things. First. I'm starting to post on my other site daily. Check out my daily series about bunk beds. Please follow me if you like:) From now on, I'll be posting frequently every day. The site is still evolving so there might be some funky changes. For instance I just made a new header yesterday.
Second. Tomorrow I'll be having a REALLY amazing giveaway. If you've liked a lot of the shoe sugar this month I promise you'll be interested in what it is. So check back TOMORROW!

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Shoe Sugar Month: Day 11 Seam Binding Pompoms

I think this might be my faaav! And like many others, so easy to make.

 I used a special type of ribbon. It's called seam binding ribbon. It's lighter, matte and has a nicer sheen than grosgrain or satin ribbon. It works great with these types of embellishments. I bought mine for only 10 cents a yard.

 This technique is also great for tee shirt and sweater embellishment. And makes a lovely hair piece. Hot glue several to a headband for a fancy Valentine's look.

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Baby Vintage Love

Oh my! I wish I'd find something like this at the thrift store.

etsy via on Pinterest

Shoe Sugar Month: Day 10 Camellias

You don't have to have much of a crafty thumb to make these. It's pretty straightforward.

These would also look nice if you had a trim that had a contrasting color at the edges.

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1. Take your trim and fold over to the left to make a pleat. Hot glue in place.

2. Make more pleats so that a circular shape begins to form.

3. The bigger you flower gets the wider apart your pleats will be.

4. Cut a piece of felt in the shape of a circle and hot glue to back of flower.

5. I used a barrette for the back rather than an alligator clip. It could be more comfortable and you can buy them at JoAnn's. I'll let you know what my verdict is.