Did you know that sewing machine needle wear out quickly and need to be replaced?
Most guidelines say to replace them after 4-6 hours of use, or every project.
Most people do not do this.
A worn out needle gets microscopic burrs and nicks and fractures – all of which will impact your sewing.
Whenever someone contacts me with a sewing problem, my first question is almost always, “Have your tried changing your needle?”
It’s the “Have you tried turning your computer off and on again?” of the sewing world. 😂
An old needle can cause skipped stitches, wobbly stitches, little nests of thread on the bottom of your stitching, broken thread, tension problems, snagged fabric, and more.
It can also cause fraying on the edges of your raw edge applique.
Take a look at the itty bitty lemming on this block.
If you want to see it closer, click on the image so you can zoom in. (You may need to right click the image and choose Open Image in New Tab, depending on your operating system.)
I used the same fabrics for both the moose and the lemming, the same fusible adhesive, carefully fused for the correct amount of time.
But the edges of the lemming are all frayed!
It’s not because it’s smaller pieces. It’s because my needle was so dull it was basically punching through the fabric, forcing the fibers apart.
Tip – when your needle gets super dull you can actually hear the difference. It sounds like it’s… well, like it’s punching through the fabric. I can’t think of any other way to describe it.
Sewing through heavier fabrics will make a needle wear out faster. So will sewing through paper – just like using your fabric scissors on paper will dull them.
Keep an old pill bottle by my machine to hold the spent needles, and don’t hesitate to change them frequently! Change them with every new project, and change them any time your machine acts “weird” and you can’t figure out what’s wrong.
Needles are cheap compared to having to redo something because a dull one messed it up. 🙁
I’ve never been a dress wearer, but I can’t stand things that are tight around my waist, and I thought a loose dress might be comfortable AND look batter than my sad yoga pants/tank top/cardigan uniform.
I was right! The loose dresses I bought are super comfy. I’ve been layering them up all winter, and I’m looking forward to a cool, breezy summer in them.
My next step was to make my own dress. I fully intended to trace this purple dress.
It’s pretty clever, with ties in the front and back so you can tie the dress multiple ways. Go to the listing and watch the videos and you’ll see.
So I bought the pattern and made one!
I… don’t love it. I want to love it! But I just don’t.
The ties are cool, but they kind of annoy me when I’m wearing it, and I don’t think I really want the slight waist shaping. The sleeves are ok, but I wish they were longer, and just a touch narrower (especially at the armholes) so they’ll fit better under my kimono-style jackets (some of the very few things I already own that I actually like).
The construction is BRILLIANT, with a clever technique that leaves nice, clean finished edges with no fuss or binding. The instructions are GREAT, with videos showing the whole process. A beginner can definitely make this.
The thing I really don’t like is the neckline. Because of the way the dress hangs from the shoulders, the neck spreads much wider than I like. Also, I really like to wear scarves, and it’s crazy annoying to have bare neck between the bottom of the scarf and the top of the back neckline. 🙁
These are things that will not be dealbreakers for most people, but for me they are. I’ll be tracing that purple dress soon so I can try to duplicate it. 🤞🏻
But before I move on, I have to show you the applique I added to this dress – because that was a huge win!
I made the dress out of a dark blue linen blend – fine, but kind of boring. That’s the perfect recipe for adding a little fancification!
I decided to applique Sullivan Snail and the simplest of the Wild Flowers all around the bottom of the dress.
The dress looks gray here, but it’s actually dark blue. I photographed it in a really bright light so you’d be able to see the stitching as clearly as possible.
I’m thrilled with how they look! I’ve worn and washed this a number of times, and the applique has held up really well.
Instead of using quilting cotton, I used fabric from a stack of t-shirts I bought at the thrift store. I just wanted to try something a little different! By using t-shirt fabric I’m eliminating any fraying (knits don’t fray) and if the edges curl up a bit, it’s the same color on the back so it doesn’t matter.
I did my usual three rounds of all the outline stitching, but I did it in matching or slightly contrasting thread instead of black. Right-click on that image to open it in a new tab and you can really zoom in for a close-up.
The only thing I’d change is to make the snail a little smaller. Just a little. 🙂
So, all in all this project gets mixed results.
The dress pattern was well-designed and sewed up easily, but ultimately the shape isn’t for me. It’s fine and I’ll keep wearing it! It’s just not my favorite.
The applique gets an A+. I’ll definitely be doing more of that, on lots of different projects. I’m designing some things right now to applique on a men’s sports coat I thrifted, and Jo’s working on some appliqued t-shirts.
You can find all the posts in The Wardrobe Project here.
This week I’m upcyling a sweater to change the color.
A few months ago, my grandmother gave me a sweater that she made but doesn’t wear anymore.
I liked the fit of it, and I especially liked the lacy sleeves. I’m always overheating in full sweaters, so sleeves with a little more breathability are nice. The only thing I wanted to change about it was the color. I really only wear black clothing, or the occasional dark color or neon color. I don’t really wear earth tones. I thought that this sweater would be a great chance to try dyeing something. Despite the many many times that I’ve dyed my hair, I’ve never dyed my own clothing.
Since I didn’t make this sweater, I didn’t know what it was made out of. It felt like acrylic, but I still wanted to test it to make sure. (The fiber content will determine what kind of dye to use.)
I used a lighter, and held it against one of the loose tails on the inside of the sweater. It melted, and made a little hard lump at the end of the thread, so I knew it was acrylic. If it had been wool or another natural fiber, it would have burnt, and made a small bit of crushable ash.
If you’re doing this at home with a store-bought piece that doesn’t have any tails on the inside, hold the lighter against a bit of one of the inside seams. Try to pick a place that won’t rub against your skin, because if it’s acrylic and you melt it, it’ll be a bit rough.
Once I determined that it was acrylic, I went out and bought some synthetic dye. I used Rit Synthetic in the color graphite. (#NotSponsored)
I was a bit worried that it wasn’t going to be black like I wanted, because graphite is more of a dark gray. I went to two different places that were pretty well stocked with Rit dye, but I didn’t find any synthetic dye that was specifically called “black.” I mention this now because—spoiler—it’ll be a thing later.
I basically just followed the instructions on the bottle. It says to wash the clothing first to get rid of any fabric softener. It also says to wet the fabric before putting it in the dye bath. I was able to kill two birds with one stone. I took it straight out of my washing machine and added it to the pot.
Speaking of the pot. It didn’t say this on the bottle, but I’ve read that you’re not supposed to use a pot that you’ve dyed things in for food. I went out to a thrift store and bought the biggest soup pot they had. Now it’s going to live on as my designated dye-pot.
I simmered the sweater for about an hour, and then rinsed it in my sink until the water ran clear. Surprisingly, the dye didn’t stain my sink gray, but your mileage may vary. The instructions said to either wash the piece by hand or put it into the washing machine with an old towel. I opted for the washing machine and old towel, but I regret it now. In hindsight, for a hand-knit piece like this, I really should have hand washed and laid flat to dry. Being in the washer with just a towel was too aggressive, and it stretched the sweater out of shape and made the edges pill a bit. (A shame, because I don’t think the sweater had been worn before this.)
I popped the sweater in the dryer to try and shrink it back a bit. It worked, and confirmed that I was right about it being acrylic, but the collar was still wobbly and out of shape.
Also, when I pulled it out of the dryer, I saw that it was gray, not black. It looks…like graphite, so I guess the bottle wasn’t lying.
I tried to re-wet just the collar of the sweater so I could re-block it and try and fix the wobbly collar. It didn’t work great, but I’ll try it again with pins to hold it in place instead of just laying it out.
Enjoy my photobombing dog, Fozzie, in this picture. He loves to check out any clothing that I leave unattended, especially if I lay it out on my bed like I did for this picture. 🙂
All in all, the color isn’t bad. It’s not the black that I was hoping for, but it’s a nice gray, and I do think I’ll wear it (if I can fix the collar). Honestly, the dyeing process was so easy that I’m already planning to dye more things from my closet.
Trace or print the template pieces onto the paper side of paper-backed fusible adhesive. I use Heat & Bond Lite for all my quilts.
Cut the pieces out roughly and fuse them to the back of your fabric.
I used the ovals for wings and the circle for the body, but you can switch that around, use all ovals or all circles. You do you, and bugs come in all shapes and sizes and colors!
Cut the pieces out neatly.
Peel off the paper backing and stick the pieces where you want them, tucking the wings behind the body.
Fuse in place and outline the pieces.
Done!
I added this one to the muskox block for my new Arctic Chill bundle (coming soon).
You can add these to so many patterns! I already mentioned the Farm Animals. What about the Rainforest bundle? The rainforest is full of pesky bugs of all kinds! Hungry Birds like to eat bugs – they might appreciate some added to their quilt. Carter Chameleon might like some too!
And bugs don’t have to be pests! Use black and yellow striped fabric for the bodies and add a bunch of tiny bees buzzing around in your Wild Flowers quilts! Bumblebees are also really common in the arctic, along with black flies and midges.
I could keep going, but I think you get the idea. You could add some flies to almost any quilt!
I introduced The Wardrobe Project here (with Jo’s intro here).
Today I have my first step towards a solution. It’s kind of lame that it involves a purchase instead of making something, but this was actually a really good place to start.
For those who haven’t read the original post, my main problem is that I have very few clothes to wear, and I end up wearing the same black yoga pants, black tank top, and black cardigan every single day.
Snooze.
I bought some clothes! Colorful clothes! That (mostly) checked all my boxes.
They’re (mostly) comfortable.
I can wear them in layers.
They’re colorful, but not clownish.
They seem to be well made? I’ve had them for a few months now and I always hang to dry, but one shoulder seam on one dress is already popping open. It was easy enough to repair, and hopefully it’s a fluke.
They’re mix and matchable.
I did a TON of Google searching and eventually ended shopping at Gudrun Sjödén.
When I did the overview of what’s in my closet, I realized I owned NO dresses. None. Since I don’t like things to be tight around my waist, that seemed like a huge missed opportunity – so I deliberately went looking for dresses! I was hoping to find a dress I would like as is, with bonus points if it was a style that would be simple enough for me to copy – or at least to use as a guide when sewing my own.
I’ve tried sewing my own clothes before and it’s sooooo frustrating to spend all that time and money and end up with something that just doesn’t look good! Which you don’t really know until you’re finished. 😩
I thought if I could start with a ready-made dress I like, I could at least say, “I like this length. I like this much ease in the bust. I like this much ease around my hips. I like this kind of neckline.”
I also don’t like to have bare legs, so I was looking for pants or leggings to wear with those dresses.
I LOVE the Gudrun prints, but a lot of the garments I tried just didn’t look good on me. The knits were soft and comfy, but I didn’t like how they looked without a bra, and they tended to cling to each other when I tried layering them. The cotton dress I tried felt flimsy and kind of cheap – but the linen! The linen dresses were great! They were light and cool enough for summer, and layerable for cooler weather.
I bought two! One blue and one purple. And I bought leggings and linen pants in purple and blue too, so I could mix and match a bit.
You can see the purple dress and leggings in the top photo.
And look! The purple linen pants look great with the long purple cardigan I already had! (Plus one of my many identical black tank tops.) Yay for making something I already own more wearable!
And here’s the blue dress with the blue linen pants.
I love the look of the pants with the dress, but right now the leggings are more comfortable. (Leggings are usually too tight to be really comfortable for me, but these aren’t bad at all.)
The pants would be better if the elastic waistband was just a little bit larger. The band is stitched through a few times – which is great to keep the elastic from twisting, but not great if I want to unpick it to replace with slightly longer elastic. 🫤 I’ll probably do it for these that I already have, but I don’t think I’ll order more in the future. They’re also a little wider in the leg than I’d choose, so I probably won’t try to copy them.
But the purple dress is simple enough that I think I can copy it!
I have too many clothes that I don’t wear. On a normal day, I wear something like this.
A graphic tee and black pants. It’s cool, comfortable, and casual. It’s also a little basic. But I have SO MUCH other clothing. It clutters up my whole closet. Right now, I don’t have enough hangers to hang up everything that I have.
I have a few goals for my closet. I want to clear out everything that I don’t wear. If I haven’t worn it in the past year, it needs to be assessed in some way. Why haven’t I worn it? If it doesn’t fit well, can I alter it? If I don’t like the color, can I dye it? If it fits well, but it’s boring, can I embellish it? If I look at it, and I don’t think I can change it to fit my style, it’s time for it to go.
Everything red has to go, regardless of fit or comfort. I like red as a color, but if I wear it, I look sunburnt. Also, it clashes with the whole black and neon green thing I have going on.
Once I clear everything out, I want to start adding in new pieces. I want to have a mix of interest pieces and basics.
For interest pieces, I want more things like this…
Here’s the back…
I LOVE this coat! I wear it all the time, and I always get compliments on it. I want more pieces that make people stop me on the street.
But I also need more basics, like the black pants that I was wearing in the first picture. I love those pants. They’re pretty much the only pants I wear, and I dread the day that they finally wear out.
A different, but slightly related goal for this year is to not buy any new clothing. What I mean by that is no clothing from a place like Target or Gap or anything like that. Something that I make or something that I thrift is totally fine. I want to be more intentional and mindful of where my clothing is coming from. I want to be modifying clothing to suit my body and my aesthetic so that I can have a truly unique wardrobe.
Here’s what’s on my wardrobe wishlist:
Shorts or skirts for the summer. I am ALWAYS too warm, but I have a hard time finding shorts that I like.
Interest pieces! Not everything can be neon, but I’d like to have a handful of things that can go with my basics and add a pop of color. I love neon green, but I’m not opposed to purple or blue. I’d love to add to plain black clothing with bright embroidery, beadwork, applique, or something else!
This isn’t exactly a specific item, but I’d like to make sure that everything in my closet goes with everything else. I hate having a shirt that I can ONLY wear with one specific pair of pants. It makes it super unlikely that I’ll ever reach for it. I want my closet to be easy to wear, and easy to style. I really don’t want to be putting too much work into my outfits, but I still want to look cool.
I went on a MAJOR thrift run recently, and got a lot of cool clothing that I’m planning to modify and embellish. I’m super excited to get into it. (As soon as I clear out my closet.) I’ll be posting lots of before and afters, and sharing tutorials. It’s going to be so fun!
If you look at my designs, you’d probably guess that I like bright colors and whimsy. I do!
But this is what I wear.
Every. Single. Day.
Black yoga pants. Black tank top. Black cardigan.
It’s very comfortable, but I’m bored out of my mind!
If I’m leaving the house I wear this.
Black stretchy trousers. Black tank top. One of four (I’m not kidding) identical shirts. I have it in that dark green you see in the photo, two light blues, and one light purple.
In fact, here is a list of everything in my closet.
Those four identical buttondown shirts (which I have been wearing in rotation for TEN YEARS). I’m sick to death of them.
Three soccer jerseys for wearing to games (Asheville City SC, Portland Thorns, Portland Timbers) – all uncomfortably small.
One very ratty corduroy shirt to wear for messy outdoor work.
A loose, flowered tank top that I hardly ever wear. It’s pretty, but I have to wear a bra with it.
One handmade crinkle gauze kimono jacket – too small.
One dark purple linen kimono jacket (also handmade) which I love.
One colorful purchased kantha jacket which I love, but have no idea what to wear it with.
One hoodie printed with the doors from Monsters, Inc. It looks awful on me, but I won’t get rid of it because it was expensive and I love the print.
One lightweight black linen buttondown shirt which I wear in the summer as a jacket to keep the sun off my arms.
One handmade patchwork A-line skirt which I love, but is now too small.
One handmade green Estuary Skirt which I love, but I have no idea what to wear with it.
Six Pranayama wraps from Athleta (two black, one lavender, one teal, one pine green, and one long one in dark purple) – this is what I’m wearing in the top photo. I love them, so I have them in a bunch of colors, but I don’t wear them out of the house in winter because they’re all way longer than my coat and look weird sticking out the bottom.
Seven identical black tank tops from Target. I don’t like to wear a bra, so I wear these every single day.
One outfit for the gym – pants, T-shirt, zip-up hoodie jacket.
Eleven cute graphic T-shirts – all too small for me. Like, way too small.
Four long-sleeved T-shirts (one black, one green, one blue, one purple) – I think I will layer them under my buttondown shirt when I have to leave the house on cold days, but I don’t because then there’s too much fabric around my arms and it bugs me when I bend my elbows.
Two identical pairs of lightweight cargo pants (one black, one olive green) that are too tight, but I won’t get rid of them because they’re very thin and I think I can wear them on really hot days, but I don’t.
Two identical pairs of very lightweight capri pants (one black, one lavender). Capri-length looks terrible on me, but I keep them because I think I might layer them under a dress or skirt on a hot day. But I don’t own any dresses, and they don’t look good under the one skirt I own.
One pair of patchwork linen baggy pants that I wear on the hottest days of summer. They’re definitely the most interesting thing I own, but they’re a lotta look, bordering on clownish.
One pair of black yoga pants from Target that I’ve been wearing almost every day for probably fifteen years. It’s a miracle they’ve lasted this long, but at some point they will wear out, and then I will have an even worse problem than I have now.
One pair of gray pajama pants printed with lavender pine trees that I wear on laundry days when I can’t wear my black yoga pants. Then I wear my lavender cardigan instead of one of my black ones, so it looks like an actual outfit instead of laundry day leftovers.
That’s it!
No shirts that I love. Twelve shirts that are ok (seven of which are identical black tank tops). Twenty shirts that don’t fit/don’t work with anything else/have some other problem.
Eight jackets/cardigans that I love (mostly identical), one that’s ok, and one that doesn’t fit.
Two skirts that don’t fit or that I have no shirts to wear with them.
One pair of pants that I love but won’t leave the house in, two that are just ok, and four that don’t fit or don’t look good.
About twenty years ago my mother-in-law came to visit a new house we had just moved into. When she saw our closet, she asked where my clothes were. We had to tell her that small closet held both our clothes. 😂
Not much has changed! I still don’t have a lot of clothes – but that’s not the problem. I don’t need a lot of clothes.
The problem is that I have mostly stuff that looks bad/doesn’t fit anymore, a few things that are fine/boring, and a handful of things I love, but don’t have anything to go with them to make an actual outfit.
I don’t have a single outfit that I love. Not one.
Heck – I don’t even have a single outfit that I like!
I’ve resolved to fix my wardrobe in the past, but I never actually follow through on it. This year is going to be different.
It really is!
I know it’s going to be different because I’ve made a list, and once I make a list – watch out! 😂
(Also – I’ve already made some progress. I wrote this post when I was at rock bottom, but I waited to post it after I had already made a few steps forward – so more posts coming soon!)
Here’s my wardrobe wishlist:
Comfortable clothes. Nothing too tight, especially around my waist and arms. And nothing that requires me to wear a bra.
Layers! I’m the annoying person who’s always cold – unless I’m having a hot flash. So I need layers that I can add and remove as needed.
Color! But not clownish. I like monochrome looks with a lot of texture and maybe on occasional pop of a brighter, contrasting color, so I’m going to try to make that work.
Well-made, durable clothes. I don’t love to hand wash, but I’m happy to hang things to dry if it will help them last longer. I can do simple alterations and mending, and I’d love to make a lot of my own pieces if I can find the right patterns and fabric.
Mix and matchable pieces. I don’t need a huge wardrobe (obviously) but I want to love every piece in it, and be able to wear most everything with most everything else so I can stop looking the same every day.
That seems doable, right?
Like I said, I’ve already made some progress, but I still have a LONG way to go! And before I share the first of my successful baby steps, Jo’s going to introduce her wardrobe problem and wishlist.
Our fixes will be a mix of buying, upcycling, and making – something for everyone! You’ll be able to follow both our posts with the new “clothing” tag, and the new “Life” category in the top menu bar. That tab will drop down to Food, Clothing, and Books – everything you need for a Shiny Happy Life. 😄
I read a lot and I share my favorites in the newsletter. People have been asking me to compile those recommendations in one place and I’ve decided to use Bookshop. Here are the lists I’ve transferred from my notebooks so far. . .
I hope that’s obvious 🙂 but sometimes it’s good to be explicit.
I also love cheater quilts!
I’ve been adding a lot of new cheater quilt fabric to my shop lately, and I’ve received a couple of emails from people asking if I have any posts about working with this kind of fabric.
That made me realize I don’t!
I’ve posted works-in-progress on social media, and written about it in newsletters, but I didn’t have a single comprehensive post here.
Time to fix that!
What Is Cheater Quilt Fabric?
When you make a cheater quilt, you aren’t piecing the quilt top. (That’s the “cheat.”) You’re using fabric that has a quilt already printed on it, like this.
You layer that fabric with batting and backing and then quilt it and – boom! – you have a cheater quilt.
So a cheater quilt is basically a very specific kind of whole cloth quilt.
Why Cheater Quilts?
In addition to being fast – cheater prints are also the least expensive way to make a quilt. No waste! Nothing lost to seam allowance!
As an example – here’s the fabric for a cheater quilt I made a few years ago. It’s 2 yards of the Monster Monster Cheater Quilt print on organic cotton sateen, so the printed size (not including the strips of white along the selvedge) is 56 inches wide and 72 inches tall.
A comparable size quilt top made with any of my patterns would use about 6 yards of 42-inch wide fabric. Even factoring in the different fabric widths – that’s still more than twice as much fabric!
So cheaters are faster and less expensive.
Different Kinds of Cheater Fabrics
If you look at those two prints I’ve shown, you’ll see they’re a little different.
The Woodland Critters print you see in the first photo is a classic cheater quilt fabric. It’s laid out in squares just like a real quilt. I took mine a step further and actually photographed real quilt blocks, so you can see all my quilting and outline stitches too. Here’s a close-up of the Farm Animals cheater fabric so you can see.
Most cheater fabric doesn’t take it that far. 😂 But I kind of love the tiny imperfections that get included this way. If you look closely at the curve of quilting right next to the pig’s cheek you can see that I went a little off the darker blue line when I quilted that block. It still has a made-by-human-hands feel. 🥰
Not all of my cheater fabrics are made with my quilt actual blocks, but I’m adding more all the time and the description will always make it clear.
The Monster Monster print you see in the video snippet is quilt-ish. It’s not laid out in a grid of square blocks, but they’re square-ish and they’re in a grid layout – but it’s a wonky grid. This has quilt vibes without actually looking like a “proper” quilt.
I also have some fabrics in the Cheater Quilts section of my shop that aren’t cheater quilts in the strictest sense, because their layout isn’t like a quilt. They’re just large-scale prints that work really well for whole-cloth quilts, so I group them in with the cheaters because it’s the same concept. You’ll see an example of this in the next section.
How to Finish a Cheater Quilt
When you make a cheater quilt, the “cheating” is in how you make the top. You still have to quilt the layers together. I like to hand quilt my cheaters using Big Stitch Quilting – but you can also machine quilt, or tie, or finish it any way you like.
Some people say it’s a “waste of time and effort” to hand quilt a cheater quilt. To them I say, “Pfui! It’s my fabric, my thread, my hands, my time. I can do whatever I want.”
Here’s an example of a quilt in progress using my Meadow print in blue and yellow…
And here’s that finished quilt after washing so it has all the awesome crinkle.
When I hand-quilt my cheaters, I just pin-baste the layers together and then do big stitch quilting around each shape. This, to me, is as relaxing as coloring. In fact, I think of it as coloring in slow motion. With a needle and thread, of course. 😁
I don’t need to make any decisions so there’s zero pressure. I just choose a thread color that kind of matches the shape I’m outlining, and then it’s endless running stitches – the easiest stitch there is. I love the little sound the eye of the needle makes when it pops through the fabric, followed by the soft hiss of the thread as I pull it through. I love the feel of the fabric and thread in my hands, and the play of light on the surface. No thinking, just enjoying the moment and the repetition of thousands of stitches, filling the surface of the fabric with texture. It’s as close as I get to meditation.
You can see that I also quilted some of the purple block behind him, and every other white stripe in the gray background.
One thing I learned from this particular project is that minky and hand-quilting don’t go well together. 🙁 If you look closely you can see lots of dark purple specks in those white stripes. That was the pile of the minky getting pulled through to the front of the quilt. 🙁 I’ve machine quilted lots of minky- and cuddle-backed quilts with no problem, so I think it was just the hand-stitching that caused the problem.
How to Make a Cheater Quilt
Here are links to all the tutorials you’ll need.
Order your fabric. You can find all my cheater prints here. I recommend printing on organic cotton sateen. That’s the fabric base I’ve used for all my cheaters and I love how vibrant the colors print – and how vibrant they remain after lots and lots of washes. Two yards makes a nice couch-sized quilt. If you want to make a big bed-sized quilt, Spoonflower now has extra-wide cotton sateen.
Don’t forget to order backing and binding, too! Most of my cheater fabrics have links to coordinating prints to make that easy.
There’s a video here showing how I do Big Stitch Quilting. I really like using Sulky Petites 12 wt. thread for this kind of stitching. It comes in loads of great colors, doesn’t need separating, and comes on neat and tidy little spools. I review the thread here.
If you want to machine quilt your layers together, there’s a video here showing how to machine quilt. This post has extra tips for machine quilting a big quilt on a standard sewing machine. And this post has one of my favorite tips for machine quilting without swearing. 😂
If you want to do traditional hand quilting, there’s a tutorial here.
You can also tie your quilt, but I don’t have a tutorial for that.
After you stitch the entire surface, you just need to bind your quilt. There’s a video showing my favorite method here.
