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My Favorite Online Crochet Classes

March 3, 2016

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I learned how to crochet when I was a kid – but I only learned the most basic stitches and for 40+ years I only ever made flat, rectangular things – afghans and scarves. Last summer I decided to explore some online crochet classes to learn how to make not-flat things. It was so much fun!

Here’s why online craft classes are always my first choice for learning a new skill. In a nutshell – I can watch any time I want, as many times as I need to, and I always have a front row seat and close-up view. 🙂

I started off with a hat-making class. I love handmade hats, but I’ve stopped buying them because they’re always too small for my head. I decided I would finally learn to make my own – to crochet round things!

I chose the class Crocheting in the Round: Mix & Match Hats* because it’s on the Craftsy* platform – which I love – and is taught by Stacey Trock. I’ve watched some of her videos on FreshStitches and I knew she was a good teacher. 🙂

This was a terrific class! Not only did Stacey teach me to make several different hats – she also teaches the why behind everything she does, so when she gets to the section about designing your own hat patterns, it totally makes sense! Now I can make any hat, any style I want – and it will always fit. And it’s actually super easy!

Jo (age 12 at the time) took the class with me and she loved it too. As you can see from these photos, she really got into the unit on colorwork. 🙂

Jo is still making tons of hats. I think she’s made at least one for every kid at her school. She even figured out how to make the top pointy instead of flat and made a bunch of elf hats too. So cute! But she’s not just making hats. . .

From hats she moved on to this class – Design Your Own Monster*!

Monsters are great for this kind of class because you can never do anything really wrong. So maybe the body is a little weird and the arms are super long and the eyes bug out way more than you expected. It’s a monster! Nobody can say, “Monsters don’t really look like that!” 🙂

Stacey teaches basic formulas for different shapes – cones, spheres, etc. and how to attach arms and legs and how to add faces and excellent stuffing tips. I can’t show any finished cuties because Jo keeps giving them away before I can photograph them. Also – all of a sudden she can read crochet patterns and design her own! Her current obsession is making amigurumi turtles with spiral striped shells. 🙂

Jo and I aren’t done with online crochet classes – here are a few more on our wish lists.

Jo is definitely ready to learn some new stitches. She’s already figured out some weird crochet cable stitch and how to bobble stitch with YouTube videos, but now she says she wants a class that will take her through a bunch of new stitches in a systematic way. I’m getting her this Textured Crochet Stitches class* for this summer.

She also really likes to make Useful Things That Everyone At School Will Wear so I think she’ll really like this class on making mittens and fingerless gloves*.

And for me? I think a fancy little edge on the bottom of one of my hats will be just the thing, so I’ve got this Fantastic Finishes class* on my list.

The number and variety of classes is truly astounding! I’ll be reviewing some of my favorite cooking and embroidery classes next week. 🙂

Happy stitching!

Best,
Wendi

Video Tutorial: English Paper Piecing

March 2, 2016

I’m obsessed with English Paper Piecing (EPP). And because I want to you to share in the love of this awesome craft, I’ve put together two video tutorials so you can learn to do it too!

Watch them and then start stitching! You’ll probably end up addicted to these little hexagon-shaped fabric pieces of candy… but that’s okay!

Video one: how to prepare your fabric and baste the hexagons

Video two: how to sew hexagons together and remove template

I also love rainbows. So… I teamed up with Shiny Happy World to put together a kit that’s great for beginners or old hats!

Sorry – the kits are no longer available – but they used a lots of the fabrics from the Rainbow Brights fat quarter bundles.

I also highly recommend the book All Points Patchwork: English Paper Piecing beyond the Hexagon for Quilts & Small Projects by Diane Gilleland. It’s amazing and inspiring! (That’s an affiliate link, which means I earn a tiny commission of you buy it.) You can read Wendi’s review of the book here.

Best,
Stacey

Easter Crafts You Can Make – Sewing, Quilting and Embroidery Patterns

February 29, 2016

Easter is early this year – March 27 – so it’s time to start thinking about your Easter Crafts. What do you want to make?

I could just link to the Easter section of my shop – but then you wouldn’t see all the fun free patterns that are available!

(And there are a lot of them.)

So I created this handy dandy round-up post with all the patterns for all my favorite Easter crafts. Just click on the image to go to that project!

Easter Stuffed Animals

Some are big and huggable. Some are small and pocketable. They’re all easy and fun to make.

Beatrice - a Dress Up Bunch bunny rag doll pattern from Shiny Happy World

Easter Felt Projects

Spend a lovely spring afternoon stitching one of these by hand.

Fancy Felt Easter Egg - a free pattern from Shiny Happy World

Easter Eggstras - Free Pattern for Easter accessories for toys from Shiny Happy World

Happy Eggs - an embroidered felt Easter mobile pattern from Shiny Happy World

Reginald Rabbit - a Party Animal from Shiny Happy World

Regina Rabbit - felt bunny softie pattern from Shiny Happy World

Easter Quilt Blocks

Make a kajillion bunnies with a fun mix & match pattern.

Mix & Match free bunny applique pattern from Shiny Happy World

Easter Embroidery patterns

Stitch them on tea towels, baby onesies and more.

Hello, Spring! - embroidery pattern from Shiny Happy World

Other Easter Sewing Patterns

Including Dress Up Bunch dolls and clothes!

Spring Fling - reversible doll dress with eggs and basket

Of course, there are lots of spring-themed patterns too – but I stuck to Easter crafts for this post. 🙂

So whether you like to sew, quilt or embroider – stitch by machine or by hand – I’ve got an Easter craft pattern for you. Have fun with them and be sure to share what you make in the Shiny Happy People group on Facebook!

Happy Easter! Happy spring! Happy stitching!

Best,
Wendi

How to knit anything with STRIPES!

February 25, 2016

I am completely in love with rainbow yarn!

I love rainbows. I want to knit everything in rainbows.

But I’ve been asked… what pattern do you use? I’m not seeing a lot of patterns with stripes!

Well, let me tell you: you can knit almost any pattern in stripes! I’m going to share my tips with you, and show off a darling little sweater as an example!

Tips for knitting almost any pattern in stripes!

This adorable little sweater is Gramps by Tin Can Knits, and the sample is in two colors, not stripes. But no worries!

Here are some tips!

Calculate your yarn usage (total amount of yarn divided by the number of colors you have) to make sure you have enough yarn of each color. You can supplement with one ‘main’ color (as I’ve done for the collar)
Select a pattern that’s fairly simple, like stockinette. For example, a lace pattern would get lost in the stripes.
Change colors at the end of a row (and not the middle) for the cleanest stripes.
Keep in mind that changing colors on a purl row will create a bump of color, so aim for a changing on a knit row.
A ‘make 1 increase’ draws up yarn from the previous round, so avoid changing colors on this type of increase. For the sweater below, I started a new color on rows that were just plain knit.
Read the pattern in advance to plan out the number of rows each color should be to avoid the increases/purls/etc mentioned above.

Have fun! There’s no right or wrong way to do it!

I like to organize my stripes in color order (all rainbow-like), but it would be equally awesome for you to plan your colors randomly. Or have different stripe widths. There are no rules!

How to Frame Embroidery – a video tutorial

February 24, 2016

How do you frame embroidery?

I get this question a lot.

Actually – I get a lot of questions about what do do with an embroidered piece. They’re super fun to stitch, but then what do you do with them?

This video shows how to frame embroidery in a hoop – without using any glue.

This post shows an easy way to cover the “ugly” back side of your stitching when you hoop frame.

And now I have a video showing how to prepare your embroidery for framing in any standard frame.

If you use this method you don’t need to cut into the fabric at all, and you don’t need to use potentially damaging glue or tape. It’s a great way to display – while still preserving – any fabric art you like.

Whether you frame embroidery in a hoop or in a traditional frame, you’ll need to give it a good pressing first. Here’s the video I mentioned showing how to press your finished embroidery without smooshing the stitches.

So dig out some of your favorite embroidered pieces (or applique – this technique works for all fabric art) and display them proudly in a frame. Hang them somewhere you’ll see them every day so they can make you happy. 🙂

Here are all the posts about finishing embroidery projects.

Basic Finishing

Other Ways to Use Embroidery

Return to the Learn to Embroider main Table of Contents.

Happy stitching!

Free Easter Embroidery Pattern – Little Chick with Big Feet

February 22, 2016

Here’s a super simple Easter embroidery pattern – easy enough for even the littlest kids to stitch.

I originally published this back in 2011 – but now it’s updated with new images and links to video tutorials. I can’t wait to see the new chicks you make!

Back when I released the chickens embroidery pattern, people said they especially liked the little egg-shaped chicks with big feet.

I told you they’d be back again and here one is – sized a bit bigger – as a free pattern. 🙂

Click here to get the free Easter embroidery pattern.

It’s lots of fun to decorate that egg-shaped body for Easter!

Of course, you can fill in the shape with all kinds of stitching in any design you like – but there are a couple of other options that are a lot faster.

You can add a little fusible applique to the project and then just stitch the outline. This video shows how easy it is to use applique as a sort of fill stitch. That’s how I made the sample you see up top.

For a really fun option, you can color the egg with colored pencils before you stitch. There’s a video here showing that technique in complete detail. In a nutshell, fuse some freezer paper to the back so the fabric behaves better, then color it in just like paper. If you’re going to hang the finished chicks on the wall you don’t need to worry about heat setting the pencils or anything like that. Stitch the outline after you’re done coloring and hoop it up for framing.

Look at the cute little Easter chicks my daughter made that way! (The other two chicks are from the chickens embroidery pattern.)

I love framing each tiny chick in its own hoop. They make a really cute Easter decoration hanging in a cluster.

Remember – it’s a cute Easter embroidery pattern – but chicks are cute all year long! You can stitch this to a baby onesie, applique it to a receiving blanket, stitch it on a tea towel or baby bib and more. Have fun with it!

Happy stitching!

Hand Quilting – Stitch to the Very Edge of Your Quilt

February 19, 2016

Hand Quilting - how to quilt all the way to the edge

When you’re hand quilting in a hoop, how do you quilt all the way to the edge?

This is a question I’ve gotten several times in the last few weeks since I posted this video about hand quilting and this one about big stitch quilting.

It’s a good question, and the answer goes all the way back to one of my earliest videos – this one about how to layer and baste a quilt.

In that video I showed how the batting layer needs to be bigger all around than the top layer, and the backing needs to be bigger than the batting.

One of the main reasons for that is because – even with basting – the fabric layers can shift a bit when you’re quilting. If you start with all the edges perfectly lined up, you can have a situation where the batting or backing shifts to be smaller than the top – and then you have a problem on your hands.

The other reason to have the other layers be longer is so that you can hoop it up for hand quilting and stitch right up to the edges.

Let’s take a look at my current hand quilting project – the Controlled Chaos quilt. (It’s a free pattern.)

I’m working on one of the edges here.

You can see that the quilt edge is the edge of that narrow grey border around the blue block. It’s mostly quilted here – right up to the edge.

The batting extends beyond that edge – enough to be captured in the square frame I use so it gets held tight for quilting.

The backing is the grey fabric that extends beyond the batting – also held in the frame.

Having the batting and backing layers extend several inches past the edge of the quilt allows me to hoop them up with the actual quilt still within the quiltable area of the frame. Everything is held nice and tight for easy hand quilting.

Here are all my posts about layering and basting your quilt, and the final round of quilting.

Here are all my posts about hand quilting and Big Stitch quilting. I don’t use these techniques with fusible applique or Quilt As You Go, but I LOVE using Big Stitch Quilting with my cheater fabric.

How to Tie a Knot
Hand Quilting Basics – traditional hand quilting
Hand Quilting without Marking
Big Stitch Quilting
How to Quilt All the Way to the Edge

Finished with this topic?

Return to the Let’s Make a Quilt main Table of Contents.

Move on to the lessons about binding and finishing your quilt.

Happy quilting!

Make Your Own Laminated Fabric

February 17, 2016

Sort of. True laminated fabric has a very thin layer of polyurethane film permanently stuck to the right side of the fabric. The resulting fabric is waterproof, but still has a nice drape to it.

There’s a great post here about the difference between oilcloth, laminated fabric, and chalkcloth.

It’s terrific when you can find it – and more and more manufacturers are making it. But it can still be pretty hard to find, and when you do – the print options are usually fairly limited.

So what about when you find a lovely fabric collection like this one. . .

Spring Walk fabric collection from Cloud9 Fabrics

Spring Walk from Cloud9 Fabrics – and you want to make it into an adorable, doll-sized raincoat and boots?

And you want to make that raincoat and boots out of laminated fabric because your kid is smart and they know regular cotton is not waterproof?

You make your own laminated fabric!

I used a product called Pellon Vinyl Fuse and it worked great. Heat & Bond also has a couple of laminating products (including one that brushes on!) that I’ll be testing soon. I’ll update this post after testing.

It’s very easy to use – you just iron it on. The package has very clear instructions.

After that you treat it almost like any cotton fabric – with a few key changes.

Tips for Working with Laminated Fabric

Do not iron it from the vinyl side of the fabric! Save the backing paper you peeled off when you applied the vinyl and use that as a press cloth if you absolutely must iron from the front. I found the stiffness of the fabric meant all I ever needed to do was a quick finger press – no iron needed.
The resulting fabric is stiffer, with less drape than a true laminated fabric. Choose a simple pattern without pleats of gathers.
Some people recommend sewing over a piece of tissue if you need to sew with the vinyl side down – for fear of the feed dogs scratching the vinyl. I sewed with the vinyl side up and down – with no tissue – and had no scratching or grabbing problems. But your machine may be different! I recommend sewing a tiny test.
If the laminated fabric crinkles a lot when you turn it right side out, you can hit it with a hot hair dryer and smooth things out really easily.
Use clips instead of pins to hold the pieces together. Pins will leave permanent holes in laminated fabric.

Use clips instead of pins when working with laminated fabric.

One more reason to love my sewing clips. 🙂

And now – one more photo because these tiny boots are so dang cute.

Adorable doll rain boots - from the Rainy Day pattern collection for the Dress Up Bunch dolls

Seriously! I want them for myself! You can get the Rainy Day pattern collection for the raincoat and boots here. But they only fit dolls – not you or me. 🙁

Happy sewing!

The Dress Up Bunch is a collection of cute and cuddly rag dolls. Get patterns for the dolls, plus all their fun outfits and accessories!

A Dress Up Bunch Doll Raincoat Pattern

February 15, 2016

There’s a new outfit available for the Dress Up Bunch – a doll raincoat pattern!

It’s still snowing here, but soon it will be rain showers and flowers! Your dolls need to be ready for those rainy days so they can splish splash in puddles!

Of course you don’t just get a raincoat pattern. Let’s look at all the parts. . .

A new dress! It’s a short-sleeved dress with three front snaps and some optional fancy trim around the bottom hem. That butterfly print is perfect for spring!

(All the fabrics you’ll see here are from the Spring Walk collection from Cloud9 Fabrics. I love it! So springtime perfect.)

Here’s a view of the raincoat from the back – with the hood down.

It’s a nice roomy hood – easy to make and easy for little hands to flip up and down over that big Dress Up Bunch head. 🙂

Want a closer look at those adorable boots?

They have a little flap on the front with velcro to make them easier for little hands to put on without any help. Plus the little bugs and caterpillars are so cute. I want boots like these!

You can use laminated cottons for the outer shell of the raincoat and boots – but I really wanted to use these prints so I laminated them myself using Pellon Vinyl Fuse. It’s easy – just follow the directions on the package and then treat it like regular fabric. Just don’t try to iron it! And clips are better than pins because pins will leave permanent tiny holes.

Want a little extra guidance? There’s a post here with a video showing how to make your own laminated fabric.

Are you ready to make a new outfit especially for rainy days?

Get the Rainy Day doll raincoat pattern collection here.

Happy stitching!

Best,
Wendi

The Dress Up Bunch is a collection of cute and cuddly rag dolls. Get patterns for the dolls, plus all their fun outfits and accessories!

What’s Inside My Handwork Bag?

February 12, 2016

Want to learn the basics of hand embroidery with an easy online workshop – totally free?

Sign up for Embroidery 101 here. You’ll learn how to get started, the tools and supplies you’ll need, the four most basic stitches, how to transfer your pattern and how to display your work.

If you already know the basics – sign up for Embroidery 201. It’s also free! You’ll learn how to stitch on specialty fabrics like felt and stretchy T-shirts. Plus you’ll learn lots and lots and LOTS more stitches – all my favorites!

You know how I talk ALL THE TIME about how much I love handwork because it’s so portable?

Would you like to see just what I keep in my handwork bag? I’ll show you what tools are inside and how I keep everything organized so I can pull out my work whenever – and wherever – I have a few minutes to stitch.

All right then!

I’m currently working on two projects – hand quilting the Controlled Chaos quilt (not portable – I do this on the sofa)

. . . and this little bit of thread therapy.

My Handwork Bag

First let’s talk about the bag.

I made it using the largest size option of the Stitch & Stash Project Bag (pattern from Betz White) with an added kitty applique from my Cats Quilt Pattern. You can read more about the bag and how I made it here.

The quilt won’t fit in it 🙂 but the 7 inch hoop does. I work on both projects on the sofa – but I also carry the hoop with me for random moments of handwork.

Here’s what’s in the bag with that hoop. . .

I’m using the Tutti Frutti embroidery thread bundle, so I pulled all of those colors off of my main embroidery ring and keep them together using a simple binder ring – available at any office supply store. (Here’s more info about how I organize my embroidery thread.) The last item in the bag is an Altoids-sized tool tin.

My Handwork Tool Tin

I love having a metal tin so I can store sharp objects inside without fear of them poking me or poking through my bag. Here’s what’s inside the tin. . .

A seam ripper because I’m human
A thimble just in case
My teeny tiny scissors
Sewing Clips are wonderful and you never know when you’ll need an extra set of hands
The two spools of Sulky Petites thread are the quilting colors for the current block of Controlled Chaos that I’m quilting
a felt circle holding a few extra needles in different sizes
a felt circle holding a few pins – just in case
Thread Magic – because it is awesome

My bag is always packed and sitting at my sofa spot, ready to grab and take along in case I’m going anywhere I might have a few extra minutes for some handwork.

Happy stitching!

Best,
Wendi

Easter Stuffed Animals

Easter Felt Projects

Easter Quilt Blocks

Easter Embroidery patterns

Other Easter Sewing Patterns

Tips for knitting almost any pattern in stripes!

Tips for Working with Laminated Fabric

My Handwork Bag

My Handwork Tool Tin

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