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In our third installment of this series, we are happy to introduce you to “The Three Fabri-teers”… that’s my name for the trio of very creative women behind Izzy & Ivy Designs. Based in Utah, Shasta Parry, Jana Nielson and Lauralee Billingsley produce a series of absolutely adorable patterns for little girls. Ruffles and flounces, buttons and bows… they make me wish I could still get away with wearing a puffy skirt with four tiers of colorful ruffles… without being mistaken for a giant pastry. The princess skirt on me, maybe not, but one of Izzy & Ivy’s signature saucy bags and purses it totally up my alley. These are happy patterns; I think it’s because they’re designed by such happy and upbeat people. With sixteen children between them, what I see as happiness could simply be lack of sleep, but I think it’s really a genuine love of working with their hands to create something fantastic. Shasta, Jana and Lauralee exude an infectious optimism.

How can something so lovely come from something so icky?? Ohhhh… I’m going to get emails from the insect lovers on that one. But you have to admit it’s pretty amazing how one of the world’s most luxurious fabrics gets its start wrapped around a pupating silkworm, which actually isn’t a true worm at all, it’s the caterpillar of a moth in the Bombicidae family. One cocoon contains approximately 1,000 yards of silk filament. One thread consists of up to 48 individual silk filaments. A very picky eater (similar to my middle child, who I believe subsisted on Goldfish® crackers for nearly a year), the silkworm’s diet consists solely of mulberry leaves. Starting Monday of next week, we have a series of beautiful color-blocked pillows made with rich silk dupioni. We thought you’d like to know a little history as well as some tips and tricks for successful sewing with silk.

The Skinny Scarf. It’s the season’s must-have accessory. Bright and cheery, this scarf is perfect for using up small fabric scraps. Fight the winter blahs with some color around your neck. This is a fast and easy gift to make… so easy, you should make one for yourself as well.

Life is not always square. Other geometric shapes sometimes waft through to give our brains a design challenge. I have a corner fireplace in one bedroom, which means the mantle is… a triangle. In addition, all the moldings in the house are very Arts & Crafts, so ruffles and frou-frou need not apply. After staring into the triangle corner for awhile, Alicia came up with a simple yet striking solution: a simple bound triangle with two drop panels to accentuate the heavy vertical design of the fireplace surround. Proving once again that, a) Alicia is smarter than me, and b) there’s always a solution to your home décor challenge.

The Janome Rotary Even Foot Set is a nifty little tractor foot with five attachments. It’s like a little sewing machine tank rolling over your fabric. By switching out the attachments, you can use it for: blind hemming, joining, attaching bias binding, making rolled hems, even matching stripes and plaids or keeping plush fabrics like polar fleece from shifting. I think if I delved a little deeper into all the possibilities, I might be able to figure out how to use it to bake a cake.

We’re so excited to have Bari J. Ackerman back in the house! She has returned with another fun tutorial for us. From her Keeping it Real Sewing Patterns™ by Bari J.™, comes a fun set of circular placemats fringed with pom-poms. Bari also spent some time chatting with us about the inspiration behind her latest fabric collection, Country Lane, her first experience with her very own booth at the Houston Quilt Market, and exciting news about her debut association with Lecien Fabrics and a new book coming out in January.

A package arrived in the mail for us several weeks ago. In it were four lovely coasters from our friend, Tammy Hensley. You may remember Tammy from the Creative People We Love article we did about her back on November 9th. You might even recall a little photo we used of a set of her clever coasters. Little did we know we’d soon be the proud recipients of our very own ‘Dual Duty Coasters.’ Better still, Tammy was happy to share her original instructions with everyone here at Sew4Home.

“A fifth generation quilter.” When I first heard this description of Camille Roskelly, I imagined a tiny little lady in a pillbox hat and gloves… like that precious grandma in the Tweety Bird® cartoons. Stereotype, right? Sorry about that. And, I’ve surely been taken to task, especially after meeting the young (26), lovely (how does she keep her hair so perfect?), and pregnant (baby boy number three) Camille at The Creative Connection conference in Minneapolis this past September. I was lucky enough to take one of her classes to create a sweet set of hot pads in the gorgeous Bliss fabric collection by Bonnie & Camille for Moda. Not a pillbox hat in sight. Then, I learned the ‘Bonnie’ of Bonnie & Camille was her mother, Bonnie Olaveson. Also youthful and lovely, and the very proud grandma to nine (Camille’s new bundle will make it an even ten). So much familial talent and beauty! I just had to find out more about this trendy yet traditional team.

Roller Foot. It sounds like it could be a malady common to professional skaters. (It may be for all we know.) But the Roller Foot is a presser foot for your sewing machine that allows you to sew sticky or shifty fabrics with ease. We’re talking about materials like vinyl and leather, or chiffon, organza, and especially for the holiday season and our upcoming series of projects: velvet.

Spoonflower allows you… yes YOU… to design your own custom-printed fabric. How enticing is that! As a designer myself, I’m almost afraid to try my hand at textile design for fear I’ll never do anything else. Not only can you design your own fabric, you can buy interesting fabric designed by other people. It’s easy to get caught up looking at the thousands of options. Some of it is truly fabulous, a lot is very good and of course, there are some duds. On the whole, however, I found plenty of fabric that I had to fight the urge to add to my towering stash. We gave Spoonflower a try with a set of simple pillows made from our friend, Tammy Hensley’s Family Forever collection. We’ll take you through the order process, the options, and what we learned.

We’re back with another fantastic installment of Sew4Home’s “Creative People We Love” series. A new feature here, and already a favorite of fans, it’s our way of supporting some of the wonderfully clever and inspiring folks we’ve met in our travels. Today’s profile is Tammy Hensley, who we met at The Creative Connection in Minneapolis this past September. While chatting during one of the classes, Tammy demurely mentioned how she had dabbled a little bit in fabric design. She then proceeded to pull out a swatch book with dozens and dozens… and dozens of the most amazing fabric designs she’d produced at Spoonflower. Whoa! We were floored by her creativity and imagination and knew we had to find out more.

This fabric, from Michel Miller’s Antiquity Collection, is so lovely, you don’t want or need any distractions. We chose to design a classic half apron with clean, simple lines to showcase the stunning motifs with their sparkling gold metallic accents. Kathy Miller, co-owner of Michael Miller Fabrics and the designer of this fabulous collection, described it as ‘Dr. Zhivago meets Anthropologie.’ A perfect image… although now I’m tempted to wear it with one of those giant Russian fur hats. Faux fur, of course.

Teeny tiny folds, such as those along the edge of patch pockets, seem to me like an accident waiting to happen. Holding the fold with the fingers of one hand, pressing with a hot iron in the other. Ouchie! Plus, maybe it’s just me, but I often struggle to keep the fold consistent, especially on a long piece. We tested the Clover Fabric Folding Pen and found it to be a handy way to create more exact folds for patchwork, hems, cuffs, pockets or anywhere a small exact fold line is required. The pen draws a liquid line, and the special liquid solution ever so slightly weakens the fabric’s fibers along that drawn line. Not enough to damage the fabric; just enough to allow it to easily crease. It doesn’t work on all fabrics, but on the ones it’s appropriate for, it is pretty darn cool.

Welcome to a new article series here at Sew4Home, “Creative People We Love.” We’ve been lucky to discover wonderfully clever and inspiring folks on our own journey, and we want you to know about them too. By supporting one another, we keep the handmade banner flying high. Our first profile is Heather Jones of Olive & Ollie, a very charming gal creating custom children’s clothing as well as beautiful blankets and quilts in the heart of Ohio. Her philosophy says it all, “I believe every child deserves something made by hand. ” We do too, Heather!

During American Idol this past season, General Larry Platt gained his fifteen minutes of fame with a wild rendition of the song, Pants on the Ground. “Pants on the ground, pants on the ground, lookin’ like a fool, with your pants on the ground.” Proving a) we will watch just about anything, and b) these super fast and easy webbing belts are a must-have to keep you and everyone you know from lookin’ like a fool.

Gimme an L! Gimme an A! Gimme an N! I won’t take the time to spell out Lanae Hale completely. But she does deserve a shout-out for this Cheerleader Pony-Os Project from her must-bookmark website TheRibbonRetreat.com. I absolutely LOVE looking at rolls and rolls of ribbon. It’s the same feeling I get opening a fresh box of crayons or a new jumbo pack of markers. So many colors and ideas just waiting to happen.