Tag / New Year

Thanksgiving Sewing Projects
by Sarah Woodard

Thanksgiving Sewing Projects

Thanksgiving is the start of the family visiting season. Shortly after Thanksgiving comes Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanza, and New Year’s Eve. At each of these, family visits and enjoys time in your home visiting and seeing what’s changed since their last visit. It’s a great opportunity to impress them with your sewing skills, starting with Thanksgiving sewing projects to set the tone for the rest of the year. These projects are sure to be a hit with everyone who visits during the festive seasons at the end of the year.

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Child’s handprint sewing craft

At school this time of year, kids trace their hands and turn them into construction paper turkeys. This fabulous sewing project takes that school craft to the next level. Handprints sewn in fabric coupled with a hand sewn pumpkin make a great center piece. And your kids will love that they get to be involved in your sewing project.

Oak leaf bowl

I love oak leaves! Unfortunately, unlike maple leaves they don’t hold up well when trying to use the from DIY projects. Instead, to bring the elegance of oak leaves to the Thanksgiving table, check out these amazing oak leaf bowls. They’re perfect to hold after dinner mints or hard candies for your guests to enjoy.

Thankful garland

There’s always room for gratitude, but Thanksgiving is a time when we all focus on it a bit more. This felt banner will look great over your dining room table during your Thanksgiving meal and also focus attention on all we have to be thankful for this year.

Corn bundles table décor

Traditional Indian corn, also known as maize, has been associated with Thanksgiving since the Pilgrims had the very first feast. Although corn isn’t a typical thanksgiving dish, you can still honor this delicious food with a fun sewing project. The corn bundles make a great center piece on any table and they’re fun and easy to make.

Enhance your Thanksgiving celebrations this year with Thanksgiving sewing projects. Your family will be impressed with your skills and they’ll be great conversation starters for any new guests.

Envision Your Sewing Goals
by Sarah Woodard

Envision Your Sewing Goals

For the first time this year, I made a vision board. If you’re not familiar with the concept, let me explain. A vision board captures the things you want and desire for the upcoming year. They can be serious, silly, fun or anything at all so long as they’re important to you. Making them is fun too! You cut pictures and words from magazines and paste them on your chosen background. You then place the completed vision board somewhere that you can see it daily.

Doing this helps you stay focused on your needs and wants and helps propel your forward.

They Really Work

Here’s a quick story from a friend who put a silly item on her vision board. She loves country music, particularly Keith Urban. While she’s had many cool Urban experiences, including a chance to meet him, she didn’t have his signature. So, one year she decided to put something with his signature on her vision board in hopes that somehow she’d get it in the coming year. She found a picture of a black guitar with his signature online and printed it out.

Later that year, she went to see Keith Urban in concert. As she was entering the venue, she sang for a stranger to enter a contest and win his signature. As a shy person, she’d normally not sing in public. Of the 30,000 people in attendance, my friend won! And it turns out, she won the very guitar she’d put on her vision board – and it was signed to her!

Making a Sewing Vision Board

Since it seems vision boards do help manifest goals, even silly ones, I thought it might be fun to make a vision board for sewing goals, wants and needs. Whether it’s a fancy new sewing machine, a certain fabric, completing a particular project or moving your love of sewing from a hobby into a career a vision board may help you get there.

To start, think of all the things you desire with your sewing. Grab your latest sewing related magazines or go buy some and a pair of paper scissors. Find words or pictures that connect with your desires. Even if you’re not sure of the connection, but simply like the way the picture makes you feel, cut that out too. It could be connecting to a subconscious desire.

When you’ve got loads of clippings, have fun dry placing them on your vision board. When you like the layout, glue everything down. Feel free to add to it throughout the year if you come across other items as you peruse new issues of your sewing magazines. Place the completed vision board somewhere you can see it daily. You don’t need to study it in depth, just glance at it and let your subconscious do the rest.

At the end of the year, take a look at your vision board. How many of the items of on it have become reality?

by Angela Porter

New Year Resolutions

New Year Resolutions

Where has the time gone? This year is almost over, and has gone by so fast. The last week of the year is my time to regroup, reduce (stuff) and reorganize for the coming year. A fresh start, another chance, a new agenda and personal growth. What a great idea! Moving forward in positive movement to find ways I can inspire people to continue their love of sewing by finding interesting facts and ideas to share. I am EXCITED!!

Take scraps and make a woven rag rug with a wonderful and colorful texture!

Take scraps and make a woven rag rug with a wonderful and colorful texture!

My Plan is the following:

  1. Research textiles and discover ways they are used in various applications in sewing and other art forms. My favorite is mixed media using sewing, quilting, tie dying plain fabric and other ways to create 3D artwork.
  2. Make new curtains for my sewing studio using drapery fabric. Choosing one is the hardest task!
  3. Experiment with different types of sewing feet like the Narrow Hem Foot to make professionally stitched napkins, table cloths and handmade scarves that will make people think you bought them from expensive designers! And some are very expensive!
  4. Use the wide variety of stitches on my machine to create interesting embroidery on quilt squares to piece together to create a scene or story. It is amazing how many things you can do. It may be a great time to upgrade your sewing machine to a designer model next year! Check this website for your choices! Sewingmachinesplus.com is the best place to buy. They offer many great choices!!
  5. Reduce scraps, and pieces of fabric that can be made into a crazy quilt, or used for small projects for a children’s class project. (This is difficult for me because I always think of something I can make from them.
  6. Design fresh ideas for NaturaDomani, my online Etsy Store. I hope to make a difference in the interest of organic fabrics, bamboo, hemp, and other eco-friendly textiles to save trees, water conservation and hazardous working conditions and to preserve beautiful things of Nature.
  7. Find outlets for charitable giving to pay forward Etsy sales and products.
  8. MOST IMPORTANT! Inspire my readers to use your creativity in sewing, and in life, to find happiness in yourself by learning new things and enjoying your achievements. Also, to embrace love and the love of others so that 2017 will become one of your very BEST YEARS!
I find it fun to share my sewing experiences with you as I am building an online presence at Etsy.com. While I sew, I realize that as careful as I stitch, handmade things are never perfect. It’s the challenge and effort that counts.

I find it fun to share my sewing experiences with you as I am building an online presence at Etsy.com. While I sew, I realize that as careful as I stitch, handmade things are never perfect. It’s the challenge and effort that counts.

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND BEST WISHES FOR 2017