Free: Dress Design Draping and Flat Pattern Making Book

Jami sent a link to The Perfect Nose blog which regularly offers free downloadable books. These books were published in the 40’s and 50’s and their copyrights weren’t renewed, therefore making them public domain. She’s generous enough to scan them, crop and edit them so we can all enjoy those books.Read the rest

V&A Museum Patchwork Pattern Maker

patchworkmaker1Try the Victoria & Albert Museum online Patchwork Pattern Maker to convert personal images into quilt patterns. The tool lets you choose how many colors you’d like your pattern to have (up to 20) and the level of difficulty. After choosing between all options, you can download the complete pattern.

Check the gallery to see what other people have made.… Read the rest

Indie Pattern Designers

Looking for a different pattern than one from ‘the Big Four’? Here’s a good list of smaller pattern designers.

Here’s part of the list:

  • Colette – There’s little that I could say about Colette that hasn’t already been said – vintage inspired designs with excellent community support.
  • Sewaholic – From Vancouver, Tasia designs for pear shaped women but these classic patterns would look good on many shapes and sizes.
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Retro bowette belt

Make a bow for your belt, your bag, a pillow…

For the retro bow belt you’ll need:

  • 3 pieces of fabric: the belt main piece is 5” wide and your waist measurement + 5”, the bow rectangle is 6” x 12”, the knot rectangle is 3” x 3”.
  • Fusible interfacing 2” x your waist measurement + 5”
  • 2 hooks
  • 4 eyes
  • Thread to match fabric
  • Sewing machine or hand needle
  • Small amount of ribbon for turning

Read here how to make the bow belt.Read the rest

Kirsten Kimono Tee and Fleece Socks

What’s better than starting the New Year with a new sewing project? Well, maybe finishing a few UFO’s (UnFinished Objects), but you can always leave that for later ;).

Maria Denmark has 2 free patterns on her blog:

– Super Socks:

Perfect for this cold weather! Please note that this download is only free till January 1st.… Read the rest

Free book download

The book Pants: How to do your own measuring, pattern drafting, fabric selection, cutting, and sewing for a perfect fit by Anna Romaniuk and Ellen Knight (1974) is available as free download through the Perfect Nose blog. If you’re interested you can find it here.

The book (pdf format) is 58 pages and sections included are: The pattern draft; Layout and cutting procedures; Sewing techniques; and Pant fabrics.… Read the rest

Happy Trees mini quilt

Hop over to Jaceycraft’s blog for a cute Happy Trees Mini Quilt Tutorial!

You’ll need the following materials:

  • fabric scraps, cut into triangle shapes
  • Fusible interfacing (for example Pellon SF 101)
  • Batting (approx. FQ size)
  • Fat quarter of background fabric
  • fat quarter of backing fabric
  • 1/4″ yard of binding fabric
  • small scraps for tree trunks
  • Basting spray or safety pins

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Felt Ogee and Snowflake Ornament

This felt ogee ornament is created from a square and a few straight cuts. Betz White shows in her tutorial exactly how it’s done.

The classic 3D paper snowflake is made up of 6 of these shapes, each becoming one ‘arm’ of the snowflake. The snowflake can therefore be easily made out of felt as well!… Read the rest

Tiny tree decorations

These little mini Christmas trees can be used for your home and Christmas gift decorating.

What you need to make them:

  • 1 sheet 12×18 wool felt, you could use acrylic too, but wool holds up much better
  • handful of fiberfill stuffing
  • mini charm pack or fabric scraps
  • small scrap of fabric for tree trunk
  • thread
  • tree template
  • fabric glue stick
  • embroidery floss (for garland)
  • leather string (for ornament)

Check out the rest of the tutorial at Noodle-head.comRead the rest