I’ve got a new project up over on my Design Sponge Sewing 101 column: how to sew a triangle patchwork!

Have you noticed the geometric triangle trend that seems to be everywhere right now? I’m seeing triangles all over the place, from art prints to textiles to housewares. And each and every time, it makes me think of quilting. So I got inspired to whip up a couple patchwork triangle pieces to frame and hang on my (still bare) pink living room walls. (But careful readers may notice the walls are now a slightly different shade of pink! I’ll share the details on that soon.)

This isn’t technically a quilting project, since it’s not actually quilted — just pieces of fabric sewn together into a patchwork. But you could quilt this piece, or take the basic tutorial and turn it into just about anything, from a larger wall hanging to a pillow or baby quilt or even a bed quilt. (I would so love a triangle quilt for my bed!)

So click on over to Design Sponge to check out the full post and learn everything you need to know about sewing a triangle patchwork. It’s crazy-easy, not to mention simple to personalize–once you understand the basic construction, you’ll see that you can modify this project and make your triangles in any size or configuration you like.

Super big or super small! So go crazy & get your triangle on!

Recently I teamed up with my friends at YOLO Colorhouse to design some cute and easy sewing projects for baby nurseries. YOLO is a great indie paint company based in Portland, Oregon, that’s all about creating their products responsibly, sustainably, and free of harmful chemicals. (You may remember YOLO from when we teamed up to paint my living room pink!) Exciting things are happening over at YOLO hq, because in addition to their fantastic line of paints, they just debuted their first line of fabrics!

The fabrics are 100% organic and come in a wide range of chic baby colors and patterns, in both cotton sateen and knit. (I love that they offer a knit range, because it can be so hard to find good-looking knit prints.)

The fine folks at YOLO asked me to design a collection of patterns to showcase their fabrics–everything that new parents might need to deck out a green nursery, while being quick and easy to make.

I designed a simple baby quilt, a fitted crib sheet, some throw pillows, a stuffed bird…

…curtains, flag bunting, and more!

So click on over to the YOLO site to download all these patterns for FREE and to check out their new line of fabrics as well as their eco-friendly paints. Because you know you have some baby gifts to make (who doesn’t?!).

The way I usually deal with holidays or any gift-giving occasion is that I generally forget about them until the absolute last minute, and then I scramble to come up with something nice, like, in the middle of the night. (I know. Lovely.)

So if you’re anything like me and today you’re realizing that you failed to knit a sweater / sew a quilt / plan an amazing dinner / buy chocolates / whatever for all the people you want to show some love on Valentine’s Day–here’s your solution!

Whip up one of these little stuffed hearts! You can make them each in about 10 or 15 minutes, so even if you’ve got nothing up your sleeve for your valentines tomorrow, you can pull these together tonight after dinner. Really you can. They only take a tiny bit of fabric so you can make them using scraps–no frantic last-minute run to the craft store!

All you do is cut out the fabric pieces using my template, sew ‘em up, stuff ‘em, and you’re done. This project is from my Sewing 101 column on Design Sponge, where the full instructions and free template are available–so just click on over there to get the how-to.

You can make them with a pocket or without (the pockets are great for tiny things like tickets, coupons, or just a little love note). So stitch up a bunch and use them anywhere and everywhere… slip one in your kid’s lunch tomorrow with some candy in the pocket, place one on your sweetie’s pillow, or–my favorite option–sneak a few onto your work friends’ keyboards tomorrow.

Instant handmade Valentine’s gift! Whew–there’s hope for even the most last-minute-makers among us.

Get the free pattern, heart template, and sewing instructions at Design Sponge here!

Happy holidays! As a tiny little gift to you, today I’m sharing some free templates for making embroidered felt ornaments. They’re super easy to stitch, and the perfect kind of relaxed project to work on after Christmas, when all the cooking and gifting is done, and you (hopefully) have some time to just chill out, stay cozy and relax. My favorite holiday crafting time is often the week between Christmas and New Year’s. It may seem like at that point it’s “too late” – but it’s totally not! You can still add your newly-made items to your decor, and then of course you’ll still have them for years to come.

To get started, just click this link: brett bara’s felt ornament templates to download a printable pdf of my ornament templates. There are tons to choose from, including Mister Moose here, an alpaca, gingerbread man, Christmas tree, holiday bulbs, and many more! Once you’ve got your templates, here what you do:

1. Trace two copies of your selected template shape onto felt, using a sharpie or pen.

2. Cut out the shapes, cutting just inside the traced line (this is important to avoid visible pen lines around the edge of your ornament.)

3. Using 3 strands of embroidery floss, embroider one or both of the felt pieces however you like. You can go super simple, or practice some fancy embroidery stitches and make a little sampler, like I did on the ball ornament.

4. Stitch the front and back together. I did this two different ways – either with a running stitch and 1 strand of floss, which creates a somewhat invisible seam (like on the white ball ornament), or with a whipstitch and 3 strands of embroidery floss in a contrasting color, which creates stand-out stitching (like in the moose).

5. Leave an opening in the stitching, then stuff the ornament with fiberfill, and finish seaming the front and back together.

6. Attach a hanging loop using embroidery floss. That’s it!

There’s really no right or wrong way to make these ornaments, so just play around and have fun with it! Enjoy! xoxo

PS: These are the same ornaments we made last week at the New York Public Library Crafternoon, so click here to check out some images of how other crafters embroidered their ornaments. So cute!

My latest Sewing 101 post is up over at Design Sponge – this week I’m teaching you, step-by-step, how to sew your own wool Christmas stockings!

I used a Pendleton-style wool, which is a super popular look this year. If you can’t get your hands on any wool like this in a fabric store, look for an old (damaged) blanket you can cut up, or even heavy wool garments from the thrift store (like old coats).

My post includes step-by-step photos for each part of the process, so even if you’re a newbie sewist, you’ll be able to follow along. There’s also a free downloadable template for the stocking shape. (Tip: you can shrink/enlarge the template on a copy machine to customize the size of your stockings. And if you prefer a longer cuff [more room for presents!!], you can just extend the top of the cuff as long as you’d like.)

So head on over to Design Sponge for the complete pattern and how-to!*

*Fifi approves of this project.

This is how Fifi spends her days. Flat as a pancake on my bed.

Because life is just so exhausting – usually it’s all she can do to open one eye just to see if I’m going to stop and pet her as I walk by. Which I usually do. Who could resist?

Oh and can I just point out one thing about this photo? Kitty lips!

What a lazy girl.

By the way, I painted one wall charcoal grey in the bedroom and snagged a cute vintage needlepoint horse pillow on Etsy. The plaid blanket is a Sewing 101 post I did for Design Sponge – instructions to make one yourself are here. (Not that you want to sew a wool blanket in August, but these are great for holiday gifts, in case you’re one of those really put-together people who are planning their gifts now.)

Happy Friday, all! xoxo

First up today I’m zipper over to Ohio to visit my friend Ellen Gormley. Ellen is a talented crochet designer who I’ve been working with for years – she has a new crochet book out and she writes a great blog, Go Crochet. Ellen and I have been talking a lot of sewing lately, though, because it turns out that this summer, Ellen’s project with her ten-year-old daughter was for them both to learn to sew. So they bought a sewing machine and started stitching away. For Ellen’s stop on my blog tour, she reviewed Sewing in a Straight Line from the perspective of herself and her daughter — and to test out the book, they made a project from it! The photos above are ten-year-old “Chickee” cutting, sewing and modeling the Easy Breezy Blouse from my book. HOW AWESOME IS THAT??

I really can’t explain how happy it makes me to see Chickee successfully sewing this blouse! I love to see a young girl learning to sew, and I LOVE that she was ambitious enough to make her own garment. And out of chiffon, no less, which can be really tricky to sew. AND with French seams! This girl is amazing. I also love that Chickee proved that the garments in my book can be made in children’s sizes – because the instructions are all written so that you make the garments to your own body measurements, which means they can be made for any size person.

Well I could go on and on gushing about this, so I’ll stop for now and just say GOOD JOB to Chickee, and keep up the great sewing! Be sure to visit Ellen’s blog to read all about their process of making this top. Thanks Ellen and Chickee for being part of my blog tour!

Next up, I’m winging over to San Francisco by way of Portland, Oregon for a visit with Diane from CraftZine. Diane is sharing a free downloadable pattern from my book – the 15-Minute Shams! That’s right, you can make these sweet little shams in just minutes each, and the pattern is free for the taking over at CraftZine. So head over there to get your copy. Thanks, Diane, for being part of my blog tour!

Finally, it’s giveaway time! Today I’m sharing another great Simplicity product — the Simplicity Deluxe Sidewinder!

Don’t you just hate it when you’re sewing along, all nice and neat, feeling so pleased with yourself because your project is turning out so well…. when all of a sudden you realize that you’re not sewing anything at all because your bobbin ran out way back when, and all you’re doing is poking holes in your fabric with your needle? And then cursing ensues? I hate that too. Well, the Simplicity Deluxe Sidewinder takes (some of) the pain out of bobbins running out, because it allows you to rewind your bobbins separately from your machine, so you don’t have to stop, unthread, and rethread your sewing machine. It’s also great for pre-winding bobbins, and is especially great for winding specialty threads because it allows you to control the tension and speed as you wind. All in all, the Sidewinder is a great little tool! And I’ve got one to give away! (Retail value $99.)

To enter to win, leave a comment on this post and tell me if YOU’VE ever taught a child to sew. (It’s okay if you haven’t – there are no wrong answers!) A winner will be chosen by random number generator. Thank you for playing! THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED; SEE CURRENT POSTS FOR CURRENT GIVEAWAYS.

Thank you Simplicity for sponsoring this giveaway!