A quilt made to honor firefighters

Interesting story of a quilt made by teenagers. Watch the video.

PFAFF receives honors

The newest sewing machine made by PFAFF has received design recognition. In depth info in the article below:

Sewing short cuts

I think that my most tedious sewing task is cutting fabric. I have electric scissors but sometimes they get hung up on the fabric. My best sewing buddy has been the fabric rotary cutter. I got mine at Wal-Mart a few weeks ago and love it. I use it to cut strips of fabric for quilting and braiding. I have a Fiskar's and could have kicked myself for not shopping around on the price of it. Most of the time I think that Wal-Mart is the cheapest but in this case it is not. I paid $19.99 for mine and found out that Amazon has it much cheaper.

Join a local sewing club

I am often asked how does a person get involved in finding out how to start a sewing business. The best answer to that is to find and join a local sewing club. The club members will often be small business owners that love to share their knowledge of how they started out. Many of the newer members are also looking to start up their own little part-time business and they also can share with other members what they have learned.

Where do you find a sewing club? The most common place to find out that kind of information is the local sewing machine retailer. Those small businesses that specialize in selling sewing machines often host sewing club meetings after regular store hours. They also offer sewing classes to new sewing machine owners. My advise is to take those classes even if you know how to sew. They are a great opportunity to meet people and pick their brains about the sewing business in general. The teachers of those classes are a wealth of information on how to get started in the sewing business.

Designing an apron

No longer considered out-dated, the apron is making a comeback. Watch the video.

Turn back the clock

The 19th century was a time when almost everyone had to sew, even the men. Single men out on trail had to repair not only torn clothing but sew leather for harnesses and saddles. Here is an interesting article on 19th century sewing history.

Gift cards for your business

Do you like the idea of gift cards? You know the type you see at WalMart or Target. Have you ever wished you could promote your small business like the big players in the business do? Now you can play with the big boys when it comes to promoting your business. There is a company that offers the visa gift card for small businesses. They even have the option of adding your own logo and pictures to it. Better yet there is no minimum order size. Go ahead and start promoting your business with gift cards.

Free machine embroidery designs for April

April showers and flowers is a free machine embroidery pattern that can be found here. Also there is a save the Earth design on the same page, also free. Since they are free designs just for April 2008 I will not be listing the link on the side panel as I usually do for other free patterns.