Watch the interesting video below on the new trend towards repairing shoes and clothing.

We are big Pittsburgh Steelers fans at our house. Everyone was hyped up when the Steelers won their chance to go to the Superbowl this coming Sunday. My daughter wanted to wear a Steelers items to school everyday but she only had a hat and a shirt that had a Steelers logo on them.

I thought I would try my hand at making something for her to wear. I had a few left over headbands that I had been embroidering for sales on eBay so I decided to make a headband with the Steelers logo on it for her to wear to school. The headband was bought at the Dollar store and has a velcro closure at the back. It is also wide at the sides to cover the ears to keep them warm. At the same time I thought it would make a great how to article for here on my blog.


I started out with a Steelers logo that I found on the internet and put it in to Masterworks, the digitizing software I have. The logo did not turn out so great. The word "Steelers" turned into "Sleeiers" and the diamond shapes were "off". I fixed the word by removing it and just using the text tool to insert the right word. Then I started to sew and had to stop because the diamonds were not right - see the photo below.


Back to the drawing board. I cut the red and blue diamond out of the pattern. Since the yellow diamond came out so well I copy and pasted that diamond into the places where the red and blue ones were. Digitizing a photo or clip art is not as simple as the software people make it out to be. Back to sewing. What I did was place a 4" square piece of craft felt on a sticky backed stabilizer. I love that type of stabilizer, you don't have to hoop the material at all just stick it down.


After I the embroidery was done on the main logo I removed the embroidery hoop.

I then removed the embroidered felt from the hoop and put a pin in at the very center of the design. I then placed the headband on the hoop, sticking it down and then carefully found the very center. I then centered the embroidery over the top of it, pinning it down so it would not move.


I put the hoop back on the machine to finish the design. Here is what it looked like when the embroidery was complete :



I then carefully cut around the design to remove the excess white felt. This is the completed headband:

I was at a craft fair just before Christmas and I only had a few items for sale at a fund raising table. Not many of my items sold since they were children's items and the customers were mainly an older crowd. I did sell 2 dresses that someone bought for their granddaughter.

Another table had some thin white mens t-shirts with sayings written on them with a Sharpie. Very crude but they were selling like hot cakes. I took a look and the sayings were like "don't look at me for money, ask my Uncle Sam", and "Homeless Millionaire". The t-shirts were voicing the signs of the times and people were buying them.

Here is a few t-shirts by a company that sells humorous tees, called crazy dog tshirts. They just sell funny and even crude t-shirts.

The more light around my sewing area the better. I have yet to change the light fixture in the middle of the ceiling of the room that I use for sewing and the computer. I want to get more wattage but since all the light bulbs are changing in size to be more "green" I don't want to change the light fixture to something that might not fit the newer light bulbs.

My other alternative is to get something like this:



I checked in the local fabric store, Joanns and they cost over $100 on sale! I did find one on Amazon that was much cheaper that was less than $70, so I am debating with my self to get it or not.



I will probably check out Walmart and see if they have anything that might work. I really want to find one for less than $30.

If you are at a creative deadlock when it comes to what to make that will sell, take a look at the current trends. You need to watch the award shows for fashion ideas. The SAG awards, the Oscars, the Golden Globe are just a few of the main ones. Become a people watcher at those shows. It is not so much what the big name stars on the stage are wearing as much as what the audience is wearing.

Take notice of the little extras they have on their gowns that make them special. Can you make that item? Can you market it?

You can also get some great ideas from the latest movies. Blockbuster hits usually turn out to be great producers of Halloween costume ideas for that year. People often copy the way a home looks in a movie if it has an item or theme that they like - cash in on it.

To get some great ideas you just only have to look around you.

I have had more problems with sewing needles than any other part of the sewing machine. Several years ago I found out that you should never use a Singer sewing machine needle in a Brother or Babylock machine. The Singer needles are just a hair too long and causes bobbin thread problems. The timing is thrown off by the length of the longer needle.

Unfortunately most department stores like Walmart, Target, Fred Meyer and Kmart just have Singer sewing needles on their shelves. This of course makes it hard to just run down to those stores when you run out of sewing machine needles. Some of them are now carrying the better band of Schmetz needles which is the brand that most professional sewing enthusiasts use.

If you sew everyday you will also have to learn to keep track of how many stitches your needle has done. During heavy use a needle will get hot from the friction of going in and out of the material. The needle will then have a tendency to warp or break. You want to use a new needle before your needle warps. A warped needle will cause all kinds of bobbin thread problems and make your item look like hell.

Keep in mind that the sewing machine needle is one of the most important items that you will need to keep a close eye on. The needle must be in perfect condition to do the job right.

Sometimes we get brilliant ideas that some how just don't work out. For example simple sayings that work great on bumper stickers just don't work out the same way on t-shirts. I have been busy working out some new twists on old sayings to see if they would make good t-shirts. In that process I, of course, have checked out what other people are doing with t-shirts.

One company I found makes maternity t-shirts for mothers to be called "Baby ParTees Maternity Shirts". They have an interesting product but the flaw is that they use crystals on the t-shirts which makes the t-shirt dangerous to wear after the baby is born. You know how much babies love to grab at your hair, just think about them grabbing your shirt and popping a few crystals to swallow. Add to the fact that the t-shirts have a very limited customer base of expectant mothers that know the sex of their babies before the birth.

If you are designing any article to sell think of the long term value of that item to the customer. You will more than likely get repeat customers and customers from your other satisfied customers via word of mouth advertising.

If you are planning on selling items on eBay and have been discouraged by the eBay fees I recommend you read this blog post on how to use the eBay fee structure to your own advantage. There is no reason why you can't make a good living by selling your sewn items on eBay. There is one person on there that is a powerseller (they sell over $1K a month) that just lists one or 2 items at a time. She custom makes jackets to the wearer's specifications. The jackets are evening jackets with lots of crystals. Her jackets sell for $500 and up. It looks like she sells about 1 or 2 jackets a week. That is not a bad income at all.

I am so thrilled right now. I sold my first digitized embroidery pattern. If you recall I was experimenting and learning how to digitize my own embroidery designs. My husband made the suggestion that maybe I should try and sell the electronic files online. After I did a bit of research I found a company to host the files and handle all the sales. I bought myself a domain name and started to set up a website. This was all last week. You can see the website I have started on but not even close to finishing at Designs by JanS. The JanS is a play on my name of Janice but Designs by Janice was already taken.

I have only three designs with the file hosting company thus far and one of them I have to put a better picture of the stitches. The design that I sold was the Hanoverian brand. I am trying to keep all the prices at or under $1.50 per pattern because I just can't see people paying $5 and up for an embroidery file. Sorry, Dakota Originals, you are just over priced.

Not every item that you choose to sew will be made of fabric. On the more advanced machines you can even sew thin metals. Leather is one of the more difficult materials to work with. It is not because of it's thickness or type of grain but because if you make a mistake sewing it, it can be harder to hide it. Sewing leather leaves holes in the leather. If the holes (stitches) are too close together then the leather will rip. Sewing leather with a home sewing machine is only recommended for the lighter ounce weights of leather. Note: leather types are divided into how many ounces they weigh. The smaller the ounce weight the thinner the leather. 8 ounces would be a good weight for motorcycle saddlebags and 9 to 10 ounces would be more like a western horse saddle type of leather.

The weights you would be dealing with for home sewing would be more along the lines of 4 ounce leathers and suede's. If the leather is light weight then you don't have to use a "leather needle" for the work. In fact a "leather needle" is made for the thicker types of leather and would leave too large of a hole for the lighter weigh leathers.

Make a trial run with a small section of the leather before you start to sew the main article. That way you can adjust the length of the stitches and the tension.

The title of this blog post sounds strange but wait until you hear the tale of a friend of mine in Boston. She had started a small tailoring business in her apartment. After just 10 months she was actually getting some nice business income. Of course she could no longer do business out of her apartment since the tailoring business now included members of the society elite. I told her to just make her business mobile and go to her clients homes or businesses for fittings but she did point out a few flaws with that idea. After debating with herself where to open up a location she opted for a business suite in an office building that was more central to her clients rather than a regular store front. The location made sense since her clients were not people off the street but had come by way of word of mouth.

Then it came time for the all important move. She had not just one or 2 sewing machines but 5 she had to move along with several cutting tables and dress forms. She shopped around for the best deal she could find for a boston moving company but didn't find one that could accommodate the time frame she needed in her price range. Instead she ended up with her brother and a few of his friends whom she agreed to pay.

All seemed well and the move went fast but when it came time to set up her machines she found a few items had come off of the machines in the move. Of course they were not cheap items either. One of the items the got "lost" in the move was a 4" X 4" hoop for her embroidery machine. Now those things cost about $120.00 to replace so she was not a happy camper. In the long run she said she should have paid a bit extra for a professional moving company. That way if anything was missing or damaged she could have filed a claim with them.

While I was at our local JoAnn Fabric store the other day I noticed that they were selling quilting square kits. My eyes just about popped out of my head when I saw that they were priced at $9 and up! The kit included instructions to make one quilt square top, no batting or lining was in the kit. Sure all the pieces were pre-cut but my Gawd - $9??!

That got me to thinking. Can I make up 12" or 16" quilted squares already made but not attached to each other and sell them? After a brief search on eBay I found out the following:

Quilted items such as quilts, baby items, toaster covers and such were not selling but fabric squares (un-quilted) that were cut in 4" or 5" pieces were selling like hot cakes. I may have found a market for my scrap pieces of fabric. Of course the fabric has to be rotary cut, clean and pressed and bagged.

Now if you have been following my suggestions for fabric storage then you would have no problem selling items on eBay because repeat customers only like:

1. Items that don't smell like your home (smoke or cooking odors)
   
2. Items that do not have any pet hair on it
3. Don't smell like they have come from one of those musty antique stores

I am always looking for interesting designs for sewing projects and I often do searches on a combination of words. I was looking up some horse related outline drawings when I came across an interesting website about horse quilts. You are going to have to take a peek at the marvelous work that this women does. She custom makes quilts from your specifications and will even make quilts from horse show ribbons.

Here is here website - Distinctive Designs by Diana

If you know of any unique quilt design websites please feel free to comment about them on this post and share a link to it for my readers.

I remember only a few years ago when I started out sewing as a sideline, part time business, my husband would laugh at my $5.00 sales on eBay. He would often make snide jokes about how we could never live off of my "hobby". Move forward about 6 months and those little $5 and $20 items were now bringing in close to $250 a week from eBay. Not bad for a few hours in the evening 3 to 4 nights a week. Not long after that I decided to start this blog and help out others that sew for a hobby and want to start selling their wares. I had no idea at the time that this little blog would grow like it did.

It was just about 9 months ago when my husband made the grand gesture of getting me a real sewing machine to do all the things that I really wanted to do. It finally proved to me that he had changed his mind about my little business venture. Proving myself as a success in the eyes of someone that is so critical was my one way of pushing me onward and upward.It was my way of wanting to prove to someone that I was NOT a joke and neither were my business ideas.

Fiskars scissors is by far my favorite brand of sewing scissors. They also make garden clippers and gardening scissors too. This year Fiskars is having a grant program where they will give away $800 in gardening supplies and another $1,500 in gardening tools to community gardens and groups. The grant program is called Project Orange Thumb grant.If you know of anyone that might be interested let them know about the program. There is a deadline to apply for the grant and it is February 17, 2009 so they don't have much time left. Only 20 applicants will be chosen.

Keep in mind that the grant program is only for groups and not individuals. This is a great opportunity for a school project or a local neighborhood garden.

It is nice to see that a company that I support with my sewing purchases is doing something for the local communities.

I made my first quilt when I was 18 years old. It was a log cabin design and entirely machine quilted. I put it together in sections. I gave it to my parents hoping that one day it would become a heirloom piece, but that was not to happen. It got damaged by my father within 5 years of them using it. That has not deterred me from making more of them. The next one was a lap sized quilt for my own home. I am currently finishing up one for my horse crazy daughter that has horses all over it. When it is done I plan on taking some photos for the blog.

Where do I get my ideas from? From quilting books of course. When we lived closer to the library I use to look through the books in there for ideas. Now I have my own collection of quilting books.

I am so happy about the way this design turned out. I sewed this mare and foal design on the front of one of my over sized sweat shirts and it turned out pretty good. I have gotten several compliments on it already.

I am wearing this as I type. The secret of getting the embroidery not to "sink in" to the thick fabric is to use thick stabilizer on the back side of it. You can use stabilizer under your fabric when you sew decorative stitches with your straight sewing machine too. The decorative stitches come out much better than just using a plain interfacing.