Sew Inspired "Snips & Pieces"

Well, it's that time of year.  Inventory.  (Retail  business owners around the world are cringing as I type this!)  Ugh.  Who wants to count all those yard and yards of fabric, and fat quarter bundles, and kits, and, well, pretty much everything in the store?  We certainly don't, so we decided to put a bunch of it on sale.  Our upstairs classroom is full of hundreds of bolts of fabric discounted 30 - 50%.  What else is on sale?  Let's see: selected books, patterns, fat quarter bundles, and kits.  Wow!  And in addition to all that, take 25% off if you finish off any bolt of fabric on the floor (and we mean ANY!) that's three yards or less.  Think about that shoppers: if you have quilt tops that are waiting for backing, or quilt centers waiting for borders, wait no longer. 

 So, come into the shop - the sale has already started but there's tons of good stuff left.  The sale continues through closing on December 31st.  Remember, everything that's left after the sale needs to be counted, and people, I don't know if you know this or not, but I have a liberal arts degree (in writing no less), I'm not cut out for counting individual spools of thread!  So please, I'm begging you - don't make us count it all - stop by and at least check it out!  (And bonus: the more we sell now the more room for new fabric we'll have!)

Posted by sewinspired at 07:31 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Remeber a few weeks ago when we talked about the wonderful Gee's Bend kits and fabric we recieved in the shop?  Well, it seems we started a trend!  Starting in January, the talented folks at Hartford Stage are putting on a production centered around these dynamic women from Alabama.  I don't know too many details, but you can find out more here.  And if you can't quite remember what the kits and fabric look like, we invite you to check them out here in our original post, or, better yet, swing by the shop to see them in person!

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Since the holidays are the most fun when one is either a child, or keeps their child-like wonder, we thought it would be fun to high-light some of the new novelty fabric we've gotten in the shop the past few weeks.  And there have been some great peices coming off the delivery trucks.  I think my personal favorite is "Baby Safari" by Benartex.  I have two words (okay, technically three I guess) for you: polka-dotted hippopotamuses.  I think that about sums it up!

 

 

 Apparently animals were in the water when Viv and Heidi last ordered fabric, as we also got in "Untamed Melody," a line of fabric from Wilmington, which brings us back to the Big Band days, but instead of Benny Goodman playing clarinet we have cats on drums, deer on french horn, and zebras playing the cymbals.  I have four words for you this time: how cool is that?

 

 

Of course, if your sewing is bent a little more toward the 18 and over crowd, we haven't forgotten you.  We have two new Asian lines, one with pearl and blue, the other with greens and golds.  Along with those we have a few additions to "Funky Town": lime green, white and black line called "Belle Flor", new Kaffe Fassett fat quarter bundles and several new Kaffe fabrics on the bolt.

Whew!  I'm tired just typing this all out.  You know what?  I think you should just come down to the shop and see it all for yourself.  Yup - I think that would be an excellant idea!

Posted by sewinspired at 07:13 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Yeah, I asked pretty much the same question when our very nice UPS man delivered two rolls of very pretty, but very unusual fabric to Sew Inspired a few days ago.  The answer?  It was oil cloth! 

Oil cloth has been around for EVER.  Well, maybe not since forever, but at least for a very long time.  But, it's recently coming back into vogue.  My question was then, after inspecting it, how it ever went OUT of vogue.  Let me explain.  Oil cloth is regular woven cotton quilting fabric that is coated with polyurethane, which makes the fabric waterproof and wipeable.  So really, what's not to love?  Off the top of my head, I can think of at least nine things that this would be good for.  Let's count them off shall we?

1. Market bags
2. Cosmetic bags
3. Splat mats for under children's high-chairs
4. Splat mats for under dog/cat dishes
5. Splat mats for under teenage boy's dishes (okay, splat mats for under anything really!)
6. Travel changing pads for diaper bags
7. Baby bibs
8. Tablecloths
9. Book covers

The fabric is quite easy to work with, but here are a few tips, just in case:

• Do NOT put a hot iron directly onto the oiled side of the oil cloth.  It WILL melt the polyurethane.  Instead, put the cloth oiled side down, cover with a pressing cloth, and press with a hot, dry iron.
• Pins will leave small holes in the fabric, so pin inside of seam allowances whenever possible.
• Use a walking foot when sewing to keep the two layers of fabric from shifting
• Lenghten your stitch length to minimize the number of needle pricks in the fabric.
• Best of all, in my opinion, is that oil cloth WILL NOT FRAY - so if you want a really quick, casual tablecloth, just cut the fabric to size and throw it on the table.  Easy peasy lemon squeezey.

We have two rolls of oilcloth in the shop, and we're so excited we can barely contain ourselves.  We should have some sample projects made with it in the next few days, so please stop by and check it out.  Then you can be back in vogue along with us!

 

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