Hello! Welcome to our ‘sewing room’ where we’ve compiled a list of tutuorials that we’ve either made, or of someone else’s that we’ve enjoyed following. Happy sewing/crafting!
Favorite Sewing Patterns
We’ve had several people ask about where we get our jumper, blouse and apron patterns. Most of the ones we use are adapted from old and out-of-print patterns, but these websites have patterns that are very similar.
The King’s Daughters Pattern Shop
Ringger Clothing (also offers made to order clothing)
Sensibility Patterns (we love their Edwardian Apron pattern!)
Headcovering Tutorial
by Jenny Chancey
This was SO helpful!
Three Tiered Petticoat/Skirt Tutorial
Sewing a Jumper Bodice
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZxS6U1y7yw&feature=channel_video_title[/youtube]
A wonderful place to find craft ideas, homemade gift ideas, holiday themed food ideas, etc!
Another place where she posts all kinds of tutorials as well as ‘linky parties’, providing lots of project ideas!
made from an old book
Check back as we will always be adding new things!
WOW! I was JUST on here … and then checked again (just in case 🙂 ) and saw THIS!!!! 🙂 Wow ! :@ <—– (Just a smile I tried…it may not work 🙂 )
Do you ladies know how to make hoop skirts? Just wondering 🙂
Hi,
Do you use a sewing machine or do you sew everything by hand? Thanks
Hi Gina! We use sewing machines…it would take forever if we had to do it all by hand 😀
Wow! Everything looks lovely! I always enjoy seeing what you gals are making.
Your pattens/tutorial etc look so cool! : )
I just downloaded the wallet one. I’ve made a Bible case like your one, ‘cept mine just doesn’t have the handles on it or the lace round the edge. : )
Love ~*Chantelle*~
p.s. I thought I should tell you the bible cover tutorial page is down, but I’m sure you know 🙂
Oh, thanks for telling us 😀 We didn’t know…but I’ll go fix it right away 😉
-Jessica
Hello ladies! 🙂 I come seeking some sewing advice 😀
What sort of fabrics do you use for blouses? For dresses/jumpers, do you use thicker or thinner fabric? Do you use interfacing? How should I do pintucks? (is it as easy as it looks??) 🙂 Any tips for getting a neat finish? I generally have trouble with lumpy neck facings and buttonholes! When adding lace to a collar or sleeves, what kind is best?
Thanks so much! 🙂
-Nicole
Hi Nicole!
Our favorite blouse material has been white muslin. For dresses and jumpers, we usually use cotton, like the calicoes at Joanns. We almost always wear a petticoat underneath, so that helps keep our skirts from being too see-through in the light, though we have passed over some of the calicoes because they are too thin, even with a petticoat underneath 😀
As for interfacing…we are constantly talking about it…is it worth it, or not?! 😀 For my blouses, I’ve started just doing another layer of muslin on the facings. I think the interfacing tears up way too fast. You wash it a couple of times and it starts shredding 😛 For the inside of button-up jumpers and dresses, we’ll still use interfacing. Though when I do it for myself, I often just skip the interfacing, lol! Sometimes for extra stability, I use stitch-n-tear for my buttonholes when I’m not using interfacing.
Adding lace to collars and sleeves pretty much is up to what you like best 🙂 Make sure they aren’t scratchy, lol! I’m wearing a blouse right now that has a soft crocheted lace, but the ‘binding’ at the top is so scratchy, I finally sewed a satin ribbon over the binding because it bothered me so bad! 😀 Some of our favorite laces are eyelets that are 1/2″ to 1″ wide, or Hobby Lobby has a small crocheted lace on a spool…I think it was 4 yards on a spool for $2.99. Our Walmart used to have 1/2″ eyelet lace that was only a little over a dollar a yard…it used to be my favorite! Unfortunately, though, they seem to be phasing out some of the sewing stuff 😛
Yes! Pintucks are so easy! Once you know where you want the tuck to be, you fold up the sleeve (or fold over the jumper front) like you’re putting in a big hem, then only stitch about 1/8″ to 1/4″ away from the fold. We usually make the jumper pintucks 1/4″ and the blouse sleeve pintucks 1/8″. Then you straighten it back out and iron it and do the next one 😀
For jumper fronts, add 1″ to the bodice front where the buttonholes go. Make your first pintuck 2″ from the edge, then stitch at 1/4″ away from the fold. Make your second pintuck 1″ away from the seam of your first pintuck and stitch it down at 1/4″ as well 🙂
For sleeves, sometimes I’ll add 1/2″ to the length, but because of the style of sleeve and the fact that I don’t mind if they’re 1/2″ shorter, I usually don’t add any extra. Make your first pintuck about 3/4″ to 1″ from the bottom of the sleeve, and the second one about 5/8″ from that.
Hopefully all of that made sense, lol! Let me know if any part of it doesn’t 😀 We’ll have to make a video on how to make pintucks sometime 🙂
For buttonholes…I’m not sure how much we can help you there…our machines are computerized, and it makes buttonholing SO much nicer! There’s no guessing how big to make the buttonhole 😀 What part of the buttonhole do you have trouble with?
And neck facings can be a bother, too, lol! What part keeps lumping up on you? For me, I would get part of the blouse caught up in the seam making tucks and puckers along the neck 😛 So I try to go slow and continually be pulling and checking that the facing and blouse/dress is laying flat…at least the part that I am sewing at the moment 😀
Again, let me know if anything doesn’t make sense 😀
hugs! ♥Jessica
Yes, that totally makes sense! 😀 thanks so much!! Thanks for your interfacing insight 🙂 There is so much to know that you can’t find in the books! 🙂
About the buttonholes, maybe it’s really more of a button problem?? My buttonholes go in fine, and my buttons go on fine (I recently figured out how to both by machine! 😀 ). But when fastened, my garment fits well but the buttons never lay right, and there will be bit of a wrinkly, strained look to it- the same look as when a garment is too tight. I hope my description makes sense. 🙂 Perhaps sewing the buttons on looser would help it to “relax”? 🙂
As for the neck facings, they always seem quite bulky once I turn it under and sew. Mine are normal from 1″-2″, would making it narrower would cause it to turn over and be visible? Would using a thinner fabric for facing work?
Thanks for sharing your expertise! 😀
-Nicole 🙂
Good! Sometimes it’s hard knowing if a written description makes as much sense to someone else as it does to me 😀 Lol!
For the buttons, it might be the way your buttons are lining up with the buttonholes? Or maybe sewing the buttons on a little looser might help…though I sew mine on pretty tight and haven’t had too much trouble with it. Do you use the ‘button guides’ that come along with the pattern? I like to sew my buttons on by hand, so after I make the buttonholes, I’ll overlap the front of the garment, and then put my needle down inside of the buttonhole so that I can see where to come up for the button…and then just sew each button on that way, making sure the buttonhole side is laying nice and smooth. You could probably mark it with a marking pencil or something and still sew them on with the machine and get the same result, I think? 🙂 Another idea would be to ‘shank’ them, where you bring the thread up underneath the button and wrap it around the base 4 or 5 times before knotting it off again. It brings the button off of the surface of your material a little bit and creates some ‘space’ under there.
For the neck facings, I assume you trim the seam, and clip the curves? I don’t know that you’d really have to use a thinner material, unless of course the material is really bulky 😀 And making it narrower could result in your facings rolling to the outside 😛 😀 Something we like to do with our facings is to tack them down by stitching ‘in the ditch’ of the shoulder seam from the outside, and it keeps the facing from poking out when you’re wearing it 😀 Not sure if that helps?!!
By the way, I’m thinking of making a tutorial here sometime soon on how to make our headcoverings 😀 I need to make myself a couple of new ones so it would be fun to make a video tutorial at the same time 😀 I know you had asked about our headcoverings awhile back, so I thought you would like to know that 😉 😀
Hope you are having a marvelous Saturday 😀
♥Jessica
Looking forward to the head covering tutorial!!
Thanks so much for all the help!! 😀 The shank idea sounds like it might solve my problem!
I’m excited for the tutorial! 😀
-Nicole
Everything looks so lovely =) I always like seeing what you all do. So creative!!!!
Could you republish the ones that were previously on Feelin’ Feminine? I would especially like to see the cloth napkin tutorial.
Yes! We could 🙂 Thanks for the suggestion 😉
I like your tutorials! Especially the one with the jumper, I might try to make that with my mom sometime.:)
Would you mind if I shared one of your tutorials on my blog? You have a lot to offer others. 🙂
Blessings,
Janet…. mamachildress
We wouldn’t mind at all 🙂 Just leave a link back to us 😀 Thanks for sharing!
Great! I just did and thank you. 🙂
Blessings,
Janet…. mamachildress
Hi Sisters!
I was wondering if you guys could post the pattern for those sewing kit things? ( not sure of the real name?)
Thanks if you can!
Susannah K
The sewing caddy that sits under the machine and holds scissors and such?
It be right here:
http://sevenfarmgirlsisters.com/a-homemade-christmas-sewing-caddy/
🙂
This is so helpful! I plan to start following you!
In Christ,
~Paige
🙂 🙂 🙂