sewing

Give the Gift of Craftsy to the Creatives in your Life (Plus free classes!)

Abby H.

If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you know that I love Craftsy. Access hundreds of classes on tons of topics: Cooking, baking, sewing, crochet, knitting, painting, jewelry making- you name it, Craftsy has classes on it.

If you are looking for a different type of gift for the creative soul in your life, Craftsy has a special offer- A Premium membership at 99% off the regular price. Become a member today and get 24/7 access to all our premium classes, videos, enthusiastic experts, and step-by-step demonstrations.

As someone who does several different art and craft forms, a Craftsy membership is an incredible gift idea- even at full price.

And of course, my posts aren’t complete without a freebie offer! If you want to check out Craftsy and see what all of the excitement is about, they offer a lot of free classes. Here are just a few that I love:

Summer Means Renaissance Events- Costuming on the Cheap!

Abby H.

Summer means lots of excuses to dress up in funny clothes: Renaissance faires and festivals, Viking events, Medieval faires, Scottish Highland games, SCA events, and fantasy events! Costumes can be expensive, and with the loss of Joann Fabrics, there aren’t a lot of places to buy fabrics and patterns. Sometimes, thrifting costumes (sometimes called garb in these circles) or buying online can be more time or cost-effective than making it yourself.

Looking for basic, medieval-looking clothing pieces can help you start a wardrobe. When looking for garb options, look for natural fibers like linen, wool, cotton, silk, ramie, or rayon. These types of fabric are found in nature and are breathable. They are also easier to care for. Here are some of the items to keep your eyes open for at thrift stores.

One look that can be thrifted

Women:

  • Plain colored peasant blouses
  • Long, flowing skirts
  • Tunic-style tops
  • linen or cotton pants with drawstring waists
  • Plain/ solid colored long dresses
  • Scarves
  • Belts
  • Vests
  • Cloaks/capes
  • Pouches/drawstring purses
  • Knee socks
  • Boots
  • Mary janes
  • Clogs
  • Sandals
  • Floppy felt hats
  • Jewelry

Men:

  • Tunic-style tops
  • linen or cotton pants with drawstring waists
  • “Pirate” collared shirts
  • Boots (tall boots, chukka boots, combat boots)
  • Vests
  • Belts
  • Cloaks/capes
  • Pouches/drawstring purses

In addition to clothing and accessories, thrift stores are great places to look for fabric, notions, and trim. Cotton, linen, wool, silk, ramie, and rayon are great choices. 100 percent cotton top sheets are also a good choice for under tunics or for lining other garments. White linen tableclothes and curtains make great undertunics and aprons.

Local San Diego, CA, thrift stores that have a good clothing selection:

  • Veterans Thrift 1130 E Main St El Cajon, CA  92021
  • Veterans Thrift 1049 Elkelton Blvd Spring Valley, CA  91977
  • Veterans Thrift 881 Broadway Chula Vista, CA  91911
  • AMVETS Thrift Store 999 Cardiff St San Diego, CA  92114
  • AMVETS 3441 Sutherland St #2031, San Diego, CA 92110
  • Twice Treasured Thrift Store 8363 Center Dr Unit 2 La Mesa, CA 91942
  • Thrift Corral Thrift Store 8693A La Mesa Blvd La Mesa, CA 91942
  • Father Joe’s Villages Thrift 405 Broadway Chula Vista, CA  91910
  • Father Joe’s Villages Thrift 1457 University Ave, San Diego, CA 92103
  • Valley Thrift 2085 E Valley Pkwy, Escondido, CA 92027 (cash only)
  • Assistance League of North County Thrift Store 2068 E Valley Pkwy, Escondido, CA 92027
  • Bridge Thrift 9617 Campo Rd Spring Valley, CA 91977
  • Bridge Thrift 4220 Balboa Ave San Diego, CA 92117
  • Goodwill Outlet 1466 F St San Diego, CA 92101
  • Goodwill Outlet 1996 Don Lee Pl Escondido, CA 92029

If you have trouble finding shoes, don’t worry. No one is going to think less of you for wearing modern-looking shoes. There are a lot of people who have to wear specific shoes for orthopedic reasons.

Look 2 for women- A long sleeved white blouse under a long jumper style dress to mimic a medieval Surcoat outfit.
Look 2 for men- A Near Eastern men’s ensemble.

If the thrill of the thrift store hunt isn’t for you, but you still want to save money when looking for your first garb, there are a lot of places online to look.

I know Temu gets a bad wrap, but there are a lot of companies that sell on Temu that drop ship items from all over the US, which means quick shipping and no import taxes.

Amazon is the same- there are a lot of great pieces that are available that work great for garb.

The Amazon Store PROCOS has great linen tunics and accessories for men and women.

Looking for knee socks? This is a great value.

And these linen pants are really soft and comfy. I own a few pairs.

 

Mending Clothes to Save Money: The Tiny Holes

Abby H.

Mending clothes is a simple way to save money. Knowing a few stitches is a good skill. In a previous post, I wrote in 2018, I discussed what to have a basic sewing kit and how to repair a hole in the back pocket of a pair of jeans using a commercially available denim patch.

Today we will be discussing mending tiny holes in clothes. These are tiny holes that can be caused by catching on jewelry, work badges, or lanyards, or clothes rubbing together in an overloaded washing machine or dryer.

Zippers, buttons, and other clothing fasteners can cause holes to form and clothes when they rub on fabrics in the washer or dryer. This is why it’s important when you put your clothes into the washing machine that you button, zip, or otherwise fasten your clothes shut before washing them. Cleaning out pockets can help too- especially if you have a rock collector in your family (I do with mine).

Things like bras or clothing that has sharp edges like rhinestones or beads should be washed either by hand, or put into lingerie bags. Remember to clasp up your bra so the hooks do not snag on anything- even in a lingerie bag.

Clothing moths, or carpet beetles, can also nibble holes and clothing. They prefer natural fibers like wool, rayon or ramie, cotton, bamboo, or tencel.

Perfect type of rip/tear for a satin stitch

Tiny holes can be mended with a satin stitch. A satin stitch is a close back-and-forth stitch over the hole with the stitches close together.

Longer tears or rips along the seam are best secured with the back stitch. It is a very secure stitch, and very easy to do. There is a great tutorial on YouTube from Sewn Company here.

I spent about an hour a month mending clothes. Between kids, being kids, and the fact that I get the majority of my own clothes secondhand, and therefore don’t know the exact age of them, it is not uncommon for me to wear holes in elbows of sweaters, or in pockets. I do spend a lot of time mending pockets.

One thing I do not mend is socks. Socks are inexpensive enough that when they develop holes, they become rags for dusting, or cleaning up spills. When T-shirts become too holy, they also become rags for cleaning up, spills in the kitchen, or wiping off counters, or cleaning the bathroom mirrors.

Buying Sewing and Craft Supplies Frugally

Abby H.

I love sewing. I have been creating clothing, costumes, and home goods for decades.

Losing stores like JoAnn Fabrics means turning to online retailers or looking for supplies in thrift stores, apps like OfferUp, or even on Facebook marketplace. 

Brick and mortar fabric stores have been disappearing for about the last 10 years, and for some of us stores like JoAnn fabrics were the last place that we could go in person and buy fabric to make clothes, notions like thread and sewing machine needles, and patterns.

I love shopping at thrift stores for fabric and notions, but it can be hit or miss.  I frequently pick up flat sheets to make mock ups for fitted clothing, as they are less expensive than muslin by the yard. When I need something specific, I look online for deals.

Did you know that apps like Temu and Alibaba partner with small and local businesses in addition to large overseas factories? On Temu, you can select “local warehouse stores” to shop local companies. Not only will you be shopping locally but you may experience faster shipping times. 

I recently purchased bias tape, which I needed for some upcoming projects, and I was able to find a local warehouse store that had two of the colors that I needed. And in less than five days, I had two spools of black and white biased tape in my hand. And it was shipped from Indiana, which isn’t local to me, but was at least purchased by a company in the US.

In fact, if you look at the bottom of the front page of Temu, it has a link to click where you can learn more about selling your products on Temu. It’s not just gigantic faceless mass manufactured factories overseas, anyone can sell their products on Temu.

I have purchased T-shirts in the past that have come from a small business in Orange County California through Temu. I’ve also purchased 3-D printed items from a small company in the Midwest that sells via Temu.

DIY Gift Bags-Frugal and Reusable!

Abby H.

Every year I look for a new way to save money. And over the past few years, it’s been harder and harder to come up with new ways to save money. And I’ve been meaning to post this for a while, but now I’ve got some free time, and Dollar Tree has some really cute fat quarters of fabric (that’s an 18×21 or 22-inch piece of typically cotton fabric). Over the winter holidays, I was watching TikTok and one of my faves creators, Domestic Blisters, had posted that instead of going the route of buying boxes and wrapping paper or paper gift bags, she was going to create a set of cloth reusable gift bags for her families gifts.

I love this idea, and honestly, I don’t know why I had never thought of it before. We are huge re-users of gift bags to the point where they’re mostly tape. And, a lot of our out-of-state/out-of-area relatives send us gifts from Amazon that come in reusable cloth Amazon bags.

We reuse those bags until they fall apart. And in the past, we have had 10 to 20, although in recent years we had started to cycle out ones that were falling apart or just weren’t in great shape.

So on a cold and rainy afternoon, I pulled my box of fabric out of the closet and set to go through it. I have recently acquired a pretty good selection of quilting fat quarters and smaller (left the yard) pieces of various weights of cotton. I squared off all the pieces so there were no round edges or strange shapes, and set to making some gift bags. We will primarily use these for Christmas, but, I wanted them to be used all year so I did not specifically make them Christmas or winter-holiday-themed. And because I used what fabrics I had on hand, they are lots of different colors and prints.

If you have basic sewing skills and can sew a square or rectangle, this is an easy project for you.

Items needed:

  • Fabric: If you are using fat quarters, you will need two pieces- one for the front and one for the back. I used a lot of 1/2 yard pieces- and I folded those in half. Cotton or cotton blend works best.
  • Pins: To pin together your project.
  • Safety Pin: To guide your string/ribbon/yarn through the casing.
  • String/Ribbon/Yarn: about 2 feet-ish (24-ish inches) per bag. You want enough where you can open the bag all the way and have enough to come out of the opening.

You’re basically just making a pillowcase, and on the top of the bag (or on the side of the pillowcase where you would leave it open to put the pillow in), you fold over the raw edge and make a tiny casing.

I fold my raw edge over twice to make sure the inside is nice looking. I frequently use my decorative stitches on the casing to make it a little extra festive.

Make sure to leave a little gap so that you can put ribbon or yarn all the way through to make a drawstring pouch.

We’ve already used some of these bags for my birthday, and my son’s birthday.

1 gift bag can cost upwards of $5, and if it isn’t opened carefully, it can be torn and then trashed. These bags cost about $2 to make (or less if you shop sales for fabric or reuse clothes that are stained or otherwise cannot be handed down. Make sure to cut around stains!) and can be reused for years. Spools of Ribbon can be picked up for less than $2/roll at Michaels, and they frequently have coupons!

So there you have it. In a few hours, you can have your own stack of reusable gift bags!

Cleaning your Closets: 5 Items That Have To Go!

Abby H.

I’m bringing this up because it’s time to pull out some of my fall/winter clothes and donate some of my older clothes, or clothes that I don’t wear as often.

Here are my Five categories for giving clothes the boot:

Stains: You know that one shirt in your closet that you love, but it has a stain that won’t come out. It’s time for it to go.  Clothing can be donated to be recycled. To find your closest clothing recycling location, click here.

It doesn’t fit: Too small, big, long, or short- it has to go. Time to throw those in the donation pile.  This goes for shoes too!

Needs repair and you lack the time or skills to mend/fix. The pants hanging in your closet are so cute but they are 1/4 inch too short and you can’t sew? One Caveat- Undergarments that are holely or stretched out go directly to the trash. No one is darning mass-produced socks. I mend and repair my clothes as needed weekly. If you are looking to learn about mending clothes, check out my post here. 

Out Of Style: Low-rise jeans? Powder Blue Tuxedo? Your Prom Dress from 1997? Time to throw those in the donation pile.

Cheap Crap:  This encapsulates several categories- Knock off’s (They are mass-produced in horrible conditions), poorly produced “fast fashion” that offers no quality and doesn’t add anything of substance to your wardrobe, and anything you bought and wore once, and it was damaged or you swore you’d never wear again. In my opinion, cheap shoes are the worst and are usually tossed into this pile.

Once you have your donate pile, if you are looking to donate straight away, check for your local non-profits needs. I also like donating my unwanted good clothes to local clothing swaps. For more info about clothing swaps, click here. 

Craftsy Fall Flash Sale!

Abby H.

Welcome Fall Flash Sale! All Classes 70% Off!    ** This post also contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. 

Craftsy is back at it!

Now through 9/28/2022, all classes are up to 70% off with code FALL70 at checkout.

I’ve been a Craftsy fan for years. They have incredible classes on so many topics from sewing, painting, and beading, to cabinet making and woodworking.

And if you are looking to check out some free classes, Craftsy has over 60 Free classes on a variety of subjects.

Tryazon: Cool Maker – My Style Party!

Abby H.

We had a Cool Maker My Style Party earlier today with some friends and family. I didn’t get a lot of pictures just because I spent so much time fixing the machines and getting projects set up. This is not going to be like a lot of my other reviews or Tryazon party posts. Let me make that clear right now. The entire event was a disaster from start to finish.

Let’s start with the KumiCreator. This machine is cool. HOWEVER, the thread/floss/string that comes with the machine is a nightmare. It’s super shiny/slippery and that makes it really hard to get it started and maintain the correct tension. Especially on the white spools, which have less thread as they are meant to make bracelets. As you can see from the pictures, it was a disaster. I had to pull everything apart, rewind the white bobbins, and set up the machine 4 times. Finally, when the girls who wanted the make bracelets were almost in tears, I pulled out some of the empty black bobbins, wound them with embroidery floss, which is not shiny or slippery, and set the machine back up. They were able to finally use the machine without unwinding the bobbins, catching, or having the tension freak out.

The machine comes with the supplies to make up to 5 trendy bracelets and 2 necklaces! That’s 56 thread spools, 7 beads, and what they call a design book. I’d call it a pamphlet.

Overall, I’d give it a 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Next up is the Cool Maker Stitch ‘N Style Fashion Studio Sewing Machine Toy. OY VEY. I can sew, I’ve been sewing for over 20 years. I made a living full-time as a sewing and design professional. This toy is…. not good. It is a toy. It does not have a bottom bobbin, so it does a weird, loose stitch that easily ravels apart.  This machine takes 4 AA batteries (not included).

The kit comes with a piece of polyester fabric that has projects printed on it- all you need to do is cut them out and sew them together along the guidelines printed on the fabric.  Sounds easy, right?

The Tension on the machine is jacked up and the thread breaks easily (it’s pretty cheap polyester thread). When we pulled the scrunchy out of the sewing machine after it was done sewing (no foot- the machine has a sensor to start and stop sewing), the stitches all came unraveled.

After Margaret and the girls tried to make a scrunchy several times without success, I tried to give it a shot too. The stitches unraveled for me too. I now have to get out my sewing machine and make the girls custom scrunchies, as they are so disappointed that the machine didn’t work like they hoped (and I hoped too).

I give this machine 0/5 stars. It was seriously so hard to find anything positive about it.

I didn’t get a group pic of this event because the girls were grumpy, and the mommas were too busy consoling upset kids. At least there were snacks.

I’ve been part of the Tryazon community for years and this is the first time I’ve been disappointed with the products. I’m going to take the sewing machine apart and give it a tune-up and see if that helps. I’ll also put a different thread on the spool and see if that helps. Using cotton thread may help.

These toys are available for sale at Target, Amazon, and Walmart if you want to give them a try.

 

 

Craftsy Fourth of July Sale and Free Classes!

Abby H.

** This post also contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.

Now through July 6, 2022, Craftsy is having an awesome summer sale! Save  70% Off All Classes with code USA70!

If you are new to Craftsy and want to check it out, they also offer a lot of free classes. Here are just a few that I love:

Tryazon: Design, Wear, & Share with New Craft Kits from Cool Maker!

Abby H.

We’ve been participating in Tryazon events for three+ years. We’ve gotten to try all sorts of fun toys, games, and food.  You can learn more about Tryazon here.

Design, wear and share one-of-a-kind pieces with this Tryazon Featured Party opportunity, featuring Cool Maker craft kits from Spin Master! Learn real sewing skills with the Cool Maker Stitch ‘N Style and spin to create friendship bracelets and necklaces with the Cool Maker KumiKreator Bead & Braider. Express yourself through what you make and show your own unique style, with Cool Maker!

Tryazon has 250 hosting spots open for this opportunity! Those selected get to receive a party pack valued at $50+ with a selection of Cool Maker products to share with friends and family! Learn more and apply here.