Do you know the difference between ironing your fabric and pressing your fabric?

• Ironing is moving the iron back and forth over your fabric or garment to remove any wrinkles or creases.
• Pressing is gently moving the iron up and down over your project. Pressing doesn’t distort the fabric and helps to set the stitches and seams as you construct your project.

@pressing, @ ironing, @sewing, @kids sewing

Teach Your Child To Hand Sew

Your young child can have a fun and creative experience learning to sew with just a few items to get you started.

You will need:

• Several pieces of colorful felt
• Several skeins of embroidery floss
• Size 18 chenille needle
• A pair of craft scissors (blunt ends are a good choice)
• A basic knowledge of beginning hand sewing stitches

See my new blog!

Pick these items up at a Michaels store or Hobby Lobby and start that sewing journey with your kids!

@hand sewing, @kids sewing, @basic stitches

Many of my young sewers were so lucky to have received a bright and shiny new sewing machine from Santa or for Hanukah this year. After asking my students about receiving a sewing machine my next question to them is “How do you like it?”

For a moment, there is silence as they stare at me. Then they blurt out “It’s still in the box!” and I am sad for them. And then I answer this exclamation with these words:

“I am so happy that you got a machine because now you can sew whenever you want. I will let your parents know that I am available to take the machine out of the box and set it up for you! We will look at the machine together with your parents so everyone will know how to thread it, use it, and take care of it. Does that sound like a plan of action?” At this point I get a smile and a nod from my student and life is good again.

So, parents please don’t let the machine sit in the box. Please get in touch with me so we can schedule a time for you and your sewers to set up your machine and learn how to use it. You can bring the machine to me or I will be glad to come to your house for the lesson. Having your very own machine is awesome! Let’s get sewing!

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Ms Bobbi

p.s. Click Here for Sewing Lesson Information

p.p.s. Click Here for Gift Certificates

 

Dear Sewing Friends,

As I’ve told you before I spend hours each week choosing fabrics, trims, and notions so that each of my students can choose the perfect kit to stitch in class. Often many of you find it hard to choose just one kit to make and would love to sew more but there isn’t enough time in class.

I got to thinking, why don’t I make extra kits and put them on my website? You get to sew more projects and it’s easy peasy for your parents (no trip to the fabric store needed).

Whether it’s hand sewing or machine sewing everything would be included and ready for you to stitch. If it’s a project from Pinterest or the Internet I’ll send you to their site for directions. If it’s from a book, I’ll let you know the title to look for on my site. My designs can include both materials and directions. Yes, this will be so much fun!

I could make some kits with a variety of fabric, some zippers, several spools of thread, some buttons and trims and you could create your own creations! I could even put together kits personalized by you! Homeschoolers could use the kits to learn how to sew. Oh, the possibilities are endless!!!!

So, my first kits will be up at the end of this week and we’ll see how it goes. Here’s to another fun year of sewing!

See you soon,

Ms Bobbi

Hello Sewing Friends!

I’ve been really busy planning, organizing, and making kits for my classes this year! Whew, it’s a big job but totally worth it. I want all my sewing friends to have a wonderful and creative year with me stitching great projects and having fun doing it.

Our first lessons together will be a lesson on basic hand and machine sewing. For some of my friends this will be a review but for others it will be the first time they are learning about sewing. We’ll be using 2 books to help us learn these skills and I wanted to show them to you before our first class.

For hand sewing we will be using “The Amazing Stitching Handbook for Kids” by Kristin Nicholas (C&T Publishing $16.95). Lots of pictures and some great projects which we will stitch several from the book as class projects during the coming year.

 

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For machine sewing we will be using the Second Edition of “The Best Sewing Machine Fun for Kids” by Lynda Milligan and Nancy Smith (C&T Publishing $16.95). I have used this book in my classes for the past 12 years. The new edition has been updated with newer pictures and graphics, 37 projects and activities, and a great reference book for my students to learn how to sew.

 

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These books are on my website if you want your own copy of “The Amazing Stitching Handbook for Kids” and/or “The Best of Sewing Machine Fun for Kids” along with lots of other kid friendly Fun Stitch Studio Books. Just go to www.fascinationinfabrics.com. Click on “Shop” and scroll down to either “Children’s Sewing Books” or click the Banner “Cool Stuff for Kids”.

See you soon!

Ms Bobbi

Hello Sewing Friends!

It’s just about time to start sewing classes with Ms Bobbi and I am just sew excited!

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This year I have 3 different classes for you:

“Sewing on the Go” is my class for my students in grades 2 through 6. I’ll have some beginners mixed in with my returning sewers. I have lots of great hand and machine projects for the coming year so be prepared to have lots of sewing fun!

My “Junior Sewing on the Go” is my class for my Kindergarten and First Graders. We’ll have sewing fun mixing a lot of different types of hand sewing projects with a bit of machine sewing here and there to get you interested in the sewing machine.

And finally, my “Sewing Sampler Class” for my 4 and 5 year olds. These students are soooo excited to learn how to sew by hand and they are so proud of everything that they sew. And you never know when a sewing machine lesson might happen in a class or two…We’ll see how goes!

Click Here for Tower Hill Class Schedules and Information

Click Here for Tatnall Class Schedules and Information

If you can’t come to my classes in the extended day programs of Tower Hill or Tatnall, just give me a call and we’ll sign you up for private or semi-private lessons in my home or yours! Everyone can join in the fun of sewing!

Learning to sew and loving it!

Ms Bobbi

I love using socks to make creatures and other fun creations. You can use old socks that lose a mate in the laundry or socks that have holes that can’t be fixed. Or even better and more enticing, go to any clothing store and be amazed at the array of brightly colored socks in a variety of styles to plan your next sock project One thing for sure is once you get started making sock creatures, you’ll be addicted and I bet you can’t make just one!

Mt first encounter with sock creations was several years ago when my friend purchased several sock creations at a local craft fair near Kutztown, PA. We were absolutely crazy about these creatures and instantly wanted to learn how to make them. I started to research books about making sock creations and came upon the books by Brenna Maloney. Her books were full of wonderful information to make your very own sock creations from start to finish. Brenda categorized them by skill level with plenty of pictures to make her steps easy to follow. Maggie and I were quick to purchase her books and several others to begin our journey into the land of anything goes with socks!

Needless to say, when summertime rolled around and I was looking for wonderful camp projects for my kids, Brenna Maloney’s book “Sock Appeal” came to mind. My campers tend to be 6 years old – 9 years old with little or no sewing experience unless they have been in my classes during the school year. The projects needed to be simple but fun and easy to embellish. I chose the sock snakes and the sock fish and would let them choose which one they would stitch.

The girls loved the fish in all of my classes. So we did a little preparation before we stitched the fish. We talked about knit fabric, how to stitch curves and corners, and how to clip our curves so the fish would be smooth when turned. Depending on the socks I used (the more cotton in the sock the less it curled) we also went over how to deal with the knit fabric curling once it was cut while we were stitching. We were ready to stitch our very own school of fish!

The kids had a blast sewing the fish. Some hand stitched embellishments but others opted for a plain and simple fish. Sock creatures would be a mainstay of my curriculum for future classes!