Hello everybody its that time of year where flowers bloom weather gets warmer and its time and its time to bring out the pretty dresses, tank tops, skirts, and shorts.  Now some people dont have the time to take the fabric and make the clothes from scratch. Im here to tell you you can take an ugly pair of jeans or a shirt and turn it into that great new spring outfit!!!

If you have a shirt that you love but it does not fit right  There are a few things you can do with it. If it has sleeves you can take the sleeves off and then hem the armholes or you can add lace. Another thing you can do is remove the sleeve and take a different fabric and replace the sleeve with the new fabric to give it life.  You can also cut the shirt to make it shorter or you can add more fabric that you like to make it into a dress. ( I do have pics that will be uploaded later to show you with pictures what I mean)

Also you can take a shirt and cut it across the top, right under the armholes, to make a kind of tube top. You will want to hem the top and put some elastic in it to make it stay up without the help of straps. Now if you dont want it to be a tube top but a tank top or something of the sort. You can make shoulder straps and sew those on to the tube and make it into a tank top.

Now with those old jeans that you no longer want. Turn them into a skirt or take the legs of the jeans and turn them into a cute bag! You can also make them into shorts and add some decalls or paint or buttons to make them alive.

Now also I know people who want to make their own swimsuits> I will have a post coming up on that soon because i plan to make one of my own and will take pictures of the process so you can have step by step directions.

Hello all. Today I would like to talk about how to pick a sewing machine. I’m not going to go in depth about everything a sewing machine can do and things like that, I’m just going to go over a few basics. This is just my thoughts and what I think. Its not as easy as people think to pick a proper sewing machine.

Now I am a heavy duty sewer. I sew everything from household to clothing to what ever I can figure out to sew. I own 3 machines 2 Singer sewing machines and a brother embroidery machine. So when buying a machine you have to decide what you will be using it for. Now if you are going to be like me and sew clothes and everything. You want a machine with options. If you are going to make clothes or things make sure you have a machine that:

* Has zippers or buttons features
* Gives you a few different stitch options. (Most machines now a day’s have quite a few stitches to choose from.)
* If you will be working with heavy duty fabrics, jean for example, you want to make sure the machine can handle this because some machines cannot.

Also whenever you pick a sewing machine ask yourself these questions.

1) What type of sewing do you plan to do?
2) Where will you sew?
3) How will your machine be stored?

What you have do decide is if you are going to be a heavy duty sewer or quick let me fix the hole in this pair of pants sewer. It really does make a difference. The basic machines are adequate for most types of general sewing; light sewing, light quilting, etc. Example you are just getting a machine so you can mend clothes and such. If this is all you are going to do you don’t need a sewing machine with a bunch of bells and whistles. The more expensive “fancy” machines are harder to learn on harder to use and harder to maintain and many of them have options that the general sticher would never use. SO don’t go out and spend a bunch of money on features you would never use. A basic machine with a basic stitch would work just great for you. If this is your first machine I wouldn’t go out and spend a lot of money on it either. It’s easier to learn on something simple then something that has so many features you get confused and frustrated. Another reason to go with a reasonably priced simple machine is that you may decide that sewing is not your thing and if this is what you decide you didn’t waste money on something you will never use.

Now an embroidery machine is something different. Some machines include both the functions of sewing and embroidering. Others are just straight sewing or straight embroidering. An embroidery machine is a machine that puts pictures on to fabric, back packs, purses act. If you are looking at this type of machine they do range from hundreds to thousands of dollars.

Though when picking out a sewing machine always do your homework. Ask friends who sew about their experiences with different brands. Do searches online to find reviews of different brands and machines. And always look at a few machines just so you can look at the different things that each can do and in the end always pick what is best for you. Pick the machine that will give you the best sewing experience.

Here are some links to help you out:

Quilt Bus – “Tips for choosing the perfect sewing machine”

Sewing and Embroidery – Sewing Machines