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A Rustic Wedding with Fabric.com: Woven Ribbon Ring Bearer's Pillow

Friday, 08 March 2013 1:00

In Ancient Egypt, pillows were a sign of wealth and prestige and were often used to carry ornamental items, such as precious jewels. The amount of money a family had determined the number of jewel-covered pillows on display. Similarly, the Romans used pillows to present precious items to the bride and groom during a wedding ceremony. A page would be selected to bring in pillows laden with gifts during the ceremony. Royal families would present the couple with crowns brought in on a pillow. Today, the pillow continues as the traditional way to transport wedding rings down the aisle, usually in the shaky hands of the bride's or groom's youngest male relative. Our Rustic Wedding version is made from intricately woven ribbons.

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A Rustic Wedding with Fabric.com: Flower Garland

Thursday, 07 March 2013 1:00

What's the Rustic Wedding's answer to the crepe paper streamer? A beautiful and unique garland! While researching the top wedding trends for this series, one of the items that came up again and again was the use of garlands as a decorating component. We saw them as hanging elements, as table decorations, even as accessories on wedding gowns and bridesmaid dresses. Our garland is what we'd call a "Low-Sew" project. There's just a little bit of hand sewing involved. We've created a cut flower on a string treatment, using a fabric die-cutting machine. There are many cutters out there on the market; we chose the Sizzix Big Shotto test for our series. Originally developed for the card-making and scrapbooking industry, die cutters made their way into the world of fabric over the last several years. The Sizzix brandis very popular as is the Slice Digital Die Cutter and the AccuQuilt GO

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A Rustic Wedding with Fabric.com: Two-Tone Burlap Table Runner

Tuesday, 05 March 2013 1:00

The most popular fabric for the Rustic Wedding is burlap. Believe it or not, this coarse fabric, more traditionally known for bagging coffee beans than bedecking wedding finery, is the hottest ticket out there when it comes to adding trendy texture. Part of the reason behind this is how many options there are in burlaps today. Both in density (the coarseness of the weave) as well as color. Yep. Burlap is not just brown anymore. We've come up with a beautiful design for a simple wedding table runner made of two layers of burlap highlighted with a splash of luxurious silk. Burlap, like many of the specialty fabrics we're featuring in this series, comes in wide widths. The burlaps we chose to work with from Fabric.com ranged from 47" to 60" wide with the most common width being 58". This means you can get a number of strips from each yardage cut.

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A Rustic Wedding with Fabric.com: Bride & Groom Chair Covers

Monday, 04 March 2013 1:00

Welcome to our latest series from Fabric.com: A Rustic Wedding. This is one of the hottest trends right now in the DIY wedding category for both wedding gowns as well as the ceremony and reception decorations. It's all about creating a wonderful mash-up of subtle tones and textures - just like you'd find in nature itself. A hallmark of the trend is mixing traditional wedding fabrics; like taffeta, silk, tulle and organza with unique fabrics not normally thought of as wedding choices; such as burlap, ticking, crushed velvet and muslin. We kick off the series today with a pair of chair covers. Decorating the chairs for a wedding reception is nothing new, but we spotted the idea to have a special pair of chair covers at the head table just for the bride and groom. Our design combines rustic striped ticking and an elegant crush of taffeta. We finish it off with a sleek monogram juxtaposed with a funky-chic button. 

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Special Amy Butler Alchemy Trunk Show Project: Vintage Sofa Throw in Voile & Linen

Thursday, 28 February 2013 1:00

We're thrilled to have been selected to be part of this spring's Amy Butler Alchemy Fashion Look Book and Trunk Show. Rowan Fabrics put together this fantastic idea to promote Amy's Alchemy Studio Collection. They tapped ten prominent designers and asked each to come up with a special project using one of the new Alchemy substrates. Some of our amazing Look Book partners-in-design include Betz White, Amy Barickman, Cal Patch and Linda Lee. Sew4Home was awarded a home décor project, and we chose to work with voile and Amy's brand new cotton linen. Our resulting Sofa Throw features a wonderful zig zag patchwork technique and lusciously long bullion fringe. It's reminiscent of the popular furniture covers of the 1930s and '40s, which tended to be longer and thinner than what you find today. One or more of these heavy throws adorned the back of a couch or chair in nearly every home of the era as a prominent decorating accent. The combination of colors and textures in the Alchemy fabrics we selected have a beautifully vintage feel, but with a modern infusion of pattern and design.

You Asked 4 It: Mesh Laundry Bags in Two Sizes

Tuesday, 26 February 2013 1:00

If you're a Sew4Home regular, you know we really do listen to suggestions about projects and techniques visitors are interested in seeing and learning about. We have a special list called You Asked 4 It. Today's project is pulled from that list: a mesh laundry bag for fine washables. True, these are readily available and can be pretty inexpensive to purchase. But often they aren't as well-made as you'd like, or you need a teeny-tiny size for baby socks, or you just want a fun color to tempt an otherwise messy teen to pick up his underwear. Time to bust out a few of your own. They are super easy; we made our two samples in nothing flat.

Scrap-It: Mini Key Fobs

Monday, 25 February 2013 1:00

Scrap-It and ScrapBusters are two ongoing series we have here at Sew4Home. The idea is to come up with quick and easy projects that use up some of those special little fabric leftovers in your stash bag. Today's mini key fobs are a perfect example: they're something useful for yourself or great as a gift; they use just a tiny bit of fabric and notions; and they're fast and fun. In fact they were so fun to make, we did FIVE samples. Each features a different embellishment technique: decorative stitching, piping, embroidery, ribbon trim, and patchwork. I'm sure you can come up with even more options: a monogram, lace, rick rack, buttons. 

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Mother-Daughter Apron Set

Wednesday, 20 February 2013 1:00

If you're a regular Sew4Home visitor, you know we are apron enthusiasts. A quick check of our Project Index shows nearly 40 entires in the Aprons category, and they're always one of our favorite options to consider when we're designing a new series. Today, we have a fabulous Mother-Daughter set initially designed for the Alfabeto Italiano Collezione, which debuted in 2010 from our friends at Michael Miller Fabrics. A quick run through Etsy and Ebay revealed a few cuts of Alfabeto still available for the dedicated searchers, but we were also delighted to find a new Italian-inspired collection from Dear Stella: Va Bene - 21 prints and solids, including cans of tomato sauce, Vespas and cobblestones. We've re-drawn our original aprons with specific selections from this fab new collection. Molto bello per mamma e bambina.

Re-imagine & Renovate - Put A Gift In It: Jumbo Fabric Tub

Friday, 15 February 2013 1:00

The Re-imagine & Renovate series is our chance to show you how one project can turn out an unlimited number of ways, depending on the choices you make with fabrics, trims and notions. It opens your eyes to how much fun it is to mix and match colors, patterns and collections to create a new look each and every time. We've made it to the final project is our latest R&R series: Put A Gift In It. Today's super-size round basket is fun to make and fun to use. Some tasks are just big, and so you need a big basket to get the job done. Whether you're doing the laundry, need jumbo storage for knitting or other crafting supplies, or want to put together a king-size gift package - this is the project for you! It's also a great excuse to use a bold geometric print. On some projects, big motifs can seem overwhelming, but on this project - we're happy to be huge!

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Re-imagine & Renovate - Put A Gift In It: Fabric Wallets

Wednesday, 13 February 2013 1:00

Sometimes it's fun to not have to worry about learning a whole new project; instead, why not take a fave design and simply give it a whole new look. In other words: Re-imagine & Renovate! Like a fresh coat of paint, brand new fabric makes all the difference. This week's R&R projects have a Put A Gift In It theme: innovative ways to wrap up a special something for a special someone. Today's adorable mini clutches were the #1 project of 2012, so we knew we wanted to R&R them right away. These little guys are fun to make, great to give, and cute as a bucket of kittens! In fact, if you hurry, there's even time to make one today for Valentine's Day tomorrow. Tuck in a gift card or a romantic note along with a special token of your love. One of the things that makes this project so fun is it takes just a little bit of fabric. It's a great way to experiment with coordinating fabrics from a new collection you've been admiring. Test it out with a couple mini cuts, then re-order more for a bigger project.

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