Tips & Resources Buying Guide 
Stroll through many antique shops and you're bound to find a sweet and colorful yo-yo quilt. First made popular in the 1930s, the small, gathered circles that create a yo-yo are super easy to make, and the resulting fabric puff is a fun embellishment for pillows, blankets and more. Make them by hand or use a simple tool. They're great for using up small scraps, and perfectly portable – make them while sitting on the beach, waiting for the train, anywhere.
Beauty is only skin deep. That familiar phrase applies to decorative pillows as much as it does to people. The perfect pillow has an inner "ahhh" that comes from the pillow insert. Yep, it really is what's inside that counts.
Choose an adjustable height board with a padded cover and a cotton or muslin cover. Avoid the outer-space-suit reflective covers
The best irons hold a consistent temperature, produce plenty of steam and don't constantly tip over when upright.
Pins are an indispensable sewing tool. They'll eventually poke you, but you'll have to forgive and move on because they keep your pattern pieces in place, hold your seams together as you sew, anchor trims, and more.
Ask ten different experts the difference between piping and cording and you might get ten different answers. however, you can be sure it does NOT have anything to do with bagpipes or comfortable pants.
At Sew4Home, we do everything possible using a machine. It's so much faster. However, there are times when hand sewing is necessary. Instead of searching the junk drawer for that needle you thought you saw awhile ago when hunting for the tape, stock up on these five basic types of hand-sewing needles.
If your project instructions call for two yards of 60-inch wide fabric, but the fabric you want to use is 45 inches wide... attempting to dredge up that old math lesson in proportions is probably not going to happen on the fly. Instead, print out this handy conversion chart for those times you don't have a pattern envelope with a yardage conversion table.
When you walk into a fabric store, you'll notice that most fabric is wrapped around cardboard bolts that stand upright on shelves. What you may not notice is that at the end each bolt is a label that provides important information about the fabric.
It's not as bad as searching through the proverbial haystack, but choosing the correct needle for your sewing project can be a little overwhelming. They all look pretty much the same unless you pull out the magnifying glass. But, different needles DO have different tips, eyes, shanks, groves and shafts; and what you select can make a big difference in how well your machine sews through your fabric.
