Tips & Resources 
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.
Tassels are are the "jewelry" of home decor, adding an elegant finish to your project. But, like jewelry, they can be quite expensive to buy and the selection of colors is limited. No problem for you! Because tassels are actually very easy to make, and the embroidery floss you use to do it is inexpensive and comes in hundreds of hues and textures.
Covered buttons are cool; there's just no two ways about it. They add the special touch that says, "Stand back ... I'm a home decor professional." Making them with a Cover Button Kit is easy and inexpensive.
We're excited to debut our new Sew4Home series: Vintage Rescue, a category of inspiring ways to recycle, re-use or redesign something old to create a great new look and perhaps salvage something meaningful. For our first article, I thought I'd start with a personal story. It involves my always-a-challenge-to-buy-for sister's impending birthday, cleaning the attic to move, and a much-loved and almost-lost rosebud chenille bedspread.
Nothing says "cozy" better than the classic patchwork quilt. Quilts are tokens of family tradition, often passed down through the generations, and bestowed as gifts for life's milestones, like graduation, a new baby or a wedding. The level of intricacy possible in quilting is limitless, but the basic steps you need to master to get started are well within even a beginning sewer's grasp. Quilters have their own set of terms and tools for their craft. This short introduction to the basics is the perfect first step.
I had a friend describe gathering as basically wrinkling up one edge of your fabric and then stitching it to something. Fortunately, this friend doesn't teach sewing, but she did get the basic idea right. When you gather, you are creating a series of decorative wrinkles (their real name is: ruffles) along the edge of your fabric. You can then attach this ruffled fabric like you would a trim.
Picking out buttons for decoration is fun! But let's be frank ... sewing on those buttons is not fun. It's kind of the "cleaning toilets" of the sewing world – a dirty job, but one that is very worth it in the end. The up-side of button sewing is that it's relatively quick and easy, and there's no sponge involved. Our button sewing tutorial explains the basics.
One trim you'll use a lot of in home dec sewing is bias tape. But how did it get that name? When I hear the word "bias," I tend to think of Olympic figure skating judges. If you go look it up in dictionary, you'll see that the first definition is "an oblique or diagonal line." (Figure skating is never mentioned.) It makes sense then that bias tape is a strip of fabric that's been cut at a 45˚ angle to the weave or grain. This gives it just a little stretchiness, making it possible for bias tape to go around corners without bunching up. It's easy to make and easy to attach--as you'll soon see.
