Sneak Peek - May/June Issue!

Get ready for the next issue of Sew Beautiful! The May/June issue is chock full of projects and ideas for Baby. Be sure to check out our first birthday outfit ensemble, baby room ideas, shoes for baby, plush owls, and more! 

Wrap Your Heart with Lace

In celebration of Valentine’s day, learn how to shape lace into a heart. This international symbol of love is one that we use to teach beginners because it incorporates both curves and miter techniques used in shaping all of the other lace shapes. If you can wrap your heart with lace, you just might fall in love with heirloom sewing.

Watch video below:



Want to see more? Buy the full DVD at Store.MarthaPullen.com.

The Dish(towel) on Aprons

By Betsy Iler, Assistant Editor for Sew Beautiful magazine.

Asked to design aprons for the staff of a renewal weekend in my church, I had to come up with something colorful and unique, as well as very cost effective. I bought 14 white dishtowels at a discount market and then raided my stash for embellishment supplies.

In addition to several yards of cotton solids, I found rickrack in assorted bright colors, a soutache braid I bought at the Martha Pullen Company indoor yard sale last year, and lots of buttons. I also found an old pair of blue jeans that my son had long ago outgrown. I just sort of threw all of the pieces out on my sewing table and let the thread and scissors fly!

No two of the 14 aprons will be alike, but all of them will feature pieces of old blue jeans and the soutache braid, which lends continuity to the collection. The cross embroidery is from the Crosses machine embroidery CD, and the pocket embroidery is from MPC’s 2011 Internet Embroidery Club. I used true-type fonts in my Viking software to create the rest of the lettering.

I’ve spent less than $20 and cleaned out my stash, and the program staff will have these fun aprons as souvenirs of their service!

Boys Stitchin'

Our talented graphic designer Courtney Kyle created the artwork for a delightful collection of machine embroideries that are sure to thrill the boys in your life. The Vintage Boys Stitchin' CD, now available at store.marthapullen.com, includes twenty-one designs for the 4x4 hoop and eighteen for the 5x7 hoop (twenty-one unique designs in all): Spaceships and robots; fast cars and big trucks; trains, tractors, boats and planes, all in vintage style and ready to embroider on clothes, quilts, backpacks and more.

Pair these cool designs with bright mini-checks and matching piping from Martha Pullen Company to decorate a growing boy's bedroom. Make a spread for the bed, window valances and pillows like the one here, and he'll never complain about bedtime! He'll cozy into bed with his favorite robot pillowcase and dream of adventures with all of his Boys Stitchin' friends.

Just for fun, we stitched up a rocket ship and spaceman on a soft knit suit, sure to tickle the fancy of a future astronaut. We also added a robot to a short-sleeved romper for the budding engineer. These delightful designs stitch out quickly and easily, and your favorite little man will wear them proudly.

Does he love motorcycles? Courtney's vintage rendition sports spoke wheels. Boats? He can choose the tug or the sleek speedboat. There are three unique robots, each in two sizes, and three unique rocket/spaceships in two sizes, so he won't outgrow his favorite embroideries even though he outgrows his clothes.

Join the Sew Beautiful Class Club!

An absolutely easy A-line Christmas jumper tops the Class Club menu this month. Four digitized embroidery designs are included in the download for a jumper project that teaches beginner sewists how to adapt patterns, sew buttonholes and make reversible linings. This simple project can be completed in one day, so you’ll go home from your Class Club event with a finished garment -- two dresses in one!

The 5 x 7 embroidery design on our lime gingham jumper adorns an added hem band with three festively decked trees. We also digitized each tree individually for the 4 x 4 hoop, so you can choose a favorite for the dress front decoration. Apply jumbo rickrack over the seam and pair this delightful dress with a purchased knit top for a fabulous Christmas outfit. Add the tree embroideries to other garments, table linens and gifts to spread holiday cheer.

Express your creativity and design your own dress for the reverse. Make a loving look for a special Valentine, or whip up an easy jumper in a Halloween or Thanksgiving theme. (There were several autumnal ideas in the Sew Blessed pictorial in our previous issue.) We chose to make a second Christmas dress on the reverse, working with one of the super-cute “Isabelle” prints and the new machine embroideries from Anna Griffin’s collection. This is the easiest dress you’ll ever make, so double your fun and make it reversible.

Sign up for a class with your local Sew Beautiful Class Club dealer. Find a dealer at sbcc.marthapullen.com, or invite your favorite sewing store to join by downloading the flyer at sbcc.marthapullen.com/sbcc-share.html.  –SB

Sewing community donates to Joplin, Mo.

After the tornado devastated Joplin, MO this past spring, Susan Stewart encouraged the sewing community to help Joplin recover with Project First Day. Sue shares her effort to provide new clothing to Joplin children for their first day of school below...

Thank you so much to all of you who made Project First Day an awe-inspiring, overwhelming success!!! Give yourselves a hand, and a pat on the back! I received a total of 1474 garments/outfits from generous seamstresses all across the country and Canada. On Friday, Aug. 12, we loaded up 38 big plastic storage tubs and a couple of boxes into a rented U-Haul and took them to Irving Elementary School. Actually, Irving had been destroyed in the tornado, as had 90% of its students' homes, so an old retired school, Washington Elementary, was quickly refurbished to serve Irving's students. Someone had "Irving-ton" T-shirts made for the children! Besides the garments, there were tables of new donated shoes, and boxes and boxes of books for the taking. The distribution was on Tuesday evening, Aug. 16, on the eve of the first day of school. It was crowded, noisy, and exciting. I know we made some children happy, and we also made some mommas get teary-eyed! There were plenty of garments, with lots left over. Those will be taken to other schools which were either destroyed or had a large percentage of students affected.

You may have seen these, but here are links to some of the media coverage...

• Local Pittsburg newspaper
• Local TV station
• Joplin Globe - this article was picked up by the Associated Press, and was published all over the country
• Good Morning America
  
• CBS Evening News
• Joplin Globe follow-up

I was also interviewed by CBS Radio News (national) and a local radio station in Madison, WI. The Quilt Life magazine, published by AQS, is writing an article about this, and I may even be on The Weather Channel!

Again, thank you!!!!

- Susan Stewart

More Giveaway Winners!

We have 3 more Hankie Couture books to giveaway, so here are 3 more randomly selected winners:

Alice (alice_white at hotmail dot com)

Cheryl (mrswcheryl at yahoo dot com)

Linda (huntoon4 at myfairpoint dot net)

Congratulations to each of you!