Greenest cupcakes EVER!

Michael Miller's "Dino Dudes" flannel

For extra fun, I appliqued a dino cut-out on the front of the plain jersey top, and another cut-out of some bones on the sleeve. I didn’t quite achieve my goal of Solstice Jammies for ALL the kids this year, but I’m ever-hopeful about next year!

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I am so happy to introduce a new pattern from Heather Chandler of Keep it Thimble (is that a clever name or what?) – the Radiant Folded Patchwork Star!

Radiant Folded Star Pattern - Covered Box

This clever pattern is prefect for holiday sewing. You can use the Folded Star in a variety of ways – table toppers, covered boxes, clothing and accessory accents, and more!

This pattern includes full step by step directions for both a fabric covered box and a table topper. Photographs of key steps are also included.

Radiant Folded Star - Holiday Table Topper

These Folded Stars are fat quarter friendly, great stashbusters, and useful for scraps! Use Christmas fabrics to create a festive holiday table topper. Use pastels or batiks to create a striking storage box. Make a scrappy star to complement your latest quilt. The possibilities are endless! The pattern is easy to make and requires little sewing. This is a great project for kids and confident beginners.

Please visit Heather at Keep it Thimble for more information about this clever pattern, including details about yardages and a link to purchase the pattern, available as a PDF for immediate download! Tell her Sewfie sent you!

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Dear Sewfie,

For this most recent Christmas season, I made beautiful handmade bags as gifts for all of my sister-in-laws. I started back in July, I spent quite a bit of money not to mention time and I made a concerted effort to choose fabric and patterns which I thought would suit each woman’s individual style. You can imagine how surprised and disappointed I was when I received a check from one of them with a note saying “here is some cash so you can buy real gifts next time”. I’m still steaming over it. How should I respond?

Don't be a handmade Grinch

The first thing you should do is fill in the memo field of the check (in really big letters) with the words “for fabric”, cash it and then go fabric shopping with your dear SIL’s money. Next, I would permanently scratch her off the handmade gifts list. Save your creative efforts for those who appreciate why handmade is better. Finally, for all future holidays, I would stuff her stocking with a re-gifted fruitcake.

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Dear Sewfie,

Halloween is less than 3 days away and I still have no costume! Do you have any suggestions for sewing a quick and easy costume?

– Disdressed

No. Halloween is not Sewfie’s thing. Grab a Sharpie and an old white T-Shirt and make yourself a skeleton. Now let’s move on to more important things. With Halloween (nearly) out of the way, it’s time to start thinking about holiday crafting. And, you know what that means… craft fairs! Throughout this week, Sewfie will be sharing some tips on How to Have a Successful Craft Fair.

Tip #1: Make sure your table has “height”. Shoppers waltz through craft fairs glancing at tables from afar, in an effort to assess which table they should approach in for a closer look. Your table needs to look good from a distance and that means use your vertical space. Don’t just lay your goods out on a flat surface. Prop them up! See how our crafty-entrepreneur has:

• stacked a heap of Baby Puzzle Balls (check out our Free Licensing program for craft fairs) into a large basket with a large, eye-catching bow
• made a clever display for her necklaces with an old picture frame and a piece of foam board covered with a pretty fabric
• brought attention to her necklace display with a sign that spells out what she’s selling, “Scrabble Tile Jewelry”, in big block letters that you could read from across the room

This is an attractive table that holiday shoppers will want to explore! Stay tuned on Monday for Part II of How to Have a Successful Craft Fair!

{ Save the date for this year’s Handmade Holiday at the Franklin Mill Store, December 5th :: 305 Union Street, Franklin MA. Special guest will be Berroco Yarns and the Featured Artist will be Yours Truly! }

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Dear Sewfie,

I wanted to have the perfect Handmade Christmas this year, but the problem is, I didn’t finish all of the gifts I had planned. Now that the holidays are over, should I finish sewing the gifts anyway and give them to people late or just give up and try to make good next year? I feel bad about not giving some people their gifts. What should I do?

-Unfinished

Dear Unfinished,

Let’s face it: you nobly (and perhaps all too ambitiously) tried to have the Best Most Crafty Handmade Christmas EVER – but you fell upon your proverbial rotary cutters. The best thing you can do at this point is give a Dunkin Donuts gift certificate to the people on your list whose gifts are still all over your sewing room floor and finish those gifts next fall… after the kidlets go back to school and before you get distracted with making Halloween costumes. You will already be ahead of the game because all the pieces are already cut out, right?

You could try to plow ahead anyway and finish your gifts now under the auspices of “better late than never”, but you’ve already lost the moment (Christmas is officially over… the curbs are already littered with discarded trees!) and the time you spend will just get you further and further behind in all your other projects that you were going to finish “as soon as Christmas is over”, remember? Projects such as: curtains for the Baby’s room… he is more than a year old now, you know!

Warm Stitches,

Amy Butler's Frenchy Bag was Sewfie

The final gift Sewfie finished this holiday season - the Sweet Slice pincushion by designer Cindy Taylor Oates with Kaffe Fassett and Philip Jacob fabrics... for a very special Christmas Birthday Girl!

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