Repurposing old denim jeans, particularly their wonderful back pockets, is a sustainable way to make use of once favorite jeans. Old jeans can be cut up and refashioned in numerous ways for sure, however the back pockets can be incorporated into so many functional and creative sewing projects.

Although an efficient and organized sewing area may at times seem like an impossible dream, particularly after viewing the photos of dreamy sewing and craft room organization efforts of others, it is worth a try to apply some organization, and even personalization to our favored sewing areas.

Sewing for summer weather with airy and breezy cottons, linen types, hand-dyed batiks, Swiss batiste, and brightly colored tropical prints with vibrant coordinating solids all bring to mind those visions of barefoot living and dreamy seaside cabana suppers.

Just a few red, white and blue easy to sew accent items for a backyard picnic or scattered throughout the home make for a very festive and patriotic statement. Individual red, white and blue fabric scraps combine to make for quick to sew or no-sew projects.

It is the long-lasting durability of denim jeans that makes them perfect to reutilize or remake into just about anything. Deconstruct those jeans into useable flat panels, separating back pockets, belt loops, factory hems and waistbands to be reassembled into useable, worthy and functional items.

In trying to decipher optimal sewing machine tension for fabric, as if needle and thread choices were not enough for the home sewer, the serger or overlock machine elevates all, at times frustratingly, to an entirely new level of machine sewing considerations. Balanced serger stitches are the goal.

Shibori is a Japanese hand dyeing technique that involves folding, twisting or bunching cloth, binding it, then dyeing using an indigo dye. Different than the multi-colored tie-dyeing psychedelic creations of the anti-establishment youth of the 1960’s, Shibori uses indigo dye on light colored cloth.

Father's Day in the U.S. is celebrated on the third Sunday of June. It became a recognized holiday when in 1972 then President Nixon signed a bill nearly six decades after the U.S. officially recognized a day to celebrate mothers. Consider sewing a special gift for that special dad in your life.

A fabric cover for your sewing machine (or serger) will protect the investment in your machine or preserve the hard-working parts of a cherished hand-me-down so that it may continue to function well. Fabric dust covers are easy to sew or some surprising no-sew options are available.

What has reupholstering got to do with sewing? Actually, everything! From choosing fabric type, determining how much fabric yardage to acquire, batting wraps, measuring, cutting, and some stitching there are many commonalities with sewing to consider when attempting a modest reupholstering project.