Charity Sewalong – May 2019

Girls Time Out Young Women’s Support Service Inc

GTO-logo-smallGirls Time Out Young Women’s Support Service Inc provides a range of programs and support to women that are homeless, living in rough conditions, pregnant or need help with day to day living. They are committed to responding and attending to the needs of young women in their community that require this support, to help their growth and human potential.

Their mission is for these women to live in an equitable and culturally welcoming society. To ensure that they are empowered and valued, experience respect and support and have access to human necessities such as education, affordable housing and peer/parenting support.

Sewalongs are a great way to get inspired by what everyone creates, while giving to a worthy cause. If you’re new to sewing or embroidering this is a great chance to get involved and have fun no matter what the outcome. Any excuse to put your sewing and embroidery machines to good use is a great one.

SEWALONG BRIEF

easycosmeticsbag_aiid1843727For this month’s charity, we are asking you to have a go at sewing a cosmetics bag which will be gifted to the young women participating in the programs at GTO Young Women’s Support Service Inc.

We have selected a beginners pattern of a cosmetic bag from bluprint (formerly known as Craftsy) for this project. The project can be downloaded for free if you are a bluprint member and is a great project to introduce beginners to some of the many techniques as they include well-written instructions as well as a YouTube video that is easy to follow and should allow you to achieve a great result!

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Charity Sewalong – March 2019

Impact

women-jumping-silhouetteImpact is a 100% volunteer charity committed to making a difference to women and children fleeing from home due to extreme violence. Having started as an ovum of an idea in March 2006, a small group of friends sourced donations to pack 100 hampers which were distributed to a few metropolitan refugees supporting victims of family violence. Twelve years later, volunteers of all ages, religious and cultural backgrounds come together twice a year to pack more than 1000 hampers or ‘Bags of Love’ as they now call them, to women in metropolitan Melbourne.

For this month’s charity we are asking you to create and sew a Bag of Love, which Impact can pack and use to distribute to these domestic violence victims.

Sewalong Brief

We challenge you to create a small laundry, bathroom or tote bag around 25cm x 30cm width. All styles, sizes and designs will be accepted.

This is the perfect project to challenge yourself to learn how to sew and decorate with zips, pockets, lace, embroidery, quilting and much more. Plus, if you’re a member of Bluprint (Craftsy) you can download a number of free sewing patterns which are ideal for this sewalong.

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Ashley Drawstring Pouch & The Anna Pouch Continue reading

Charity Sewalong – February 2019

Little Stars Kids

Little Stars Kids mission is to bring healing, happiness, fun, laughter and hope to the lives of children throughout Queensland who have experienced abuse and neglect. They are the only charity in Australia who has a camp program designed for children living in long term foster care aged 4-10.

Little Star Kids provides Cuddle Cases filled with new essential items like a quilts, pillows, hygiene kits, drink bottles, crayons and much more. This month, we are asking all sewing enthusiasts to get involved and create a special plush toy that can be included in these Cuddle Cases.

Sewalong Brief

Craftsy (now known as Blueprint) has a number of free adorable sewing patterns available for download. Including Fox/Cat/Dog/Wolf, Narwhal Whale, Bat, Koi Fish, Dolphin and Elephant! If you’re new to sewing, these are the perfect beginner project, as they include well-written instructions and step-by-step photos.

Download the Free Craftsy Sewing Patterns Continue reading

Customize a kids hooded bath towel

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There are some really great patterns out there to create your child the perfect bathrobe or hooded towel to use at home or at the beach. This is an ideal project to introduce you to embroidering on towelling fabric. You can decorate the garment with some cute sea life embroidery designs or something that your child enjoys, such as the Disney embroidery designs which you will find on the Brother Disney Embroidery machines.

Tips for embroidering on Towel

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Charity Sewalong – January 2019

Dymocks Children’s Charity

monster-library-bag-1.jpgDymocks Children’s Charities supports early literacy in Australia by providing new books to children in low social economic and disadvantaged areas. The charity delivers programs that target students, primary school libraries and pre-school/ community centres. Most projects involve restocking school libraries where there is insufficient school funding for books, or following natural disasters in a particular area. Dymocks Children’s Charities pairs with sponsors to place a catalogue of quality titles to choose from in selected schools in these regions, so that they can get the books that they really want and need.

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This month we are asking you to create a Children’s Monster Library Bag to help Dymocks fundraise for their Annual Gala event, where they’re hoping to raise $325,000, which will go towards funding new books for these children. Continue reading

Create your own Pencil Case

pencil-case.jpgPencil cases are one of the best beginner projects because they’re fast, fun and can be easily customised. This tutorial shows you ideas on fabric types, embroidery designs, quilting styles and how to apply your own ScanNCut design.

What you need

Fabric Required

Recommended fabrics such as cotton, linen, denim, canvas or drill.

  • Front & Back: Cut two 24cm x 14cm in both fabric and lining
  • Zipper Tabs: Cut two 4cm x 4cm in fabric

Pencil Case Tutorial

Fabric Pencil Case

Create a simple pencil case with fun, bright fabric.

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Charity Sewalong: July 2018

adorable-animal-bulldog.jpgThe Animal Welfare League (AWL) is a national non-profit organisation caring for companion animals across Australia.

AWL works with local councils, state government, rescue groups and the community to improve the outcomes of stray and surrendered pets. They are nationally recognised for their unique and innovative programs, initiatives and re-homing strategies.

In this month’s sewalong we are asking you to stitch, embroider or design your most creative dog or cat bandana, which the AWL can give away with new adopted pets or sell in their stores to raise money for much-needed supplies.

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Sewalong Brief

Get creative by embroidering, appliqueing or decorating your dog or cat bandannas with sewing trims like the one below.

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Create a Sewing Machine Reference Guide

If you’re a new or regular sewing/embroidery machine user one of the best things you can do to enhance your sewing projects is to create a sewing machine reference guide booklet. It’s simple, easy and will teach you all about your machine.

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Creating a sewing machine reference guide will show you in detail what your machine is capable of and enable you to make a better use of your machine stitches and settings. Even if you’ve owned a machine for years, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by what this booklet will teach you about your machine. Plus, it makes it super easy to reference when creating those beautiful sewing projects.

What you need to create your booklet

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Create a ‘shabby chic’ apron

This project will teach you how to decorate an apron using lace, fabric, your machine decorative stitches and applique techniques.

To create this project you can use any style sewing machine. I have used a Brother NV110 sewing machine.

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What you will need

Apron

You can sew your own basic apron using the pattern from our May Charity Sewalong. I have purchased this apron from a Daiso Japanese store for only $2.80. You may also be able to find aprons like this from $2 stores across Australia.

Materials

  • Download the Applique Shape Patterns (PDF, 400KB)
  • Hot Melt Web for the applique
  • Range of matching fat quarters for the applique
  • Lace style 1 – 2 x width (plus 2 inches) of the bottom of your apron and 1 x the top width (plus 2 inches).
  • Lace style 2 – 1 x width (plus 2 inches) of the top of your apron and 1 x the width of the pocket (plus 2 inches)
  • Lace style 3 – 1 x width of your pocket (plus 2 inches)
  • Fabric – 6 inches x (2 x width (plus 2 inches) of the bottom of your apron and 1 x the top width (plus 2 inches))

How to create your apron

First you need to get together all of your fabric, lace and applique pieces. Start cutting out your applique shapes from the fat quarters. You can choose any colours for these applique shapes but I would suggest you choose a white fabric for the circle and then style your cupcake shapes differently.

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Embroider your world with Brother & Echidna

by Gary Walker

It seems incredible that sewing machinery has been around since the early 1800’s and embroidery technology since 1964. This machinery started off as heavy, complex, incredibly expensive and mostly found in factories. Commercial machine embroidery for high volume orders replaced a much more tedious and painstaking process of stitching by hand. Yet the fundamental principle remains the same: a top and a bottom thread are stitched together over and over again to gradually produce a pattern.

We’ve all worn embroidered garments, we have embroidered articles throughout our homes, we decorate and identify ourselves with embroidery. Automated machine embroidery has influenced fashion and décor since its very inception.

Today, computer technology has put this automatic machine embroidery process within reach of everyone. You don’t even need sewing skills!

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