I’ll replace buttons, fix seams and hem my own pants.

I also repair holes in my favorite knit tops.

It seems as if knit fabric keeps getting thinner and thinner. It doesn’t matter how much I pay for a knit garment – my favorite tops always get holes where the top meets the zipper area of my waistband. That’s why I keep a small quantify of Easy Knit (Pellon EK130) interfacing in black and white with my sewing supplies.

This fusible interfacing will stretch with your knit garment. Simply cut a small strip or square and fuse to the wrong side of your t-shirt following the manufacturer’s instructions. Simply squishing the hole back together before you fuse the interfacing down might be enough to repair the hole. If not, you can darn the hole using your sewing machine or hand stitch it. I prefer to hand stitch small areas. It took about 15 minutes to mend 3 knit tops this morning.

From a distance, the repair is practically invisible.

Do you mend or are you part of the “I don’t do mending” quilter camp?

The tune is one of those ditties we learned in nursery school (The Farmer in the Dell).

I did it. I signed up for the July retreat. I’m going to sew and spa for three days. Aahhh…

Seriously, though, it’s been a challenge to find a retreat that offers: 1) private accommodation options, 2) project(s) that appeal to me or the option to BYO projects and (3) reasonable costs.

You have to really dig, but such options do exist:

1. Lutherridge offers a Quilt Camp in April near Asheville, NC. It’s a BYO projects retreat, offers private rooms and has reasonable costs. The catch? There are only four private rooms available. Of course, they were the first ones to go!
   
2. Camellia Palms Retreat Center in south Alabama offers instructor led retreats in a restored old home on a lake. Private rooms available, reasonable costs, but the project offered for the weekend I could go was not something that appealed to me.
   
3. The Alabama Folk School at Camp McDowell offers a quilt camp with the Gees Bend ladies. It checks all the criteria, but is not during a week I can go.

Really need to get away from it all for 2-3 days? Pick a spot spot within a 2 hour drive, reserve a hotel room and create a DIY quilt retreat.

This is totally my jam – teaching 9-12 year olds how to sew while incorporating a technology component.

Today, the girls applied HTV letter appliqués that I’d cut out on my Cricut Maker (font: MADE Sunflower about 5″ tall). I demonstrated how to use the Cricut EasyPress and let them apply their own appliqués under my supervision.

I collected their color choices in advance by sending out a 2 question survey using Survey Monkey.

The girls began their sewing classes about four weeks ago. They had 3 weeks of Sewing Machine Bootcamp where they made small projects and learned how to operate a sewing machine with Miss Margo and Miss Nancy. Today was the first of 3 project based classes.

Didn’t they do an AWESOME job?

P.S. This is a great beginner project and can easily be extended to meet the needs of a more “advanced” sewist in the group. It took us 1-1/2 hours from start to finish, including photos and clean-up time. Attached is a copy of the lesson plan for our Simple Stuffed Pillow project.