An oldie, but goodie

October 29, 2025

I found the original sales receipt. I purchased this open box serger on 10/28/2001 at the Sears store in Port Richey, Florida for $205.79 plus tax. Hard to believe I’ve had her 24 years!

Made by Janome, she’s a 4/3/2 model with a rolled hem feature that was a huge selling point for me back in the day. She’s been professionally serviced over the years, but normally sits tucked away in a cabinet most of the time.

The serger’s had a mini-spa day, complete with new needles and new cones of serger thread in light gray, medium beige and dark gray. I reviewed old instructional videos and adjusted the thread tensions for a 3 thread overlock stitch. My student will use it for seam finishes on her FIT portfolio garments. I’m also going to try a friend’s trick of using her serger to prep quilt edges for binding.

For me, the only drawback to an older serger is that threading the lower looper is a royal pain. Should my serger become a more integral part of my quilting activities, I’ll seriously consider upgrading to a new-to-me model with air jet threading. I simply won’t have the patience to continue wrangle threading the lower looper.

Thanksgiving Fun

October 27, 2025
Turkey themed fabric while curating my fabric collection.

Saturday afternoon I spent time culling part of my fabric stash. I have two cubbies in my sewing room closet that hold small square fabric bins. Twelve bins were emptied, sorted and reorganized. The equivalent of 3 bins of fabric is waiting to be re-homed.

The turkey fabric was unearthed during my session. Perfect, because I’d also found my notes regarding a turkey block tutorial from Lori Holt’s website:

Turkey block made using a tutorial from Lori Holt.

My fine feathered friend will receive a button eye and embroidered feet before being transformed into a pillow for our family room during the month of November.

An unexpected return to garment sewing

October 23, 2025

Although I’ve been quilting for several years, I learned to sew by making garments. A serger, French curve ruler and stash of specialty garment sewing notions are evidence of my past. My friend, Ruby, has inspired me to tiptoe back into garment making. We’ve chosen a simple top pattern and plan a shopping excursion to Gail K Fabrics soon.

Meanwhile, I’ve taught sewing lessons for ‘tweens and teens over many years. Our foray into garment sewing is usually limited to items such as pajama pants, elastic waist skirts and adding bling to RTW items. Back in 2017, I mentored a high school student through her senior project portfolio and later with designing/making her own prom dress. Almost a decade later, I’m mentoring another senior with the three sewn garments required as part of her portfolio application to the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.

With Joann now closed, sewists no longer have the ability to go flip through all the pattern books looking for inspiration. To select her portfolio projects, my mentee perused my limited selection of printed garment patterns and garment sewing books, print issues of Burda Style, websites of indie pattern designers and any newer garment sewing books we could find at the public libraries around us. She also spent time on social media gathering project ideas and portfolio prep advice.

Today, she took home her first completed garment for the portfolio – a ponte knit skirt. The skirt pattern – modified to add a front slit detail – came from the book Stretch by Tilly and the Buttons, which title is part of my personal sewing book collection. I have to say I’m impressed with the pattern, instructions and overall finished result. So much nicer than my experiences with the Big 4 pattern companies.

Our local library had a copy of Sustainable Style, sponsored by the Great British Sewing Bee. Published in 2020, the book is still available for sale in print and electronic formats, in case your library doesn’t offer it. In the book, my mentee found blouse and trouser patterns she wanted to make for her portfolio. The patterns that go along with the book can be found here. Technically, the patterns are free, but you have to print and tape the pages together or send the A0 pattern images out to a specialty printer who can print them at the correct size. My local printshop said it could print blueprint size pages; however, staff could not scale the image to print at the correct size, despite repeated attempts to do so.

Solution? I sent the master pattern image files to PDFPlotting in North Carolina. Keith returned the printed pattern sheets within two days. The patterns were printed correctly to scale, with crisp images and delivered wrinkle free. Two complete patterns for less than $25.00. Very reasonable in terms of cost and time saved not having to print and tape 60+ letter size sheets together!

Will I continue to quilt? Of course! Mentoring my student with her portfolio prep has merely whetted my appetite to try new things – a top and skirt, knit pjs, rope bowls, jelly roll rugs and sashiko stitching to name a few.

Here’s to learning new things and happy stitching!