What do you want to know?

Let me know if you have a sewing, crafting, home decorating, or how-to issue you would like answered or discussed.  Post your idea or concern in the comments below or email it.  If I use your idea, I'll send you a $25 gift certificate to jcaroline creative!  I hope to handle two ideas a month, though if time allows, I'll do as many as I can as often as I can.  Throw out your ideas big or small and if I don't know the answer, I'll do my best to research and find one.  I'm not an expert on many topics, but I can usually find one!

If the same idea is posted multiple times, the first post or email gets the gift certificate.  But please go ahead and post even if it is a duplicate idea.  It will increase the chance of me picking that topic and there might be consolation prizes!

Comments

[Joy]

I always struggle with stretchy fabrics be they knit or anything else for that matter. Is there a trick to sewing stretchy material? What is the best way to sew a stretchy fabric to a non stretchy fabric? Thanks for this new "want to know" section!!! How fabulous!

[Abigail]

I'm interested in buying a dressform, but don't really know what to look for, especially for a beginner. Do you like Mona and is there a specific brand/type you'd recommend?

[Tami]

Thanks for this new section!

I'm new to sewing, but I'm addicted. Right now, I'm up to my ears in some beautiful Kaufman canvas prints, Amy Butler's Lotus, and a few others. Do you have any suggestions for home decor projects? I've already made pillows and curtains, and I decorated a blank wooden tray (thanks for the how-o's!), but I'm out of ideas. I'd love to hear some new, relatively simple ideas

[J]

Here's what I'd like to know: what's the easiest, most reliable way to cut a perfect square (or rectangle) from a piece of fabric? I always end up being off by a quarter inch, not having perfect right angles, or something else being a tiny bit off.

[carrie]

My question is about the ethics of making stuff and selling it. On the internet there are so many awesome ideas and tutorials for people to try out. If someone wants to start selling some of their handmade items (i.e. on etsy or at craft fairs,etc.) what are the guidelines for "using" another person's idea? It is often impossible to know whose idea one is actually borrowing (since many people are making similar kinds of things)... but do you have any general thoughts on this? I would love to make a little money while doing something that I love, but I also worry about acknowledging where I got my ideas. This is a sticky subject in some ways, but I would really like to hear your thoughts concerning it. Thanks so much.
Carrie Z.

[Angie]

This is such a basic question, I'm almost embarrassed to ask it. I've been looking for a good explanation of how to blindstitch. Not a hem, but for instance, I was working with a softie pattern that said to blindstitch the head to the body. I don't know what that means and most sites talk about doing a blindstitch hem, which doesn't really work for me in this case.

[Meredith]

I would like to know how to embroider on stretchy fabrics, such as t-shirt material. I recently got "Sublime Stitching" and I'm eager to use the patterns, but most of the things I want to embroider on are too stretchy to use. What's a girl to do?

[Leila]

You have a nice site! I see that you are interested and knowledgeable about ribbons as well as fabric, so here's my question.

I have made some baby blankets with regular packaged satin binding. That looks okay, and as if a baby would like it, but I think that that binding doesn't feel as silky soft as bindings on commercial baby blankets. It seems very stiff and sort of plastic.

I have searched and searched the internet and the few shops around here, and really, there seems to be no choice for the home seamstress other than that one choice.

Then I thought -- what about just using satin ribbon, which really seems softer than the binding.

My question is, do you think that the kind of ribbon you get in the notions section would hold up through washings and baby use the way the binding does, and if not, where O where can one get the softer binding used on ready-made blankets? Could you sell it?

Thanks so much,
Leila

[Robin]

My question is about home decorating. How can you decorate your home to look tasteful yet homey? Some homes are too much on the formal side; you feel as though you can't walk on the carpet or touch anything because it is all too expensive and fancy. Yet other homes are not decorated at all, and this is where I feel my home is. It feels empty, messy and cold. I want a cute, inviting space that is also practical for my family. Where do I begin?

[Wendy]

Hello,
I would like to know the steps of getting my fabric printed. I have several great designs that I would like to have made into fabric but I'm at a loss as to where to even begin.
Thank you!
Wendy

[Adrienne]

Caroline, you are my idol!!! I LOVE your site- you have such wonderful ideas and products. I love the new fabric and your idea of a duvet cover from it. Could you provide us with a how-to on making a duvet? I know it couldn't be but so hard, and I'm sure I could eventually figure it out, but I'm sure you'd come up with a quicker and better way to do it!

Thanks! ;o) Adrienne

[Chandra]

I think that all of the ideas that you suggested as well as what has been submitted so far sound wonderful!! This will be great.

Here are a few additional ideas:
>General lesson on types of interfacing-types, when to use what
>How to sew a blind hem on a sewing machine.
>General lesson on needle sizes for the sewing maching. There are so many sizes and I never know if I'm using the correct needle size.
>General applique tips. I can applique straight lines just fine...I have trouble with curves and could use some help.
Thanks!

[Tami]

Could you give some suggestions for sewing around small openings (like for bags, purses, basket liners)? Once I get to the last sides, I struggle with moving the fabric around the needle (it gets bunched up). Are there special tools or machine functions/add-ons I should look into?

Thanks!

[Joyce]

How do I begin to sew? I have a sewing machine from like 1986. Last time I tried to use my mothers, I sewed my finger...ouch! Everytime I use mine, the thread gets all knotted. I would like to use some of the amazing fabrics to make some pillows, tea towels, recover my ugly couch? but I don't know how to start. Help! I live in the middle of nowhere and my family isn't around me to help. (If my mother was here, she's a genious with craft and she's help...but she's not)

[Kristen]

I would like to know the proper way to use bias tape. I bought a pattern for a toddler's sundress and it calls for bias tape around the arms and neck but I don't understand how to use it.
Thanks!

[Stephanie]

How do I make it so my pink jacquard ribbon or any light colors don't show through as darker(the problem is that the area where the alligator for example is showing up a different shade of pink that the portion without) when on the webbing for a key fob? I have done the key fob exactly as you stated but I am still having this problem? Please help!!!

THANK YOU!! I love your store and your blog!

Best Regards,
Stephanie

[erika]

i would like to know your recommendations about buying a sewing machine. this will be my first one and i'm looking at a baby lock 'crafters' which is computerized. my budget began at $3-400 but then i found this approx $1200 machine for $585......i really want to know if this would be too much machine for me or if it's something worth growing into and not having to grow out of for a long time.
thank you!

[Kylie]

Hi
This may sound like a stupid question but am I correct in assuming that the unprinted selvedge of the fabric ALWAYS runs down the left side of the fabric as you look at it (so I guess the right side of the fabric). Please help as I think that I may have made some bags with the pattern upside down - although you would never know by looking at them - and I would hate to upset some designers if they saw some of my bags. Thanks

[Gwen]

Hi Caroline - My sister follows your site and recommended I ask you for help!

My husband was recently transporting his grandmother's sewing machine to his mother's house. This was the good thing he did.

In transporting it, he didn't pay attention to how he put it in the back of the minivan. If I had to guess he just dumped the machine, case, and accessories in a heap in the back. This, the bad.

I guess this because somehow sewing machine oil - purchased sometime in the mid 1970s if I had to guess - oozed all over the back of my van and is now deep in the upholstery. The car smells like a superfund site.

Question: Do you have ANY idea how to get sewing machine old out of car upholstery?!?

Thank you!

[Gwen]

Hi Caroline - My sister follows your site and recommended I ask you for help!

My husband was recently transporting his grandmother's sewing machine to his mother's house. This was the good thing he did.

In transporting it, he didn't pay attention to how he put it in the back of the minivan. If I had to guess he just dumped the machine, case, and accessories in a heap in the back. This, the bad.

I guess this because somehow sewing machine oil - purchased sometime in the mid 1970s if I had to guess - oozed all over the back of my van and is now deep in the upholstery. The car smells like a superfund site.

Question: Do you have ANY idea how to get sewing machine old out of car upholstery?!?

Thank you!