Mini tote bag instructions

Cut two pieces of material 

8"wide by 9" high 

Cut two handles

To desired lenght 

Stitch around three sides, make sure you backstitch at the beginning and end.

Fold the corners into a triangle to form the bottom. For this size I did two inches from the center of the needle to the tape. ( I like to use the tape when teaching these so both sides are the same.)

Fold the top over double 1/2" and pin handles in place. 

Stitch across top, make sure you secure handles by going back and forth a couple of times on each.

You are done! Congratulations.

Maria

New patches

These are patches I sewed on leather. I used a size 18 needle and had no problem with my regular HUSQVARNA sewing machine.

Ornament and Earring making class at Maria Sews A lot

Take a creative break and come make some ornaments with us. I'm very excited about our Make it Take it class on Friday November 14th. It's from 6:30-8:30 and the first hour we will be making ornaments and the second hour we will be making earrings.  wwww.mariasewsalot.com

Hope you stop by,

Maria

Floral inspiration

This is what I found in my garden this morning! Hope it gives you inspiration like it did for me. Happy sewing.

Maria

March 2014 Sewing Classes

Very excited about the new classes! Can't believe how many kids I'm teaching, and they keep getting younger each time. Do what you love, and love what you do.

Maria

www.mariasewsalot.com

February Vacation Knitting Class

I'm thankful for my sewing students

Today I want to thank my sewing students. I can't believe it's been 15 months since I started the sewing studio it all started with my first three students Amy, Pat and Sam. Yesterday Sam would not of been happy with me at all.My two hour class lasted for almost 3 and half hours. That's what happens sewing is sew exciting you lose trace of time.

Thank you for all your hard work, for listening to the instructions. Pinning the way you sew! Learning to use the iron even the little ones.  Being patient, keeping calm and sewing on!

I hope to inspire and keep you sewing for both our lifetimes. I will keep posting your projects on Facebook and now I've added a board to my Pinterest called Student's project. You know how I love Pinterest.

Thank you for sending me messages, thank you for all the likes on Facebook, and I see some of you are starting to find me in other social media outlets. You know I love technology, thanks Julio. 

I just want to make sure that even if you are not taking classes you are still sewing. You and I both know you love it, remember I was there when you were trying to hide the excitement of your finished project or how to finally use your machine that was still in the box! 

Many years of happy sewing and thank you for coming to my little studio.

Custom cushions

I just love the colors of these reversible cushions. Hope they inspire you.

Recycled sweater stocking

1. Cut the sweater to the shape of a stocking

2. Cut lining Material to the same shape

3. Put lining pieces right sides together and sew around the edges leaving the top open

4. Sew outside of stocking right sides together leaving top open

5. Stick one stocking inside the other right sides together and stitch around leaving a whole big enough for turning inside out

6. Turn right side out

7. Top stitch around the top of the stocking

8. Stitch cording to side to hang

You are done!

Purple fun today

So excited got my new kid's mannequin now I can take new pictures!

Basic Sewing Supplies

Here is a list of the basic sewing supplies you will need with pictures. These are the ones I can't do without for all types of sewing. These are the items I keep multiples of.

1. Fabric snips on a clip, so I can clip them to my shirt.

2. Fabric scissors.

3. Pins

4. Magnetic bowl or pin cushion 

5. Tracing wheels

7. Marking chalk or pencil

8. Tracing or wax paper

9. Measuring gauge 

10. Tape measure

11. Seam ripper 

12. Thread

13. Thread conditioner (wax) (Thread Heaven) 

14. Hand sewing needles

15. Yard stick

16. Thimble

There are a lot of different tools that I have incorporated from sewing all different kinds of projects into my regular sewing and these are a few. They are not necessary but, if you plan on doing a lot of different types of sewing I would definitely recommend that also get in the items below.

I also like to have a self healing cutting mat, ruler and rotary cutter on hand (rotary cutters are not meant to be used on anything but cutting mats, they definitely will ruin your table or anything else you try to used them on). They are very sharp and you need to be careful, make sure you close it when not in use.

If I'm doing window treatments I also like to have a 72 inch metal ruler. 

I believe that is about it for basic tools. Remember sewing  is supposed to be a relaxing experience the only mistake you can make is cutting ( remember measure twice cut once) and not a big deal we just go out to Fabric store and get new fabric. If you make a mistake sewing, you just use your seam ripper that's what it's for.

Happy sewing,

Maria

Sewing 101 in Portuguese

Sewing 101
I just love teaching and today was no exception. Except for the fact that I did the class half in English and half in Portuguese. Teaching sewing in Portuguese is new for me. I have been teaching a class in social media and selling on the internet in Portuguese, but sewing is a little different.
It was so much fun watching someone who didn't know how to thread a machine leave the sewing studio with a zippered wristlet. Today I taught a mother and daughter how to sew and this is what they made.

September is National Sewing Month

September is National Sewing Month.  I'm going to start the very beginning of the month with sewing classes. I'm sew excited! Classes are going to start on the third so we can start of and get four full weeks. I have been pinning all kinds of boards on Pinterest of the fun things I want to do. The Sewing 101 are starting to fill up the specialty class I will be adding in a couple of weeks. I'm thinking we are going be sewing here 7 days a weeks and I just can't wait! National Sewing Month +Maria Sews A Lot is going to be a blast! Wait until you see the little crochet flowers I'm working on.http://www.mariasewsalot.com/Pages/Classes.aspx

September Sewing Classes

In September we will be starting all our sewing classes the first week so we can get a whole four weeks of sewing fun in. We will be keeping the Sewing 101 the same Monday's 10-12 Wednesday's 6:30-8:30 and Saturday's 9-11. That seemed to work out for most people. If it didn't work out for you send me and e-mail. The Know Your Sewing Machine I will continue doing as a private class, as I feel people get more out of it that way and they learn about their machine not somebody else's.

I will be adding a few more classes and put up a calendar so people can see what classes are what days. I will be adding a window treatment class, a pillow class, a flower making class, crochet class, knitting class. A start your own sewing business class and the class everyone has been asking me for is a social media class. Let's get everybody's Klout up. http://klout.com/home

If there are specific class someone is interested in taking please let me know.

It's going to be an exciting time at 262 Main St. this September. Hope everyone is ready?  I will be adding classes the month of August the the link below will be changing.

http://www.mariasewsalot.com/Pages/Classes.aspx

July 4th Independence Day

Happy Independence Day, hope you fly your flags proud and are thankful for all you have. It's been a long week here and an even longer weekend. It's now time to merge all our different cultures into one great culture and head to the beach or have a barbecue, parade or baseball or how ever you choose to celebrate July 4th. After all how many countries really have a birthday?

My God!  How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!  ~Thomas Jefferson

Sewing Inspiration for starting your business

Lately I have been having a lot of women calling or emailing me about starting their own sewing related business.  So I have decided that come September I will be having a class to help everyone get all their thoughts and ideas down. To help everyone form a timeline of when they want to start and what it is exactly they want to do.  There are so many talented people out there, there is no reason why you should let a little fear get in your way.
If you are one of the few that has driven by the studio and thought maybe I should stop, well you really should. It's a lot of fun, maybe this blog is for you to see.  I am also looking for a few talented sewing and crafting teachers for fall classes, if that is you call, email, text, Facebook or better yet stop by. You might like it.

Custom Sewing

                                                     Custom Sewing
Lately I have been getting a lot of calls from people that want custom items sewn.  I am really enjoying that.  It started with an apron then a knitting needle case, an embroidered hanky made out of someone's shirt.  Then back to an apron again, a pocketbook, a wine glass coaster, backpack and back to an apron.  The first apron was very design specific, the second one we worked on was a custom embroidery that I thought came out pretty good. It made me realize how much I really love making custom sewing items.  It made realize how lucky I am that I get to do what I love every day and people get so happy to receive the sewing items I make for them.  Hope you enjoy these pictures, check out my Facebook for more.

Display rack

King Richard's Faire Costume Class