The second time I quilted Joan of Ark.

This one just got first place at the Utah State Fair

Wait. That's a QUILT?!

YOU GUYS. THAT IS A QUILT.

Someone sent me a picture of this from the show! Wow!!! That feels like it makes you EXTRA FAMOUS for your amazing work, OP

sewing is one of those skills everyone with the ability should know IMO. i’ve known too many people who just throw out perfectly servicable clothing and bedding because of tears or buttons that have fallen off and these can be fixed at home. sewing’s not hard either. 

sewing, like baking bread, is one of those basic skills that corporations have convinced people is just impossible or too expensive for the average person to do in order to manipulate people into buying things.

i’m not saying sewing is possible for everyone, but if you have motor skills fine enough to, say, replace lead in a mechanical pencil, you can learn to sew, and you can help people who can’t sew. here’s a good guide with gifs.

this is what we mean when we say civilization de-skills us to make us dependent

This is a nice video showing an blind/invisible stitch, which is quite useful for repairing tears or finishing something (ex. cushion).

Also, that extra step for putting back the seam is really nice.

me realizing my experiences with sewing have been a lie this whole goddamn time:

My granny taught me these. We called them.blind stitches.

Cosplay (and general sewing) life hack- easy pleats with a fork! For all those school girl uniform cosplays and more :) 

@birdz555

Making the burgundy dress.

Design, patterns and sewing made by me. The dress is renaissance inspired, with some personal modifications. The whole dress was hand sewn, including the hems. More pictures of it and a tutorial can be found on my blog.  

- Maria Heller

EDIT:

You can buy it on Etsy

Make Some Pocket Extenders for Your Pants

So I don’t know about you, but I’m often frustrated by the ridiculous smallness of girls’ pockets. At a bare minimum, I need to be able to shove my cellphone in there - come on, pants companies! So what I started doing was making myself pocket extenders. I’ve done this several times, for pants and shorts. It’s great.

I just got this pair of jeans, so I thought I’d show you how to do it. I kind of feel like it just hasn’t occurred to some of you that this is an option, so maybe now it will. All you need is your pants, some fabric (I just took a random piece from a scrap bin), a needle, and some thread (thread doesn’t even need to match the fabric since literally no one will see it).

See? Ridiculous. Like, half a cellphone, or only 2.5″. Useless.

 So turn those inside out to expose the pockets.

Figure out how big you want your pockets to actually be. I kinda go by whatever looks like might be right. I didn’t really measure them. Fold the fabric in half, so you have a pocket, and then fold it in half again so you can have two equal ones.

Try to get the edges to line up enough, pin it in place, then sew up the sides! Are your stitches crazy uneven and wonky looking? Doesn’t matter; nobody’s going to see it. These are in the inside of your pants. The only thing that matters is that it holds up. So I double-did the corners, since those tend to get the most stress.

Cut open the bottom of the existing pockets.

Pin it in place, then sew around, joining the new pocket to the old pocket. I did this by keeping my hand on the inside, so I wouldn’t accidentally sew through the other side. Again, I reinforced the corners, and didn’t worry about what it actually looks like. Then I turned it in side out to make sure the inside was all joined properly.

Yay all done! And the pockets are so much bigger now!

Whaaaat I can fit my entire phone and entire hand and probably something else now, are girls’ pockets even allowed to do that?! Heck yeah they are.

You are a goddamn hero.