My Homemade Hand Crank Singer 403A
Could it be this easy? Just add a knob to the hand wheel? I didn’t know, but the motor doesn’t work any more, so there was nothing to lose by trying. I drilled a hole in the hand wheel and…
Category Sewing
Jumper Dress Pattern for Women
It’s about as simple, basic and easy as a sewing pattern can get. Free pdf to print at home. Free pinafore dress pattern with modest neckline and long armholes. Adult woman/misses size. This is a multi-size pattern I made up…
Sushi Cushion to Sew
Here’s a great project from a reader named Susan. She wanted to sew a sushi pillow as a gift for her grandson, and happened across my spirals page while looking for ideas. I had no idea “sushi pillow” was a…
My New Pfaff Sewing Machine
From May 2009. I’m putting it back because it is still one of my favorite stories! I went to the free swap at the library, bringing my bags of old junk and expecting some other, fresher and thus more fun…
Music-Themed Spiral Skirt
Dramatic black, white and red music-themed fabric chosen by a musician. I only have a couple photos while it was in progress. Hopefully one day I’ll have a photo of it being worn! This was made from the patterns on…
Adult Size Spiral Dress
Here’s a full length spiral dress for a grown-up woman! …with wolves on it. Long ago, I found a spiral dress at a second hand shop. It was too small for me, but I was so fascinated with those seams…
Child Size Spiral Dress
Ruffles! A huge, swirly overload of fluttering spiral. How to do this? We need volume of fabric. As usual, I started moderate before going more extreme. The first attempt with a 4″ curved gore produced a conservative A-line skirt shape.…
Quilt As You Go Potholders
Easy and quick homemade scrapwork potholders make great DIY gifts! You don’t need a pattern and they’re FREE to make out of fabric scraps. Most of the instructions I found for quilted potholders use bias binding, like commercial potholders. But…
Women’s Peasant Dress Pattern
Free printable peasant dress pattern for adult females. The word for grown up girls is “women”. That word is not a code for fat. Age and marital status do not doom one to being overweight, any more than unmarried “misses”…
Spiral Skirts and Dresses
All patterns are Adobe pdf for free download and printing. They print out onto sheets of 8.5 x 11 printer paper which you tape together then cut out. Be sure they print out at 100% size not “scale to fit”…
Simple Segment Skirt Pattern Piece
It’s just a basic skirt shape with some lines marked. Years ago I cut something like this out of heavy paper using a string for a compass, and it’s come in handy dozens of times for all kinds of applications.…
Medieval Dress Pattern for Women
This is about as medieval-looking as I need to be, and I’m sharing my pattern here in case it comes in handy for anyone else. I read the instructions about how to cut a medieval t-tunic dress the authentic historical…
Quilt As You Go – String Patchwork
A great idea, and I looked around the internet for instructions, but nothing really clicked and gave me a clear sense that I was ready to get started. I had to mull it over for a couple days. When patchwork…