Sarah's Sew Studio

I finally managed to clean up and organize my little sewing space, which is a section of our finished basement.  I prefer bright, airy spaces full of natural light and this is a bit man cave-ish but, hey, I'll take what I can get.  It's better than having to set up shop temporarily on the dining room table.







I have some recent sewing projects to share!  The first is one of three skirts that will be wrapped up and placed under our Christmas tree.  I haven't decided who will receive this one yet.  I think I'm going to use the owl fabric in all three but make them slightly different.




For the past year, I've wanted to post a sewing tutorial for a basic twirl skirt, like this one, but I never seem to take the right photos or I go too much into the details and the tutorial begins to resemble a book.  I took the time to photograph the various steps of creating this skirt and should be able to pull together a basic tutorial not only for sewing but also for how to create your own pattern.  (It's going to be a few weeks before I began that though.)

I also whipped up this double layer Christmas skirt.









Okay, let's talk fabric.  The only store close to where I live is Joann and we all know that they don't carry designer fabrics.  (That sounds so snobby.)  I have purchased fabric from Hawthorne Threads before and I love to browse their website but tend to stay away because it is pricey.  I only buy fabric from Joann if it is on sale or if I have a coupon.  A few weeks ago, I came across these fabrics on Hawthorne Threads and had to buy some.




The girls love all three and have placed orders for a maxi skirt, a twirl skirt and a dress.  I do admit that there is a difference in more expensive fabric but because my kids are only five years old and could at any moment dump a bowl of vanilla ice cream covered in chocolate sauce all over themselves, I don't mind using the less expensive fabric.

Hawthorne Threads doesn't even know that I exist so this isn't a paid review or anything.  I just want to comment that my experience with them has been great.  My latest purchase was made at 9:30 on a Thursday night.  My purchase arrived in the mail on Monday and it was packaged up really well so that if it had been raining or snowing, the fabric wouldn't have been damaged.

This next fabric selection is for my anonymous commenters (all two of them) who have accused me of only using cheesy fabrics that look like scrubs material. 



During our last visit to Michigan, my Mamaw gave me a stack of older fabrics, including this piece.  (Always remember that fabric hoarding is real and can happen to you.)  I could see if those were unicorns but I can't figure out the rainbow-zebra connection.  Emily has requested a skirt from it.  Rainbows appear to be back in style these days.  Maybe I'll incorporate some zebra print fabric...