The trick decorators use is to back the outer pillow fabric with lightweight batting to create a continuous smooth surface. The stuffing goes inside the batting and no lumps are visible on the outside.

If you prefer, make a separate inner pillow from the lightweight batting and stuff it firmly before inserting it into the outer pillow. This allows the outer shell to be removed and either cleaned or washed if needed.

When you’re stuffing a pillow insert, try to blend together the handfuls of stuffing rather than leaving them as separate clumps. You’ll have smoother look to the finished item.

SEW-lutions Tip: See SEW-lutions Guideline #8.120 for more information on creating pillows.

We want to see your most creative ideas!

Enter the Reuse, Remake, Restyle Challenge at the National Sewing Month website. The contest runs through September 30, 2009 and prize packages for the top 3 winning entries will include equipment, fabrics, tools, notions and more.

Serging is also another means to create things quickly, yet with a professional finish. Ready, Set, Serge, by Georgie Melot, offers 32 great projects that you can create in only minutes with the serger. Plus, she includes comprehensive serger information if you’ve forgotten the basics of this wonderful machine.

Along with our need for quick, there’s also some times when more serious information is needed. Deborah Jones has penned Machine Embroidery on Difficult Materials to answer those questions about embroidering on things like velvet, vinyl, leather and 16 other surfaces that can be a bit tricky. Get the low-down on stabilizers, needles and hooping these eccentric fabrics for embroidery success.

The goal of the book Fabricate, by Susan Wasinger, is to put emphasis on the fabric. There are 17 projects utilizing unique fabric effects, like pleating, cording, applique, etching, burning and pleating. So, if you need to play and love fabrics, this book is great fun.

If simple garment making is more to your liking, Chic & Simple Sewing, by Christine Haynes, is a book you’ll need. It offers full-size patterns for more than 20 wearables–like skirts, dresses, tops and jackets. Detailed sewing techniques are included with each project, so the learnings transfer to other garments and accessory sewing as well.

So, kick back on the next sunny day (or even a rainy one will do) and curl up with a good book. There are many to choose from, depending on your interests!

Recently I received a new book titled Quilts in my Cubicle, by Barbara Holtzman. It offers patterns for quilts themed throughout the year. None are bigger than about 13″ square, so they’re perfect for an office environment where space might be limited or there are policies about personal decorating. I think it’s a great way to be tasteful without taking up much room, and the minis would also be ideal for gifting to a co-worker. It adds a bit of cheer to a cubicle, and says “I sew.” It also gives you the opportunity to try out some new sewing skills, as they’re a variety of techniques used during the various months’ offerings. Just a bit of cheer each month!

For even more fun, get your co-workers together for a little quilting bee of sorts and help everyone make quilts for their spaces. It’s fun to see what fabrics everyone chooses to create the same pattern, and how very different they all look when they’re done.

I think sewers are always lamenting the fact that they need to organize–whether its upcoming projects, the fabric stash, burgeoning bookshelves or beads and notions filling drawers. If you’re in need of some helpful hints, check out The One-Minute Organizer: A-Z Storage Solutions book, by Donna Smalin. The sub-title notes “500 tips for storing every item in your home.” This handy little tome is organized alphabetically by some common categories of things that can easily get out of control around the house and offers up ideas for storage solutions. The author also discusses the pros and cons of various storage solutions.

One of the things I like best about this book is that it breaks tasks into small bits. Rather than turning away from my computer and staring at a dissheveled sewing room, I am encouraged to focus only on one area at a time–like my interfacing drawer, perhaps, or the cutting table surface. If I take a few minutes to organize a small section of the room at a time, then I feel like I’ve accomplished something, and soon the entire room will be in much better array than when I began. It’s much like Nancy Zieman’s book titled 10-20-30 Minutes to Sew. Using small bits of time to measure accomplishments is a great motivator. I do the same thing during TV commericials–how much can I get done during the 2-3 minute breaks?

So, I would encourage you not to view your organizing project as your entire home, but rather to break it down into smaller portions like this well-written book suggests, and pretty soon you’ll have made significant progress and feel good about what you’ve done.

Did you know that Halloween is the biggest sewing season of the year for pattern companies? If you’ve been to a fabric store lately, you may have seen some folks who don’t normally frequent the place wandering around looking as if they need help. Non-sewers flock to fabric stores this time of year in search of the perfect angel wing fabric, or the ulitmate in pirate attire for their special youngsters. Patient salespeople help those who may only have a vision for the final result and absolutely no idea how to achieve it.

Since I have no children, other than the fur children mentioned above, I concentrate on decorating for this annual event. I’m using my serger to roll hem all the napkins and to finish the tablecloth edges. It’s also perfect for finishing the bias edges of the dog scarves, as I can use the differential feed to keep from stretching or rippling the cut edges.

I personally love Woolly Nylon for roll hemming, as it fills in to create a solid looking edge without any fibers poking through the stitches. If you’ve never tried it before, thread it through only the upper and lower looper and use matching serger thread in the needle. Woolly Nylon is texturized and it’s a little fuzzy on the ends, so if you have trouble getting it through the looper eyes, use a needle threader to help. You might also need to consult your serger instruction book for the proper roll hem settings for your particular machine.

I always feel like I’m in a factory when I do serger roll hems, as I can go so fast and it creates such a wonderfully professional finish. I like to stitch continuously, so when one edge is done, I simply feed in the next one without cutting the thread between. I keep going until I’m forced to cut the pieces apart and start again in the other direction, so I can whip up lots of edges in no time! Sergers were used in factories long before they became available to home sewers.

If you only use your serger for seam finishing, get out the book and read up on the other things it can do–from flatlocking to seaming and many things in between. It’s a versatile little machine.

But, don’t stop with just wearing denim–decorate with this perennial favorite as well. What can you do with it? Here’s a few ideas:

• Make an organizer using pockets from old jeans.
• Pair it with some bandannas for a western decor.
• Fashion some fabulous pillows, and incorporate jean pockets (or newly sewn pockets) into the design.
• Create a quilt using various colors of blue denim for block interest.
• Let it fray. Denim frays and fringes wonderfully, so it requires only a few snips for a no-sew edge finish.
• Use denim alone or mix it with other sturdy fabrics for a picnic throw, a lap blanket or even a slipcover.
• Consider making curtains and valances of this blues basic. A simple tab-top curtain or valance can be dressed up with overall buckles, leather tabs or conchos as accents. For more information on making an easy tabbed valance, check out the Tab Top Curtains Guideline.

Don’t forget the holidays–denim (either new or recycled) makes a great holiday stocking like this one created by designer Donna Babylon at www.MoreSplashThanCash.com.

Hmmm…perhaps we should make up a National Decorating with Denim Day and see what we can come up with!