Giveaways
The Doll Days! Blog Tour & Giveaway
My friend, Erin Hentzel, just released her second book – Doll Days! Sew an Everyday Wardrobe for 18″ Dolls. You might remember that my daughter, Samantha, and I joined in on the tour for Erin’s first book, Sew in Style, almost two years ago, and I’m really excited to join in the fun again! Continue reading
Keychain Gift Card Wallet Tutorial & a Huge Giveaway!
Hello, there! I’m joining in the Bake, Craft, Sew & Decorate series over at Skip to My Lou today! This is my fourth year joining in the holiday creativity, and this year I’ve got a quick, fun and practical gift tutorial for you – The Keychain Gift Card Wallet. Continue reading
January Sewing Giveaway!!
Happy Sunday Morning!! I’ve joined with a few of my friends and fellow sewing bloggers this month for a wonderful giveaway full of sewing patterns, fabric and notions! There are several prizes to win, totaling almost $200 in value:
$50 to spend at the Imagine Gnats Shop
$44 girls’ PDF pattern bundle from Pattern Revolution & Bundle Up
Continue reading
It’s Giveaway Day!!
It’s Giveaway Day at Sew Mama Sew, and I’m giving away a six-pack of Fishsticks Designs Sewing Patterns! The winner will get to choose any six paper or PDF patterns from my shop.
Just for You ~ A Lovely Long Skirt and a Giveaway!
I’m so excited to introduce you to my newest sewing pattern, the Lovely Long Skirt. You can find it in your favorite quilt shop and book store … in a book written by my friends, Caroline Critchfield of Sew Can She and Sarah Markos of Blue Susan Makes. The book is called Just for You – Selfish Sewing with Your Favorite SewCanShe Bloggers, and I’m thrilled to be a part of it! (Keep reading to the bottom to find out about the giveaway … actually two giveaways!)
This new book is filled to the brim with great patterns designed by some of your favorite bloggers, and they’re all patterns for you to sew for you!
The maxi skirt pattern that I designed for the book works perfectly with all of the lovely designer jersey knits on the market. I absolutely love sewing with knits, and I’m a big fan of knit skirts with yoga-style waistbands. When you wear them, you look stylish and pulled together, but you feel like you’re wearing your PJs! 
The Lovely Long Skirt is a gored skirt that has a slim fit at the waist and through the hips with a flattering flare at the bottom.
The rolled hem takes advantage of that roll-y nature of jersey knits. You just leave the hem unfinished, then wash and dry it! Easy peasy!
My pink skirt is sewn with a Michael Miller jersey.
Samantha’s dotted skirt is made with Riley Blake jerseys. I love how a simple change in fabric completely changes the look of the skirt. Mine is sophisticated. Samantha’s is fun! (I adore the extra splash of color in the yellow waistband.) 
Now for the giveaways! First, I get to giveaway a copy of the book! US winners will receive their very own paperback copy, including full-size paper patterns, courtesy of Stash Books. International winners will receive the eBook version with patterns that you print from your home computer. To enter, just leave a comment on this post, then come back up to the Rafflecopter and register your entry. (Don’t forget to do the second part, or you won’t actually be entered!)
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Second, Caroline is giving away a prize package which includes a copy of the book AND fabric to sew the Chevron Shrug, the Lace Infinity Scarf, the Bella Pouch and my Lovely Long Skirt! To find out how to enter Caroline’s giveaway, just click the collage below:
Finally, don’t miss the rest of the blog tour! Each designer will be introducing and sharing a bit about her project from the book and giving away a copy. There’s plenty of inspiration and more chances to win coming up! The link list below will fill up as the posts and giveaways go live.
The Sew in Style Book Tour, Giveaway & a Dolly Tardis Dress!
My youngest daughter and I get to share a new book with you today, and it’s a great one for those of you who have girls learning to sew! Samantha and I met Erin Hentzel at Spring Quilt Market in Pittsburgh while we were setting up our booth, and we enjoyed chatting with her about sewing and the sewing industry and her newly released book!
Sew in Style – Make Your Own Doll Clothes was written to teach girls to sew for their own 18″ dolls, and it does a beautiful job of doing just that. At 16, Samantha is probably a little older than the target audience, but she gladly pulled her well-loved American Girl Samantha Doll out of storage and started planning as soon as she saw the book. (Her Samantha Doll is not making an appearance here because when I say “well loved” I mean she looks like she slept with a little girl who loved her very much for many, many years! Instead, we opened up an AG Doll that we picked up on sale a few years ago and kept for some special little girl that we have yet to meet. Is that a little odd? I just know that we’ll meet someone someday who will just be overjoyed with this doll.) 
C&T Publishing sent us an eBook copy of the book for this review. This was my first time using one of their eBooks, and I really appreciated the layout. It’s super easy to find what you need, and all of the full-size patterns are included in easy-to-print-and-tape-together format. Samantha scrolled through the book on the computer, and then we printed just the pages she needed.
My favorite thing about this book is that I just handed it all over to Samantha and let her go with it. The beginning of the book teaches basic sewing skills with plenty of tips and guidance. Really, the only thing I helped with was brainstorming how to turn the book’s Party Dress into a Tardis Party Dress!
Things have been a little bit Doctor Who crazy around here lately. We started watching the Doctor a few months ago as a family, and I feel like I’m raising a houseful of Whovians at the moment. My two little guys run around the house now battling invisible Daleks and opening things with imaginary sonic screwdrivers, and my teenagers amuse themselves by turning pieces of furniture into police boxes:
Samantha’s idea for designing a dolly Tardis dress did not surprise me at all!
To make this dress, Samantha chose the closest-to-Tardis blue Kona cotton that she could find and black ribbon. She used a white paint pen to inscribe the words “Police Public Call Box” on the ribbon, and she used Wonder Under to iron on the white window patches. I think it turned out really well! What do you think? (We even think that if this particular doll had red hair, she could pass as Amy Pond, and the irony of this whole thing is amusing since Doctor Who is a British series and this is an American Girl Doll.)
Giveaway is closed! And the winner is lucky #13! Comment #13 was from Heidi K! Congratulations!
Giveaway ends July 27th, 2014 at 8:00 PM EST. Giveaway is open to U.S and international residents who are 18 years of age or older. One entry per person. Winner will be selected by Random.org. Winner will be announced using the winner’s public username on or before 12:00 PM EST on August 1st, 2014. Prize will be emailed to the winner who must be contactable via email. Email addresses will never be shared.
The Winner of the Spring 2014 Go Fish Six Pack Is ….
Thank you so much to everyone who commented on my Spring Market Booth post! Random.org chose comment #61 as the winner.
And, comment #61 was made by Marie-Aude!
Marie-Aude asked in her comment if there was a new dress on the right-hand side in the third picture. There is! And, it’s pretty cool that she asked because that pattern is set to be released later this week! More pictures are coming soon.
While you’re waiting, though, don’t forget that you can get your own Spring 2014 Go Fish Six Pack for only $15 through this Thursday: GF Six Pack Special.
The Fishsticks Spring 2014 Quilt Market Booth & a Giveaway!
I know, I know! I said I was going to share Quilt Market pictures last week. Last week was a whirlwind of driving and visiting and cuddling and then finishing and testing and printing and … well, you get the idea! As a reward for patiently waiting, there’s a giveaway at the end of this post. Just keep reading!
I used canvas dropcloths for the hand-drawn walls of the booth, and except for that weird wrinkle at the seam in the curtains (the one that I sort of hid behind the letters in the title picture at the top), I loved the way it came out! Here’s what that wall should have looked like:
Yes, I edited out the weird wrinkle in the curtain. I totally considered editing it out of the title picture, too, but, really, life is better when we share our imperfections instead of pretending they don’t exist, right? That said, though, if you see any pictures on other blogs of my booth, feel free to pretend this is what you see. Moving on … What I’m hoping that you really want to see is pictures of the samples in my booth, including some favorite classic patterns, some recent releases and a collection of new patterns that I’ll be releasing over the next few weeks!
See anything that you like? I hope so! Okay, tomorrow morning, I’ll be sharing and releasing six new Go Fish patterns. If you scroll through, you’ll see them all here in this post, but you’ll have to wait until tomorrow for the details. Would you like to win a set of all six new Go Fish PDF patterns? Just comment below for an entry. If you’d like a question to answer, I’d love for you to tell me what you saw in this post that you’re excited to sew. I’ll keep the giveaway open through Sunday (6/1) at 8 p.m. eastern and announce the winner on Monday. Contest is now closed!
Giveaway ends June 1st at 8:00 PM EST. Giveaway is open to U.S and international residents who are 18 years of age or older. One entry per person. Winner will be selected by Random.org. Winner will be announced using the winner’s public username on or before 12:00 PM EST on June 2nd. Prize will be emailed to the winner who must be contactable via email. Email addresses will never be shared.
Samantha Joins in Selfish Sewing Week … Sort of
Selfish Sewing Week is in full swing, and I’m so sad that I don’t have time to sew something just for me! I’ve been sewing my little fingers off getting ready for Spring Quilt Market and while I won’t end up personally using much of what I’ve been sewing, it is definitely selfish (business-promoting) sewing! Since I’m in Market mode, I volunteered my amazing (and talented!) teenage daughter, Samantha, for this year’s Selfish Sewing Week post. 
Samantha doesn’t really sew much, though. She knits … a whole lot! So, we temporarily turned Selfish Sewing Week into Selfish Knitting Week. This girl always has something on her needles, and it’s very often something for someone else. From hats and booties for the local women’s shelter to stuffed monsters for her baby brothers, she loves using her knitting skills to bless others. I had no problem, though, convincing her that she should take a little time to knit these handwarmers for herself!
Because we live in Florida, there’s not much practical need for handwarmers, but Samantha wears them all the time anyway! They’re one of her favorite fashion statements. Really. I’m not just saying that for this post. I’m typing while watching her knit across the room, and she’s wearing another pair from her collection. She once spent weeks working out a pattern for Captain America handwarmers … she’s a self-pronounced geek, too, but that’s a different post. The Cozy Morning Mitts pattern from Nerdy Gerdy was right up her alley! She gives them a big thumbs up!
They work well for jazz hands … 
… a little drama …
… making funny faces …
… even pretending that you’re a zombie. (She totally could not do that without laughing. She told me to just call her the laughing zombie.)
Gretchen, the designer behind Nerdy Gerdy Knitting Patterns, is one of my favorite people, so I love that not only do I get to show off my beautiful teenage daughter, but I get to showcase one of Gretchen’s patterns, too. Have you ever met someone online and wished that they lived next door to you? Gretchen is so like that. She lives with her farming husband and children on the most beautiful acreage in the midwest. I just want to climb into her blog pictures and spend the day. Oh, and her blog has the best name ever! You really have to check it out right here: He Sows and She Sews. It just so happens that Gretchen posted new pictures of her own pair of Cozy Morning Mitts a few days ago: Yarn Along. She gets to wear them for warmth and fashion!
Would you like a chance to win your own copy of the Cozy Morning Mitts pattern? How about a chance to win it plus a whole list of other selfish sewing (and knitting) patterns? Just scroll down to the bottom of this post and check out the Rafflecopter to enter.
I’m going to wrap up with this picture that takes my breath away. My sweet Samantha Grace — isn’t she beautiful? She’s that way inside and out.
Now, go make something for yourself and join in the fun! Oh, and be sure to share what you’re making on Kollabora. (Not sure what Kollabora is? I’m still figuring it out myself, but you can read more about it from Rachael right here: SSW & the Kollabora How-To.) Check out these other bloggers who are joining in, too, and don’t forget to enter the drawing!
milkybeer · Behind the Hedgerow · jm_subrn · Sew What, Sherlock?
Lladybird · sew Amy sew · the Brodrick Design Studio · adirondack inspired
The Crooked Banana · Sewbon · Idle Fancy · girl like the sea
oona aloona · Lauren Dahl · verypurpleperson · la inglesita
Groovybaby…and mama · Buzzmills · La Pantigana · sew a straight line
Dandelion Drift · JustMeJay · B Yazoo · Disaster In A Dress
the quirky peach · Fishsticks Designs · Seamstress Erin · a happy stitch
Casa Crafty · Sarah Jane Sews · YoSaMi · Call Ajaire · miss matatabi
The Designer’s Challenge Giant Giveaway & Review
Happy Christmas Eve to All! I’ll be back later today to share our Christmas PJs, but I couldn’t let the day pass without making sure that you got an opportunity to enter the huge pattern giveaway sponsored by the Designer’s Challenge participants, and since I fell terribly behind in sharing the new patterns during the challenge, I thought I’d give you a quick glance at each of them, too!
First up, the giveaway! One lucky winner will win the ENTIRE COLLECTION of Designer’s Challenge patterns! To enter, just click over to Pattern Revolution. You’ve only got a few days to enter, so hurry!
Now, on to the patterns! To purchase or to read more about each one, just click on the photo.
