Strip Scramble Quilt Tutorial!
This new tutorial on the Strip Scramble Quilt is special to me. It’s the first quilt I ever made and the first pattern I ever designed. I hope you love it as much as I do. To find all the details, CLICK HERE.
Earbud Cord Holder Tutorial
We all need ways to tidy up our earbud cords, phone chargers etc, so here’s a great tutorial (sewing optional) that you can easily carry in your pocket! This is also a great stocking stuffer or gift for any occasion! For all the details, CLICK HERE. Video Transcript: Hey, everybody! It’s Rob from Man Sewing and I’ve got a tutorial around here somewhere, oh! There it is! Here’s today’s tutorial. That’s right, I’m going to show you how to make these awesome earbud cord keepers. So, I love having my earbuds with me always in my pocket, but they used to be this nasty, tangled mess and the phone would be ringing and I would be trying to get them plugged in and listen. Or, maybe I’m listening to music and I’ve got a knot in the cord or something. So, I was shopping in a Target years ago, and they have all those little things along the counter that you play with while you’re waiting in line, and there was this piece of plastic that was called a cord keeper and I thought, “what on earth is this?” And, so, I didn’t get it. And all of the sudden I got home and thought, “man, I sure wish I had something to wrap my little earbuds around to make them comfortable and keep them in my pocket.” And I don’t like stuff in my pocket, really, so I didn’t want them all over the place. So, watch how this works. This is awesome. It’s just a piece of leather. You can use fabric or ribbon or whatever and it just has a set of snaps in it. So, that’s the main working part right there, ok? And I’ve been using this for about six or eight months. So, this has got some real longevity and use out of it. And then my cord just unwinds, just like that, super easy, ok. Let me put this away, real quick, just by wrapping it around my hands. Ok? And I kind of give it a little pinch, like, yay. I made that look terribly difficult, didn’t I? And snap it closed and it’s ready to go back in my pocket. Alright? So the supplies you’re going to need for something, like, really, is just a set of snaps, and you could probably also use velcro if you are using lightweight fabrics, but I want to show you how to do the snaps. That’s actually mostly what you’re getting out of the tutorial, right, is how to install the snaps. So, a set of snaps actually has four pieces that all work together. So, you’re going to need one of those. You’ll need the snap setting tools and these generally come in the package. So if you’re buying snaps, make sure you don’t buy a replacement package if you don’t already have the working tools you need, ok? We’re going to need a pair of scissors to cut a hole in our fabric, we’re going to need a Sharpie marker to mark where that hole’s going to be, and then my favorite of all my tools today, yes, the 12 pound sledge hammer. No! We’re just going to use a nice, lightweight hammer, but we’re going to give this thing a couple good smacks when we’re done. So, you ready to get started and learn how this works? While you’re watching this, I want you to be thinking about the different kinds of ways you can do this. I’m going to show you real quick with leather. This is a lightweight suede we have here, a little flexible. That kind of makes it nice for gripping around. It’s nice and pliable. And, again, I don’t like a lot of weight in my pocket, so this one was a three inch by one inch strip that I just made and snapped together. The raw goods kind of just look like that, right? Easy. Another one I was making this morning, just for fun, was one that I picked up in Nantag. Actually my wife and I were working at an event together, so we have nametags. So, don’t tell her that I am making her a very nice Christmas present right now, ok? So, this is going to snap together the same, right? You could also do fabric. If I was doing two pieces of fabric, I would put some interfacing inside just to give it a little bit of body and that would be a good time to stitch through velcro also, ok? So, oh! I know there’s something else I’ve got to tell you because I was talking with Jake, the camera guy, a little while ago about this. Don’t try to sew through sticky backed velcro. This would be a perfect place for sticky backed velcro, but I don’t want you to needle through the sticky back. It just does terrible things to the needle and thread. So, if you’re thinking, oh, this is the perfect place for those sticky dots for velcro, no, no. I want you to stitch your velcro on if you’re using that. Ok, enough words, let’s get started on this. And, like I said, let’s finish out my wife’s Christmas present here before Santa shows back up. And, for this, the first thing I really want to do is just figure out where I’m going to put the snap. I need to cut a very small hole. And so, for this, I could try to put a little bit of pressure here and see if it will mark the back of my fabric. It’s done a little bit. If I couldn’t see it, the other thing I could try to do is, I could try to put my snap through here, right? Take my Sharpie marker and feel where that post is going to come through the fabric, right? What I don’t want to have happen, is, I don’t want my snap to fall off of the edge; I want it to be nicely centered in there. Ok, so I want that to finish in, like that. Nice and easy. So, once you’ve figured out where you’re going to put your snap, you’re going to fold it over. And what I’m going to try to do is use the back end of my scissor and make just the littlest cut possible to bring that post through, just like Read More →
Salsa Tutorial and Recipe with Rob and Chad
We decided to do a little something special for Cinco de Mayo, so we met up with Chad Rigby, Executive Chef of Blue Sage Restaurant in Hamilton, Missouri, to learn how to make some seriously delicious salsa! This is a quick and easy homemade salsa using fresh ingredients and basic spices. Here are the ingredients for these delicious salsa recipes: Traditional Salsa 16 oz. Diced Tomatoes 1/2 C. Finely Diced Yellow Onion 1 Jalapeno (seeded) 1 Tsp Granulated Garlic 1 Tsp Kosher Salt 1 Tbsp Fresh Minced Garlic 1/4 Tsp Red Pepper Flakes 1 Tsp Cumin Powder 1 Tbsp Coarsely Chopped Fresh Cilantro Juice of 1 LimeRead More →
Portable Ironing Board Tutorial
We’ve gotten so many comments and questions about Rob’s ironing board, so we just had to do a tutorial! Enjoy this tutorial on a Portable Ironing Board using leftover fabric bolts! Get all the details here: http://land.mansewing.com/iron-board-tutorial/
3 Dudes Quilt
Rob had a special guest on Man Sewing! Rob shows Jenny Doan a new cool version of the 3 Dudes Quilt, originally tutorialed by Jenny! Find all the details here: http://land.mansewing.com/three-dudes-quilt/ Video Transcript: Rob: Hey everybody! It’s Rob from Man Sewing, and I’ve got an incredibly special guest today. It’s Jenny from the Missouri Star Quilt Company. Jenny: Hi everybody! Well, you know, I like to travel… Rob: Yes. Jenny: …so I thought I would walk all the way up the stairs and meet you today. Rob: Well, I certainly hope it didn’t take long to get here or anything, or you didn’t have any problem with your luggage on the way. Jenny: I’m a little out of breath at the top of the stairs, I’ve got to admit. Rob: Only because she was singing all of the way up. Jenny: Well, that’s true. Rob: It’s a true story. Jenny: That is true I do sing all the time. Rob: Oh, we’re going to have so much fun today. Our tutorial is basically a modification of our Strip Surprise from the 3 Dudes Quilt Company and, this is a true story: when I first got hired to do the Man Sewing gig, I was studying what Jenny was doing on her YouTube channel, right? And so I fell in love with the way she was modifying this pattern early on. Jenny: Seriously? Rob: I did. I did. Jenny: Oh, awesome! Rob: And I thought, “You know what? I’m into strip piecing right now. I want to try this.” Jenny: Yeah. Rob: And so… Jenny: It’s such a cool idea. Rob: Oh my goodness. It was so much fun! Jenny: Those guys are brilliant brilliant! Rob: Yeah, yeah. I would like to meet them some day. Jenny: Yeah. We love the 3 Dudes. Rob: You’ve actually met them? Jenny: I have not. Rob: No! They have great stuff. Jenny: I know! Yeah! Rob: We should take a road trip together out there. Jenny: We should. That would be awesome! Rob: A surprise…like a knock on the door. A surprise, “Hey we’re here! Oh, fantastic!” Well, we could goof off all day and we probably will, but let me run you down through a couple of supplies real quick. Jenny: Don’t you want to show them this quilt? Rob: This quilt here? Jenny: Yeah! Rob: I just assumed they can see it, but, yes. Let me see if I can get this right. Look at this lovely quilt I have behind me. Jenny: Take a look at this quilt behind us! Rob: Yes! No, this is actually radical and I love the quilting and everything in, in the way it came out. Jenny: Oh, it’s gorgeous! I think, it’s gorgeous, really! Rob: Yeah, but… Jenny: You got it from me. Rob: I did. I did, but do you think it’s going to be hard to make? Jenny: Oh, no! Oh, everything we do is easy and quick. Rob: It is. And I was blown away with the secondary design elements that came out of it just by one of the little swaps that I did. So now I’m going to run through this. Jenny: Ok. Go ahead. Rob: We’re ready for that. Ok, so you need only one of your roll ups, like a 2 ½ inch set. This happens to be an Artisan Batik from Robert Kaufman, and this one, I think, is called Sparkling Water, or something like that. But, isn’t that gorgeous? It looks just like the ocean to me. Jenny: Yes. Rob: Ok. And then I used, oh, this is a real treat not having to cut all my 1 inch strips. Jenny: Oh, isn’t that a treat? Yeah. Rob: Yep. So, I got this. It’s just the Kona Black, but it’s all precut and ready to go, so I just basically unpack them. Jenny: I love that. I know. This was so hard! Rob: So, you ready to unpack? Jenny: I’m ready. Rob: Cool! If you’ll take that one apart and I’ll take this one apart; we’re going to need them both. Jenny: Oh my goodness. Rob: I know. Jenny: Craziness. You know, a lot of people buy jelly rolls but they don’t always open them, and they don’t really make it easy. First thing, you’ve got the label and they’ve got the rubber band… Rob: Right? Jenny: …but they’re so cute all wrapped up. Rob: Yeah. Jenny: Alright, here we go.Read More →
Superhero Cape Sewing Tutorial
This sewing tutorial is going to make you the winner of playtime! Rob teaches us how to make this super cool superhero cape for anyone with a big imagination! Find all the details here: http://land.mansewing.com/superhero-cape/?utm_source=mscom&utm_medium=lp&utm_campaign=tms10 Video Transcript: Hey everybody! It’s the Flash from Man Sewing and today my good friend Rob is going to show you how to make an awesome cape. Gotta fly, find myself a phone booth, and change, and get Rob to help you out. Hey everybody! So sorry about that. I understand my buddy, the Flash just came flying through here to steal my thunder and get you all jazzed up about today’s tutoriala superhero cape for your children (or you, as long as they don’t catch you wearing it, right?). So, what we’re going to do today is we’re going to take a print and we’re going to use some solids to make a really fun superhero costume, let’s say. So I’ve got a DC comic licensed print that was put out by Camelot fabrics. I love some of the licensed goods that they do, and then I just chose a green and a yellow and a red, a solid to match, and then we’re going to use those to make the applique. Now, to make the applique, I literally typed into my Google search, I think it was, “superhero logos,” and it came up and there’s an entire alphabet available and we’re going to drop that link in the, in the comment section below for you so that you can go ahead and follow that, but there’s every letter in the alphabet set up, like this. I want to show you first how to make the background for the cape and then we’re going to come back to the applique. Alright? So for my size cape, and I’m not the biggest guy you’re ever going to meet, I’m barely six foot tall, right? So I’m using a yard and a quarter of fabric. For a child, maybe a yard, if you have somebody maybe six and half foot tall or something like that, a yard and half. I’m not sure, but you’ll basically just need a yard and a quarter of the print and a yard and a quarter of the main solid for your liner this green. And then, I use like fat quarters for the other solids I’m going to use to make my logo. A little bit of fusible web, and that’s about all we need for this project, right? So, the first thing is, is this particular comic happens to have a direction to its print. So I want to make sure that this is the bottom and this is the top of my print. So, I’ve already precut these to try to make these pieces of fabric just as close to the exact same size as possible and they are folded on the selvedge, ok? And then what I need to do first is, I’m going to show you how to prepare these pieces. And we’re going to do a little bit of marking and we’re going to actually end up cutting most of the selvedge off anyways, so I’m going to try to take this nice and slow for us. I’m going to need my little sharpie that I’ve already got out, and I’m going to need my ruler. So, the first cut, I’m actually going to mark on the selvedge side and I’m coming up five inches from the bottom. I’m also telling you right now that I’m cutting both fabrics at the exact same time. So, even if they’re not exact, they’re exactly the same, if that makes sense. So, I’m coming up five inches from the bottom, making myself a nice mark, ok? And then at the top corner, I’m going to have an 18 inch piece that came across my shoulder blades there. So, I need to mark nine inches from my center point. Let me get that a little easier for all of us to see at home. And then I’m just going to come over nine inches to my center point so that’s going to give me nine and nine is 18, ok? Now, from here, I want to draw this line and then I’m going to cut the line. So I’m going to kind of make this thing go how I can on my work table. Pretty darn easy! Then I’m going to use a ruler coming this way, and then I’m going to grab my big square from back here and use that as the other half of my ruler and I’ve just about got what I need. Of course you could, if you were, if you had your old carpenter’s chalk, you could snap a chalk line, right? And this just needs to be close. Whatever we make, because we’re cutting both at the same time, were going to be fantastic for the cape, ok? Then I’m just going to extend that line out a little bit. So that’s done and I’m going to, now, get the rulers kind of out of my way and just free cut that with the rotary cutter. It will make life a little bit easier and probably easier for us to follow along. Ok, so, here we go. We will end up sewing this with our right sides of our fabric together so if there’s a little bit of this marker line showing still, it’s not going to be a problem. Don’t get too excited when we’re done. We have one more cut, so don’t go whipping your fabric off the table and saying “Ahha! I’ve got it!” right? We have one more little slice to do here. See, a lot easier than it looked. Just like that, ok? I’m just setting those out of the way for a moment. We’re going to use those to make our ties. But the last cut we need to make… I like my cape to kind of arc back to the center, so this is now my low point, the corner becomes my high point, and I’m going to make this just a nice, gradual curve. I like to get my fingers behind my cutter when I’m doing that. That looks about right. Oh, when I say that and something fell off. Oh, you know what, it’s just my little bump in the table. Cut that a little bit again, no big deal. Oh, why is that shifting on me? I should be cutting from the corner. So funny! You know, I’m always thinking about getting a good angle so that we can see what we’re doing from home, but let me just take a moment and make this a little bit easier on me. There we go. See? Just like that. Sorry about that, but, as you all know, I like to do this in as few takes as possible, so, sometimes, you have to sit through a little bit of that. Awesome, right? Ok, so this is the front and the back of our cape, already dialed in. Now, I’m just going to fold this slightly out of the way for a moment, and then let’s talk about the ties real quick. From our fall off here, I’m going to use the green fabric and I probably only need one side of it here, and I’m going to make a 2 inch by 30 inch strip. Ok. Let’s do it this way and this way and this way and this way and I’m first going to trim off my edge. That’s the selvedge there. Ok, so that’s a Read More →
Weighted Blanket Tutorial for Autism Awareness Month
This week’s tutorial is a special one. You may know that April is Autism Awareness Month and these days, most of us have someone near and dear to us who has been diagnosed with autism. That’s why I’m so excited to share today’s tutorial with you… a really easy way to make a weighted quilt, using a simple fill and quilt as you go method! Find all the details here: http://land.mansewing.com/weighted-blanket/
How to Hem Jeans the Smart Way: A New Tutorial!
Hemming pants is a basic skill that can make all of our lives a little easier. Today I show you a great trick, so that you don’t have to sacrifice that great worn hem already on your jeans. You’ll never want to put off hemming your jeans again! http://land.mansewing.com/hemming-pants/
Leather Applique Pillow Tutorial
Today’s new tutorial at Man Sewing is a Leather Applique Pillow. This is a simple project that will give your couch a big boost of self confidence! Check out all the details here: http://land.mansewing.com/leather-applique-pillow/
Variegated Cloth City Scape Quilt Tutorial: Part 2
Today’s tutorial completes the awesome city scape we’ve been learning how to make! Make sure to start with the first video and I’ve got a few tips in the 2nd one that might help you better select your materials. For Part 1 and details on fabrics and the interfacing I used, follow this link here: http://land.mansewing.com/city-scapes/