For a friend whose sister passed away, we made 3 quilts for her and her two siblings from her clothing. To work in circles and curves, start with your original shape, trace it onto a surrounding fabric, and add not one, but two seam allowances. That way you are including allowances for both cloths in one, and they will meet in the middle.

If you've ever had a set of sewing machine feet, many of them can be confusing to look at. The ruffler foot in particular can resemble some dental torture devices. While thrifting, Madam Chino found this great set of sewing machine feet by Kenmore that included cards with instructions for each one. This cool little wishbone looking attachment is actually a quilting guide! Quilting itself is the act of sewing layers of fabric together by top stitching. You have creative co

Model: Stephanie Johnson Photo: Vanessa Andrew Clothing: Long Torso Romper by Madam Chino

Creating your own shag is rewarding yet time consuming! Check out the following pictures to see how you can do it yourself! MATERIALS: Tshirt yarn, rotary cutter, clear ruler, self-healing mat, base fabric, patience! Use the ruler to cut 1/2"-1" slits every 1" apart in rows! They can be directly below each other, or half drop so that the slits in each row are staggered. Double your fabric unless it's a sturdy piece of denim, or I used both sides of the tshirt simultaneously

At Madam Chino, transforming t-shirts is the goal! There are many more ways implement this cool cutting technique around curves of shoulders, individual sleeves, and any area that could be considered a closed tube, whether its curved or straight. The bodice of the shirt is the most obvious place to start because it gives you more yarn and has no seams, but don't forget to recycle the rest of it! Weaving is a great place for scraps that don't look quality in other situation

Sewing is awesome and the household machine has many more powers than to just sew straight lines, simply by changing the foot! These images show a special foot called a Free-Motion embroidery foot that can allow you to create embroidery and sew various lines and shapes in any direction because the presser foot bounces and allows you to freely move the fabric in any direction. A few things to know! 1) you are controlling the length of each stitch by how far you move the fabri

Some recent chainstitch work by madam chino using a singer handcrank chainstitch machine!