Flash Diffuser

I am by no means a photography expert, but I discovered a cool trick the other day.  I was taking final pictures of this project and it was a bit too dark to take the pictures without the flash, but the flash was way too bright.  It was quite a dilemma, let me tell you! Ha!

Well, I was standing next to my printer and I suddenly had an idea.  What if I tried to diffuse the light by putting a piece of paper over the flash?? Well after folding the paper in half a couple times, it did the trick!  Check it out:

I normally edit my pictures a bit before posting them on here (again, no expert), but these are just as the came straight off my camera except for the words that I added.  I am not a fan of the look of pictures taken with a flash, so I think this is a going to be a handy trick for me in the future!

Zig-Zag Finish

Have you ever been really tight on fabric and not sure you have enough to do a proper hem to finish out your project?  I've definitely been there time and time again... you'd think I'd learn to get extra fabric by now!!

Well just this week I was making a couple curtain panels for my sister's first dorm room.  We were not 100% sure of the exact dimensions of the window so I didn't want to waste a single centimeter!  So, I came up with a solution, I finished the bottom of each panel with a thick decorative stich, instead of a normal hem.

I positioned the needle as close to the bottom edge as I could without risking it slipping or sewing over the edge.

We picked out a thick zig-zag stich, shown above in the diagram on my machine.

When I was finished, the stich was less than a half inch from the edge of the fabric, even at it's tallest points.  I saved a whole inch easily, and I was very pleased!

I did accidentally go over the edge of the fabric at one point, but I was able to undo the messed up section with a seam ripper and continue the stich from the top of a point seamlessly.  So I recommend going slow on this type of finish, definitely worth the extra time!

Then to finish it off I simply cut off the fabric below the stich as close as I could without cutting into the  thread.  This step can be kind of time consuming, but I think the result was well worth the effort.

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Flat Iron Hemming

Do you hate having to press a tiny hem with a full size iron? Do you not want to have to invest in a small appliqué iron?  Do you have a flat iron for your hair? Then problem solved!

This is a travel size flat iron (though a full size flat iron would also work) that I now keep with my sewing supplies.  I first tried this out of laziness, but it has turned out to be the best way to press hems that I have ever found!

First I just measure and pin the hems.  I also do both folds at once.  This hem is a half inch, so I folded the fabric in a half inch and then over once more to cover up the raw edge.

Then I simply ran the hot flat iron over the hem.  The great thing about this is that it heats the fabric from both sides at once, so, no matter how thick the fabric, there is never a need to iron twice.  And, there is no need to lug out the ironing board!

Then you can take out the pins and sew up the hem in a breeze, with no need to stop to take out pins along the way!  It's great!