10th Anniversary Giveaway

The Modkid 10th Anniversary Celebration is here, and it is huge!!!

In October of 2008 I released my very first fabric collection at the International Quilt Market in Houston, TX. The collection was Andalucia for Michael Miller Fabrics. I had a small booth and had brought with me a few dresses sewn in the fabric to display alongside sample quilts that other people had graciously made for me (since I'm not a quilter). Those dresses were my own designs, self drafted in my kids' sizes so they could wear them after I returned. Well, little did I know that not only were attendees going to love my fabric designs, but they were going to literally beg for sewing patterns based on those self-drafted garments they saw. MODKID was born that weekend, ten years ago! I came home after the show with a true purpose. I began drafting my first four sewing patterns: Lil Chef, Frida, Emma and Kyoko. They were truly a labor of love. The following Spring, I debuted those 4 patterns at the Spring Quilt Market and the company as it is today, grew from that point on.

Fast forward 10 years, and I now have 20+ fabric collections, 150+ sewing patterns (in paper and PDF formats), 5 books, and several designer notions. I am also incredibly lucky to have aligned myself with some pretty amazing companies to work with. I truly could not be happier! I am currently a Licensed Fabric Designer for Riley Blake Designs, an author for C&T Publishing, a Contributing Artist for Silhouette of America, a Creator with OLFA and a Brand Ambassador for Baby Lock Sewing Machines.  I couldn't have done it all without the love and support from my family, my sponsoring companies, and most importantly ALL OF YOU! 

So I would like to show my appreciation to you and celebrate this momentous occasion by holding a HUGE GIVEAWAY with amazing prizes from yours truly and our sponsors. Check out the three grand prize packages below and find out how to enter this giveaway at the end of this post. The first prize even includes a Baby Lock Zeal Sewing Machine!!

In addition to the giveaway, we are having a celebration SALE. Coupon code MODKIDTURNS10 gets you 40% off your entire purchase through the month of October. Code expires October 31st, 2018 at Midnight EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You must be a legal resident of one of the United States and at least 18 years of age.  NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN.  VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Facebook or Instagram. The giveaway will run from October 15th until October 21st. The three winners with be selected at random.

Common Threads 2016 -- Join the fun!

Have I ever told you guys how much I adore my Baby Lock machines? Let me count the ways...
1. Symphony... an absolute dream to sew on!
2. Imagine... this serger extraordinaire was the first Baby Lock I ever owned and I never looked back!
3. Coverstitch... for those perfectly finished hems.
4. Unity... sewing, embroidery, quilting... this machine does it all!!

Now that you know what a huge fan of Bay Lock machines I am, then it will make more sense when I tell you how honored and thrilled I am to be invited to this annual event, called Common Threads, put together by Baby Lock's parent company, Tacony Corporation. This was my third year attending and let me tell ya, it gets better and better each year.

Check out this panoramic shot I captured the first day of the event. Look at all those machines!!! The attendees were just beginning to gather around. They are a mixture of the top industry professionals and the best bloggers out there, so, again, I am always so honored to be included.

We got to participate in workshops by amazing teachers, like Evy Hawkins, Lindsay Wilkes and Sarah Gallegos, listen to helpful advice from influencers and bloggers, and do lots and lots of networking.

Here is a fun embroidery project I worked on, taught by the amazing Evy Hawkins.

Heather Valentine, from The Sewing Loft, and I worked on this one together.

My sewing friends and I had so much fun sewing Little Dresses For Africa, a workshop guided by Lindsay Wilkes.

I also got to catch up with old friends, like Cindy from Riley Blake (left), and meet new ones, like Vanessa from Crafy Gemini (right).

Here is a little group pic of most of us on the last night we were there. So much fun!!

A huge thanks to Tacony Corporation for having me again... I had a blast and learned SO MUCH!!

But... the fun doesn't end here! Baby Lock is hosting an After Party and you're invited. Starting June 24th, you can enter to win one of the amazing “Swag Bags” filled with goodies from all of us. Trust me... you won't want to miss this! To enter, go to this link on June 24th http://babylock.com/commonthreads2016/

Sewing Tips & Tricks: Machine Embroidery

From time to time, we will be sharing different sewing and crafting tips and tricks here on the blog. Today's project is all about embroidery. If you are into the nitty-gritty details, this post is for you! Read to the bottom of the post as I will be posting all of the details of this project.

My two daughters are in a local competitive dance team. Last year, I designed a quick graphic in Adobe Illustrator CC to be placed over a team photo, and the dance instructor liked it so much that she asked if they could use it as their official logo. I was over the moon excited!

A few weeks later, when we were ordering warm up jackets for their upcoming competition season, I was asked if I'd be interested in embroidering the logo I designed onto all 17 jackets. I said yes! After all, I had a brand new, AMAZING machine at my disposal... the Baby Lock Unity!

I had my friend, Kent Simmons, over at the studio one night and he digitized my logo using Designer's Gallery MasterWorks III.  I had never used this software before so I wanted someone here with prior experience to help me with it. After sitting down alongside him, I quickly realized that the software is actually really easy to use. I saved my logo as a JPG and we imported it into the program. We were able to choose the style of stitches for each portion of the design, the size of the finished design and thread colors, etc.

After we were happy with the look of the digitized logo, we saved it onto a flash drive and brought it over to the Baby Lock Unity for a trial run. Not bad for the first time, eh?

Then the fun (or should I say, work?) really began! The 17 blank jackets were delivered at the studio and over a period of a few weeks (we weren't running the machine full time) we embroidered one after another. The logo has a little over 32,000 stitches, so even running at full speed, it took about an hour for each jacket to embroider (not counting the time for hooping the jacket, thread color changes and removing stabilizers at the end). This is what we started with:

We had a few minor hiccups here and there, and 100% were user error. But I have to say that the amazing customer service at Baby Lock got me through it without a hitch. If you're ever in a bind, just call 800-313-4110 and they will help you out! One time, I had forgotten to switch to a full bobbin before beginning to stitch a new jacket. Of course, the bobbin thread ran out halfway through the job and I had to remove the hoop in order to replace the bobbin. As scared as I was, the Baby Lock rep calmly talked me through the whole process and everything turned out fine.

Another time, I began to experience a few thread breaks, which became more and more frequent as the job continued. When I got to stitching the pink portion, I noticed right away that the bobbin thread was showing through to the top. I consulted my Unity manual and quickly found out that it was due to loose tension on my bobbin case. I called my trusty rep again, and she told me I needed to switch to the "alternate bobbin case" (what? I didn't even now there was such a thing!) Again, calmly, she talked me through where to find the case, how to remove the existing case and replace it with the new one, and back up the stitches enough so that it would cover up the goofed up part. The jacket turned out beautiful and you would never guess there was any bobbin thread showing through to the top.

When all was said & done, this was the outcome, and I couldn't be happier. There are 16 little girls (and 1 dance instructor) with some pretty amazing-looking jackets!

Now, for the nitty-gritty details:

• Design software: Adobe Illustrator CC
• Digitizing software: Designer's Gallery MasterWorks III
• Embroidery Machine: Baby Lock Unity
• Embroidery Thread: Madeira Rayon Thread 1001 (white) and 1110 (medium rose)
• Bobbin Thread: Clear Glide Poly Class 15 Pre-Wound Bobbins (I used 1 bobbin per jacket)
• Top Stabilizer: Hydro Melt Water Soluble Embroidery Topping by Baby Lock
• Bottom Stabilizers: 2.0 oz. Cut-Away Soft Medium Embroidery Stabilizer and 1.8 oz Tear-Away Heavy embroider Stabilizer, both by Baby Lock

Tips & Tricks:

• If you are embroidering on a finished product (jackets, dresses, towels, etc.) always test out your embroidery design on a scrap of fabric before moving on to the finished product. We found out that one of our letters hadn't digitized properly so we had to quickly go back to the digitizing software to fix the issue. We were thankful to have caught this error before we started the jackets.
• The order in which we placed our items on the hoop is as follows: 1 layer of Tear-Away Stabilizer, 1 layer of Cut-Away Stabilizer, Jacket (right side up), 1 layer of Wash-Away (Solvy). After embroidery is complete, you can remove the Solvy by hand and any spots that don't tear out easily, you can spritz with a little water and it will dissolve away. On the inside, you can easily tear the edges off the tear-away stabilizer, but don't try to tear if it doesn't want to tear easily... you don't want the threads to bust. Lastly, use embroidery scissors to cut your Cut-Away stabilizer about 1/4" to 1/2" away from the outer edges of the embroidery... be careful not to cut through your finished piece!
• Always start each project with a full bobbin, unless you know for a fact you can get 2 or more from each bobbin. You want to avoid changing bobbin thread in the middle of your job (believe me!).
• If doing multiple pieces, like we did, change out your machine's needle after 2 or 3 projects to avoid any issues with dull needles.
• Use high quality threads. We love Madeira!
• Keep your machine's manual handy. You'll be surprised at how much you can troubleshoot on your own just by looking it up on there!

A few of our "tiny dancers" taking a snack break between routines:

I would like to thank Baby Lock and Madeira for your incredible products and amazing support through this whole process, my friend Kent Simmons, for lending his time and expertise, and last but not least, Jesica Schreiber at Victory Academy Elite Dance Company for trusting me with these jackets. This was quite the experience!!

Sewing With Nancy
See end of this post to view this show!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, friends! I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday season and are looking forward to a year full of creativity and fun. We are starting the year off with a bang here at MODKID!  To back up a bit, last November, I had the amazing opportunity to film 2 episodes of the popular PBS TV show, Sewing With Nancy. I traveled up to Beaver Dam, WI and met up with the delightful Nancy Zieman for a day of planning, then the following day we traveled down to Madison to film in the PBS studios. The focus of both shows was my book, Sewing MODKID Style, so we shared lots of techniques, tips and tricks for sewing with knits. Oh, what fun it was!!

If you follow me on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, you probably saw these photos already, but for those of you who missed it, here is my "quick & dirty" recap of my experiences while filming Sewing with Nancy. Excuse the dark and blurry photos... that's Instagram for ya!

Here I am at Nancy's studio with the sweet and delightful, Nancy Zieman. Everyone at the studios was so great! I had a wonderful time there.

That afternoon, I had tour of Nancy's Notions. What a wonderful place that was!

The following morning we got up bright and early and drove down to Madison to film in the PBS studios. Here I am getting ready for hair & make up. Yes, I felt like a super star! haha

I went into a little room to practice reading my lines from a teleprompter. There's a first time for everything! If you look closely on the far right monitor, you can see the lines I say at the beginning of Episode 1.

When I finally walked into the set, I was not prepared for what I saw! WOW! It was HUGE... and gorgeous!! I must've looked like a kid in a candy store. I just kept spinning around in delight and walking from one place to another asking silly questions. Everyone there was so sweet and totally humored me.

Here is a shot of Nancy and I filming one of our segments. I was incredibly nervous, but I didn't need to be. They made it so easy for me. The crew is so professional. They have been doing this for over 30 years so it's like a well-oiled machine. We barely had any re-takes and were completely done filming both episodes by 3 p.m.

Floor manager, Greg, was a pleasure to work with! Here he is waving goodbye at the end of the show. I will cherish this experience forever!

And now.... the moment we've all been waiting for! Episode 1 is live on the Sewing with Nancy website. Below is a screen shot of the page. Click HERE to view the show. If you are having issues viewing it there, you can also find it HERE. Both episodes will also air on PBS stations nationwide, so if you'd like to watch the on your TV, check your local listings to see when they will air.

But wait, there's more (said in my best Billy Mays voice, haha). The folks at Nancy's Notions have put together this awesome bundle for you which includes a copy of my book, Sewing MODKID Style, a copy of the DVD with both episodes, plus all the notions (elastic, pins and needles) you will need to begin sewing with knits. It is a great price too! Check it out HERE:

http://www.nancysnotions.com/product/sewing+modkid+style+starter+set.do?sortby=newArrivals

Baby Lock's Holiday Project Round-Up 2013

It's not too early to start planning Holiday gifts and décor, right? As part of our partnership with Baby Lock, we get to design fun little projects from time to time to share with their readers. Last year, we did a free pattern for some adorable Elf Stockings. This year, we are thrilled to participate in their Holiday Happenings once again, and this time, we've designed a sweet Holiday Tree Pillow that can be made a couple different ways. Check it out:

Above pillows were sewn with my Rendezvous collection, for Jo-Ann Fabrics.

In order to download the FREE pattern, visit the Baby Lock website and click on the Holiday Gift Guide, HERE or HERE. Scroll to page 20 and, in the bottom right corner (next to the tree pillow picture), you'll see a green button that says, PROJECT. Click on that button and the pattern will automatically pop up on your screen! Now all you'll have to do is print it out or download it for future use. It's as easy as that!

Then don't forget to check out the other amazing projects sent in by my fellow Baby Lock contributors. You can probably make all of your Holiday gifts just from these free patterns! :)

Happy Holidays, friends!!

Sunny Days Tank
A free pattern and video tutorial for Baby Lock

Yes, I know! With temps being in the arctic range in most of the country right now, it is difficult to visualize "Sunny Days", but I promise those days coming and when they do, you'll be ready to celebrate with this adorable tank I designed for Baby Lock.

Fabric shown is Mod Tulip from the Heaven & Helsinki knit fabric collection by Patty Young for Michael Miller Fabrics.

This easy-to-sew top uses two of my favorite sewing techniques, lettuce-edge rolled hems and shirring, which always add lots of pizzazz and flair to any garment! Even if you've never done these techniques before, you'll be able to master them in no time with our detailed instructions and companion video tutorial.

You can download the free instructions for this tank by going to the Baby Lock website and scrolling halfway down the page to the section, "We're on a Serge & Rescue Mission". There, you will find the pattern download link and the video tutorial link, which I've also embedded for you guys below.

Imagine - Sunny Days Tank Project from Tacony Corporation on Vimeo.

Hope you enjoy this first of many exciting projects coming this year, as part of my new partnership with Baby Lock. Can't wait for you to see what we are cooking up!

Elf Stocking FREE PDF Pattern



When the folks at Baby Lock asked me if I'd like to participate in their blog round-up of “Snappy Holiday Projects.”, I was thrilled and flattered. They said it should be something that will fulfill that “OMG I need to come up with something fast!” feeling we all get during the holiday crunch, and I knew exactly what I was going to design! This whimsical Elf Stocking has been in the back of my mind since last year, but I never had a chance to sew it up. Now, I had the push to get it done. And now you can too with this FREE pattern you can download off the Baby Lock site. Just check out all the amazing projects you can make from these talented blogger friends!! You can seriously make something cool for everyone on your gift list!



Just like our adorable Owl Stuffie Pattern we featured last week, this one comes as an 8-page downloadable PDF document. Print it at 100% (no scaling) right to your desktop printer. No need to enlarge the pattern... it has been tiled so all you have to do is print, cut, tape and sew! Step-by-step sewing instructions, detailed diagrams and photos are also included in true MODKID fashion.



Here's another close-up of the stocking. We sewed miniature jingle bells to the points of the cuff and curly toe, but you could add anything from your stash... pom-poms, buttons, ribbons, whatever your heart desires! These are perfect for using my new Textured Basics fabrics (shipping this week!)



Have fun making your Elf Stocking! And please let us know what you think of the pattern. We would love for you to add photos to our Flickr pool. :)

Find this pattern and many others HERE.

Happy Holidays!