Finding the grain of your fabric. It's easy!

I've got a new project on my cutting table! I knew I'd blog about it, but while taking pictures I decided I'd give the beginning sewers a couple of basic tips needed to make things easier!

Have you ever wondered, what in the heck do they mean "with the grain"? Well I may not know how to find it in a roast, but I sure can find it in a piece of fabric!!

This is the salvage edge of the fabric, where you find things such as the company who makes it, the designer, the line name and the name of the fabric. This reprints throughout the entire bolt of fabric and tells you the LENGTHWISE grain of your fabric. Most patterns will have you lay out your pieces going this way. <---------> So in this fabric your stripes would run vertical. (photo below)


This is a picture of what your fabric looks like on the edges where it was cut by the seller, after being washed and dried.

You can see the crosswise grain strings here.

So that's super easy right!
What if you have a SCRAP of fabric with no salvages? Then how do you find your grain??
Do not despair; it's just as easy I promise.
Take your fabric and give it a little pull on both edges. Does it have any stretch to it? If you answer YES than that is your LENGTHWISE grain. Your CROSSWISE grain doesn't have much if any give!

Okay, so one more thing on finding the grain. Sometimes you have to find the bias of your fabric.
Your bias runs corner to corner and has LOTS of stretch! See how I pulled on the corners of this fabric and it gathered in the middle?

Yep that's the BIAS of your fabric.

Hope that was helpful and I'd love to hear any questions!

Decorating for Valentines Day

I love pinks and reds, so clearly I love it when Valentines day comes around. I mean even the candy is better right? I always eat just the pinks and reds out of the candy and well this holiday just makes that easier for me!

I've seen some super cute ideas on the crafty blogs I follow and decided to make them.

First I made this wreath
I used a tutorial I found HERE

I couldn't find a heart one :'(
I used 242 circles in this one. I know that sounds crazy but it wasn't bad. Mr. Darling was in California for business so I could do as I pleased. I love how it turned out!

Second is this heart garland
To make the garland I cut 15 felt hearts out of each color (I used white, pink and red). I did that last night while "watching" a basketball game with Jim Dear. I just did them free hand. There are small ones, big ones, tall ones, short ones, it was just whatever. I did have to correct some of them. I cut them on the fold.
Then you just sew them together in one long strip

That's it!
I found this idea HERE
Oh and Tramp decided he was a model:
I had to beg him out of the pictures..brat.

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I would never create a blog and never post on it

I would never close my etsy store "for Christmas" and not reopen until someone is begging me for bows

I would never ever let my 2 year old watch the same movie 4 or more times in one day just because it keeps him out of my hair...

nope not me. I'm super mom