I was super excited when the folks at Jimmy Beans Wool contacted me and asked if they could use the One Hour Skirt from my book Sewing in a Straight Line as the project for their first ever Knit-Along and Sew-Along. As you may know, Jimmy Beans is a fantastic online yarn store, and they recently started selling fabric too–as a crocheter/knitter who also sews, this is music to my ears! Yay for the yarny people and the fabric people joining together to live in fiber harmony!

So, the JB peeps had the idea to do a knit/sew along to encourage their followers to get another step closer to being able to craft an entire handmade outfit–not only a sweater, but a skirt to go with it too! I love that!

Here are a bunch of One-Hour skirts made by a bunch of cute ladies at my book launch at Etsy. Don’t you want to make one too?! Well, just pop on over to the Jimmy Beans blog to join the Knit/Sew-Along, and you can! Here’s the JB blog post where you can get all the details. And here’s the Ravelry thread where you join, too. Now go get your skirt and sweater on!

(And thanks to JB for interviewing me on their blog today! xo)

I’ve got a new project up over on my Design Sponge Sewing 101 column: how to sew a triangle patchwork!

Have you noticed the geometric triangle trend that seems to be everywhere right now? I’m seeing triangles all over the place, from art prints to textiles to housewares. And each and every time, it makes me think of quilting. So I got inspired to whip up a couple patchwork triangle pieces to frame and hang on my (still bare) pink living room walls. (But careful readers may notice the walls are now a slightly different shade of pink! I’ll share the details on that soon.)

This isn’t technically a quilting project, since it’s not actually quilted — just pieces of fabric sewn together into a patchwork. But you could quilt this piece, or take the basic tutorial and turn it into just about anything, from a larger wall hanging to a pillow or baby quilt or even a bed quilt. (I would so love a triangle quilt for my bed!)

So click on over to Design Sponge to check out the full post and learn everything you need to know about sewing a triangle patchwork. It’s crazy-easy, not to mention simple to personalize–once you understand the basic construction, you’ll see that you can modify this project and make your triangles in any size or configuration you like.

Super big or super small! So go crazy & get your triangle on!

Recently I teamed up with my friends at YOLO Colorhouse to design some cute and easy sewing projects for baby nurseries. YOLO is a great indie paint company based in Portland, Oregon, that’s all about creating their products responsibly, sustainably, and free of harmful chemicals. (You may remember YOLO from when we teamed up to paint my living room pink!) Exciting things are happening over at YOLO hq, because in addition to their fantastic line of paints, they just debuted their first line of fabrics!

The fabrics are 100% organic and come in a wide range of chic baby colors and patterns, in both cotton sateen and knit. (I love that they offer a knit range, because it can be so hard to find good-looking knit prints.)

The fine folks at YOLO asked me to design a collection of patterns to showcase their fabrics–everything that new parents might need to deck out a green nursery, while being quick and easy to make.

I designed a simple baby quilt, a fitted crib sheet, some throw pillows, a stuffed bird…

…curtains, flag bunting, and more!

So click on over to the YOLO site to download all these patterns for FREE and to check out their new line of fabrics as well as their eco-friendly paints. Because you know you have some baby gifts to make (who doesn’t?!).

I just unearthed this piece of history and had to share: it’s my beautiful mom showing me how to use my first sewing machine, Christmas 1981.

31 years later, we are still sewing together. (Did you know my mom sewed a good number of the samples for my book? She’s amazing!)

Happy mother’s day, mom! I love you.

Me and this yarn and a whole buncha books are headed out of town for a little R&R in… Mexico! Pinch me!

Fifi will be holding down the fort in Brooklyn, accompanied by a friend who will be tending to all her needs and keeping up her beauty regime (she doesn’t just roll out of bed in the morning looking so glamorous, you know).

Hope you have a GREAT two weeks and I’ll see you on the flip side–hopefully with a finished neon pink (and grey and black) shawl! xoxo

When I woke up this morning, Fifi was suspiciously missing. I looked all around the apartment for her and she was nowhere to be seen–all I found was this little grey bunny in the dining room!

I guess it’s true what they say about bunnies multiplying so quickly, because what do you know, all of a sudden I found more…

This crabby little rabbit was hiding by a log in the living room…

And this one was trying to take a nap on Fifi’s chair!

Then I found this little rascal hopping along by the hallway…

And this especially cute one hanging out in the dining room. I think I’ll keep this one.

But as for the rest of them… I just don’t know what I’m going to do with all these bunnies.

Happy Easter, all! If you’ve got a little time for last-minute crafting this weekend, check out my recent eggy projects: 

• Doodle on some easy Chalkboard Eggs (great for kids!)
• Impress your guests with Ukrainian Pysanky-inspired cut-out cookies
• Blow everybody’s minds with embroidered eggs, as seen on the Martha Stewart Blog
• Use up all those hard-boiled eggs with my 12 recipes for deviled eggs, as featured on West Elm!
• Or go non-traditional and make some chocolate gems for your Easter baskets.

Have fun! xoxo Brett & Fifi

In keeping with my theme of Ukrainian-inspired eggs, I couldn’t resist this: chalkboard eggs! All it takes is some chalkboard paint and some chalk markers, and you can go wild creating bright, vivid designs on a black background. Very reminiscent of Ukrainian eggs (or Pysanky), for about 5% of the effort. Win!

Look I made a gif! As you can see here through the wonders of technology, you can just doodle away on these eggs, and if you don’t like what you’ve drawn–wipe it off and start over!

I just love a black Easter egg, what can I say.

This is an insanely easy project. To start, get yourself some chalkboard paint, a brush, and some eggs. (You can use hard-boiled eggs, and eat them later, or blow out the eggs and just paint the shells.)

And just paint ‘em up.

The eggs need 2-3 coats of paint to get full coverage. I found that the most difficult part of this project was stopping the wet-paint eggs from rolling around, so I made these little trays out of aluminum foil, which kept the little buggers in place. (I didn’t like using the egg carton to hold the wet eggs because the compartments are a bit too deep, making it hard to paint the center area of the eggs.)

Once your chalkboard paint is dry, just start drawing away. I liked using wet chalk markers, which are super vivid and really pop against the black paint. (To fully erase the chalk marker, I find that glass cleaner and a paper towel does the trick, and leaves no shadow of the original marks.)

But you can totally use old-fashioned chalk, too! This would probably be better for little kids, if you’ve got any of those helping you with this project.(I did find that regular chalk tends to leave a slight shadow after erasing, though.)

Chalkboard eggs! Easy, quick, fun and no commitment. What’s better than that?

Just a quick post today to share this image of the embroidered monogram sampler we’ll be making tomorrow at the American Folk Art Museum! If you’re in NYC, join me there tomorrow, Thursday April 5, to learn everything you need to know to get started with hand embroidery. We’ll cover how to transfer an image to fabric, how to do several basic stitches (split stitch, chain stitch, satin stitch and french knots), and how to finish off your piece and frame it in a hoop. Plus there will be wine! So much to do! Click here for all the details and to see how to sign up.

See you there! xoxo Brett

This year my Ukrainian egg obsession merged with my desserts obsession… and Ukrainian egg cut-out cookies were born!

A few points to share:

*Black icing is pretty gnarly. You need to add like two whole containers of black food coloring to get a really black frosting, and by that point it tastes too bitter to eat. So in the future, I’d make a few cookies in black for display, then make more with different-colored backgrounds to actually eat.

*I used royal icing for these, and a #1 tip for the piping. (I don’t own enough #1 tips for all of the colors I was using, so some of the colors were done in #2 and #3 tips, and I think those look too heavy. I’ll definitely stock up on #1s next time I’m at the baking store.)

*I’ll share my recipes for royal icing and cut-out cookies and how-to’s in another post… I’m rushing to finish some deadlines but wanted to share these photos before Easter passes me by! Hoppity hop!

Did you know the fantastic Folk Art Museum here in NYC hosts crafting nights on Thursdays? I mean, what’s better than being in a space filled with rooms of inspiring handcrafted art, while doing some handcrafting of your own??

I was so honored to be invited to lead an upcoming Make It Thursday at the Folk Art Museum–so if you’re in the area, please join me this coming Thursday for some museum crafting! I’ll be teaching hand embroidery, everything you need to know from how to transfer a design to fabric, to the basic stitches used to make your design come to life. Also, very important, I’m told there will be wine!

When: Thursday, April 5, 6-7:30pm

Where: The American Folk Art Museum, 2 Lincoln Square, New York, NY

Cost is $10 to register (free for museum members). Click here to sign up.

Hope to see you there!