The following information is also found on my “Frequently Asked Questions” page (i.e. FAQ’s).
You may have noticed that my difficulty scale’s flowers have changed colors over time. You can tell how old my patterns are by the colors of the flowers on them.
Now this doesn’t seem related, but actually it is… My oldest daughter graduated from Idaho State University recently with a college degree in marketing.
While she was in college, my oldest daughter helped me re-organize this website, and she designed a new logo for ChellyWood LLC (the official business for ChellyWood.com). With this new logo design, I re-designed the flowers to match the new logo’s color scheme.
However my older patterns still use the pink flowers. These old patterns may date back to the earlier days, when this website was just beginning to gain followers, and some of my oldest patterns may even be hand-drawn (rather than created on a computer).
Regardless of which color the flowers are, they still mean the same thing.
The flowers on my patterns are used as a difficulty scale. Here’s what you need to know in order to create the project that has been marked with…
This sewing tutorial and/or pattern uses little or no actual sewing. It may require the use of felt fabric, which doesn’t need to be hemmed. It may use traditional glue, safety pins, or hot glue. If any sewing is involved, it will be a straight stitch only. You may need to know how to print my patterns for older projects, but any single-flower projects are for absolute beginners, little kids who are learning to sew, and those folks who don’t like to sew at all.
This sewing tutorial and/or pattern will require knowledge of some of the concepts bulleted below too…
- How to hem a garment using the whipstitch
- How to do a straight stitch
- How to send elastic through a casing
- How to choose fabric
- How to finger-press
- How to thread a needle
- How to tie a knot using a needle and thread
- How to measure a doll
- How to buy fabric
This sewing tutorial and/or pattern will require knowledge of all of the above bulleted items, in addition to any of the following
- How to sew snaps on fabric
- How to press seams open, using a hot iron
- How to sew sweater fabric
- How to gather fabric
- How to hem a garment using a double-fold hem
- How to do a backstitch
- How to send elastic through a casing
- How to baste
- How to attach notions like lace, rick rack, or ribbon as a basic trim or decoration
- How to make darts
- How to clip a curved seam
- How to sew a facing or yoke into a garment
- How to invert the narrow part of a garment using chopsticks or a bamboo knitting needle
- How to cut fabric with a directional pattern or nap
- How to make pockets
This sewing tutorial and/or pattern will require knowledge of all of the above bulleted items, plus a few more concepts like…
- How to line a garment
- How to use bias tape, piping, selvage, or ribbon as a decorative edge or binding (the link to that piping info page takes you to madeeveryday.com, a great website for crafters)
- How to sew pleats
- How to sew a zipper into a garment (also courtesy of madeeveryday.com)
- How to make a buttonhole stitch
- How to cover a button with fabric
- How to sew a hook and eye closure to a garment
- How to use an interfacing
- How to sew a collar or lapel
- How to mix and match fabrics using the guide on a swatch of selvage (selvedge in the UK)
This sewing tutorial and/or pattern will require knowledge of all of the above bulleted items, plus some additional concepts like…
- How to alter a pattern
- How to do embroidery or applique
- How to apply rings (like D-rings) or grommets to a garment
- How to apply epaulettes to a garment
- How to sew a gusset into a garment
- How to make a reversible garment
Today’s blog post is a re-post. To understand why Chelly Wood is taking some time off, reposting older blog topics, revisit the end-of-March blog post entitled, “There’s a cat in my sewing room!”