Sewing Business Blog

Let’s Celebrate National Sewing Month!

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September is National Sewing Month, so let’s celebrate the entire month with sewing, crafting, quilting and whatever you like to do!

In September 1982, President Ronald Reagan recognized the importance of home sewing in our nation and proclaimed September National Sewing Month. Reagan’s mother, Nellie, had supplemented his family’s income during the Great Depression by working as a seamstress.

I have been sewing since age 8, when I learned to sew on my mother’s treadle sewing machine. I LOVE sewing, crafting and quilting. My daughter is also an avid sewer as well as one of my granddaughters!

We have been sewing masks since Covid 19 started — we have them available on Amazon (http://Amazon.com/handmade/sewwithsarah) as well as on Etsy (http://Etsy.com/shop/SewWithSarahCom).

We are pattern designers as well, and have our patterns in our Etsy shop (http://Etsy.com/shop/PatternsThatFitYou) and on my main website http://SewWithSarah.com.

Let your love of all things sewing continue. Did you know that sewing and crafting is a way of relieving stress, helps to stimulate your brain and memory and is excellent for hand/eye co-ordination. When my grandchildren were just toddlers we had large blunt needles that they used for “sewing”. They were good at threading the needle (we used yarn in the big needles), and loved to “sew” small pillows and even just made lines of hand stitching on fabric.

20 Ways To Defeat Your Home Business Disappointments

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We all have disappointments and setbacks in our businesses.  How we deal with them will actually tell the tale of how our business will survive.

When the idea to create a home business first enters your mind, the goal for success becomes part of the vision. Along the journey you will face frustration, discouragement and disappointment before your efforts are rewarded. The key to fulfilling your dream is to not give up when failure arrives (and it will). Print out these 20 tips. Read them aloud EVERY day. Make them personal. Believe in them.

Don’t let the disappointments of creating a work at home business get you down. Learn from them. Making money online can happen if you have the right mindset. After all, everything comes down to your perspective.

20 Tips For Dealing With Disappointments

* Achieve your dreams. Avoid negative people, things and places. Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

* Believe in your self and in what you can do.

* Consider the obstacles from every angle and aspect. Growth comes through learning. Dealing with disappointment requires the ability to learn, adjust and adapt.

* Don’t give up and don’t give in. Thomas Edison failed once, twice, more than thrice before he came up with his invention and perfected the incandescent light bulb. Make persistence your steering wheel.

* Family and friends are life’s greatest treasures. Don’t loose sight of them.

* Give more than what is enough. Success can come through the extra effort you exert in doing things.

* Ignore those who try to destroy you. Don’t let other people get the best of you. Stay away from destructive people – the kind who hate to hear about your success.

* Just be yourself. The key to success is to be yourself and the key to failure is to try to please everyone.

* Keep trying no matter how hard it is. When a person stays motivated the road to success begins to materialize.

* Make things happen. Goals are reached when your dreams are put into work clothes.

* Never lie, cheat or steal. Always play a fair game.

* Practice makes perfect. Persistence is about learning and discovering how we can recover from our mistakes.

* Quitters never win and winners never quit. So choose your fate: Are you going to be a quitter or a winner?

* Stop procrastinating. Do! Don’t wait!

* Take control of your life. Self-discipline is linked with motivation. Both are key factors for facing disappointments.

* Visualize it. Create a vision of success in your mind and have a laser beam focus on it

* Want it more than anything. Dreaming means believing. Believing means trying. Trying means pursing. Pursing means attaining.

* You are unique. No one in this world looks, acts, or talks like you. Value your life and embrace it.

* Zero in on your dreams and don’t allow the disappointments to create a detour.

* Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.  Persistence and determination are omnipotent!

For extra information on getting a head start for the new year, I would recommend the following 2 books:  “501 Tips & Strategies For Home Business Entrepreneurs” and “Jumpstart Your Business..Proven Techniques and Strategies”.   These books are a steal at only $7.95 each at SewWithSarah.com, in the business book section.

Quick And Easy Ways To Store Cookies

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With the Holiday Season is upon us, we all tend to get a little bit “frazzled” with all the things that have to be done. I have found an excellent article that has already helped me with my Holiday baking and I think you’ll want to not only read the article, but print it and keep it in your recipe book for future reference!!

Quick And Easy Ways To Store Cookies

By S. Denise Hoyle

Whether baking cookies for the Holidays, family reunions, or for bake sales, it is sometimes more convenient to “bake ahead” rather than feel the stress and pressure of trying to get it all done the day before the big event. We will give you a variety of ways you can get all your cookies made stress-free!!

When cookies are stored, make sure soft cookies remain soft, crisp cookies keep crisp. The two types cannot be stored together!

Store soft cookies in a container with a tight cover. Bar cookies may be stored right in the baking pan, tightly covered. Tuck in an apple wedge if they begin drying out.

Crisp cookies should be stored in a container with a loose-fitting cover. If they soften – as they tend to do in humid weather, pop them in a pre-heated 300 degree over for five minutes before serving.

Most cookies freeze well, either baked or unbaked, but freezing the dough is considered simpler and requires less freezer space. You can get more cookies “made” if you just make the cookie dough for several different kinds of cookies today and stick them in the freezer. You can then more easily bring out one batch at a time to bake while you’re doing other household chores.

BAKED COOKIES: Bake as usual, cool quickly and freeze before packaging. Pack in frozen food containers, separating layers with a double thickness of freezer paper, overwrap the container;label and freeze. To serve, thaw cookies at room temperature 10 to 15 minutes.

ROLLED COOKIE DOUGH: Roll out and cut the dough into shapes. Stack the cut-outs in cartons with a double thickness of freezer paper between the layers. Over-wrap the carton, label and freeze. Bake without thawing.

UNROLLED COOKIE DOUGH: Form the dough into long rolls, wrap in freezer paper and freeze. Thaw just enough to be able to cut into thin slices. Bake on greased baking pan.

DROP COOKIE DOUGH: Drop dough on baking sheet as if you were going to bake the cookies. Freeze the cookies on the sheet, then pack the frozen drops of dough in cartons with a double thickness of freezer paper between the layers. To bake, place the frozen drops on greased baking sheets and bake without thawing.

BAR COOKIES: Freeze dough in baking pan. Go straight from the freezer to the oven, without thawing, and bake as usual.

MOLDED OR PRESSED COOKIES: Freeze the dough in an airtight container after labeling. When ready to bake, thaw dough until it is soft enough to form the cookies.

This method of making your family favorites ahead of time on a day that you have a little extra time, will certainly be worth the extra effort. Not only during Holidays or big events, these “made ahead” cookies are great for desserts for drop-in company, treats for the children after school, etc.

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S. Denise Hoyle is author of the “Busy Person’s Cookbook” as seen on http://BusyPersonsCookbook.com. “We never have enough hours in the day, but everybody gets hungry.” “Busy Person’s Cookbook” is full of time saving recipes and hints for family meals as well as for parties.

Check Out These Must Have Ideas For Fall Decorating

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This is the beginning of Cold and Flu season, so at our house decorative tissue box covers are a MUST in every room!  These are part of our fall and Thanksgiving Holiday decorations.  The Fall Floral, Pumpkin Patch and Burgundy Floral tissue box covers are placed among other similar decorations (more small pumpkins, or floral pieces and decorative leaves) to complete the festive look.  Keep them close to the front, though, because you’ll be using the tissues!!

The square tissue box covers fit the Puffs, Kleenex or generic square tissue boxes, so you won’t have to worry about getting the “right” one.

The  Fabric Tissue Box Covers are also great for your office, gifts for co-workers or a nice gift for a loved one’s room at the hospital or a “just because” gift for a friend.  The fabric tissue box cover is hemmed at the bottom, all seams are finished and fits perfectly over the square tissue boxes.  (There are also rectangular fabric tissue box covers, if that’s what you need).

The best part of this fall decorating is that all of the Fabric Tissue Box Covers are 50% off, now through November 15, when you use the promo code EarlyBird50.

AND, while you’re looking around, don’t forget the Sewing Book section where you’ll find Sewing Machine Repair For The Home Sewer,Serger Repair For The Home Sewer, Complete Guide To Treadle Sewing Machines, as well as other sewing books already marked down 50% – no promo code necessary for the sewing books.  These make wonderful gifts for those who sew, as well as for your own sewing room!