Recollections of times past stirred by the scent of pine on a frosty winter walk, the simmering on a kitchen stove of cloves, cranberries and oranges that fill our senses remind us of past holiday moments shared with friends and family. Handmade merry gifts to make also come to mind at these times.

Sewing tips that can save time, cost or reveal some clever tidbit of info are always welcome. It is only those that provide really practical workable results to have expected value for the sewer. Sewing machine thread issues can provide frustrating moments if not for a few simple tips to consider.

Brightly colored seasonal fabrics paired with simple to sew items for the kitchen and dining room bring a festive air to the most functional areas of the home. Décor items can be quickly sewn using fabrics that display the bright colors of the holiday season.

With a playful nod to the recent past, newly made women’s fashion that copy the style of the post-war era are referred to as retro while actual surviving garments are considered vintage. Sewing retro brings a light-hearted wistfulness to capture what past times were like.

Traditional charming hanging advent calendars often have numbered pockets frequently containing small treats to help countdown the days leading up to a special holiday. All are endearing for what they represent - innocent anticipation for a big day.

Patchwork is a practical fabric craft that can be made simply and quickly on any sewing machine. Various size fabric pieces too useful to discard, relegated to the sewer’s scrap basket awaiting new purpose, can be joined together to form an eye-catching design or a riot of mismatched color and fun.

The end of summer nears as a breath of autumn meanders by whispering to trees it is time to reveal hidden brilliant gold and red hues, for gardens to hurry the last of their bounty and nudging our thoughts to cooler days ahead. Time for flannel and warmer clothing to make an appearance. Time to sew!

The timeless expression - practice makes perfect, is never truer than when applying a machine-made buttonhole to a carefully sewn garment. The best way to ensure a machine-made buttonhole comes out the way it is expected to look is to make a test buttonhole using a fabric scrap from the project.

Despite our best efforts at coaxing our sewing machines to produce a secure, uniform interlocked stitch, frustrating difficulties are inevitable along the way. This highly functional multiple component machine must have everything working in synchronous harmony to produce thousands of even stitches.

In trying to decipher optimal sewing machine tension for fabric, as if needle and thread choices were not enough for the home sewer, the serger or overlock machine elevates all, at times frustratingly, to an entirely new level of machine sewing considerations. Balanced serger stitches are the goal.