I hope your year has been a good one too and that 2018 brings you good health and much joy! At Designs by Donna my mission is: To use my passion, gifts, and abilities to bring joy and beauty into the lives of others through exquisite design, teaching, and sharing.
Difficult Fabrics – Silk Velvet Banding on Drapery Lead Edge
Working with difficult fabrics can be challenging and stressful unless you first determine your course of action. This is the second edition of working with difficult fabrics. I’ll show you how I used upholstery weight silk velvet to make narrow bands on silk taffeta panels. Now these are two fabrics that couldn’t be more incompatible. […]
Difficult Fabrics – Working With Pleated Fabrics
Have you ever had to work with difficult fabrics? If you’ve been sewing for any length of time, you probably have. You know the ones. The slippery fabrics that move around the table by themselves. Or the loosely woven fabrics that begin to fray the moment you begin cutting. Or fabrics with a nap, such as velvet, where special […]
What’s your learning style?
If there’s one thing I’ve figured out from teaching it’s that each person has a different way of learning. Some prefer reading to learn a new technique. Others prefer hands on in order to learn to do something. And still others want to watch the instructor give a demonstration and explain how to do something. […]
How to sew a interlock stitch in drapery panels
When making multi width drapery panels, adding an interlock stitch at the seams will help keep the seams lined up as they hang. Without this stitch the fabric layers may shift making the draperies look untidy or messy. Here are a few quick and easy steps to add an interlock stitch to your drapery panels. Work from […]
Fabric Check-In Process
Fabric arriving at Designs by Donna is checked in and inspected as soon as it arrives. Doing so may avoid delays with the project if any flaws, inconsistencies in the repeat, or wrong yardage amounts are found upon inspection. And the same is true for drapery hardware received. There are a few things for you to check when your […]
Mistakes and how I turned a big one into a success
Mistakes. We all make them, don’t we? Well, I know I do. Some are big and some are small. But I’ve found one thing to be true. It’s what we do after we make a mistake that turns it into either a success or a failure. Here’s how I turned a big, expensive mistake into a […]
Three quick sewing tips for efficiency in the workroom.
Today I have three sewing tips for you to use for more efficiency in the workroom. First of all you’ll need a few simple things in order to use the tips I’m sharing. 1. A thumbnail; 2. Blue painters tape; and 3. A magnet. Oh, and as these are sewing tips, you will also need […]
Patchwork chair seats – the challenges, fun, & following my gut.
Patchwork chair seats and following your gut. You may be wondering how these can possibly be related. Well, really, they aren’t. Except that because I followed my gut I created these one of a kind chair seats for the sample room here at Designs by Donna. And I really like them much better than my original […]
