All who love CATS & love to Sew are invited to attend!

Even if you’ve never sewn before, you are more than welcome to  join us! (We always need expert catnip distributors and cat toy stuffers!)

Monday November 20th, 2017 from 7-9pm

This is a free night of sewing to support a local Cat Adoption Group called JerseyCats.

Sign Up

We’ll be sewing catnip filled cat toys that JerseyCats Organization will sell at upcoming adoption events. The money raised from selling the toys we make will go towards the Jersey Cats Mission.

Kids age 8 & up are welcome when accompanied by at least one adult.
There are no child drop offs for this event. 

Sign Up

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JerseyCats has simple and clear objectives to help cats:

• Homing – finding homes for cats in need by facilitating foster care and adoption

• Reducing overpopulation – supporting and encouraging the spay/neuter of cats

• Outreach – improving people’s understanding of cats and their care through community education

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All the supplies and instruction will be provided free of charge by JerseyCats & M Avery Designs. We’ll even have some light refreshments.

Please join us! It’s sure to be a fun night of sewing and supporting this very worthwhile cause!

There will also be a $5 raffle for some cool giveaways courtesy of M Avery Designs. All proceeds from the raffle will go straight to the organization!

Please sign up by clicking the link below so we can keep an accurate count of who will be coming!

Please mark your calendars for the:

M Avery Designs Spring Fashion Runway Show & Project Showcase
Sunday June 22nd, 2014 at 11:30am
@ The Monroe Center.

Your M Avery Designs Fashion & Sewing student works very hard on all of their their fashion & sewing projects. All our hardworking & talented students are invited to participate in our Spring Fashion Show to showcase all the fabulous designs created in the After School Sewing & Fashion Design program during the Spring Semester of the school year.  

There will be a Fashion Show to showcase all wearable items on the runway, complete with fashion photographers capturing all the magic. Your students fashions can be modeled by a friend or they can model their own fashions. This is not a requirement for any student and we’ll be circulating a sign-up sheet in the next couple of weeks for all interested students.

There will also be an exhibition showcasing all non-wearable projects (stuffed animals, home decor items, etc) before, during & after the runway show.

We’d also like to invite you to attend a small reception following the runway show at 3pm with snacks and drinks.

We hope your student is interested in participating and we hope that you and your family can attend this fun event!

Megan Avery – Owner & Instructor

Ellen Brown – Instructor

Ruby Gertz – Instructor

Everyone who sews absolutely loves fabric!  But how much do we really know about it?

We have added this brand new class to help you all become fabric experts. We’ll help you identify all different kinds of fabric and we’ll help you determine which fabrics are best for which projects. You’ll see up close and personal what each of the fabrics looks like, feels like and the ways to determine the fiber content.

Swatches of each fabric discussed (over 40 different fabrics) will be provided to all students attending the class. And we’ll provide you with a handy take home information sheet including each fabrics properties, how to work with it, how to care for it & little known hints and tips.

Some of the fabrics discussed include naturals (cotton, denim, chintz, chenille, poplin, corduroy, etc) silks (shantung, taffeta, brocade, tulle, etc), manufactured (acetate, acrylic, nylon, polyester, rayon, etc) sustainable (hemp, organic cotton, tencel, etc) & more.

This 2 Hour Class is $20 Per Person |  All Supplies Included

Upcoming Sessions

Monday March 3rd, 2014 6:30-8:30pm | Sign Up

Need a quick way to refresh your living room without spending big bucks? That is exactly what I was looking for when I decided to recover our well worn ottoman. The old ottoman has been been around about 7 years. It is covered with stains and I am just plain sick of it.

I began scanning upholstery fabrics on fabric.com and found so many that I fell in love with. That’s when I knew this was a must-do project. Sew easy!

Okay so here are the steps to creating your very own cover that can be easily removed for washing.

Step 1: Measure the length, depth and height of your existing ottoman.

Step 2: Cut your first piece of fabric, the top. This will be the size of the top of the ottoman, but you’ll add 1″ to the length & 1″ to the depth.

So in my case, my ottoman measured 45 1/2″ long x 27″ wide. So my first piece of fabric measures 46 1/2″ long x 28″ wide.

Step 3: Cut your front & back fabric pieces. Front & back will be the same size and will measure 1″ larger than the length x 3″ larger than the height.

Step 4: Cut your two sides pieces. The two sides pieces will be the same size and will measure 1″ larger than the depth x 3″ larger than the height.

Step 5: With 1/2″ seam allowance and with right sides together, sew the front piece to the longer side of the top piece. Then repeat with the back piece, sewing it to the opposite side.

Step 6: With 1/2″ seam allowance and with right sides together, sew the first side piece to the shorter side of the top piece. Then repeat with the other side piece, sewing it to the opposite side. Quick hint: Leave about 1″ on either side un-sewn, this will help make the corners more symetrical.

Step 7: With right sides together and using 1/2″ seam allowance, sew the side of the front piece to the side of the side piece. Repeat with the other side of the front piece and the other side piece.

Step 8: With right sides together & using 1/2″ seam allowance, sew the side of the back piece to the side of the side piece. Repeat with the other side of the back piece and the other side piece. Should start to resemble a 3D cube similar in size to your ottoman.

Step 9: Try it on your existing ottoman (after you’ve cleaned and febreezed it) and if it needs to be tighter you can reinforce your existing seams with slightly larger seam allowances.

Step 10: Fold up the bottom edge of the cover to just above the floor and pin in place all the way around the cover.

Step 10: Sew this hem in place all the way around and you are finished.

I have been putting off altering this dress for a long time. I love it, but just can’t stand the bell sleeves.

I had an extra few minutes (seriously that’s about how long it took) and I thought, let’s do this.

So here are the step by step instructions for how to get rid of the bell sleeves on a top or dress. (It took longer to write this post in WordPress then it did to alter both sleeves. Not kidding!)

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Step 1: Determine how big you want the arm opening. You can figure this out by measuring the circumference of your arm where the end of the sleeve is on your arm. Then divide this number in half to determine how big the sleeve opening should be. If the fabric has some stretch, you’re golden. If the fabric doesn’t have any stretch, you may want to add 1/2″ – 1″ just so it’s not cutting off the circulation of your arm. This is your preference.

Step 2: Make a line in pins (or tailors chalk if you have it handy) from the armpit seam to your sleeve opening point.

Step 3: Sew along this line. (Check out the photo below with the tape measurer showing you the line to follow.

Step 4: Repeat on the other sleeve. Don’t forget to back-stitch at the beginning & at the end. And voila – There you have it. A more tapered short sleeve. LOVE!

Please forgive the photography on this post. It’s not the best & I was a little lazy, not bothering to make my bed for the shots. Ah well.  So much for the illusion that I am some sort of together person. Don’t hate me.

Listening to music while sewing is obviously a necessity!

We’ve always got the tunes playing in the back ground and we get a lot of comments (mostly compliments) on our studio playlists. We pride ourselves on knowing how to to please our audience, not only with the great classes we offer, but with the music we play while the classes are going on. For example, we’re probably not going to play Wilco for anyone younger than 18, and “Call me Maybe” is completely off limits. except for 6 year old purse parties!

We thought it would be fun to share with your our Spotify playlists so you can sew at home with the same enthusiasm as you do at our place.

You can follow us on Spotify or you can always check out our Monthly Playlists and special occasion playlists.

Check ’em out below:

M Avery Designs Studio Playlist September 2013

M Avery Designs Studio Playlist October 2013 

M Avery Designs Studio Playlist November 2013

M Avery Designs Studio Playlist December 2013

Please mark your calendars for the:

First Annual M Avery Designs Winter Fashion Runway Show
Saturday December 14th, 2013 at 2pm
@ The Monroe Center.

Your M Avery Designs Fashion & Sewing student works very hard on all of their their fashion & sewing projects. All our hardworking & talented students are invited to participate in our Winter Fashion Show to showcase all the fabulous designs created in the After School Sewing & Fashion Design program during the Fall Semester of the school year.  

There will be a Fashion Show to showcase all wearable items on the runway, complete with fashion photographers capturing all the magic. Your students fashions can be modeled by a friend or they can model their own fashions. This is not a requirement for any student and we’ll be circulating a sign-up sheet in the next couple of weeks for all interested students.

There will also be an exhibition showcasing all non-wearable projects (stuffed animals, home decor items, etc) before, during & after the runway show.

We’d also like to invite you to attend a small reception following the runway show at 4pm with snacks and drinks.

We hope your student is interested in participating and we hope that you and your family can attend this fun event!

Megan Avery – Owner & Instructor

Ellen Brown – Instructor

Danielle Espiritu – Instructor

Ruby Gertz – Instructor

According to research conducted by Statistics Brain, 23% of all public and private schools in the United States have a uniform policy. The school uniform sales in the country reached $1.1 billion in 2000. Despite the negative criticisms of having a school uniform, more schools continue to implement this policy because of its many benefits such as sense of security, positive student behavior, and better learning environment.

Having a uniform also eliminated competition and distractions because the students usually compare their clothes with their classmates. Retail giant M&S supports the uniform policy by scrapping their ready-made school uniforms early last year. Instead, they offered made-to-order uniforms to more than 300 schools in the United Kingdom. In an article published in Mirror News, M&S plans to cash in on the 1 billion UK Pound market with cut-price badges, printing, and embroidery tailored for individual schools.

In the United States, most parents agree with the uniform policy and some even find ways to secure their child more by putting name labels. Having a name tag will make it easier for a child to be identified. It will also be easier for parents to sort out clothes especially those who have more than one child that goes to school.

There are different ways to add a name label on the uniform, but the cheapest way is by sewing up the initials. You can use a chain stitch or cross stitch to form the letters. To make the name label look even, draw a pattern first on the shirt before stitching.

If you don’t have time to sew, you can just purchase a customized name patch at Color Patch or Stitch A Logo. You can easily do a running stitch on the edges of the patch to attach that on the shirt. There are also name tags that do not require any sewing like the Attach A Tag. All you have to do is etch your name on the tag then attach that on the clothes.

You’re not going to believe just how easy it is to make a pillow cover for any size square or rectangle shaped pillow.

I have outlined the steps below. This should only take you about a 1/2 hour and just about anyone with any sewing skills at all will be able to do this.

Supplies:
-1 Yard of Fabric (per 16″ pillow)
-1 Invisible Zipper or Dress Zipper 16” or longer
-Matching Color Thread

Tools:
-Sewing Machine
-Scissors -Straight Pin
-Iron

Step 1. Measure the pillow you are going to cover and write down the width (w) and height (t) of your pillow.

Step 2. Cut fabric to use for the front & back of the pillow. The measurement for both the front and the back should be 1 inch wider and 1 inch taller than your pillow (1/2 inch larger on each side for seam allowance).

For Example if your pillow is 18 inches x 18 inches, your pillow cover pieces will be 19 inches x 19 inches.

Step 3. With the right side of the zipper facing the right side of the fabric, place zipper along top edge of the front fabric piece. Secure with straight pins and stitch it into place, stitching along the zipper tape that is closest to the top edge.

Step 4. With the right side of the zipper facing the right side of the fabric, place the other side of the zipper along top edge of the back fabric piece. Secure with straight pins and stitch it into place, stitching along the zipper tape that is closest to the top edge.

Step 5. Open the zipper about 1/2 of the way.

Step 6. Place the right side of the pillow back and the right side of the pillow front together and secure with pins so all the sides line up.

Step 7. With 1/2 inch seam allowance, sew the back piece to the front piece along the sides that don’t have a zipper. You will want to sew and back stitch over the zipper ends.

Step 8. Open the zipper the rest of the way, turn pillow cover right side out and iron.