7th Annual Charity Gift Bag Sewing Day, AKA Sara’s Birthday Party!
560 Bags Sewn and Filled – A NEW RECORD!
This year two local charities, Children’s Inn and The Banquet will receive these special sewn zipped bags filled with hygiene basics including soap, shampoo, conditioner, toothbrushes, toothpaste and deodorant. Children’s Inn provides shelter services to women and children who are victims of domestic violence and The Banquet provides meals and items to families in need.
With the need growing in the Sioux Falls area, we are humbled to be able to provide so many filled bags to these two great organizations. Thanks to everyone who donated items throughout the year. Please continue to collect these items and drop them by the store at anytime throughout the year.
And remember, my birthday is coming (only 363 days away!) and I want to have and even bigger party next year!
Click here to watch a short video on how to make these bags.
Click on the picture below to print a pattern for these bags.
We welcome donations of completed sewn bags as well! This is a great way to use up scraps of fabric for a great cause. Even if you do not own a serger, you can make them on a regular sewing machine. If you need zippers to make bags, please contact me at info@heirloomcreations.net. I have plenty of zippers!
We want to also thank the following businesses that donated time, advertising and products.
- Brownie Troop 50151
- Results Radio / Cumulus Media
- Ben & Patty – MIX 97.3 FM
- Chad MecKenzie – KSOO 1140 AM
- Easy & Fun 100.1 FM
- The Banquet – donated 300 toothbrushes
- Falls Dental Centre, 5100 S Cliff Ave, Sioux Falls – (605) 371-9111 – Tooth brushes and tooth paste
- Great Clips at 57th and Louise
On behalf of The Banquet, they are requesting donations of the following items anytime throughout the year:
- Clean small to medium size plastic containers with lids – such as butter or cool whip containers to send extra food home with guests.
- Plastic grocery bags
- Mens Magazines less than 2 years (National Geographic, sports, educational)
- Word Search, Cross word puzzle, puzzle books
- Coloring books
Drop off items at: The Banquet, 900 E 8th St, Sioux Falls, SD 57103 605-335-7066
Thanks Again For Your Continued Support!
You Are Invited to My Party!
Charity Gift Bag Sewing Day
Saturday, October 25, 2008
10 – 4pm
Join us for Heirloom Creations’ 7th Annual Charity Gift Bag sewing day. Come ready for a day of fun with the serger or to help fill the special sewn bags with donated soaps, shampoos, tooth brushes, tooth paste, deodorant, make-up and other helpful items for Children’s Inn of Sioux Falls, SD.
Children’s Inn provides shelter services to women and children who are victims of domestic violence, elder abuse, dating violence, sexual assault, and child abuse and neglect. Services are provided, but are not limited, to the South Dakota counties of Minnehaha, McCook, Lincoln, Turner, and Union.
In 2002, the White House deemed October as National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
Please make plans to join us anytime throughout the day Saturday, October 25, 2008 to help sort, sew, turn, and fill these delightful bags. Last year a total of 558 bags were sewn and filled!
The items we ran short on last year were tooth brushes, tooth paste and deodorant. Please be on the lookout at local stores for sales on these items. Donations can be dropped off throughout the week (and year) at Heirloom Creations, 3800 S Western Ave, Sioux Falls, SD.
If you would like to sew a few bags on your own, click on the picture below to print a pattern.
This annual event started in 2001, the year Steve and I joined the Heirloom Creations business. Knowing that people would want to do something for my birthday, I decided to host a charity event instead. I am much honored that this year, the Charity Gift Bag sewing day lands on my actual birthday. This special sewing event really makes an extra special day for me. All I want are willing hands and hearts to share the time….and tooth paste…!
Thanks for all the many donations that have arrived throughout the year and to those who come and sew for the day. We will provide sergers to use for the day or you can bring your own!
If you plan on attending, please e-mail the store at info@heirloomcreations.net or call us at 605-332-4435 if you plan on joining us for an hour or the entire day!
Watch next week for a special video from this sewing event!
Trading My PC for a MAC
After a little resistance, but with a lot of encouragement, I, Sara, am now a MAC computer user and lover. In getting to that point I was put back in the seat of the “student driver”, a place that most of our new sewing machine owners experience. Every week I offer free classes to all who purchase a machine to help you learn all the many features on their machines. Now, with this new computer it is my turn to learn.
Many of you have been enjoying watching the first couple SewSara.com videos that I have made to accompany some of my latest tips. Thanks to YouTube.com and my MAC, making these videos has been pretty easy. I was inspired to start making the new sewing tip videos by a 2006 MAC commercial that Apple archives on their web site. Click here to watch.
NOTE: You should be able to watch this commercial from this link, but I have not always been successful viewing these videos on a PC – kind of ironic! (Try visiting apple.com, click on MAC, click on Recent Ads, and click on 2006. The movie is named “Better Results”.
I decided to write about this transformation for a couple reasons. First, since I teach all the Sewing Mastery classes at Heirloom Creations, I work with sewers who know how to sew, but are in the need of learning how to use the new sewing machine they just purchased. We cover many of the basics as well as explore avenues many sewers never knew that their current or past sewing machines were ever capable to doing. I now know how that feels learning to use MAC’s operating system. I usually keep the HELP menu box open to help me as I hunt for the tools and commands I am comfortable with on a PC.
This past week I have spent many hours re-designing the Heirloom Creations newsletter (look for an updated new look next week) on the MAC while learning many things on the fly. There is nothing like a deadline to make you need to learn something fast! Steve called me to ask how things were going and I could finally honestly say, “I love my MAC!”
Second, there are a few factors that sometimes hold people back from buying a MAC, such as many embroidery software packages that are only made for PC platforms. Though these companies do not support MAC systems, we have found that MAC’s Parallels Desktop program lets MAC users run PC bases programs. Though we can not endorse the cross over if you do decide to purchase a MAC, we found that it did work for us.
The Mac Doctors at 1001 West Russell Street, Sioux Falls, SD 57104 offered Steve and I the service similar to what we give our sewing customers. They wanted to know what we wanted to use the computer for before they gave us their recommendations. For more information and additional help, call Larry at 605.333.9600. Tell him, Steve from Heirloom Creations told you to call.
By the way, those MAC commercials are true. I have yet to have a virus, or have to restart my computer or have my computer lock up for no apparent reason.
As I continue to learn, you will see more sewing videos in the future. If you have suggestions of videos you would like to see, please e-mail me at info@heirloomcreations.net.
Sewtopia Sewing Club – See What You Have Been Missing!
On the second Tuesday of every month Heirloom Creations in Sioux Falls, SD, offers Sewtopia Sewing Club where customers are enriched with special sewing topics, creative quilting techniques, sensational serger ideas and beautiful embroidery embellishments.
If you are not already attending see a sample what you are missing at Sewtopia Sewing Club. Click here to watch the video!
Heirloom Creations’ Sewtopia Sewing Club was created as a special day that owners of all brands of sewing machines, embroidery machines and sergers can come and experience new techniques and new products and receive special discounts like 20% off all notions on Sewtopia club day. Being a non-branded group allows all sewing enthusiasts a place to learn, share and be inspired. Started in 2002, I, Sara Snuggerud, have been the main speaker with a great host of guest speakers and contributing trunk shows.
At last month’s “Holiday Show” (September 2008), I demonstrated numerous techniques and a variety of holiday gift ideas. We highlighted a new holiday gift and cookbook “Christmas 10th Anniversary” by Gooseberry Patch. Cleo and I even made four of the easy desserts from this book for members to sample. Boy, were they surprised when they tried the Microwave Toffee!
We showed off a quilt-as-you-go technique from a creative pattern line named “Fun & Done”.
Since it was a holiday show, I wore a neat apron named the “Four Corners Apron” by Vanilla House Designs.
We also demonstrated a new 4D Family Portrait family tree software with embroider-able family pictures with simple click of a button. I used the software to create a framed image of Mount Rushmore to hang in my new rustic style guest bedroom. Click here to see a video of my guest bedroom makeover.
For the embroidery segment, we debuted the three special OESD Christmas embroidery collections that will be arriving each month from now until December. This special holiday promotion offers these beautiful embroidery collections FREE with a $60 purchase of embroidery supplies. Embroiderers who collect all three collections can turn in their vouchers for a fourth embroidered greeting card collection with matching magnetic book marks.
Coming up on Tuesday, October 14, 2008 we will be welcoming guest speaker Cheryl Hilbrands. She is a garment pattern designer and incorporates many unique sewing techniques into all her wearable art. Come see a trunk show of cool new ideas as well as some of her favorite quick easy projects. She will also highlight felting, chenille, appliqué and quilting techniques. Sewtopia Sewing Club is offered three times: 10am, 2pm or 6:30pm.
Guest Fee: $10
If you are interested in attending the upcoming Sewtopia Sewing Club as a guest, please call Heirloom Creations at 605-332-4435 to reserve your space. Make it twice as fun and bring a friend for FREE. Just mention this blog!
See you at Sewtopia!