Spool is looking for instructors to teach classes this Spring! Classes are an important part of what we do here, and we will be expanding our class offerings. We love to sew and want to share that love with our customers as they improve their skills!

We want to meet friendly, patient and organized sewing enthusiasts to teach weekend classes. You should be an experienced sewer and preferably have previous teaching experience. Quilting and home decor are the areas we are looking for specifically, but if your strength is garment sewing, don’t let that stop you from applying! Please send a brief description of your sewing and teaching experience, along with 3 photos of completed projects, if possible, to stitch(AT)spoolsewing(DOT)com. Thanks!

Pies are baking, gifts are wrapped and our holiday sewing is (almost) finished! From everyone at Spool, we wish you a very Merry Christmas. We hope your holiday is filled with family, friends, and fun!

Spool will be closed December 24th & 25th, and we will be open from 11-6 on the 26th & 27th. We will be closed next week, December 28th- January 1st, for inventory and little R & R! Our regular schedule will resume January 2.

Enjoy the Season!

All of us here at Spool want to wish you a very happy holiday! It’s been another creative, fun and fabric filled year. We are so thankful to have so many wonderful customers we can count as friends. You guys are the best!

Spool will be closed Thanksgiving day, but we will be open our regular hours of 11-6 throughout the weekend. Do stop in and say hello! If you have family visiting, we’d love to meet them.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It’s the new Liverpool Dress from Amy Butler! Elizabeth did a lovely job stitching this up in a new Brandon Mably print. Fortunately for me, our shop mannequin just happens to wear a size Medium as well! I love a shirt dress, and I have to say I think this one is pretty close to perfect. A dress is the easiest thing to wear. It makes you look well put together, and all you have to think about is accessories. I can see myself wearing this to work (would everyday be too much?) or running errands. Pair it with boots and a pretty scarf and I’d be ready for a party!

As usual, Ms. Butler, gives us many options for this dress. It can be a shirt, a tunic, a short dress, or a long dress. Set-in sleeves can be short, elbow length, 3/4 length, or long. Ours is a long dress with elbow length sleeves. Each version has a tab collar and button placket with double dart shaping in the front and back, and a self tie belt stitched into the side seams. These options will easily take you through the seasons. If you made it in a home dec weight fabric, it would be a handsome jacket!

We are having a class in the Liverpool Dress in January. This will be a fun, workshop style class, in which we will demonstrate the crucial parts of the pattern, while you sew at your own pace. Here’s the details:

Liverpool Dress Class- $80 plus materials
Saturday, January 23 & 30: 10AM- 2PM

We recommend that you have previously made garments using a pattern, and that you come to class with all of your fabric pieces cut out and ready to sew.

Materials: Pattern, thread, 2.25- 4.75 yards fabric depending on size and style chosen. 4-7 buttons. 1/4 yard fusible interfacing.

Please call the shop to reserve your space. See you there!

August has come around so quickly, I can’t quite believe it! That means vacation here at Spool, and I am taking a little time off. While I am planning on doing some serious relaxing, I did cut these cute little squares from Joel Dewberry’s Deer Valley to take home with me. They could become a quilt top if I hear the call of the sewing machine and decide to answer!

Spool’s summer vacation hours:

We will be closed August 3-7 and August 10-14.

We will be open next weekend: Saturday, August 8, 11-6 PM and Sunday, August 9, 11-4PM. Jessica and Elizabeth will be here all weekend, so stop in and say hi!

We will resume our regular schedule Saturday, August 15.

Happy Summer! See you in two weeks!Black Book rip

Happy Fourth of July, everyone! Philadelphia loves this holiday, and we always plan on doing some serious celebrating! Wherever the weekend takes you, I hope you find a little time for yourself and your sewing machines. Perhaps you could stitch up some red gingham napkins to tuck in your picnic basket!

Spool will be closed July 4th, but we are open Friday from 11-6 and Sunday 11-4. Enjoy the long weekend!

As you are baking pies, setting the table and welcoming family and friends for the weekend, we want to wish you a happy holiday. We are so thankful for getting to know all of you these past few months. It is wonderful to meet so many creative people!

Spool will be closed Thanksgiving day, but will be open for our regular hours of 11-6 throughout the weekend. If you’ve wisely taken Friday off, come sew with us, or bring the family by – we’d love to meet them!

Happy Thanksgiving!Grumpy Old Men ipodThe 21 (Twenty One Movie) psp

Spider release

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Whether you are lighting the menorah, turning on the tree, wrapping gifts, or baking pies, we hope the season has you in the best of spirits. Everyone at Spool wants to wish you a very happy holiday!

Spool will be closed December 24th & 25th. We will be open our regular hours of 11-6 throughout the weekend. See you soon!

Every new baby needs a handmade quilt, don’t you think? Alex Anderson’s Baby Quilts with Love gives us lots to choose from! This book is full of simple and adorable quilts for the little cutie in your life. We sampled the Tree of Life quilt to highlight Freesprit designer, Verna Mosquera’s Sweet Escape line of soft pretty florals. I love the vintage feel of this fabric and design – particularly the little border of stars that swirls around the edge. Very special!

Lots of sewers just want to have the fun of piecing a quilt top, and leave the quilting to the experts. Around the time that Michael was piecing this quilt, we had the good fortune to meet Kathleen. Kathleen is sweet as punch and a fantastic quilter to boot. She is the proprietress of a quilting business called Guinevere & Me The Secret of the Magic Gourd download Kicking the Dog ipod . Who is Guinevere you might ask? Her long arm quilting machine, of course! We packed up our little baby quilt and sent it off to meet Guinevere. When it came back, we were thrilled. She helped us pick just the right pattern and thread to make our quilt special. In additon to machine quilting, Kathleen offers services such as binding and machine basting for handquilters. If you are interested in meeting with Kathleen, please call the shop for her information.

Wonderful work, Michael & Kathleen! This quilt is just lovely!

Sarah started sewing just a few short months ago and had a plan in mind from the get-go. She is getting married and wanted to make gifts for her wedding party. Sarah’s wedding is being held in a castle in Scotland – amazing! Since her bridal party will be traveling to get to her, she wanted give them each a special travel bag filled with gifts to make their journey more comfortable. Using Lotta Jansdotter’s All Day Tote from Simple Sewing as a guide, she picked out special fabrics for each of the 6 women in her wedding. This one is Sarah’s favorite and I can see why! The navy Shot Cotton looks so rich against Amy Butler’s gingko print fabric.

Since the pattern called for cotton canvas and Sarah was using quilting cotton, she used interfacing and snaps to make the bag more sturdy. I think it’s wonderful that she used the pattern as a jumping off point and customized it to make the project she envisioned. That’s what creativity is all about! I think the ladies in Sarah’s wedding will be thrilled at these thoughtful handmade gifts.

Best wishes for a wonderful wedding, Sarah! Congratulations!

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