fabric arts for a handmade lifestyle

Author Archives: Christine Mann

Christine Mann

I’m Christine Mann, and I write about fabric arts for C&T Publishing and around the web. My mother taught me to love the handmade life. She had five children and still found the time to reupholster chairs, make matching velvet dresses for me, my sister, and our dolls, stitch crewel wall hangings, and express her creativity in many ways that I took for granted as a child. I really got bitten by the crafting bug when I had my own children and started making things for them. I’ve decoupaged furniture, painted china, quilted, made dolls and stuffies, recycled old blankets into purses, and needle felted little animals, among many other things. I’m in love with fabric and all its fabulous colors and patterns. It’s an honor to be able to share the crafting journey with you.

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How to Buy Your First (or Next) Sewing Machine, Part 2

by Christine Mann on July 4th, 2010

The second post in a 2-part series on how to buy your first (or next) sewing machine, this is a guide on where to buy your sewing machine.

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How to Buy Your First (or Next) Sewing Machine, Part 1

by Christine Mann on July 1st, 2010

Just like cars, sewing machines come in dozens of different makes and models, with lots of different features and styles to choose from. Also like a car, a sewing machine is a big purchase. The machine you buy today will likely be in your sewing room for years to come – with so many possibilities, how can you decide which sewing machine is the best one for you? This post, the first in a 2-part series, covers the questions you should ask yourself before buying your first (or next) sewing machine.

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The Joy of Vintage Sewing Machines

by Christine Mann on June 14th, 2010

Not Quite as Green as My Mother's Elna (photograph by Norbert Schnitzler, Creative Commons license.)

We’re celebrating the publication of Stash Books’ Me and My Sewing Machine with a series of posts on one of the best helpers you can have in the handmade life—your sewing machine.

I learned to sew on my mother’s old green Elna, the machine she got as a bride in the late 1950s and used until she died forty years later. That machine was a war horse, built from the same aluminum alloys they use in airplanes, with a tough green metal case that reminded me of an Army jeep and even a little tool kit to keep the machine running—a world away from the sleek space-age Pfaff I sew on now.