The Sew and Tell Project

Do you celebrate Mother’s Day with a favorite sewist? Maybe your mom likes to quilt, or maybe your wife makes adorable clothes for your sweet kids. Alisha, Emily, Genie, and I have been chatting up a storm about what we use the most in our home sewing studios and what we most wish for to make our favorite hobbies easier!

If you are looking for last minute gift ideas for your favorite fabric junkie, the Sew and Tell Project has compiled a list for you! Many of these items are available with Free 2-Day shipping on Amazon Prime to make it easier for you to get your gift in time for Mother’s Day, May 8th. (*This post contains affiliate links which support operation of our site so we can share our creations with you).

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Here is our best gift guide for Mother’s Day 2016!

To Pamper Her:

• A gift card for a massage to work out the kinks from sewing too long and too late.
• Gift card to a local fabric store and arrange for her to have some child-free shopping.

Easy to Order and Wallet-Friendly:

• The Nancy Ziemann 5-in-1 Sliding Gauge. I use this every single day for marking hems, checking seam allowance, marking buttonholes. It is a neat all-in-one affordable tool!

• Gutermann 26 Spool Thread Box. I personally go through 1-2 of these a year. It is nice to always have the perfect color on hand to match whatever I am working on.

• Fiskars Rotary Mat, Ruler, and Rotary Cutter set. Every sewist needs one. The bigger the mat, the better.

• A smaller rotary cutter for cutting detailed patterns out. I use this one.

• Gypsy Quilter Gripper. After slicing myself with my rotary cutter, I vowed to get one of these to keep my ruler in place, and my hands out of the way.

• And speaking of cutting myself, protective Klutz gloves to keep hands safe.

For Her Bookshelf

• School of Sewing: Learn it, Teach it, Sew Together by Shea Henderson

• No Sew Love: Fifty Fun Projects to Make Without a Needle and Thread by Ashley Johnston

Bigger Budget Must-Haves:

• Color laser printer for quick, lower cost printing of PDF patterns. Bonus if it has Airprint and Wireless so she can print from her favorite mobile device.  Color is nice, but since so many designers now do layers on their PDF’s, if your budget is lower, I am very happy with my black and white Brother similar to this one.

• Rowenta Iron. I seriously did not get what the big deal was over a nice iron until I used one at a friend’s house. This is very HIGH on my wish list this year!

• A new sewing machine. Both Emily and I have gifted this machine to special women in our lives recently and they love it.

• A 5-thread serger. I currently have a four-thread and I love it. But this one switches very quickly to a rolled hem, and does a 5-thread stitch that sews and serges the seam to cut down on production time. No more switching back and forth between machines! If she doesn’t have a serger, the Brother 1034D is a nice entry-level, budget-friendly machine to start with.

• I have been enjoying using my Cricut more lately and can’t wait to share some new projects with you. If she doesn’t already have a Cricut or a Silhouette, this might be a winner for her (and for you) this Mother’s Day! Amazon has lots of great bundles to choose from!

Check back in tomorrow for a list of ways to shop for mom and support independent designers and fabric retailers!

What’s on your wish list for this Mother’s Day? Did we forget one of your sewing must haves? Leave us a comment below!