News

Muslin - five projects to sew today

  Cotton muslin is a versatile and affordable fabric that can be used for a variety of sewing projects. Its natural colour makes it a great neutral choice or a fantastic base for personalisation...

More free sewing machines to change young designers lives

  Our Social Fabric is handing out six free sewing machines to youth in the Vancouver Lower Mainland as part of our scholarship program, Sew Fun(d). Our unique scholarship program has already gi...

Four young designers given head start with a new sewing machine

Four aspiring young designers have already received a brand-new sewing machine as part of our Sew Fun(d) scholarship program. Here, program manager, MaryAn gives us an update on the program so far:...

Colour blocking - what is it and how do I do it?

In sewing speak, colour blocking is mixing two or more differently coloured fabrics within a single garment. It might mean choosing a different colour fabric for the sleeves versus the body or sli...

How to apply lace hem tape

You might have seen packets of pretty lace hem tape (also called lace seam binding) in our store but have you wondered how to use it? Today on the blog, we show you step-by-step how to apply lace h...

Fabric recycling totals for January 2023

  We're pleased to shared that in January 2023 we diverted 6,739 lbs of fabric and sewing-related materials from landfill. Our donors included local manufacturers, the film industry and private ...

Knit fabric scrap busting patterns

Looking for a pattern to use up knit fabric scraps? We share some of our top picks.  Anyone who sews knows what it’s like to have to deal with scraps. We hate fabric waste at Our Social Fabric so w...

2022 recycling totals

  2022 has been a busy year over at OSF HQ. We’ve saved a lot of fabric and sewing-related materials from landfill, over 34,000 lbs to be precise. Since 2017 when we started recording this data...

How to sew with rick rack

It's cute, and slightly retro, but did you know there are many ways you can use rick rack in your projects?  Professor Pincushion has an awesome video which perfectly sums up the multitude of ways...

10 easy craft ideas with buttons

Do you have more buttons that you can sew onto a garment? Or do you want to find a unique way to use some of your special buttons? We share 10 uses for buttons aside from using them as a closure f...