Who can enter? What can I enter? What are the prizes? When's the closing date?

Here's everything you need to know to take part in our unique YWU Double Period Project and competition! And you are going to take part this year, aren't you?

You've got a full year from now until our deadline in February 2011, so there's no excuse not to get going and try for one of our fabulous prizes!

Overcoming the structural challenges of this project was a breeze for our master milliner Lynn McMasters, but choosing how to finish off the covering to match Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter in the new Alice in Wonderland movie was much more difficult.

Here she shares the details on covering and finishing this fantasy topper, including how she printed her own fabric and made her own supersized hatpins. The result demonstrates how to bend and shape basic, accurate period costume ideas into enviable theatrical, fantasy, gothic or steampunk works of art!

In our reader survey last August, a very harried mother of a toddler asked "Help! How do I sew with a toddler trying to re-thread my machine, rummage through my sewing box and take all the books off the bookshelf?!?" 

If you've never tried to sew while having a child around, you can have no idea how frustrating/challenging it can be for the adult and very dangerous for the child. Many new parents feel like they will never be able to sew again once they have children because of the hot iron and powered sewing machine that are like magnets to children.  Many members wrote in to share what has worked for them, and I'll share some tips of my own.