Tuesday, 30 June 2009
Manly iPhone holders
Sunday, 28 June 2009
Sunday Stash
Tuesday, 16 June 2009
Unsuitable for dogs
However, not everyone has a dog and it will only be a fraction of pencil roll purchasers who have hopes that their roll might be dual-purposed in this way....which is why I have heeded my mother's wise advice and redesigned my rolls to have velcro tabs. I had felt a little sad that this didn't allow me to have the happiness of choosing ribbons, but actually, I made my own fun in trying to find little pictures or nice fabric swatches to go on each tab.
And how could one not go foraging for little details like this when one has been set up so nicely to think that way by the thoughtful manufacturer who chose to produce inspiring selvages like the one below - it's so lovely I can barely believe that it actually exists and resides in my house.
And one of those sweet little houses and trees found their way onto the front of one of the pencil roll holders - I would have loved this when I was small. It reminds me of some yellow and red hair bobbles that I had that were made from a plasticised fabric and featured a hot air balloon...how I would love to still have those (to look at, not to wear...no weirdy pigtail regression here!)....there's something so lovely about very miniature things.
Some of these will find their way into my shop within the next week...which I feel I can now say with much relief, having lost my shop (and email - horrors!) for 24 hours due to strange server problems. But it's over now, and I can breathe again. How oddly attached one becomes to one's website - it feels like an extension of myself and for it not to be there felt tantamount to suddenly being told that my ear lobe had gone missing. Mr Teacake tells me that despite the fact that I pay nothing for his web services, I am somehow more demanding than any of his real clients. Mmm. This is probably true...but I have deemed this to be the prerogative of the person who maintains a constant supply of pistachio nuts solely for his nut-eating happiness.
Happy tulips...
Anyway, there is so much more to tell, but not quite enough time to tell it in, so I shall leave you with this photograph of the wonderful matryoshka tape measure that my sister surprised me with last week.
I am off to do some measuring with it...and tomorrow, we are off to the hospital for Mr Teacakes' operation on his hand. Thank you so much for your well wishes for him. x
Wednesday, 10 June 2009
Stitchery from the small ones
Best of all, I found no need to sit on my own hands or superglue my own lips together to prevent myself from making 'helpful suggestions' - I could relax into the realisation that these monsters did not have to resemble anything on the packet for me to feel that our sewing session had been successful. Dinosaur-boy was four when we made these and stayed immersed in their creation for nearly two hours, his mouth pursed in concentration as he formed each lovely stitch.
I suppose these kits could be stuck together with glue...but that would feel all wrong when there's the opportunity for some hand-sewing. And I can see that there could be an argument for making them from my own stash of left-over fabrics...but somehow this was nicer...I know that if I made the kits myself then I would cut pieces with a purpose for them in mind and feel anxious when I saw the carefully shaped underpants that I had cut out being used a hat. It's hard being a control freak.
He is also distraught that this will mean he can't play football for the time being. I have implored him to wear a padded foam bodysuit and crash helmet once he returns to the pitch, but oddly, he does not seem keen on this idea. Instead he just speaks of me fashioning him some kind of attractive fabric finger support. I have no wish to branch out into the realm of personal injury sewing though, so will continue with my pencil holders and buy him a consolation ice cream instead.
x
Friday, 5 June 2009
Sewing Machine Meme
A Pfaff Classicstyle Home 1529.
How long have you had it?
Over a year.
How much does that machine cost (approximately)?
Around £400 (about $650). Although I part-exchanged my old Babylock and the numerous feet that I had to go with it and so only paid £250 for it.
I use all different weights of material and make everything from handbags, to quilts, to kimonos, to oven gloves and even curtains if I'm forced to...I can't think of anything I couldn't sew using this machine.
How much do you sew? How much wear and tear does the machine get?
On average I sew for about six hours a day or night, five or six times a week (although some of this time will obviously be spent pattern-drawing, cutting, pinning...and eating an occasional biscuit to sustain myself), so fairly heavy-duty usage.
Oh, what's not to love? I actually find my machine perfect in every way, although I've yet to personify it by giving it a name. My love for it comes primarily because it stitches perfectly every time, so that I can get on with making things rather than losing hours fiddling around with the settings - this sounds like a small thing to be grateful for, but so many machines don't seem capable of this.
I chose to buy a Pfaff because of the built-in walking foot (IDT) which can be used in conjunction with most of the feet that I own for it. The walking foot makes sure that the top and bottom pieces of material are fed through the machine at exactly the same rate (on a standard machine the material nearest the feed dogs is fed through a fraction faster which can result in less precise results). The other thing that I love is that the feet are able to flex up and down a little, meaning that it can effortlessly sew through varying thicknesses of materials without my ever having to lift my foot from the pedal. The only thing that I sometimes wish for is an automatic needle up/down feature (this is where your machine always comes to a stop with the needle down in your material so that it's ready to pivot, rather than you having to adjust this with your flywheel), which it would need to be computerised to possess and the Luddite in me feels quite passionate about keeping my sewing machine the old-fashioned way. It would completely change the relaxation that I find in sewing if I was having to deal with a computer's inherent quirks and naughtinesses.
What features does your machine have that work well for you?
I love the different needle positions (something that my old machine didn't have)...and again, all of the above.
Nothing. At first I wished that it looked a little prettier and longed for shinier feet to attach to it...but I've come to love it the way it is and fight the bit of myself that craves for all utilitarian things to be aesthetically pleasing. I now look to the vintage Singer (above) that my father bought for me when I'm needing a fix of sewing machine shininess!
Do you have a great story to share about your machine (i.e., Found it under the Christmas tree? Dropped it on the kitchen floor? Sewed your fingernail to your zipper?, Got it from your Great Grandma?, etc.!)? We want to hear it!
Oh, how I wish to make something amusing up for this and tell you that my cat dragged it home after the metal foot plate accidentally found itself attached to her magnetic collar...but that would be untrue, not least because she doesn't have a magnetic collar. I bought it at my local shop. I am delighted with it. We have had no mishaps together. And now I'm feeling like a crashing bore. Did I mention that I can fold myself in half?
Would you recommend the machine to others? Why?
Yes, I feel quite evangelical about it...and would only just stop short (due to worries of being labelled a fascist) at expressing a wish for ownership of this make and model to be compulsory and for all others to be taken off the market.
What factors do you think are important to consider when looking for a new machine?
When I was buying I spent an awful lot of time craving a machine that could do fancy stitches...but I've since realised that I can't imagine very many times when I'd use these and so I'm pleased that I didn't make my choice on that basis...so I suppose it's most important to think about what kind of sewing you currently do. What's really important to me is that my machine behaves impeccably so that I'm able to produce things that look exactly the way that I'd hoped that they might. I'm lucky that my local sewing machine shop really think about how each customer will use their machine and what will be best for them. When I discussed the things that I make and how many hours a day that I sew for, the lovely man there was able to convince me that what I really needed was a reliable, sturdily-built workhorse, despite the fact that even a top of the range workhorse will nearly always be less expensive than a computerised model. It's so rare to find a salesperson imploring you to spend less, but because of this I trust their advice implicitly and would now never risk buying a machine from elsewhere and have attempted to go some way to rewarding their kindness by buying a small army of feet to attach to it. My machine's simplicity means that I can fix most things myself and that on the rare occasion where I can't, it can be fixed on the same day in their workshop without waiting for expensive parts to arrive. My machine is German (and I think assembled in the Czech Republic, but Pfaff have now switched production over to China, so I'd be unlikely to buy from the newer range) and having tried out comparative Pfaff models side by side manufactured in the two different places I can say that even to the untechnically-minded, the Czech models sound and feel far superior to the Chinese versions.

Yes, exactly what I have now...but I'd really like two of them so that I can stop worrying about what I will do when it eventually gives up through overuse.
And no, the materials have no relevance at all to this post and aren't even recent purchases...it simply felt too gloomy to write this without a little bit of fabricy loveliness to pad out my words!
Wishing you a lovely weekend. x