Thursday 6 March 2014

My Favourite Sewing Tools

I have a confession to make: I am a serious notion junkie! I have a pile of different sewing gadgets, some useful and some less useful. In this post I want to share some of my favourite sewing notions.

Nancy Zieman Clover 5-in-1 Seam Gauge: I use this to add seam allowance to the many European patterns; Euro patterns do not have any seam allowance added so you have to add it yourself. This handy gauge not only makes this job a whole lot easier, but it is also great for marking buttonholes, marking hems and spacing different trims.
Luarastar Iron: To achieve professional results in sewing you have to do a whole lot of pressing, sometimes I think I do more pressing than sewing! A good steam iron is a must; this one has a nice weight and it produces a nice amount of steam.
Aquarium Cleaning Magnets: I use these to hold the big pattern sheets from Ottobre and Farbenmix on to my glass sliding door for easy tracing
Frixon Pens: I read this piece of advice on http://thecottagemama.com/2013/02/the-cottage-mamas-sewing-basket-fabric/  The Cottage Mama these really are the best pens for marking fabric, they glide on nicely and iron off easily.
Pressing Tools: (sleeve board, sleeve roll and tailors ham) As I said pressing really makes the difference between an ok garment and a wow garment. These tools make it easy to press curves, to press inside tight spots and shape garments.
Stylefix Tape: This tape is magic! It is a double-sided tape that becomes more adhesive with pressure. I use it to hold ribbons, embroidered patches and even zips in place before sewing. It is repositionable and I love being able to move the ribbon about until I am happy with the results, then I just apply more pressure and the ribbon is secured and ready to sew. I buy it from the most wonderful store  Crafty Mamas Fabric http://www.craftymamasfabrics.com.au/collections/farbenmix/products/farbenmix-stylefix-50m-roll and at $12.00AUD for 50M it is pretty inexpensive.
Wide Format Printer Paper: I use this to trace out my patterns, I like the weight of this and the wide format means I don’t have to tape bits of paper together. When used with my Aquarium Magnet tracing set up, it is fairly easy to trace off even the most confusing Ottobre patterns.
i-magicut ribbon cutter and sealer from Imaginisce: My lovely Hubby bought this for me for Christmas last year, it cuts and seals the ribbon so it won’t fray- yay for that!
Thread Heaven: I stumbled upon this product fairly recently and used it while hand sewing the headdress (it is called a French hood) for the Princess Elizabeth dress I have been working on. Thread Heaven is a thread conditioner and it really makes the thread behave itself.
Fashionary: These handy little note pads have a faintly dotted croqui for fashion sketching, perfect for when inspiration strikes!

So that is some of my favourite sewing notions, I hope the slightly odd notions are interesting to others.

In the next few posts you will get to see some of these goodies and some of my favourite feet in action as I make Miss Loofie yet another rainbow dress. Look forward to seeing you then


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