I’ll be discussing the outfits in order. Left to right, row by row.

5-6-13:  Spent most of the day plopped in front of the computer.  The only time I leave the house on some days is to get the mail and walk the dog.  Waffle is waiting patiently for me to take a pic and get going.  I’m wearing Silhouette patterns #3400 Three piece yoga pants and previously mentioned unmentionables.

5-7-13:  Full days of meeting so I didn’t look like a bum today.  Wearing 4 pieces of me made.  Red faux wrap top is McCall’s 6513. Trouser jeans are Silhouette patterns #3600 Ralph’s pants.  Jacket is Vogue 8480 made in a water proof fabric.  It was raining a little so I thought this jacket would be appropriate level of California rain protection.

5-8-13:  I was a complete dressing disaster today.  Not sure how I managed to get my coat on inside out, somehow was able to button it but couldn’t aligned the buttons.  Got myself straightened and managed another day with 4 me mades.  Fleece coat is Simplicity 2760.Pants are those Silhouette yoga pants again.  Bunny slippers are Kwik Sew 130.

5-9-13:  Yup it’s those Silhouette patterns yoga pants again.  This is my “khaki” version of my “pajama jeans”.  I made them out of a khaki looking knit so I can wear them into the office.  I’ve added pockets and a seam detail down the center front so no one is the wiser.

5-10-13:  So much going on I didn’t get a pic.  Headed to Northern California for a wedding on Saturday.  I dropped off the dog at his dog park-like boarding place in the am.  Had a very difficult day at work.  Packed.  Then drove all night to Northern California with a boyfriend sick with food poisoning in the passenger seat.  I wore me-made yoga pants made in a grey ponte roma for the long trip.

5-11-13:  The day of the wedding.  That’s me in Butterick B5559.  I made it in a stretchy twill backed satin from Micheal Levine’s loft.  It was the only fabric that I had that was dressy enough for the wedding.  I whipped it together in 2 nights because I had already fitted the pattern previously.  Neck and arm holes were simply folded and sloppily topstitched.  The hem was atrocious.  Thank goodness for cardigans.

5-12-13:  Sick.  Oh so sick.  Basically slept from Saturday night until Monday morning.  My boyfriend had to drive us home and pick up the pup on the way down.  He put me and the dog in the bed.  Waffle and I didn’t move until Monday morning.  No good pics could come from this day.  I wore me-made pajama pants.  No pattern just one of those tie at the waist types.

5-13-13:  Needed at the last minute to work in our Northern California office.  What?!  I was just there.  So turned around and headed back.  No pic because I would have a frowny face on.    I wore me-made yoga pants for the trip.

5-14-13:  Spent the day in the office.  I wore Simplicity 2702. Before you think, “hey, that’s a cute dress,” read the pattern review.  I took this pic with a self timer in the hotel room.  I’m not trying to be a model.  I like my standard frumpy poses in front of a boring wall just fine.  This pose was the only position I could come up with that showed the whole dress, didn’t cut off my head or legs and didn’t make me look like a tramp selling something in one of those magazines.

5-15-13:  Day 2 in the office.  My coat was self drafted.  The fabric is a sweater knit I got from Baron’s fabric in Woodland Hills, CA.  It was a designer sample cut and is quite lovely.  The skirt is Silhouette Patterns 2950 Joyce’s Almost Bias Skirt that is modified with a cascade hem line.  I lined it with a peacock blue lining that matched the specks in the brown fabric.  I had hoped would peak through with the longer back but it doesn’t when I stand.  So my friend who took this pic had me sit down and “pose” so the lining shows.

5-16-13:  Not looking for feeling my best today.  No pics but I did wear yoga shorts.  I had a little bit of brown ponte roma left.  Not enough for my standard work-at-home yoga pants.  So I made them into shorts.  This is a pic from another day but it’s the same shorts.

5-17-13:  Went to a concert, Reyli, at the Honda Center.  The top is New Look 6648.    The top has plenty of ease for dancing, arm waving, drinking and overall having fun.  I drank Cristal for the first time.  I think a bottle is $200-300!  The pants are trouser jeans.   Silhouette Patterns 3600 Ralph’s Pants made in a denim fabric.  I had a back stage pass and was able to meet the artist.  What a night.

5-18-13:  Back to reality.  After doing hot, messy yard work I cleaned up and put on something nicer than normal.  The top is a heavily modified Silhouette patterns 312 Giorgio’s top.  No my favorite top but I don’t have an extensive me-made casual wardrobe.  I’ll need to work on that.  The skirt is Silhouette patterns 2010 yoga skirt with more of a pencil shape skirt.

5-19-13:  Spent Sunday with a friend.  We met for brunch in Old Town Pasadena and headed off to tour the Gamble house.  It was a beautiful example of Arts and Crafts architecture.  We also visited Heritage Square Museum and the Lummis house.   It was a warm day so I wore the sleeveless version of Simplicity 2927.  I added the pockets into the seam instead of the pouch pockets from the pattern.  I think this gives it a cleaner line.

5-20-13:  Boring day working from home in me-made capri “pajama pants.”

5-21-13:  Had lunch with a gf.  I wore Silhouette Patterns #115 Ann’s top without the cowl neck and sleeves.    Not quite sure which pattern I used for the capri pants.  All I can remember is that they made from water resistant fabric.

And oh yeah, a cute picture of Waffle to make the collage nice and even.

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 5-7-13: Spent the day working at home so I could cuddle with my babies. Those are my two puppies, Pumpkin and Wednesday. Pumpkin is already 126 lbs! These are self drafted pajama pants made out of a Halloween colored plaid. (I wear me made pj pants a LOT because I tend to stay home when I am not needed in court or jail instead of heading to the office)

5-8-13: Another home day! Today in pink and purple skull sweatshirt fleece fabric from Joann’s. These babies are my two older ones.

5-9-13: Today was semi chilly. I had originally dressed up in a me made dress but it was too cold. So I wore my awesome Minoru (Sewaholic patterns) I made with quilting cotton underlined with polar fleece. I added a lining to the hood, drawstring to the hood, and 4 different pockets! Zippered welt pockets in the front and side seam pockets. This jacket was perfect for the San Francisco Pattern Review Weekend and was a big hit!

5-10-13: I headed out to Vegas for the weekend to take care of my grandmother so casual, cool, clothes were needed. Today I wrote my heart ‘n bones Renfrew. Such cute fabric!

5-11-13: This is New Look 6470 view A. For some reason, everyone loves this top! I guess it looks great in the pic, but when I am wearing it, it doesn’t feel that cute? Who knows…. I still wear it because I love the fabric and it is comfortable. I stayed at my mothers house when we were in Vegas so this is one of her dogs, Hercules. He is also the brother of my older bulldog, Buffy.

5-12-13: Here is New Look 6648. I spent the day in the car driving and forgot to take a pic. But this is the same top from when I wrote my review earlier. I just recycled the picture.

5-13-13: Here is where the pictures get lazy. I forgot to take one. But I wore my Colette patterns Beignet skirt and recycled the picture from my last review. Here is the problem with pictures. I often leave the house before my husband is up and get home before he returns. And since I live with 4 doggies, I never wear my real clothes around the house. I change literally one minute before I leave and get undressed into pajamas the second I return. Otherwise all my clothes would be covered in dog hair all the time! So often I am out of my nicer clothes by the time I can get a picture. I tried taking them in the mirror and it looks funny. So a lot of the future pics are  recycled. Sorry

5-14-13: Day at home in me made PJ’s and lots of cuddling with the girls. (All 4 doggies are girls) No picture today.

5-15-13: Today I wore my orange Giorgio’s Top around. This is a wonderfully comfortable shirt and very flattering.

5-16-13: Today was yoga pants day! I made them out of a nice matte jersey with wonderful drape so they end up looking dressier than regular yoga pants. So I can wear them to work.

5-17-13: No pics….another around the house day with me made pajamas. And yup…I’m such a homebody I did not go out on Friday night. I love hanging with my hubs and my doggies too much!

5-18-13: Today was my friend’s baby shower and I decided it was the perfect time to wear my spider and bat Colette Peony!

5-19-13: This is Vogue’s 8815 peplum top.

5-20-13: I wore my red leopard print Giorgio’s Top that I made in honor of Jungle January today.

5-21-13: Another stay at home and work in pajamas day!

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Whew! We have both held strong but taking pictures every day is tough! How have you all been holding up?

and 

The winner is Laura Mae! Congratulations!  She has a gorgeous blog called Lilacs and Lace where she features the most beautiful vintage outfits and patterns.  Hopefully she will have some great vintage additions for the next giveaway. You know what this also means?  The pyramid is staying in California again! Crazy…. I won it from Beth in San Francisco, and I am in Los Angeles, and now it is off to Laura Mae back in Northern California.

I felt so bad for all the people who said they have been entering over and over like I did…I wish I had prizes for all of you! Enter into Laura Mae’s and hopefully you will win next time…..

My mom was a factory sewer.  I don’t remember how many dresses she would sew a day but she only got paid $2/dress so it had to be a lot of dresses.  Keep in mind this was the 80’s so wages were different and she only did a portion of the sewing.  Another person did the cutting, another person did the serging, another clipped thread, etc.  Regardless, she cranked out lots of dresses in a day.  In factory sewing they did things that minimized waste in terms of time and material.  The following are a few tricks that I picked up from factory sewing that I apply to home sewing.

No Pins

As I mentioned in my previous post on Dual Duty Tools my mom doesn’t own pins.  At the speed of which she sewed she didn’t have the time stop and take out pins.  Her machines can sew a yard in a split second, so pins would be very dangerous if her needle hit it.   She used clip marks to match up the pieces.  This can be done with home sewing patterns also if they have proper notches, which ours do.

Also with matching prints, pins work against you because of the uneven feeding to the top and bottom layer of fabrics with many home sewing machines.  I sewed this striped fabric as the machine feeds it.  Notice how at the top the stripes match perfectly.

Towards the bottom the stripes are off.

The bottom layer feeds faster than the top on my machine because the dog feed.  To get the stripes to match, I put a little tension on the bottom layer so that it’s a bit more forward/towards you.  When it gets to the needle it hits right on.

How much more the bottom layer needs to be forward depends on the fabric and the machine.  It takes a little testing to figure it out but it’s much faster than all that pinning, basting and unpicking.

Continuous Sewing

Not sure what the exact term is but I call this continuous sewing.  What I mean is that in factory sewing you end one seam and start another with the other previous pieces is still attached to the thread.

Here you’re getting a sneak peak of our upcoming pattern release.  In the pic, see how I’m ending one flounce and then starting another.  Many sewers stop at each piece, pull the piece off and cut the thread.  This wastes a lot of time and thread.  You can’t always do this in home sewing because you’re not sewing a lot of the same seam but there are still plenty of opportunities to utilize this tip.

Sewing corners

In sewing corners like collar points, cuffs, plackets etc crossing the seams instead of pivoting is more efficient and accurate.  Here is the pivot scenario.  You sew down one side.  You get slow down as you get to the turn.  You put your needle down, lift your pressure foot, rotate the piece.  If you’re past the pivot point you have to unpick a bit and start again.  If you’re not quite there, you sew another stitch, ½ stitch or whatever random amount you need.  Put your needle down, lift your pressure foot, rotate.  Rinse, repeat.  If you sew straight across and then sew the other way your corners are always in the right spot.

Sewing multiples

No one need to produce quantities like a factory, but there are times that sewing multiples make sense.   When I’m sewing pants I’ll sew the same pair in 2 different leg lengths at a time.  Like long pants and capris or shorts.  The cutting, thread color, machine settings and construction order are the same.  You can then use your continuous sewing and sew pockets, pockets, pockets, pockets then inseam, inseam.  You get the idea.  It’s not glamorous but it’s fast.

I hope you enjoyed the efficient sewing tips and get more done in less time.  Who couldn’t use some more time in their day?

The second and third day of May, I was working from home so I was in my pajamas…which are me made! But I was not smart enough to think about phone photos, because I always use the camera for blog photos. Of course, by the fourth day, when I still did not have my camera, someone mentioned phone photos and a light bulb went on above my head! I will re-wear my pajamas during the month I am sure and I will definitely get a picture cuddling with some puppies. I post all my best puppy pictures on our Instagram account.

May 4th:

What is that??? A double me made you ask???  Yes! A husband and wife Me Made May picture!  Russell is wearing the physics equation shirt I made him (post to come) using Kwik Sew 3422 and I am wearing Simplicity 2594, View A in a fun cotton lawn from Fashion Fabrics Club. My husband has a double physics/math undergrad degree and a masters in physics. All those equations on the shirt are real!  I printed the fabric from Spoonflower…I’ll review the experience soon.

May 5th:

Rock on! Haha…look at the cauldrons

May 5th was a long working day at the house with Nhi. All in preparations for getting our next pattern, Sugar Plum, out to testers. (Any volunteers?) So I wore my scrubby shirt. It was cute at first, but the colors bled after the first wash. Which was bizarre since I pre-washed the fabric and have another version of this shirt with the same fabric that I was with all kinds of colors and it has never bled on anything else! So weird… This shirt is a colorblocked version of New Look 6648 and you can see my review about it on my personal blog here.

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Nhi has been wearing two garments a day! Beyond amazing…  Here are her snapshots.

May 1: What it’s May?!  Hazard of working from home, I lose track of time.  I did manage to get a shot of my “pajama jeans” made with blue denim jegging fabric.  Pattern is Silhouette Patterns 3400 Three Piece Yoga Pants.  My pledge of 2 Me Made items is fulfilled.  Just take my word for it. 

May 3: Finally got a decent pic of me.  Top is Silhouette Patterns 115 Ann’s top without the sleeves.  I used a light weight knit; perfect for the hot weather we’ve been having.  Skirt is Silhouette Pattern 2010 Three piece yoga skirt made with grey ponte roma fabric.  Not shown for obvious reasons; I’m also wearing McCall’s 5651 lace panties.

May 4: Look at me, I’m actually presentable to the outside world.  The shirt is a very easy, very comfy shirt from New Look 6648.  The denim skirt is Simplicity 2451.  Both fabrics were from Michael Levine’s loft.  Again not shown for obvious reasons; I’m also wearing McCall’s 5651 lace panties.  Pretty much all my panties are Me Made so I’ll stop mentioning them each day.

May 5: Another casual day working my 2^nd full time job as a pattern maker.  I spent the day with Amity working on our envelope cover art, instruction illustrations and pattern making.  I thought she would enjoy the bright green/yellow top.  The pattern is Jossilyn’s top #210 from Silhouette Patterns.   I don’t remember what pattern the capris are.  I made these years ago.

How did you all do? Ready for three more weeks of Me Made May?

  and  

Who’s ready for a little Me Made May? We certainly are!  Both Nhi and myself signed up for this year. Here are our pledges below.

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I, Amity of Lolita Patterns, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May ’13. I endeavor to wear one handmade item each day for the duration of May 2013!

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I, Nhi of Lolita Patterns, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May ’13. I endeavor to wear 2 of me made pieces of clothing or accessory each day for the duration of May 2013. There will be no limit to repeats as I spend many, many days in my “pajama jeans”.

I also pledge to sew at least 1 Me-Made item to be gifted to a non-sewing friend(s) to share the joy that comes with a home sewn item. I call it the drug dealer plan; the first hit is free and they’ll come back for more.

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It is the first year for both of us and go Nhi!! She went all out on her pledge! I know some 400 of us are participating?!?! That is awesome! We joined the Flickr group and will be posting often.  We will probably only do recaps on the blogs once a week as we know it is not that fun to see an outfit post everyday.

What was my first Me Made May setback you ask?? My camera is missing!  I went to take a pic for today and it is nowhere to be found! I called around and guess what? I found it in the trunk of a super nice lady I met at PR weekend who drove us around to the different fabric shops around San Francisco!  So my first few days will have to be either shoddy phone pics or I’ll re put the outfits on as soon as my camera arrives in the mail  Luckily Nhi is much more prepared and is not having this same problem!

PR Weekend was so much fun! We cannot wait to tell you about it. But that is for the next post (when I get my camera back and can share pics.) In the meantime, here is a sneak peek from Nhi’s camera.

Sandra and Deepika! What fun!

So Me Made May….are you in?  What do you think of weekly posts instead of daily posts? Or would you prefer daily posts?

A little while back I finally won one of the Pattern Pyramid Giveaways–brainchild of Karen from Did you make that?. I kept intending to give it away on my original personal blog, Amity Originals, but with so much going on here at Lolita Patterns, it did not seem like I would get around to it. Perfect solution?  Give it away here on the Lolita Patterns blog!

I tried for 7 pattern pyramids before I finally won this one! And there are plenty of goodies to go around. Not only were there amazing patterns in the package, Beth (from Sunny Gal Studios–I won the giveaway from her) included some super cute trims for me to use along with a hand written note!  But wait there is more! I am including 8 more patterns…courtesy of a swap between our sewing buddies, Caroline, Jill, Julianne, and Ms. McCall. Some of these are really cute! There is even a Marc Jacobs designer pattern and an Amy Butler pattern. Here it the new loot:

Let’s break those down so they are easier to see shall we?

A Vogue Basics with some wearable dress patterns, a hat pattern from Vogue, Simplicity pattern with multiple wardrobe piece options and a Marc Jacobs Vogue pattern.

 The all purpose skirt vintage Vogue pattern, a retro Butterick suit with cape, and an adorable McCalls dress pattern.

And Amy Butler’s lotus tunic and cami.

Now let’s take a look at which patterns are continuing on the pattern pyramid journey.

Those awesome overalls are still in the running!

And for the ones I decided to keep?

This cool 70′s pattern and a nice dress and jacket pattern…both close enough to my size to work!

Now for the rules about the giveaway–taken from the original Pattern Pyramid blog post:

• Anyone, anywhere can enter the giveaway by posting a comment below by midnight PST Sunday 28 April–the day I drive home from PR day San Francisco!– BUT you must have an active blog. (Reasons to become obvious.)
• I will randomly select one winner.
• Each winner will pick one or two patterns to keep for themselves, then host their own giveaway. They will randomly select a winner, post the remaining patterns to that Person C. Person C will pick a pattern for themselves, host their own giveaway and post the remaining patterns to the winner, Person D. Person D will…

THE SMALL PRINT

• No way am I going through 30 patterns, ensuring that every pattern piece is there. This is pot luck!
• Please don’t email me for specifics on the 30+ patterns.  Take your chance!
• Your selection of patterns will be picked at random, though I do promise to attempt a good variety of makes. Please don’t contact me asking for specific patterns.
• I will keep a couple of patterns for myself, because I deserve it.
• If you’re a winner, I would love it if you could make a small contribution to The Brooke. This is a charity close to the heart of Catherine, who so generously provided these patterns.

Who is entering???? Leave a comment here!

Dual duty tool #1:  Sewing machine seam measure guides.

My 2 sewing machines don’t have usable seam markings on it.  My Elna Grasshopper has no seam markings.

My Elna Carina has metric measurement.

To create my own seam measure guide I position the 3/8” mark at the needle.  Our patterns will use mainly 3/8” seam allowance but more on this in a later post.  I lower the foot to hold the ruler and put a piece of blue tape or a post it note to mark 3/8”.

Dual duty tool #2:  Straight stitch throat plate

Another use for blue painter tape is to create a straight stitch throat plate.  Straight stitch throat plates are extremely useful for troublesome or thin fabrics. Many times, when starting stitching lightweight fabrics, the larger throat plate sucks the fabric down the hole. With the smaller opening of a straight stitch only needle plate, the fabric does not have any room to be pulled under and you get a much better quality stitch without the headache!

Some sewing machines have a throat plate designed for straight stitching.  I’m not sure if the Elna Carina does or not but I don’t really care.  I make my own with a little bit of blue painter’s tape.  Cut a small piece, small enough to cover the hole without covering the feed dogs.

Lower your needle to puncture a little hole.

Presto you have your own straight stitch throat plate.

Dual duty tool #3:  Thread spool holder

The thread I use to sew with is serger thread that comes on a cardboard tube.

Yes, I use this for all my garment sewing.  No, my clothing is not falling apart.  I use an industrial serger thread that is strong, light weight and has very little lint.  This is not the junk I dub “crappy-lok” that you can buy at a nameless fabric store.  Since this tube has a big hole and wobbles around while I sew.  To stop this I stuff a hair curler foam into it.  The curler has a little hole in it, perfect for the spool holder.

Dual duty tool #4:  Clapper

When I was sewing my fuchsia Fuchsia skirt, I was struggling to get the scallop hem to hold a press.  The fabric was 110% polyester.  The extra 10% was there to drive me extra crazy.  Amity suggested I put a clapper on it to hold the press while it cooled.  Great idea except I didn’t have a clapper.  I ended up making one out of a sleeve board, a heavy flashlight and some pattern weights.

At first I had used a wide ruler instead of the sleeve board but it kept the moisture in and it wouldn’t dry even after many, many hours.  The sleeve board was perfect because it was breathable, covered a large area.

Dual duty tool #5:  Standing height table

Amity loves doing everything lying down.  I love standing. I told you we are opposites. I stand cutting, sewing, serging and even eating at the kitchen counter.  My sewing table is a piece of plywood we found on the side of our house one day.  It’s a great width and length without breaking the bank even if it wasn’t mysteriously donated to us.  To get it to standing height I used these adjustable saw horse like things from IKEA.  I also found some mystery furniture parts for the support across the 2 saw horse in IKEA’s as-is section.  I wrapped the top with a faux leather fabric to snazzy it up.

Dual duty tool #6:  Chalk line eraser

I learned this trick from my mom who drafts her patterns with a piece of chalk right on the fabric.  She was a factory sewer and didn’t own any gizmos and gadgets.  She didn’t own pins, had one presser foot and her straight ruler was a piece of scrap metal that my dad scored a few marks with a razor blade.  When she made a mistake in her drafting, she got rid of it my slapping it with her metal ruler.

Now you see it

 Now you don’t.

 OK you can still see it a little but after handling it while sewing it eventually disappeared.  This is much faster and efficient than that itty brush.  Bonus:  she also used her metal ruler to flatten seams.

Dual duty tool #7:  Tube turner

My mom was a factory sewer in the 80s.  I remember her sewing a lot of waist ties.  I assume these were in fashion at the time.  To turn the tubes, I used chopsticks.  Shhh! No one report her to child protective services because I was only 8 at the time.  Chopsticks are inexpensive and readily available.

What do you think? Can you incorporate some of these everyday tools into our sewing room? Do you have any other tips to share?

Yes, April 1st is April Fools’ Day in the US but it is also my dog, Waffle’s, birthday.  Maybe they’re one and the same because who thought to create a pup shaped like this one.

If he was a sewist, he would definitely have lots of fitting issues.  So in honor of Waffle’s 5th birthday, I made him a birthday collar.  I’ve sewn him many collars, for many occasions, but not a birthday one.  Better late than never.

Pets are such a big part of the sewing community and I thought some of you might want to make your own for your furry loved one. See how below!

Step 1: Gather supplies

Supplies shown are for a 14-23” adjustable collar

-          3/4 yd of 1” wide nylon strapping.  If you dog is smaller, you should use a narrower and shorter nylon strapping.

-          Decorative ribbon.  I used 5/8” wide Offray MicroSpool.   I like these because the prints are small scale and it comes in 3 foot spool which is about what I need for 1 collar.  At my JoAnn’s these are stocked on a wire rack near the scrapbooking section.

-          Curved buckle.  This is comfy-er for your pup than the straight ones.

-          D ring for dog tag.  Dogs should always have ID and be micro chipped   15 percent of lost dogs were found because they were sporting identification tags or microchips.

-          Slide for adjustability

-          Thread

Step 2:  Prepare the straps

-          Using a lighter, carefully singe the edge of the collar.  If you’ve done any fabric swatch burning, you will know that nylon melts.  This will stop any fraying.

-          Tuck 1/2” of the ribbon under the strap.  Using a straight stitch, top stitch one edge of the ribbon to the strap.

-         Repeat for other edge.

-          If your ribbon is narrower like the Easter (carrot) themed collar from the multiple collars picture above, I sewed 2 rows of ribbon.

Step 3:  Sew on hardware

-          Thread one end of the strap up one slot of the slider and down the other slot.  Stitch as close as you can to the slider to secure the slider.  I stitched 3 lines: forward, reverse stitch and forward again.  I moved my needle to the right but you can also use a zipper foot.

-          With the wrong side up, slip the other strap end up into one of the buckle halves.

-         Continue threading the strap through the slider.

 -         Thread the strap through the D ring and then the other buckle half.

-          Sew 3 lines of stitching to secure the buckle.

-          Sew 3 lines of stitching to secure the D ring.

Voila! Your pup will be the most stylish hound around!

If you want to read more about sewing for pets and want to see more of Waffle, check out the PR article on Sewing For Pets.

First off is my clear ruler–so very helpful for so many things! Oona already wrote about how this one tool is crucial for any sewist. It has marks down to 1/16″ of an inch and does both metric and imperial measurements.

I love my Nancy Zieman seam gauge. It does a bunch of different things and locks in place so my seam allowances remain accurate. You can watch a video on the give things this tool is designed to do here.

This wooden wine rack holds all my stabilizers and tracing paper. It is an amazing deal and holds far more than other “stabilizer holders” on the market. Plus it is less expensive and you can add more as you need. I have added onto mine twice. You can also build it into any configuration you need so it fits the space you have. It is very handy.

Steam a Seam 2 Lite on the roll– Cannot live without! I use this stuff for everything…everything. When I need to hold something in place before stitching, if I need to sew something difficult and don’t want to use pins, when inserting zippers, bound buttonholes, basting, hemming, holding down seam allowances, making piping, and I am sure many other things that escape me right now. This stuff is a lightweight fusible web tape that comes in 1/4″ and 1/2″ widths and is sticky on both sides so it holds  even before pressing.

Ez-Off Iron Cleaner-This iron cleaner works really well and buying it from Wawak gets you a much larger tube at a much lower price than buying a similar product at Joann’s or Walmart. You put some on a towel and then rub it on a hot iron without steam. It cleans of all that fusible or burn marks that get stuck to the bottom of your iron.

Hugo’s Amazing Tape-I wrap this around thread to hold thread tails in because many threads do not have a place to store the end. I also use this on my stabilizer and tracing paper rolls to keep them neat and tidy. Another recent use is to keep our master patterns in tact. This “tape” sticks only to itself and can hold a lot of weight. I also use it to bundle things together to keep them organized. There are so many uses for this. It also comes in a variety of different widths depending on the need.

Dritz French Curve/Styling Design Ruler-This is the french curve I use almost 100% of the time. I have a set of professional french curves but I find this one works for nearly every curve I need. It is also handy that it has a straight edge on it that I can use without having to switch to an entirely different ruler when I am drafting. This one is also relatively inexpensive and widely available.

Another tool is the marking tool that I discussed in this post. The Frixion pens are wonderful. I wrote a review on patternreview here about how they work.

I also use the Olfa seam allowance gauge a LOT. I wrote a review on patternreview on this gadget as well because I find it so helpful and many people do not know about it. It is just like the seam allowance guide that has been popular for scissors for adding seam allowances only it works with a rotary cutter. I cut almost exclusively with a rotary cutter because it is significantly easier to cut on slippery fabrics that way and I love chiffon and charmeuse! This guide is adjustable so you can use it so cut out with seam allowances or cut off excess seam allowance before cutting. Let’s say you are working with a 5/8″ seam allowance pattern. You can use this gauge to easily cut off the excess 1/4″ to make it a 3/8″ seam allowance. In any case this is wonderful for not having to go around and add seam allowances on each seam with a pencil before cutting out. I can use the original seam allowance free pattern and cut directly into my fabric because this guide does all the work!

I also love the clapper pressing tool. I use it so often because I work with a lot of slippery fabrics and some polyester fabrics that do not like to press well. Pressing with the ironing and then immediately pressing over it with the clapper and holding it until the seam cools works wonders. It is also great for thick seams in thick fabric like coating or denim for hammering them down. They also make clappers with tailor points on top which are great for pressing our corners and collars and for pressing seams open without getting show through on the right side.

These are just a few essentials I use often. Trust me, I have tons more! But these seem to be the ones I use nearly every time I set foot in my sewing room.

What is your favorite sewing tool?

 I discovered most of my tools through recommendations from fellow sewists so I would love to see what you use and recommend! Please tell us!

She includes a lot of pictures in her review on Pattern Review. She also wrote a detailed review of the pattern. Check it out!

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