Hemming Tutorial - The wonders of Ban-Rol

I first came across ban-rol a few weeks ago, when a member of the Stashbusting Facebook group was asking for opinions on hemming a shirt, and someone else posted a tutorial to sewing baby hems with ban-rol. Not that I had a need for it, but I started searching for some straight away. Local sewing shops had never even heard of it, so I switched to searching online. Even there I wasn't having any luck.

I was trying again one day to find an Australian supplier, and came across another tutorial for using ban-rol, when I happened upon a comment from an Australian saying that she was getting some in for her shop. That person was Helene from Stitch 56 in Melbourne, a company that I had not previously heard of, nor had it come up in any of my searches for ban-rol. Less than a week later, I had my ban-rol, and a client who needed 50 silk scarves hemmed! I bought 5 metres of the widest ban-rol available, 2 inches. In hindsight, I should have bought more. I mean, the postage cost me as much as the ban-rol did, and if I need more, I'll be up for even more postage!

Sewing Machine Review - Janome Coverpro 1000CP

Here is the final member of my sewing machine family, a Janome coverstitch machine.

What brand and model do you have? This machine is a Janome Coverpro 1000CP

Sewing Machine Review - Janome Mylock 634D Overlocker

It's been quite a while since I've written any sewing machine reviews, despite the fact that I do have two machines that I have not yet shared here. Although I've had it for a while, here's my newest overlocker (serger), a Janome Mylock 634D. I bought this to replace my Pfaff Hobbylock after it stopped working.

What brand and model do you have? This machine is a Janome Mylock 634D overlocker. I'm not sure of the exact age, but I estimate that it is from around 2012 - 2013.

Organising my bra patterns

I recently completed a long overdue job of cleaning up and sorting out my bra patterns. Up until this, they had been living in a rather attractive cardboard box, inside a larger box of bra supplies. Now that I've made 13 bras, the pattern pieces are all starting to get a bit confusing. For my first few bras, I labelled the patterns V1, V2 etc. When I changed the wire size, I wrote the size as well, and then when I was still getting confused as to which was which, I came up with style numbers. But they were still all going in the box.

Bra Patterns in the box

Stashbusting Sewalong: June theme "Stretch fabrics" - Long sleeve shirt

I don't really know if I have enough to say about this top to warrant it's own blog post, but I didn't have any photos ready when I posted about my Moto Jacket, so here is my new long sleeve rib knit top.

 

Stashbusting Sewalong: June Theme "Stretch fabrics" - Moto Jacket

Sometimes I don't have a fully fledged plan in mind before I start on a project. Over the past couple of months I've seen a few Moto Jackets popping up around the blogosphere, and the gears in my brain started turning, plotting how I could make my own. With this germ of an idea, I paired an old pair of jeans that I identified during Me-Made-May as ripe for refashioning, and grabbed some rib knit fabric that I thought would do really well for the sleeves. All that was left was to buy myself a zipper, and start on a pattern.

Knitting Adventures: Mustard Miette

I recently joined a knitting group. There's a couple of us who meet up in a cafe on a Tuesday morning, drink coffee, and knit. Or crochet, or whatever. None of us knew each other before our first meet up, but I always look forward to my Tuesday mornings to get out of my usual routine and just meet with like minded people and do something that I love.

I have been working on my second miette cardigan. It isn't the cream one that I wanted to make when I was knitting my blue miette, but at least I filled that hole in my wardrobe when I sewed up a cream cardigan a couple of months ago.