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