Happy Holidays! Whatever you may celebrate, I hope you are having a wonderful time. Being the selfish person that I am, I had to take a break from buying and making gifts for other people (horrors!) to get something for myself. Merry Christmukka to me! I placed an order with Sew True for some much needed tools and supplies.
Hooks and bars, zipper stops and cloth weights
I was so psyched to see that they had Bar Eyes for hooks! They are almost impossible to find at the chain stores. You can only find loop eyes. Bars are much more useful, because not only can you use them with hooks, you can also use them to stay vents in skirts and jackets. I bought a dozen gross of the hooks and eyes. I should be all set for life now.
Beside those, I got a bunch of zipper stops for shortening zippers at the top or the bottom. Kenneth King turned me on to these, and they can be a godsend, especially when you are dealing with metal zips.
Finally, I got two cloth weights. My laminator, Igor at Quick Fuse, introduced me to them years ago when I was manufacturing bags, and I’ve been jonesing for some ever since. When I went on a tour of the costume department at the Boston Ballet last year, they were using them. They are 4 lb weights that keep your fabric from shifting. I can’t recommend them enough, especially if you’re dealing with long lengths of fabric.
I also got a book from Amazon that I hope to read when I’m on a mini-vacation (not going anywhere, alas, just celebrating another 29th birthday by staying home and sewing) next week. Patternmaking by Dennic Chunman Lo.
I first heard about it on Kathleen Fasanella’s site. I am not a designer, but I do like to try my hand occasionally at patternmaking, more to try to learn new things than any other reason. I’m smitten with this book, based on the 12 pages I’ve read and the other pages I’ve briefly scanned. It looks to have very useful information for someone like me. I’ll report back when I’ve read it.
ETA: Woo Hoo! Simplicity’s Website now Carries Burda Patterns!
In the New To Me department, I was just on Simplicity’s website (looking for patterns to match up with new fabrics I’m putting up) and they are now carrying Burda patterns. Hooray!!!! No more trying to find patterns on Burda.de’s website. What a nice Christmas present!
Have a wonderful holiday everyone, and happy sewing!
Merry Christmas and have a very happy birthday! Thanks for sharing all the links.
I saw the Burda patterns this morning too! It’s nice to have another option. Merry Christmas!
Those weights look impressive, and a very Merry Christmas to you too!
Merry Christmas!
Happy New Year and Happy Birthday! I would love to order some of the hooks and bar eyes, but what size would be most useful since they come in bulk orders? I was thinking about size 0 or 1. Same for the zipper stops. Thanks!
I got Size 1 hooks and Size 5 Zipper stops/tops.
HTH!
Did you see the hooks and bars in the costume shop too? They probably go through a gross a week, judging by the number that I’ve sewn on! Can’t wait until they call us in to work on the new Nutcracker costumes.