Soul Candy

Notions…

allycat — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 16:57:09 +0000

I’ve tried to set myself a goal with this creative endeavour to use Etsy as much as possible when sourcing my materials but this is actually harder than I thought! Yesterday though, while looking for bra sliders and the rings that attach the straps I found the cutest matching ones ever on Etsy…heart-shaped sliders! I needed the white ones for my college project but I couldn’t resist getting the bright pink ones too. Maybe I’ll team them with white fabric too for an accent colour…

Love, LOVE them ♥

Also this week…I’ve sourced spaghetti straps from MacCulloch & Wallis (reasonable, considering!) and sweet little ruffled taffeta elastic from Ebay. And my custom clothes labels are in the post! I’m getting there…:)

♥
xx

So, lingerie, yeah?

allycat — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 14:14:38 +0000

Yes, lingerie. Anyone who knows me is probably aware of my Amigurumi and yarn crafting passion, and my stores at Little Bear Yarns and my Etsy store. But what people might not know is that when I first started this sewing stuff I used to make many, many pairs of pants! The first of which was featured on my Burdastyle Studio. I can’t lie, it was FUN. After that I went a bit crazy and forgot lingerie a little bit while I was busy making skirts, dresses etc and it wasn’t until the beginning of this year I felt like I wanted to make the lingerie thing actually happen.

Being a keen Etsy browser as well as having a store, I happened upon the amazing lingerie of Emma Highfield and found her story and brand very inspiring. I wondered if my little sewing room at home was big enough to run a small lingerie label from, implementing my blog and the eventuality of launching a second Etsy store.
Read Emma Highfield’s story in the Featured Seller section of Etsy here.

To kick things off I’m using the current project at college to see what I can make materialise in terms of designs and techniques. What I’m designing for All Walks Beyond The Catwalk is not exclusively lingerie but also nightwear. That said, the garment I’ll be constructing will definitely be lingerie and a pattern is already coming together…the premise for the project is diversity within fashion (body shapes, age, colour etc) so it’s a good starting point for Soul Candy.

Aside from this I’ve been sourcing woven clothes labels too. It’s been hard to find a company that would do a small run of printed labels on a vintage cotton but finally I found one and placed an order on Thursday…hopefully they will have arrived by my next blog post. Until then…

♥
xx

Review! Bernina Bernette 25

allycat — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 16:04:17 +0000

Finally! After wanting a Bernina machine for absolutely ages, I decided to invest in one at last that had so many more features than my trusty mechanical Janome. So my Bernette 25 arrived today and considering there are so few reviews online for this machine, I thought I’d do one
Since the 25 is considered to be a ‘Prosumer’ machine I figured it would be a great investment to get something better than a domestic but not as top end as the 3 Series I looked at (a grand, yikes!). And the Bernette 25 is a beautifully designed machine (by two industrial design students at the Northwest Switzerland University of Applied Sciences for Art and Design, no less) so that appealed to me straight away.
Right, onto the review…

Basically all the features I was looking for, this machine has. Most important, right? Apart from the pretty lights. These are the ones that swayed me to getting the 25…

1. Totally computerised.
2. Drop-in bobbin that you can see running out.
3. Bright LED sewing light.
4. 155 stitch patterns, including sweet little embroidery ones (hearts, snowflakes!) and alphabet.
5. Start/Stop button – use it without the pedal if you want.
6. Variable speed – no more abruptly fast starts!
7. Sews ALL fabrics and has two presser foot levels.
8. Needle up/down selection.
9. Auto lock – you can set it to stop after finishing a pattern.
10. You can lock the presser foot in a horizontal position when sewing over heavy seams or thick fabrics which is amazing! I have broken many a needle cause of presser foot tilt, even when using the jean-a-ma-jig!
11. Twin needle capability.
12. So many presser feet come with it, including blind hem, overcasting, zipper and darning. Also, Janome feet fit so I can use my roll-hem and invisible zipper feet too
13. Finally, the design. You can even write on the front with dry erase markers if you need to make quick notes on something.
14. The price. Not the cheapest machine due to the Bernina name (£369) but what a bundle for the money!

And the sewing quality?

It’s smooth, perfect tension even on a standard setting and the embroidery is neat and so cute. There are multiple changes in size and width you can make to these, I had a mess on with the hearts
This machine is also almost 2kg lighter than my Janome so taking this to classes or wherever will be a lot less arm-stretchy.

The stitch selection chart is on the top cover that pops up to reveal the cotton spools, thread tension dial etc. Cool eh?

Needless to say this machine will be getting some serious use, I actually can’t leave it alone :3 Now it sits on my sewing table alongside my Bernina 800DL overlocker What a team.

♥
xx

Revisiting: Devil’s Desire

allycat — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 22:33:02 +0000

The shoes I mulled over for weeks, waited, then got them half price at Branch 309. I got the plain black suede ones too.
Still in love.

Irregular Choice: Devil’s Desire

♥
xx

Revisiting: tulle mini skirt project

allycat — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 18:37:33 +0000

Enjoyed creating this skirt last summer, pretty much turned out how I wanted it to. Not bad for a pattern drafted from two separate skirts! Works with most things…

♥
xx

Cute vintage tins!

allycat — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 14:31:49 +0000

Got another one of those cute vintage tins of Gutermann threads through the post this morning. Regretted buying all three designs when Boyes had them so £1.99 off Ebay made my day. Auction link after the photos

Buy them here while you can!

♥
xx

2012…

allycat — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 13:58:03 +0000

So, here I am in the third year I’ve had to restart this blog after it being deleted twice before. The good news is I’m no longer using that server so hopefully I’m here to stay. I lost some posts that I actually quite liked so over the weekend I’ll re-post a few just to get things going again.
I’m feeling a bit more inspired this year with college and all so I’m aiming to make this a regular thing for change.
In short…I’m back

♥
xx