Stitch and bitch #7. Hanging by a thread

Here with my retractable chalk pen.

Is it only me that has to lick their chalk to get a good crisp mark out of it?

Anyway, a current downside of MrKitty being around at the minute is he sees the fabric coming in... 9m of misc tshirt jersey to add to Mount Stash (visible from space)

Mine was in the shop with me on Saturday. I inwardly squirmed at the klaxon that went off when the till added up to £73.

He's not tight or controlling in any way. At all. But I still feel selfish at spending that much on myself when he doesn't do the same...

Placemarking!

Place marking here too. The Prym Aquamarker is my weapon of choice. I never got on with chalk 😬

Oh don’t give me more things to buy!

Seriously though, are those chalk pens any good? I have the traditional tailors chalk pieces and I find I can’t get a very fine line from it.

I use those chalk markers that have the little spiky wheel in and dispense a thin line of powdered chalk as you wheel them. I find they give a nice sharp line.

hello new thread!

I'm in the process of moving all my sewing stuff again, hopefully to a room that's going to be its permanent home this time. It's a tiny little box room but hopefully that will force me to limit the amount of fabric and general stuff I have.

I was hoping my vogue pattern pieces would turn up but no luck so far. I can't for the life of me think where they might have gone.

I've got some highly patterned dashwood corduroy draped over the dress form at the moment waiting for inspiration to strike. I'm thinking a skirt or possibly a dungaree dress...?

It's this one. A needlecord

Lovely shiny new thread. Very interested in the chalk discussion as I need something white for sharp lines on dark fabric. I had some white ones in my set of heat eraser marking pens but they were useless.

Waiting for my prints to turn up before doing any sewing but I’ve been through my stash to find some suitable fabric. Nothing caught my eye so a trip to Abakhan is likely

I use this chalk pen, but it breaks very easily and the blue and pink are very difficult to get off so I have to be careful. (Mine only came with white, pale blue and mid pink.) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Prym-Cartridge-Materials-Textiles-Multi-Colour/dp/B01DYOI5W8

I LOVE that fabric @pastabest I love teal and green-blue colours generally. Unfortunately they don't love me and I look slightly ill when I wear them.

@pastabest that fabric is beautiful! Do you have enough to make a shirt-dress, something like the TATB Rosa?

I have a box room sewing room (2x2.4m). As you can tell it does not limit my need to purchase 😂 I do like being able to shut the door to hide the mess though!

It was actually bought with the Rosa in mind, or perhaps another skirt. I've got quite a few Rosa's and brumby's but this would definitely be the jazziest!

the only reason I haven't cracked in with either is a nagging thought in my mind that it would also look good as a pinafore dress, perhaps a TATB Cleo?

It would look good as a pinafore, it would maybe have a bit more cross-seasonal appeal too - short sleeve tee under and bare legs in the spring, then long sleeves under, cardi over and tights and boots in winter.
I imagine a needlecord shirt dress is mainly autumn/winter wear.

It is lovely fabric. I’d go with a pinafore I think. You could change the look completely by pairing it with tops in different colours

I only do tailors chalk with dark fabrics, I have a twist up pencil which is ok, and does clean out well. I had a silver quilters pencil which was lovely, soft, buttery, left a nice mark... but it CONSTANTLY snapped the lead so I just had to give up.

For other coloured fabrics I use the Crayola Washable markers - so far no disasters on them washing out, and they clean off my table ok.

If you’re working with light coloured fabrics, Pilot Frixion pens also work really well. I can’t remember where I picked up that tip, but as the marks are removed through friction (a.k.a. heat!) just ironing your project once you’ve finished removes all the marks.

My local supermarket sells them in the stationary department!

That fabric really is lovely pastabest. I agree you need to find a pattern that lets it shine!

That prym one is what I have. I mostly use the flesh coloured one and it works best freshly sharpened. Agree about the blue refusing to budge and i don't wet it because none of it budges, if I do!. I also have an assortment of ones that fade with heat, the ones you rinse out and one that just fades. And, sometimes, only tailor's tacks will do.

Lovely needlecord, @pastabest

I think my sewing machine (an old Toyota which is pushing 30 years old) was trying to tell me that today was not a day for sewing..... Set my tension for the viscose using scrap fabric and the thread which was already in the machine. So far sew good... Time to fill the bobbin.. Instead of winding onto the bobbin the thread decided to wind round the spooler instead. Carefully unwound the mess and convinced the machine to fill the bobbin for me.

All going well (gosh its not easy to sew in long straight lines when you usually sew curves) until it decided to eat the fabric. Luckily its in a pocket so my wonky fix won't be visible and now I'm thinking it's time for a cup of tea and I'll come back to this tomorrow......

I've just had a happy day sewing aprons. My friend was asked to make new aprons for the cafe in the parish centre, so another friend and I met up with her to help. We had great fun chatting and got loads done.

I'm doing some hemming and sewing in ends etc. So tired it's about all I'm capable of!

That's rather cute. I definitely couldn't wear it like that, though. Too many lumps and bumps.