Some Of My Favorite Tools

Everyone who sews has an arsenal of tools that they couldn't live without. Here are a few of my favorite tools and why they are important to me.

• Metal ruler with a sliding marker. I don't know how I ever sewed without this. I only recently started using it after seeing it on a sewing show, but now I use it for EVERYTHING. It's especially handy when putting in a hem, but don't save it for only that.

• Long pins with flowers on top - found in the quilting tool area at JoAnns. I first saw these in Lisa Lam's Bag Making Bible. It didn't make sense to me to use different pins but I saw them at JoAnn's one day and decided to try them. OMG, I don't use regular pins anymore. These are long, which is great, they are flexible making it easy to push through thick layers, like when you're making handbags, and they don't hurt your fingers to push in like the heads on regular pins, instead you get to hold the little flowers. They're fabulous.

• My iron. Goes without saying, you gotta have a good iron. Mine is a Rowenta and actually I'd like to have a better iron as this one leaks sometimes but it still works well and gets nice and hot.
• A box bought at Lowes that is a component of a silverware tray. This box is mainly to hold my pin cushion in place. You know how when you try to push a pin into the cushion with one hand, how it starts to roll? Not if the cushion is squeezed into a box that's a little smaller than the cushion. It will hold it upright so you can stick pins in with one hand all day. It also holds all my other little gadgets that tend to get lost, like my thread clippers, seam riper, disappearing ink pin, and metal ruler.

• Clipping scissors that cut all the way to tip. I purchased a $20 pair of Fiskars clipping scissors and work great for clipping curves, clips right up to the very end, except on thick layers, like with handbags. Boo. Not sure, I might spring for a better pair soon.

• A tape measure that hangs around my neck. You know, this was invaluable for me until I bought the metal ruler (above), now it's just handy. I still use it, just not as much because I use the metal ruler for EVERYTHING.

• Small scissors to cut threads. This is a nice little pair of Fiskars. I keep them right next to my sewing machine, in the box (above). I can't live without them. First thing I do after I sew a seam is clip the threads and these scissors are perfect for that.
  
• All my sewing machine feet - especially the satin stitch foot. Before I bought my new machine that came with every foot you can imagine, I had started to collect all kinds of feet. I even have feet that I haven't used yet. I started buying feet to help me sew when I finally realized that they can really make your sewing much better. Sewing machine feet deserve their own post, so I won't go into a lot of detail except to say that my satin stitch foot is favorite and most used foot other than the regular foot. See my post about how I use it to do topstitching.

Until later ~

Reba