Pinking Shears

Besides the sewing machine- the one thing I really wanted from my mom's sewing stash was her pinking shears.  I thought they were the coolest.  I begged and begged, but she hardly let me touch them- let alone possess them.

So here I am 30 years later and I am finally the proud owner of my very own pair of pinking shears!  Why did I break down and buy them?  Well it has to do with this terrible taffeta I am working with.  While I love the sheen and look of the fabric- I hate working with it.  It runs easily and is very unforgiving.  I think I mentioned in my last post that I have resorted to using a fine ballpoint needle to sew it with.  It still runs, but to the seam allowance only, so far anyway. 

I only paid about $14 total for the fabric, so I guess there is my first clue that it might not be high quality.  The funny thing is- I wasn't looking to save money- I just liked the color and the polka dots.  Now I wish I had gone with the silk duiponi I was eyeing (the problem there was I couldn't decide on a color.)

Oh- I digress- back to the pinking shears.  The reason for the pinking shears is that after a little research, I deducted that the best way to finish the seams and to help stop any unraveling- is to use pinking shears.  My serger is out of whack and frankly I am scared to let it touch the taffeta.  I would use french seams, but since the fabric is so unforgiving- I was afraid of making a big mistake with the combination of princess seams sewn with french seams.  I am sure that it IS doable?  I just don't trust myself to that one.

cute- but somewhat unwieldy

So pinking shears it is!  They are very cute and they cost me about $22.  I have a feeling I will go back eventually and spring for some nicer ones.  Either that or order some Ghingers. Speaking of which- I am still waiting on my spring loaded Ghingers I ordered last month.  That- and the boning I need for the dress.  It supposed to be here this week.  I tried finding some last week- but to no avail.  I then emailed Yoshimi from Yoshimi The Flying Squirrel.  Not only is she a talented and prolific seamstress, but very sweet and helpful as well.  She has armed me with a translation for boning to show the salespeople.  And she also suggested a couple of stores in Nippori.  I may be taking a trip to Tokyo this weekend!

Wish me luck.  I have less than two weeks now.  The good news is, I have several back-up (RTW) dresses on hand.

Thoughts

Happy Tuesday!  Well I thought I was done with the dress I was altering for my girlfriend.  She tried it on and the zipper is stuck, stuck.  She had to take it off over her head.  It was the lining.  So my thought it- should I have sewed given more room for the lining- it is flush against the zipper teeth.  Or should I used some fusing to stick the lining to the zipper tape to keep it from getting caught in the zipper?  I REALLY don't want to take the zipper out, I really don't.  I still have to get the dang thing unstuck too, erggg.

I have the taffeta cut out for my dress- Vogue 7848.  I did some test runs on a piece of scrap fabric and found that that even with a fine tipped needle- it makes little 'runs' to the edge.  So I switched to a ball point.  I would have never thought to do that and felt like I was breaking some sort of rule to use a ball point on woven.  But I did a little research and it looks like it is a good alternative.  I probably could use a finer tip needle (I forget what the numbers are- I have to look them up every time)- but I would have to order them and I don't want to wait.  However- I still need that boning I ordered from Joann's.  It is funny- I made a small order- should be here quickly.  But it is taking longer than the dress form I ordered!

On another note- I am thinking about discontinuing this blog.  My dream for this blog just isn't coming to fruition and I think I may be putting too much energy into something that is just not going to happen.  I think I might just post pictures of my projects on my other blog, and leave it at that.  The reason I didn't do that in the first place was because I was afraid of boring people with my babbling about sewing.  But I think I can just leave it to posting a few pics and then moving on.  If I become more prolific and develop a sort of following from there- than maybe I will try again with a sewing only blog.  But this really isn't happening for me.  I think I will leave this up for a couple more months- than maybe go "off-air" after that.  Somethings are just not meant to be, and this hasn't felt very organic to me, if you know what I mean.