A Quick Tip

I use pastels in art and before I even had transfer pencils I logically turned to my pastel pencils to mark off dots and other marks onto fabric. You do have to test first to see if it will come out, but I use my white pastel pencil more than any other marking tool I have besides chalk transfer papers. It lasts forever because of the pigment saturation and gives a nice solid marking.

Usually the higher the price of your pastel pencil the more actual pigment is in it (depending on the color and if it will come out, that can be a bad thing). I sew a lot of dark colors because that is mainly the colors Ed and I like, so that white pastel pencil gets some use. I also use a blue and a red, although the red is harder to get out and should never be used on white fabric.

Pastel pencils can be found in art supply stores. My favorite is Jerry's Artarama.

Coming up: Car visor covers, my first quilt project and Simplicity cargo shorts for Ed and why their pattern wasn't thought out very well.

When there is no budget...

When there is no sewing budget, not much sewing gets done! It's a lean time for us this summer. I managed to buy a quilting ruler on my birthday but that was about it. I have a great book of quilt blocks, but I just haven't had the mojo to start on one. It is very hard to pick out fabrics for quilting block patterns! I didn't realize that half of the planning of a quilt was picking out the fabrics.

In any case, sewing will resume at some point. No budget and really no inspiration, although there are quite a few things I should get done so I have some summer lounging clothes when it is just too hot to do anything more than watch TV with all the lights off and the ac blasting. Rather than sew my own tank tops, I just went to the big bad Walmart and bought a bunch with what should have been my very limited sewing budget.

I got some absolutely gorgeous knit fabric in what I think is rayon (and one cotton) from Goodwill some time ago. I handwashed and hung dry all of it, and there was some serious yardage in it. I had intended on sewing tank tops with it, but it was so much easier to just buy some. I may pick apart one of the one's I bought to use as a pattern though, since when I went shopping for a knit tank pattern at Joanns, the drawer was an absolute mess and they were out of what I had. Or it was there and I just couldn't find it. I don't have a coverstitch machine so I'm a little leery of doing any binding. I need to read up more on that clear elastic stuff that can be used with sewing knits. Perhaps that is my answer.