Tools of the Trade

Here are some of the more unexpected tools of my trade. Sewing takes more than needles and thread! Can you guess what they are all for?

-Bolt cutters: for cutting the spiral steel boning that goes in corsets and the like.
-Pliers: for pulling needles through heavyweight fabric and manipulating jewelry findings
-Toothbrush: I have a few. One for detail cleaning, one for brushing chalk (marking) powder out of fabric, and another one that I am not sure what I do with it, either (it's just in there!)
-Chopstick: for turning points (in collars, pockets, etc) and creating holes for lacing grommets (bra tops, corsets, etc)
-Awl: for poking things (especially grommet holes, in preparation for the chopstick)
-Surgical hemostats: probably the most useful tool in the house. I use it for everything from turning points to threading sewing machine needles to fishing lost doilies out of the bathroom sink drain.
-Emery board: you'd be amazed how often things need to be filed down. Buttons, beads, baubles, my fingernails when they get torn up during sewing...
-Bamboo skewer: for poking, probing, adjusting, gluing, and general mayhem

Side Projects

I'm not sure why, but lately I have been craving gentle and soothing projects (no, I tell a lie. I *do* know why. Because life has been CRAZY.) so I have been spending a little time finishing up old projects and working on small projects for the destash shop. Small, self-contained projects, like dolls, knitting, and hand embroidery, are a nice little break from regular garment-sewing. You don't have to work with large quantities of any of the materials involved, and they can be fit in around the other things happening in life.
I am no great embroidery expert, but here are two embroidered panels I recently listed in my destash shop. They are framed in janky old picture frames that we bought at an antiques fair a couple of years ago and repainted.

This is as close as you can get to a family sewing motto. It is
based on the sign my great grandmother kept
above her own sewing area.

This one is my favorite constellation (what, doesn't everyone have

a favorite constellation?), Orion, of course. Complete with

his "knee" (or dong, depending on your viewpoint) nebula.

See, I always thought he looked like he was doing
a little crazy dance with one knee all bent and both arms out,
right?
...
Right?