Inspiration = new products

It's been a while since I've sewn anything - no time and no inspiration, but now as the autumn has arrived it is again time for sewing. I got some really good looking clothes from a fleemarket a few weeks ago, and suddenly I became inspired to create a few items.

The first one I made was from a lovely limegreen jacket. This is the first one were I've kept the front of the jacket as it is, and not turned it sideways, and I'm quite happy with the result:

The next project was two skirt made of fabric in opposite colors - it was quite fun turning them in to in my eyes, two good looking products:

Key fobs are really fun to make. When I make these I usually sew a bunch of them at once on my sewing machine, so that I always have some of them lying around that are half-made, only missing the buttons and the ring. Then I use my "telly-watching-time" to complede the product.

Here are the ones that I've made so far this autumn:

In addition to this, I've also made a couple of other bags - they are all available in my shop.

This saturday it is time for another fleemarked. Who knows, maybe I find some clothes that just needs to be turned in to bags. If not, then I have loads of clothes that I collected during spring season - that are just waiting to be upcycled.

Yeah, life is great!

How can you resist this colour?

That's the title of my latest treasury on Etsy:

You will find the treasury here for the next two days - hope you have time to take a look around in the twelve shops in my treasury and the four alternates if I rotate the items. There are some very talented people behind these shops.

Here are direct links to all the 16 shops:

urbandesign, dreadpiratefluffy, coffeebnz,

MyCoutureJewelry, joywhite, woollab,

Art2ArtColorado, nicole6697, phookafire,

SugarRoxx, rikrak, shellieartist,

MiddletreeMade, dawnchastain, motyl, flickerings

Thank you all for creating these wonderful items!

Sewing machine - a bargain or just waste of money?

I have a sewing machine, a swedish Husquarna that I bought ten years ago. I have a very special relationship with this machine - one day I really enjoy using it, and I can go on sewing for hours - and the next day or even the next second, I hate the damn thing and would like to throw it out of a window.

Why is it like this, you may ask. Well, one reason for my urge to throw the machine away is its habit of eating needles. Everytime I am really motivated to sew, the machine deceides to kill my motivation by breaking a needle or two. No matter how few layers of fabric I'm sewing together, I'm always expecting the needle to break. It is really annoying!

Due to this needlebreakinghabbit, and other irritating problems with the machine, I started to look for an alternative. It seems like there are a lot of alternatives out there, and I guess that is like buying a car - you usually go for a manufacturer that you know, but no matter how good the manufacturer is, you might end up with a "monday car" - or in this case a "monday sewing machine".

I searched the forums at Etsy for advice by just scanning through several sewing machine discussions. During this I noticed that a lot of creative people at Etsy spoke very warmly of old Singer sewing machines - machines without any fancy stitches, just stright forward. This made me think of the possibility of getting one of those myself. And so I did.........

But I didn't just get one, I ended up buying three sewing machines today - they were just unresistable. In fact, I would like to buy at least two more - two lovely Singer machines - but I just don't have room for them, so I actually managed to walk away from them.

So here is what I got:

The oldest one cost me 100 kroner (approx USD 18). It is a Singer 44k, with serialno. Y1771771 (cool number!) produced at Kilbowie in Clydebank Skotland. It is part of an alotment of 70000 machines from september 29th 1921.

The machine is just fantastic, I had some problems with the thread, but after a quick search on the internet I manage to get it right, and I could start sewing. I've tested it a bit, and so far it manage to sew through 8 layers without any problems! Before I start to use it for real, I would like to have a check at all the parts - just to see if it really is safe to use.

The second one is also a Singer from Kilbowie. It's a 15k with serialno. EF893658, one of 5000 machines from june 14th 1950. I only paid 50 kroner for this (approx USD 9) - but I'm not sure if it was worth it. The light is working, but that's about it! I'm going to got someone to take a look at it - it's a cool machine, and I would really like to see how it's working compared to the one from 1921.

The third machine is a Brother (superzigzag or something like that) from '67. I managed to sew with it, but the fabric didn't look to good on the backside. I have to fix the transporter before I can start using it. I paid 250 kroner (USD 45) for this one - and it is definately worth it just for the box to keep the sewing machine in, and not to mention the cute accessories box.

So this is how I ended up as an owner of four sewing machines. I am now planning on using these machines (if possible) for the time being, and later on when I get a huge workingspaces in our future garage, I will invest in some new machines.

But on the other hand..... it was really fun buying these old machines, and I am not sure if I manage to walk away the next time either, if I ever stumble over a bargain like this again.