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Gingher Pinking Shears

I'm making the second (wearable) muslin of a shirt with a Peter Pan collar, and notching the curves on this collar was time consuming.  The collar was also a challenge to sew neatly, so I was being very careful during clipping because I didn't want to mess anything up!

For the first muslin, I cut one collar piece and trimmed off the 5/8" allowance before sewing it on to the shirt body.  That gave me a pretty good idea of how it looked, and allowed me to skip sewing the entire collar.

While patiently clipping away, I remembered a tip for using pinking shears to notch curves.  But the pinking shears I had were dull, dull, dull and no longer cut fabric. 

Gingher's Pinking Shears have been on my wish list for some time, so yesterday it was time to get them!

They are very heavy and will cut through multiple layers of fabric at once.  I can't wait to try them out for notching curves.

Pretty Vintage Floral Satin

Vintage Floral Satin available from Lilia Rose

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3 yards of pretty vintage satin at a great price! 

How to Change the Currency in the Base Price Spreadsheet

If you use the metric sheet on the Base Price Spreadsheet, you might prefer to see the prices in your own currency.  Since that might mean EUROs, AUD, or some other currency, this is a change you will need to make on your own.  But no worries--it is very easy! 

This spreadsheet has the potential to be modified to better suit your particular needs, so I'll provide tips as I think of them. 

Before you start modifying your spreadsheet, you might save a copy as the original, and then save it again under a different name.  Then you'll have one to play with and make changes, and also an original as a back-up. 

How to Change the Currency

1. Highlight the column F by clicking the letter "F".  The column will turn blue showing it is selected.

2. Then go to:

> Format

> Cells

> Select the "Numbers" tab

> Set the "Category" to "Currency"

> Using the "Format" drop down box, select your currency

> Click "ok"

3. Repeat steps 1 & 2 for column G & then column H.  You can do all three columns at once, but notice how column G has 4 decimal places?  That is because the amount is so small that showing only 2 decimal places displays amounts of $0.00.  That seems confusing to me and looks like an error, even though the underlying amounts are there and calculating.

So if you change all three columns at once, what will happen is the G column will now only have 2 decimal places.  Maybe it won't bother you to see the $0.00 amount, but I wanted to point that out.

4. Repeat step #2 to change the currency displayed in cells A14 and C11. You can do both of these at the same time by clicking one and then holding down CTRL and clicking the other. 

 

One More Change You Might Want to Make

Besides the currency change, one other thing you might do is to either move Metric to be the first sheet, so the spreadsheet automatically opens to Metric.  Or you can hide the Standard sheet if you won't be needing it and want it to go away. 

To move the Metric sheet:

> Click the sheet name and hold the mouse down

> Drag it in front of Standard

To hide the Standard sheet go to:

> Format

> Sheet

> Hide

Look for more OpenOffice tips soon!  I love OO and have another VERY special document coming out next week that uses OpenOffice.  Stay tuned! 

 

 

Playing with the New Backdrop

The new backdrop is looking very promising!

This picture needed some heavy cropping, because I don't have the angles down yet.  Most of the photos of this bag on a chair looked very skewed, and/or some of the blue wall snuck in and couldn't be eliminated with creative cropping.

But this photo was taken without any additional lighting.  Now that is exciting to me!  I had to increase the brightness in Photoshop Elements, but did not have to set up the studio lights to get decent photos.  The white fabric makes a HUGE difference with the lighting.  For any amateur photographer white = light = better pictures.

This morning I ended up hanging the backdrop on the wall with a few nails because it didn't feel stable just leaning there.  It isn't heavy, and was *sort* of easy to hang up.  Finding my nail holes on the back was a bit ackward, but I got it up there.  It probably weighs less than many framed pictures.  Perhaps I'm exaggerating...but maybe not. 

The foam boards could have used a lot more tape to give it more rigidity, or maybe that isn't even possible. Hanging it up solved the slight bowing along the tape joints. 

I will talk more about the backdrop soon.  There is already more to say, and I have a few ideas to make it better next time.

Vintage Fabric 1960-1970s Bright Green with Navy Blue Flowers

 

Vintage Fabric 1960-1970's Bright Green with Navy Blue Flowers

Sample Sale - Strap Clutch (Sold)

Most of the smaller items in my finished stash have moved on to new homes, but I still have some bigger things to put up as samples.  My goal is to get the stash down to just one bin, so more samples will be showing up for sale here during the week.

First up is this Strap Clutch. Sold - Thanks!

The body is a super soft green corduroy and the interior is a raspberry pink cotton with polka dots.  The pocket is divided into two pen slips, and one larger phone/journal pocket.

The price includes shipping and is determined by your location:

US - $12

Canada - $14

Everywhere else - $18

The first person to email me using the contact form (or leave a comment) gets to take it home.  Make sure to tell me in your note where you are located (US/Canada/Everywhere Else).