I made my clothes: Shell Tuck Edge

I'm a bit of a lazy sewer, I only sew things that are easy and if there's a way to do a short cut I'll probably find it. This lou box top is my new favourite pattern, I think it's going to make a great dress too just by adding some length. I made it in a lightweight cotton the first time and didn't feel like messing around with a facing or binding for the neckline so I tried out this shell tuck stitch (which I found by actually reading the manual for my sewing machine) I may never hem anything 'properly' ever again. It's the stitch that looks like this:

                                               

Just roll under a narrow hem and stitch so that the zig zag skips slightly off the fabric. Tightening the tension helps a bit too. On the curved neckline I only folded under a tiny bit once and then trimmed the raw edge afterwards, it's not super neat but I don't really care what my clothes look like on the inside. But straight edges work fine to fold twice so there's no raw edge. The whole thing from start to finish took less than an hour.

safety pickle

No this post has nothing to do with food. Pickle is what we call the acidic solution we put jewellery pieces into after we've been working on them with heat. Silver and gold develop firescale during soldering and need to be pickled before we can continue working. The generally accepted way to do this is to use a solution of ten percent sulphuric acid. Nasty stuff sulphuric acid though. So you can also use this super easy recipe for safety pickle. It works as well as sulphuric acid although a bit slower and does need to be heated. I keep mine in a plastic container and nuke it in the microwave for a minute. Make sure you dispose of it as safely as you would any other pickle solution though as it will contain harmful heavy metal deposits. 

white spirit vinegar

salt

Yes that really is it, I don't even measure it. Just put some white vinegar in a container and add some salt, nuke for a minute and good to go.