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One of my favourite bloggers, Erin Van Handel over at the Sie Macht blog, has come up with a great Christmas list that I might just print off and leave lying around the house.
The idea of sewing gift list is an interesting on. Right now today my own personal list would also include a set of Kam snaps and the applicator tool. You can pay a lot for these or get a combo kit with the tool as well as a bunch of different coloured snaps for about $25 on Amazon.
Here that is:
And here are some applied on some practice pieces I used today:
Of the course of my multi project adventures over the years I have used many different snap systems. To be honest most of the one you can get at the local fabric store can be sort of horrifying to use.
Generally there is punching a hole in a perfectly good garment involved, hammers, prongs and pieces that get off centre when you try to hammer them on, or get all dented and flattened if you don't know your own strength or don't have any sense to know when to stop hammering.
And then of course these snaps often end up falling off or pull away from the too big hole you punched in with your handy dandy hole punching tool.
A button and buttonhole you can maybe fix up, a torn out snap hole is much harder.
Well I am happy to report that the Kam snaps are simple to apply, just make a little hole with a stiletto, and do some pressing with the tool you see above, much like using a stapler.
Almost zero upper body strength is required and these babies don't seem to want to ever come loose or out.
Really too, too, easy.
This is really going to change up my baby clothes game a lot. Since my successful afternoon putting in snaps in practice pieces I have more or less been cruising around the house with my tool in hand looking for things that might need a few snaps .... you never know what could be next.
Now over to you.
What would be on your own ideal sewing Christmas list?
4 comments:
Wonderful. I have been wondering what snap and tool to get, as my experience is the same - snaps coming out, leaving holes (aaacckkk) and being afraid to put snaps into a finished garment and wrecking it with that last step. I am going to get one of these asap. Thanks.
well there are some items on Sie Macht's list that will be ordered for various people (including me!).
Not sure I'd use a snap thingy, but yours looks handy.
My must have sewing item are my relatively inexpensive 3.5" Inspira micro tip tweezers which I first bought at my local Pfaff dealer. They are small, very pointy, and perfect for pulling threads through after you've threaded your machine needle, or they're the right tool for picking up and removing those small bits of thread when you've had to cut a seam and all those little bits are sticking to the fabric. The only problem is that Inspira seems to have stopped importing/manufacturing them. I have found a substitute on Amazon.ca: Stainless Steel Precision Tweezers (Yellow) - a bit longer but just as pointy and precise - that work. If you can track down a supplier of the Inspira Micro Tip I highly recommend them. A couple of weeks ago I found a couple of pair of the Inspira tweezers online in a small shop in North Dakota and they graciously put two pairs in the mail to me. The points will go out of alignment when you drop them on the floor! Hence my wish to have replacements on hand.
My other at the sewing machine must have are my all-chrome Knife Edge 4.5" spring loaded thread snips. I've had my Henkel snips for more than 40 years and they're still sharp and wonderful for picking out an unwanted seam. But I see on Amazon that Gingher, Heritage, Mundial also make them - all for about the same price. I have a pair at each sewing machine and a spare in my sewing tools kit. The cheap plastic ones with metal blades don't come close, trust me.
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