Sewing and technology

Wow, thanks everyone for taking the time to leave a lovely comment on my dress in the last post - I'm glad you all like it as much as I do! And I'm glad that a few of you are thinking of doing a colorblock project too, because I'm planning at least one more myself and it's good to know it's not considered passé.

But first I'm contemplating the need to have my sewing machine serviced because it's running quite loudly and seems to be skipping stitches quite a lot even with new needles. I did give it a clean, even taking the needle plate off and vacuuming out all the dust that gets in around the bobbin, but it doesn't seem to have helped. With modern computerised machines there's just not that much you can do yourself really.  At the recent high tea several of us were talking about whether older or newer sewing machines were best - the argument for the older mechanical ones is that they are able to power through any fabric and whilst the newer computerised ones having the fancy stitches and automatic buttonholes that make life easier. When it comes to overlockers though, the new models with their fancy self threading and automatic tensioning are hands down the winner - I just couldn't live without my Babylock and it's sanity saving technology!

I'm the same with my Ipad - before I got one I doubted very much whether I needed one at all since I already had two computers (one desktop and one laptop). But after having one for a while I realise how many uses they have, such as being able to watch helpful Youtube tutorials while sitting at the sewing machine, or using apps to keep track of your fabric stash or patterns. I've put all my scanned sewing pattern covers (saved as jpegs) into photo albums sorted by type, so that even if I'm not sewing I can swipe my way through my pattern collection for inspiration:

 

Unfortunately my two kids are avid fans of my ipad too - little Toby knows which buttons to swipe and which ones to tap already at only 15 months! They are way too rough with the ipad though, always peeling off the plastic protective screen so that it's now annoyingly bubbled and frequently dropping it so the hard plastic cover has cracked at the corner (but not the ipad so I suppose it's done it's job!).

I have been looking to get a cool cover for it, when serendipitously the lovely people at Snugg asked me if I would like one of their products to review. What great timing! Now you all know I very rarely do product reviews because this is a personal sewing blog and not the home shopping network, but since this is  relevant and something that would be very useful at this point in time I jumped at the chance. So while I was supplied with an ipad cover for review the opinions here are my own.

I chose a lovely deep red coloured leather cover, and I was pleasantly surprised at how light and slimline the case is. Plus it has an elastic strap on the inside cover that when it's open you can slide you hand through to make sure you don't drop it when you're carrying a wiggly toddler while trying to check out Pinterest.

 

It comes with a handy stylus pen holder at the top which will be useful because I recently downloaded a free app called Paper by 53 which I've been using to try to sketch clothes and outfits, especially when I've been people watching or snoop shopping.

 

 

There's a little flap at the back which securely holds the cover folded so that you can prop the tablet up to watch the screen, and it holds it really well unlike my previous magnetic cover which always used to collapse on me.

 

The cover I chose is a textured red leather (although only PU leather). And the white topstitching is a nice touch too.

Plus I just love a company that uses cool retro typography in their packaging:

I've had this on my Ipad for a week now, and I'm pretty happy with it. Toby has had a chew of one of the corners and some of the red PU leather layer has come off, but frankly there is very little that stands up to his chompers - his timber cot is testament to that! So if you're in the market for an Ipad cover I can recommend the Snugg products - the price is about what you would pay in the shops but is a nicer choice in my humble opinion, it arrived pretty quickly from the UK and they offer a lifetime guarantee.

Ok so time to get back to my regularly scheduled sewing posts - believe or not but I've already finished my July Burda project but I'm a bit non-plussed with it. I'm thinking of doing some beading to jazz it up, which is completely unlike me but there is a first time for everything isn't there?