Would You Like a Card?

Folksy have teamed up with Moo online printing to offer Folksy shop owners a set of 50 free business cards and so today I received this in the post:

I was so excited to open the package, I’ve never had business cards for anything before. It seems so grown up and professional! And my grown up and professional reaction was, of course, to exclaim ‘Yey!’ which coincidentally was the word on the sticker holding the box together. I’m really happy with them, the picture looks a little dark to me but that’s more my fledgling photography skills than the printing. They’re printed on their eco green paper with a matt finish to make it easy to write on.

I’m planning on using them both as business cards and as tags for my knitwear as the blank space on the back is perfect for writing a short message or the care instructions.

Visit my Folksy shop to see my gloves and accessories, or if you’re a knitter keep an eye out for some exciting news about patterns over the next few days.

A Beautiful Machine

On Wednesday I spotted a beautiful vintage sewing machine on ebay. The colour was what first caught my attention, its truely gorgeous. Luckily, I won the auction and this arrived yesterday:

It’s a Cooper Sewing Machine and unfortunately I haven’t managed to find out anything about them the internet. I’ve found a company called Cooper Sewing Machines that was established in 1903 and I’m assuming they made it, but it doesn’t seem like they produce their own machines any more. Their website has barely anything about the history of the company so I might shoot an email off to them to see if they can shed any light. It seems to me that it might be 1950s or 1960s?

The seller was fantastic, it couldn’t have arrived quicker and was so carefully and expertly packed. It is in impeccable condition with very minimal wear and tear and have I mentioned the lovely colour already? Plus, it’s been serviced and is completely ready to go!

Look how shiny everything is! It has a stitch regulator with dial system, reverse-sewing, drop-feed for embroidery and darning and a self-adjusting bobbin winder.

The underside of the machine is just as shiny. This is a very well looked after machine.

The tin of accessories sits in the slide slot.

Inside the tin I got several threads (which I wasn’t expecting!) and a few feet and bobbins. Took me a while to identify the adjustable seam guide as I hadn’t seen one of them before but the rest of them are in the handbook. I’m going enjoy using this machine so much! :)

Frugal(ish) Shopping Trip

I only intended to buy a magazine and some stiffener today. I didn’t go overboard but a closing down sale and a bargain bin meant I got a little bit more and best of all it came to just under £15. :)

I have lots of interesting projects planned with these. From the left:

Stiffener for a bag I’m going to try to make at the weekend.

Sunflower yellow dye for some sock yarn. (I wanted white yarn but what I unknowingly ordered was un-dyed off-white, rather than return it I decided it would be sacrificed to my first attempts at dying).

Ribbon for finishing off my Ambrosia cardigan.

Sparkly black thread! I probably would have bought it anyway as I love anything black and sparkly but I do actually have a project planned based on some artwork I saw at The Forum last week. I’ll tell you about it when it becomes less awesome idea and more awesome reality.

Teeeeeny tiny hook for placing beads in knitting.

Homestyle sewing magazine, lots of interesting projects inside and came with the materials to make a red spotty bag. I don’t think I’ll be doing the one printed inside, but I like the generous 50x100cm of material to play with.

That lot should keep me busy for a little while… :)