Sewing Magazine Review - Ads, freebies and the occasional useful item?

As you know, I'm pretty new to this whole sewing thing, and I have been considering getting a sewing magazine subscription, mainly because it'd be a good mix of things, some handy tips, and to be honest, I like to flick through a magazine once a month.

I get a baking magazine already, and I decided on this one when I went to the Cake and Bake show last year.  I had a nose through most of the mag stands on offer, decided that most were just glossy catalogues filled with adverts, but I saw Food Heaven and because it guarantees at least 100 recipes every month, and not too many adverts, I went for it. And it's been a great read ever since. (They've not paid me to say this!)

Sadly, I'm not scheduled to go to any sewing shows this year, so I figured that to choose a new subscription, I'd need to sample a few.  It's been raining all day, and my plan was to go home after work, get into my fleecy pj's, close the curtains, put the fire on and cuddle up with my cat, Newt.  So I went into WHSmiths on the way home and bought every sewing magazine that they had on the shelves. A whopping £27.96 later, I shuffled out into the rain with an armful of potential subscriptions and feeling somewhat like I'd been mugged.

I figured that this information might help anyone else that's in the same predicament as me so I'll go through the freebies that I got, the cost, what projects were included, the amount of pages that were dedicated to adverts and what offers there are for giving them your money long term for a subscription.

*** Just to confirm, the details below are correct as of today (24th August 2015) including prices, contents and offers ***

Here goes!

Magazine #1:
Sew Inspired - £9.99(!!!!)

Freebies:
* Sewing for Fun - Video Project CD-ROM (contains video tutorials, handy projects, and templates)
* A plastic Heart template that gives you seven sizes of heart
* Kwik Sew pattern K4040 Misses' XS-S-M-L-XL

Pages: 68 (including front and back covers, it barely feels like a free insert in a normal magazine)

Adverts: 3 full pages

Projects: 21

General comments:

I had no idea how much it was when I picked it up.  It was a shock when I rang it through the self service till, I nearly had heart failure, but I stuck with it.  It costs a lot!!  And you don't seem to get a huge amount for that money either.  This is the first magazine from the 'best-selling sewing author' Debbie Shore.  I imagine that they're just feeling the market out a bit.  A lot of space is filled up with sections on Debbie's sewing room, must-haves for beginners, how to use the free kits, some giveaways, craft projects, how to choose a sewing machine for a beginner (which was very sparse), a guide to sewing machine feet and how to do free-motion embroidery.  Also how to make a bookmark, which didn't seem to need a whole page worth of explanation.  There were a few useful bits, especially for a beginner, but I think that an experienced sewist wouldn't need a tutorial for a bookmark, or a very simple sack (literally two pieces of material sewn on three edges and tied together at the top with some ribbon).  One thing I did find hugely useful was the suggestion of using Frixion pens for marking fabric.  As heat (the Frixion name suggests) makes the ink disappear, you can mark fabric, then iron it away.  I've been obsessed with these pens for years, and I have a ton of them, so I'll make sure I keep a set in my sewing room.  The price of the magazine was almost worth it just for that tip.  Almost.  Actually, no I'm still hurting over the price!

Subscribe and save: Doesn't appear to be any offer in the magazine, I think it's a bit too early.

Final verdict: I wasn't blown away by this magazine at all, or the 'freebies', I definitely wouldn't subscribe (if it becomes available), and would likely only buy again if I was suffering from some kind of mania, or they had a cool freebie that I was intending to buy anyway and would otherwise cost more than the total price of the magazine.

Magazine #2:

Love Sewing - £5.99

Freebies:

* Simple Sew Sewing Pattern - The Jersey Top and Cross-Over Back Blouse #015 UK 8-20

* Patterns for the projects in the magazine

Pages: 100 (including front and back covers)

Adverts: 25 pages (including double page ads for subscriptions and future issues)

Projects: 16

General comments: This is pretty advert heavy, possibly a couple more than I think is acceptable.  However, in saying that, the projects and articles seem to be a good mix of items for beginners as well as experienced sewists.  There are the seemingly standard sections about how to use sewing machines, the best items to have in a starter kit, but also a really nice mix of projects that include tea cosies, a teddy bear, a kids hoody, a skirt and a pin cushion (to name but a few).  I thought that this was a nice combination of levels, and things that I will keep in mind for future when I'm more experienced.

Subscribe and save: For those looking for a subscription, you get a 30% discount (£27.25 every six months on Direct Debit - £4.54 per issue) and as a joining bonus, you get a Pencil Skirt Kit that includes fabric, thread, concealed zip, and paper patterns for sizes 8-20.

Final verdict: I liked the mixed level of projects as well as the tutorials.  Slightly put off by the ads, but they're never going to go away with magazines like this.  Think this is a pretty good read overall.

Magazine #3:

Sewing World - £5.99

Freebies:

* Patterns for projects in the magazine

Pages: 100 (including front and back covers)

Adverts: 23 full pages (including double page ads for subscriptions and future issues)

Projects: 12

General comments: I find their lack of freebies disturbing.  Seeing as they're the same price point as the others that do have freebies, it seems  a little off.  There are slightly less ads, but also less projects too.  Similar to Love Sewing it has a varied set of projects, from a tea towel, pyjamas, little bags for back to schoolers, cushions, a backpack, and a kids t-shirt.  They have a couple of tutorials, but nothing amazing.

Subscribe and save: For those looking for a subscription, you get a £18.89 discount from buying it over the counter (£52.99 every year - £4.41 per issue) and as a joining bonus, you get 'Abbygale Sews' and 'Compendium of Sewing Techniques' books, apparently worth £22.98.

Final verdict: Not at all impressed.  I think that if the same standard was kept every month, I'd likely be bored within a year.

Magazine #4:

Simply Sewing - £5.99

Freebies:

* Pyjama pattern

* Patterns for projects in the magazine

Pages: 100 (including front and back covers) 

Adverts: 18 full pages  (including double page ads for subscriptions and future issues)

Projects: 10

General comments: Startlingly low on projects, and a lot of them we along the same theme.  Several of them were for a girls bedroom, I don't have any kids, so the projects for kids aren't a big draw for me, although I realise that people will use those things, it's nice to have a mix so that everyone has something.  They also had some really weird projects on how to cut old t-shirts into headbands (which were pretty inexplicable), how to cover wire coat hangers with material (I'm pretty sure that nursery school kids could manage this) and cushions in the shape of clouds.  There were some nice guides at the back that included how to buy fabric, guides to fabric types, fabric terminology, and machine needle sizes.  They could be useful for beginners.  It also had handy workshop section that went through pattern matching.

Subscribe and save: For those looking for a subscription, you get a 25% discount (£26.96 every 6 months - £4.49 per issue).  I can't find any reference to a free item included with the subscription.

Final verdict: I think I'll end up using the pattern, and some of the guides were handy, but nothing that I couldn't look up online. I wasn't blown away by the contents.

Overall decision - I think I'm going to go for Love Sewing, the free kit with the subscription is pretty cool, and the variety of projects and tutorials seemed a good mix.  I think I'll give it a go for 6 months and see how I go.  I might even update this if I remember :)

Note:  I could've added links to each of the sites for the subscriptions, but it's late and I'm sleepy, so you'll have to forgive me for this one.  If you want to find something, give the title a Google, and you should be set :)

Wrap up on sewing projects so far (part 2)

So, part 2 on my recap of the sewing projects that I've done up until now.

Dressmaking Course - Crafts Bee in Beckenham
Made this rather snazzy dress. Unfortunately it's absolutely huge on me because I'm quite large chested and the course was only how to make a dress, not how to make one that fits you properly!  The waist really needs some taking in, but hopefully I should be able to take it in soon so it fits.

Cat bed for Newt
I had some extra material from a beanbag project that I'm working on (post to come later when I actually finish it, soon hopefully!)
I cut out a couple of ovals, and a couple of inch wide strip that went round the circumference of the ovals, sewed them together and filled with beanbag beans.

Even fitted my first zip without any assistance!

My cat, Newt seemed really quite pleased with her new bed  :)

With any luck, my next post should be a proper one, as I should be nearly finished with the beanbag.  Fingers crossed! :)

Wrap up on sewing projects so far (part 1)

I've not really had this blog in mind when starting out with sewing, so a lot of the photos are of end projects rather than step by step. So I'm going to do a quick run on my projects so far:

Beginners Sewing Course - Crafts Bee in Beckenham

Cute little cushion as a starter

Awesome tote bag that I adore and use everyday

And it has an interior Hulk pocket (not a pocket for a Hulk, but a pocket with Hulk on)

First sewing machine project at home

Sewing Room Curtains

Wrist Pin Cushion

I got the kit from eBay but the material wasn't to my taste, so used a Kath Kidston fabric from Ikea

Sewing Machine Cover

Ironing Board Cover (can you spot my sewing room theme yet?)

One more wrap up, then I should be all caught up :)

The Shoe Cake

A friend at work asked me to do a birthday cake for one of the guys that she works with. He’s notorious for complaining about his feet, so she asked me to do a shoe, specifically a red Converse high top. Not done one before, so was a bit nervous. Started off with the lemon cake that I use for fondant fancy and baked a square cake, then using a paper template, carved the basic shape.

I used one of my high tops to use as a basis of the actual carving of the general shape.

It was then a case of the decorating, only slightly daunting!! I used the Renshaw sugar-paste, because I wanted a proper red. I’d made rough paper templates from one of my shoes, and then used those to cut the general shapes that I needed. Because I was only working with small pieces of sugar-paste, it was actually a lot easier than I thought it’d be. I started by putting the tongue on and made sure that there was some overhang at the top. I then went on to put each of the sides on. Because the templates were rough, I had to do a little trimming. Then came the white toe piece, which took a little while to get the shape correct. Then the strip at the back that covers the area where the two side pieces meet.

I then had to tackle the rubber area at the bottom. I used a Wilton strip cutter to do most of it, and that worked great, but the extruder that I bought to do the black strips, that was a problem as my hands weren’t strong enough to get the sugar-paste through, so I just cut those by hand with a craft knife. I did some of the detail with a sugar-paste tool.

The laces were cut with the Wilton strip cutter. I couldn’t find a texture sheet that was cheap enough for the lace fabric, so I made the markings by hand with a sugar-paste tool. I cut out the eyelets using plain circle piping nozzle and put them onto the shoe and painted them with edible silver paint. I then cut the laces into strips and copied the lace pattern on my shoe. This section was far easier than I thought it’d be and looked really quite effective!! The part that I was most worried about doing was next, the piping of the logo! I cut the circle out, and then using a paper print out, I marked what I needed to pipe. I used some Tesco writing icing as a cheap and it was a weekday so I didn’t have that much time. The colours weren’t right, but done was better than good at this stage! As the shoes tend to turn up a bit at the front, I used some black sugar-paste (again Renshaw) to add a small section at the front to give the illusion that the toe was turned up.

I was really very happy with the way it turned out, and everyone at work was really delighted. The cake was ‘unveiled’ at about 9:30, but they refused to cut into it until about 1 because no one wanted to be responsible for cutting into it. Had a few random people come up to me asking if it was me that made the cake and said how amazing it was.

Hello and welcome

Hi, I’m Hayley and I’ve been baking for a few years now, mainly for my own enjoyment, but I’ve recently been getting people asking me if I’ll do a cake for their birthday or event.  As I’ve become more advanced with baking and decorating, I’ve found myself looking at other people’s blogs for hints and tips on certain techniques, and found them incredibly helpful.  So I thought I’d start my own blog and see if it can help or inspire someone else.  Also thought it’d be nice to have a collection of everything I do, just so I can see if/when I improve.

Because baking was a bit high pressure in the sense that it has to be done in a certain timeframe before things go off and once you've started, you can't just leave it, I started looking for a hobby that I could do in the evenings, and that I could start, and then leave for a few days if I was feeling poorly (explained below).  My dad's side of the family were apparently tailors and dressmakers, so I thought I'd see if I had an inherited talent for it, booked myself on a starter course and really took to it. So I got myself a sewing machine, set up my spare room as a sewing room, and I've been trying new things when I can.

A bit about me, I have a genetic condition called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, which basically means that my body doesn’t produce collagen correctly, and as a result, my joints are very flexible and dislocate (along with other issues that I won’t bore you with).  That’s really how I found baking.  I used to spend a lot of my time tinkering with cars, but then when I got diagnosed and fell really ill, I wasn’t able to tinker anymore and I was really bored and quite fed up.  I started fiddling around in the kitchen and discovered that I hate cooking, but then I discovered that baking really relaxes me.  I’d never thought I was any good at baking, my first attempt at a Victoria sponge when I was a kid would’ve been better suited to being a car tyre.  And for years after that I never bothered, thankfully I picked it up again in my late 20’s and here I am now.

Will try to post when I can, and hope that you will find some of this useful, and maybe even entertaining.