Minding My Own Beeswax (Hand Sewing, Green Sewing)

You can buy beeswax with other sewing notions
But I like to use up the old ends from beeswax candles I buy at the Farmer's Market

In the final steps of finishing off my bustier project, I'm doing lots of hand sewing. I took this photo will waiting in the car, pick stitching away on the zipper, listening to NPR on the radio, and waiting for a family member who needed to be picked up after a medical procedure. (No, I was not driving!)

There's a traditional German saying "Langes Fädchen, faules Mädchen". That is about the extent of my knowledge in German. Anyway I disagree. A long thread may indeed make for a foolish girl (Girl? Are adult women and men never fools?) if she doesn't know enough to add some texturizer. I like a long thread that doesn't knot up as much as anybody. So I keep the old ends of my beeswax candles for just that purpose, running the thread through the stubs just after I rethread my needle, and also every so often while using the thread. 

Some people say you need to iron the thread once it's beeswaxed. But I never do. Also I imagine you might have some problem with beeswax piling up at the stitch entrance in glam fabric. But it works fine with denim, cotton, and linen for me.

You can, of course, buy hunks of beeswax for this purpose. You can also buy thread texturizer. I don't know what name that's sold under, as my old candle stubs work just fine. 

I love the smell and style of beeswax candles on the supper tableand I love to use the remains up to the last waxy morsel in my sewing.

With the scent of honey of honey in the air, as I pick stitch away on my bustier zipper, I'm  just that much more....

Enchanted by Sewing!

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If English isn't your first language....

"Mind your own beeswax" , also abbreviated as MYOB, is an old idiomatic phrase used by children to indicate that someone should not be listening in on a private conversation, or asking questions that are not their own business. It's a joking reference to the similarly somewhat rude phrase, "Mind your own business".

Bustier: Classic Underpinnings - Silk Organza

Silk organza is a very stable fabric that minimizes bulk in a project. A year ago I bought six yards of this fabric. I have been using it as an invisible layer for different aspects of sewing projects as I learn new ideas. 

Back in December I used it as sew-in interfacing for my Lilacs and Liberty shirt. Tonight I cut strips of silk organza on the straight-of-the-grain that I'll be using to stay the top of the inner shell of my  bustier bodice. The strips are intended to be 1 and 1/4 inches wide (mine are a little wider at this point in time). They'll be folded lengthwise (resulting in 5/8 inch wide strips). Then I'll cut them about 1/4 inch shorter than the width of each bodice piece, which I'll be easing to the strips with hand stitches. I'll stay each piece of the bodice individually.

Using silk organza makes me feel a little glamorous.  It doesn't actually cost much more than other interfacing and stabilizers,  and makes me feel like a real seamstress!

Silk organza keeps the enchantment in my sewing!