 Hi you guys, Lindsay here. Welcome back to my channel, Inside to Him. So I know that it has been absolutely forever since I've done a favorites video. For those of you that are newer to the channel, like within the last nine months or so, I used to do favorites videos every single month. And I think what happened was by doing that, I tried everything. I tried all the notions that I could possibly get my hands on. Anything that was new, unique, and different. I tried it. And I wanted to stay true to the whole idea behind a favorites and that I really had to love it if I was going to feature it on the channel. So even though I was trying everything, I wasn't necessarily loving everything. And so yeah, I kind of didn't have anything to talk about. But I've gotten the habit of trying a bunch of new notions and sewing tools and all that kind of stuff again here recently. And so I have enough things to put together for a favorites video, which is so much fun. But before we get into this year's favorites, I want to tell you about today's video sponsor, Aliso. Aliso is a super cool company focused on adding like a technological touch to your everyday appliances. They have a super cool iron that I've showed you guys a little bit in the past couple months. But I want to tell you more about it today. Their irons are mostly known for something called eye touch technology, which is just so cool as a cust millennial. If anything has like a technological aspect to it, that makes it more efficient or better or easier for me in any way I am all about it. So the eye touch technology is really when you are ironing or pressing something, you have your hand on the handle. And when you're done pressing it, you set the iron to the side, release the handle and these little legs pop up from the bottom, lifting the iron like half an inch or maybe three quarters of an inch off the surface of your ironing board. So you never have to turn the iron on its heel. And I've already noticed in the few short months that I've been using the iron that my wrist is so much happier not having to lift that heavy iron every time. You know, the iron is heavy in and of itself, but then you add all the water to it and it's even heavier. So I felt myself straining every now and again, especially if it was like a marathon sewing day toward the end of it, my wrists would be so sore. But because I'm just I'm not turning it on its heel, there's no rotation in my wrist at all. In addition to the eye touch technology though, it's actually a really, really superb iron. It's better than any of the irons I've ever owned in the past. And you know, I feel like I've invested in irons before I feel like the plate of the iron gets super hot. It's also super even, which is incredibly difficult to accomplish with a home iron. And the steam is much more evenly distributed. But also the way the steam comes out of the iron is more even. I don't feel like I get like sudden bursts of steam. I feel like it is a burst, but it's more distributed. And so I don't go through the water as fast. And like my clothes that I'm that I'm ironing are not getting drenched. They're truly just getting damp and steamed, just like they should. So the other feature that I love, love, love about the iron that I've actually never had before is a prolonged auto shut off. So this iron does have an auto shut off, but it's not until after 30 minutes of non use. And as you know, as so is we step away from the iron for a minute to go work on the next few steps, we may not be back, you know, five minutes later. So it's really nice to have that whole 30 minute window to keep going back and forth to the iron as you need it. But then if you forget, it still has the auto shut off and you're not going to burn your house down. So that's really nice too. Anyways, the lovely people at Aliso have given me to give to you a coupon code for you to go purchase your very own Aliso iron. It is HEM20, H-E-M-2-0, and that will get you 20% off of all of their irons. I'm also going to be talking to you guys in the next week or so I think about the brand new, like still on pre-order, like nobody's really used it before except for me and a few other people, the Aliso mini. Oh my gosh. It's really so cute and I love having this guy next to my big iron. It's like mommy and baby, so, so sweet. So I'll be telling you a lot more about the Aliso mini coming up, but if you're looking for a new iron and you're considering investing in one, head over to Aliso, check out their suite of irons that they have available. If you purchase one, don't forget to use the coupon code HEM20. All right, so jumping into the favorites. So you guys know that I have been on the struggle bus with rotary cutters. I don't know why, for years, literally years, I wanted to use a rotary cutter, but every single one that I ever purchased from Joanne for whatever reason never worked and I don't know why. I asked you guys about it. I got a ton of ideas on what I could be doing wrong and ultimately I still was never able to truly figure it out. I still to this day don't know why the, how many do I have, one, two, four rotary cutters that I purchased never, ever worked. So to say I was a little bit hesitant to try out, this guy is an understatement, but thankfully it is awesome and I have loved every single second of using this. This is the Kai 5045 rotary cutter and this one is super cool. I know you guys have given me so much crap and so much flak in the past for not having the blade covered, but look I finally figured out a way to ensure that I always have the blade covered. Not only does it have this like protective shield, but there's no like swipe up thing. There's no like way to remove the plastic from the rotary blade. The only way to do that is to press down. See how the black goes away and when you lift up the black part engages itself again and there you are you are protected all over again. Then you can put your little case back on and you are good to go. So I feel like I'm just living a much more safe life with a lot less chance of me going to the emergency room for losing an appendage of some kind and I know that you guys are all super grateful for that. But the other thing that's really cool about the 5045 is it has this really neat feature on the back with the soft to hard little toggle. So if you are using a lightweight fabric and you don't need a ton of pressure, you can flip it over to the soft. If you're doing cottons or something mid-weight, you do it in the middle and if you're doing like upholstery fabric or denim or something like that, you move it over to the hard and the rotary cutter itself adjusts so that you don't have to necessarily apply more pressure. The rotary cutter somehow does that for you. So I have tested this out on a few different fabrics with great success. I mean it's not like it's not like if you use the hard setting on a delicate fabric, it's going to rip it to shreds or anything. It doesn't. It just goes deeper into your cutting mat. And then same thing for like if you're using the soft setting on a denim fabric, it's not like it's not going to cut it. It does. You just have to apply a little bit more pressure yourself. So it still works. But if you remember to toggle this thing around, it will do a lot of the work for you, which is really, really cool. So it also comes in the itty-bitty, which I have also been using for like arm size and necklines and little rounded curves. But this has just been so great to just like zip around pattern pieces even with like the most finicky of fabric. So I'm in love with the Kai rotary cutters. I hope that you guys will check them out. I have a coupon code and a link in the description box so you guys can check out that. So the next thing is this clover bodkin. And a bodkin is something that you use to feed something through a tube or something else. This one is specifically designed for elastic. It has this little contraption on the end where you slip your elastic into this little area here. You snap it closed, you snap it closed, and then it grips on to the elastic. Now I have tried a lot of different products to help get elastic through a casing. And so I was a little bit skeptical because inevitably it always comes apart and let's go with the elastic. The only thing I've ever found to work is the safety pin trick, which is just so hard on your fingers and your joints, you know, gripping that itty bitty piece of metal in the safety pin. And then whenever you get to the seam allowances, you're always like, it's not going past the seam allowance because it kept getting they kept getting stuck in the, you know, vertical seam allowances. So needless to say, I was a little bit skeptical, but after the very first time I used this, I was like, this is genius. It works. It's awesome. This little thing grips the elastic so tight, you you're not going to lose the elastic, you can actually feel the elastic almost pulling on the inside and it's not budging. It's not going anywhere. It has this really neat tip on the end. And so because it's shaped kind of like an arrow head where it's flat this way, and then tall and skinny this way, it is going to get through all of those seam mergers connections, whatever you want to call them. And it just makes threading elastic a breeze. So I have not had the opportunity yet to try this on anything other than elastic. I would like to try it with like a drawstring or some kind of fabric application. I'm sure that it would still be great. I mean, if it can hold the elastic, certainly it can hold like a little piece of fabric too. But yeah, this little guy by Clover is amazing. I got this from Nancy's Notions. I will have a link in the description box. So go check it out. I love this guy. Love, love, love. All right. Also from Nancy's Notions, okay, is something that I didn't necessarily think that I needed, but I saw it and I was like, this could be cool. Like, maybe you don't need, but it could be cool. And that is these little, like, I guess they're like plastic weights. They are pattern weights intended for, you know, holding down your pattern pieces. But it's not just this. They come in shapes. So you have a curved one like this. You have an angled one, 90 degree angles like this. And then you have a whole bunch of these little straight ones to go along your shoulder seam or your side seam or whatever it is. And I got to tell you, it's awesome. I really, really like it. So in the past, I was using those hexagon tiles that I got from the hardware store, but you have to use so many of those. Like, if you're doing a skirt or something, you, I mean, I would use all that I have on like one piece just to make sure it was going to be held down and not slip around. But with these guys, I can put this along the hem. I can put this in the corner where the waistband is. I can put these all down the side seams. And they're substantial and heavy enough that nothing is going anywhere. So I found it really great to be able to just pop a couple of these on a pattern piece. And it holds the whole thing down. I don't have to worry about shifting at all. So these are really great. They may not be a need. Like, I know a lot of us have made our own paper weights or you can go like I did and find an economical solution like the hex tiles. But I'm telling you, like, if you want something that is going to make your life just a whole lot simpler, I really highly recommend these guys. I've been just, hello, that's my shirt. Thank you. I've been storing them in this little container and just keeping it right above my cutting table. And it's done really, really well for me. So I also love those. So again, these are also from Nancy's Notions. So with that, that is going to do it for my first favorites video of the year. So yeah, hopefully I'll be able to bring you guys some more favorites videos and some more videos just about notions in general. So look forward to that. If you have anything that you want me to try for my favorites, whether it's from Nancy's Notions or otherwise, let me know. I'm always, always taking requests for that. You can leave it in the comments section below or you can DM me or any of those wonderful ways of communicating. But that is going to do it for me today. Thank you all so much for watching and I will see you all very soon. Bye.