 Hi you guys it's Lindsay here and welcome back to Inside the Hymn. I have rearranged things a little bit trying something a little new for my background. I'm not sure if I'm going to stick with this or anything. Still have everything set up with the like floral wallpaper. Just feeling something new today. You know how it is. It's the end of the year and you're thinking about the new year and maybe just trying new things is top of mind. But we are here today to talk about my 2017 favorites. These are all my favorite things from the entire year. These are items that I am 90% sure I've already covered in a monthly favorites video but I thought it would be cool to go back and re-evaluate those and tell you guys what made the cut for the all-time favorites for the year. Sometimes favorites are like a flash in the pan. You know they're like really awesome for that month and then they kind of like fade away for various reasons. But these things that I want to share with you today are all tried and true. I use them very often if not every single time I sew and just reach for them and love them and if anything ever happened to them I would absolutely replace them so they are just like the ultimate favorites. So first on the list is Wonder Tape. Wonder Tape is wonderful. I've used this the most for zippers. So it's basically two-sided tape so you peel this away from the roll and you lay it down on the right side of your fabric and then you apply your zipper tape I'm sorry and then you peel this little backing off and then you lay your zipper tape on top of it and it just keeps everything in place. Like what I'm making a dress like this that has like so many stripes getting the zipper and all those stripes matched up across the center back seam is like impossible if you don't have something to help you and I found that when I use Wonder Tape and I use it correctly I get the zipper in and the strikes matched up the very first time it's actually kind of amazing but it washes out of the garment once you wash it the first time so it's not permanently in there like glue or something and I've never ever had an issue with my needle gunking up or anything it's I don't know what exactly it is but it's just amazing. It's very pliable whenever you get the backing off of it it's just really it's not super tacky but it's just tacky enough to kind of hold everything together temporarily while you get a basting stitch in on your sewing machine. I don't usually use pins whenever I use Wonder Tape it holds kind of that well but honestly I can't imagine putting in a zipper even when you have like seam lines like you need to match up your waist seam I'll use Wonder Tape to help me with that it just I don't know it just holds everything exactly where it needs to be and it never ever ever shifts or moves around or anything and I just can't imagine installing a zipper with any horizontal matching of any kind whether that's the fabric or seam lines or anything if you have like a slippery finicky fabric that you need to match like side seams um or complicated you know seeming this would also be really great for that um yeah I just really love it I will replace it over and over again and continue to use it but I will say even just this one little roll has lasted me I mean maybe like six months and I put invisible zippers in everything like I don't do regular zippers ever um so yeah Wonder Tape it's wonderful um the next thing on the list is this is Julie's picks I'm trying to show anything this is January's Julie's picks um Julie's picks is a monthly I guess kind of like fabric catalog I don't know how else to explain it um that you pre-purchase at the beginning of the year or the end of the previous year um it's $50 and every month they send you I mean this one has what how many pages one two three four five six but they've had up to like eight or ten before of different swatches of fabrics and these are all fabrics that Julie or someone at fabric mart is personally sourcing I think in New York City um where they hit the streets go to the fabric shops go to the places that do the wholesale and they are buying fabric at a really great rate um and then sending it out to us in these little swatches so you can actually touch it feel it see it you know everything um and then you get to buy it at like a pretty good rate um a lot of the fabrics and then January one are like five dollars um there's some in here that are like you have to buy a pre-cut amount but it's like four yards for ten dollars um and they're really great fabrics like shallies and wools and um pufflins and shirtings and you know all natural fabrics all natural fibers um at just like really really good prices and the patterns are the not the patterns but like you know the design of the fabric is usually really cute I don't love everything that is sent here but um but yeah I really love getting this every month and people are always asking me on the channel about fabrication and how to know which fabrics to use for which patterns and honestly the way that I learned to do that was a lot of trial and error and the like turning moment the tipping point for me was when I went to New York City for the first time and I started going to these fabric shops where the it wasn't necessarily labeled um and I could just touch and feel and see the drape of things and it just really helped me kind of escape that crutch of the um suggestions on the back of a pattern and and feeling like I had to be pigeonholed into using something like that um so this is a great way to do that too I mean there are hundreds of fabrics in here and like I said you can touch them you can you know see the drape that they have you can you know they do have the um fabric type mention like the percentages of cotton and lycra you know whether it's a satin or a shali or you know whatever it is so you can start to learn um about fabrics in that way they do also have pattern suggestions to go with a handful of the fabrics that are in here never actually made something that they suggested but it can be very very helpful if you are new to sewing or new to garment sewing and you're wanting to make sure that the fabrics you're buying are going to look good in the particular pattern that you're trying to make um like a dress like this made out of shali might be a little bit tricky um but when you make it out of a satin or something a little bit more structured you know it holds itself it holds the pleats well you know and it just looks there's just a big difference in a garment that's made out of the right fabric so like I said Julie's picks is awesome this is my second year I've already purchased for 2018 which is why I have januaries obviously um and I'm just really excited to see what comes it's like a fun little sursy in the mail every month even if I don't buy anything just touching the fabrics and flipping through them all and seeing them all is a thrill in and of itself and then when you find something and then you see what great price it is um it's even better so it's the gift that really keeps on giving I love Julie's picks so much okay next up we have okay this is something that I acquired in 2017 and I know that not everybody has the luxury of doing this but if you do in any shape or fashion I highly recommend it and that is a dedicated sewing space it has truly changed the way that I sew the amount that I sew the quality of the garments that I'm able to make it's really changed everything about my sewing um so like I said I know not everybody has like a spare bedroom but if you've got a little corner or if you've got you know a closet that you can convert or by all means if you have a spare bedroom that like your husband's using for his office or something make a deal and see if you guys can share it I don't know what your situations are but I promise you having a dedicated sewing space will make 2018 just the most amazing year you've had sewing I've only had this dedicated space like since July so I guess that's like five months and I just love it I I just love working in here I love coming in here I like taking care of the space in here um yeah it's just been really really wonderful and I would be remiss if I didn't mention it in the yearly favorites video because it's been awesome it's just been really great I'm truly blessed to be able to have this and um I you know I really want it for all of you guys too I want everyone to have their own space because it's just been just awesome it's just awesome so little kind of side note there on that one but um okay so where are we the fourth one is the bobbin saver so as you know I held out on getting one of these four years I don't know why a lot of you might already have this because it is kind of like a basic notion at this point but I didn't have one I got it a few months ago and I don't know how I ever live without it every other bobbin holder container thing is like a zero compared to this this is a 10 and everything else is a zero nothing compares that's a really good song but truly nothing compares to this thing it's just great it just works and it's simple and easy to use and I have no issues with it and literally there are no flaws whatsoever to the bobbin saver this is a perfect item um besides the fact that it keeps all of them in see how none of them are like falling out it keeps the threads from unwinding like there are some threads that are sticking out but they don't like you can tell that's like hard to pull you know what I mean um so they're not going to come unwound um you can see your entire collection I even put like empty ones in here so um I know where those are as well I could probably actually use a second one so if you don't have a bobbin saver yet I don't know what else I can tell you to convince you to go get one because it truly truly is that awesome you need this whoever invented this whoever is manufacturing this you win at life because this is this is one of those things that I will never ever live without so when the holidays came around I was like really inspired to make home decor for the holidays so I made a few things specific to Thanksgiving um and to Christmas and it was just really fun to kind of decorate the space in little ways um with things that I had made myself um so I had to put the maker in here because it is really an awesome like complimentary tool to the home sewist and for what it's worth if you do have children or you're into making accessories you can use the maker to make garments as well um I just don't make things that are where the pieces are only so big um but you can if ever that happens for me or something I don't predict it but um you know I could and that's also awesome so cricket maker is number five and then number six is the dritz elastic threaders these things are they blow my mind I remember the first time that I used one I thought my life will never be the same um basically you when you need to elasticize a waistband or an ankle or a cuff or a neckline or anything when you're putting elastic through a casing um you basically thread it through the end of this thing and so your elastic's hanging off the end here and you put this end into the casing first and feed it all the way around whatever it is you're doing and yes we have all been using um safety pins to do this for years and years and years and it does the trick and it works but I can't tell you how much faster and more efficient this is because this little thing i'm a jig is the same width as your casing so there's different sizes of these and you use the right size for whatever your elastic is and this little end is tapered just enough um to get it through the fabric and more importantly get it around the side seams you know how there's like fabric folded within the casing and the side seam and your safety pin inevitably always gets stuck over and over and you're like shoving it in and you can't figure out like you're trying to wiggle it around and wiggle it through and try and find the perfect little avenue to get the safety pin through this that hardly ever happens with this and also because this is so long you never lose you never like let go of it on accident how many times have you like let go of the safety pin and then you lose like inches and inches of all of that like um threading that you had done so annoying but that never happens with these ever never ever happens um so they're really inexpensive they are very simple concept um but they really do make a huge difference whenever you're elasticizing things so if you're sewing up casings and you're putting elastic in them whether it's for women's clothes children's clothes home deck stuff whatever it is you need to get these elastic threaders so that's it those are my top six items from the entire year of 2017 um and i can't wait to see what i discover in 2018 um so let me know what your one favorite your absolute favorite from the entire year of 2017 is in the comments i'm hoping that maybe i've never heard of it before or i don't have or never tried it um and that will give me some things to try out for 2018 but um with that oh before i forget all of the items that i mentioned today there are links in the description box below here's how you access the description box if you've never done it before there's a way to do it on mobile and a way to do it on desktop so find the description box and you'll see all the links there i almost always have like not almost i definitely always have information in the description box in all of my videos so just learn how to do this and check it every single time i post a video you'll get to see you know information on what i'm wearing um you'll get to see um links to the products that i mentioned there's always like tons of goodies in there so check out the description box um go buy up any of these things that you don't have like not even a suggestion it's a command if you don't have any of the things i've mentioned in this video find a way to go get them including that sewing space the dedicated sewing space i want to see how you've converted a closet that would just make my life if i saw that you were able to eke out some little space like underneath your bathroom sink or something i don't know somewhere random but um but yeah okay so thanks so much for watching i will see you all very soon bye