cleaning a soleplate

Since I have been ironing gobs of interfacing to various fabrics 

and recently tried out the ol' freezer paper template idea (more on 

that later) with no barrier between my iron and the wax that

melted out around the edges, I found myself in need of soleplate

cleaning. I was nervous about this, because my iron was more

expensive than any I've ever used before (it won't be replaced
any time soon), so I did some research. I found a product that gets pretty
good reviews, but my motto of late has been "work with what you have."
So in the end, I just whipped up a thick paste of baking powder

and water, rubbed it on with a damp paper towel, and then moved

on to the scrubby side of my kitchen sponge to finish. 

This cleared up most of the sticky spots and just left me 

with a little powder residue in the steam holes. I cleaned them out 

with a toothpick, and she looks about as good as new!

fun fabric pairings

I recently bought some new fabric for upcoming bag projects. 

It's all washed up and ready to sew. 

I just love to see these things come together!