Woo! 1st post!

[cirrussilvus.livejournal.com]

I figured it was about time I made a post to this wonderfully inspiring community! ^_^

I've been wanting to try soapmaking for a while, and finally got around to it. I'm pretty pleased for my first try.



The layers turned out really crisp, which was my main concern. The bar isn't terribly thick, because I wanted to play it safe on my first try.


The colors muddle a bit on the top down view. I should have picked better mixing colors. Like maybe blue instead of orange.


That's what the colors look like seperated. The orange part is Vanilla & Lemon, and the green is Almond.

It smells amazing! I decided to try and cut corners, which I should have researched first, but I was feeling really impulsive. They are colored and scented with food dye and pure extracts. It seems to work really well, and is a hella lot cheaper than what the were selling at Michaels. Unfortunately, the vanilla extract tinged the soap a faint brown, which is why I colored it orange.


And now, a question. I'm having sewing machine troubles! It's an older machine (Simplicity 8130), but it runs well...usually. Right now, at the start of a seam the bottom thread tangles and knots, and whenever I put her in reverse, the top thread breaks. It's threaded properly, and I've cleaned all the dust out. The machine is missing the face plate, but the only thing I think that would effect is keeping the thread above the guide pin, which the thread is below (and always has been when I've used this machine). Does anyone know what could be causing this?