Those of you who follow me on Twitter will know that I'm sunning myself in Portugal at the moment, whilst visiting the parents. Bliss!

I thought I'd take this opportunity, as Portugal is where a number of my sewing mistakes and gifts reside, to share a few photos proudly taken by my mum. She was so overwhelmed by the patchwork tablecloth I made for her, that she wanted to show it off in her living room. She then thought she'd rub it in and pose with my makes-gone-wrong that ended up fitting her perfectly - nautical Crescent Skirt and floral Lonsdale Dress.






Doesn't she look super cute in these makes? It's as if they were made just for her! Mum's a little bit sad though that I haven't been making as many fitting mistakes lately. Don't worry mum, I'm sure I'll trip up again soon...or maybe I should just make you the occasional clothes out of kindness instead of by mistake ;o)
Thursday, August 01, 2013

Firstly, a huge thank you friends for your very kind words about my Neolithic Hawthorn - you're all so lovely and encouraging!

I'm now in with a chance of winning one of the Colette contest prizes, so please go vote for your favourite Hawthorns by midnight Pacific today. No hard feelings if mine isn't your cup of tea, there are so many other beauties to choose from, as well as a second round of voting tomorrow.

In the meantime, I'm sunning myself in Portugal, where some of my sewing mistakes and gifts reside. More on that soon....
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Are you sitting pretty? Good, because I'm about to wax lyrical about my latest make - Colette Patterns' Hawthorn. As soon as I saw it, it was love at first sight - the fitted bodice, front button closure, flattering semi-circle skirt and the sweet collar! The silhouette has such a retro feel!



Not only did I instantly fall in love with the pattern, I knew exactly what fabric I wanted to pair it with - a unique seersucker gifted to me by the extraordinary Karen at a swap last year. I'm so glad I 'sat' on this fabric for so long, because it quite literally is perfect for this dress! I love the uneven stripes and hunting pattern. It reminds me of drawings found in ancient caves, maybe even Neolithic?!? Keen historians among you are probably cringing at my ignorance, so please do enlighten me if I'm saying something completely stupid.

I'm really pleased at how well I managed to match the stripes down the front, side and back seams. Because of the semi-circle skirt, the stripes create a cool chevron effect down the skirt side seams.


And the collar...oh, the collar! It's so sweet and low enough to show off the collar-bone, which is always flattering. The design also creates a cute little 'V' at the front...perfection! The best thing is that the collar is edge-stitched and top-stitched into place, so it sits perfectly.


Onto juicy fit and construction details and in both respects, I can honestly say Hawthorn is a dream. I know that sometimes Colette patterns get criticised for their extra ease which can lead to gaping necklines and whatnot. But, as Jo has already said, it seems like they're always paying attention and making improvements. I kid you not friends, but after cutting out a size 6 the ONLY adjustments I made to this pattern were to shorten the bodice pieces by my standard 1 inch and to take 3 inches off the hemline. That's literally it and I hope you'll agree it's a pretty good fit!

In terms of construction, this was a breeze! The minimal pattern pieces matched up perfectly and the dress comes together surprisingly fast. The most time-consuming part is lining up the buttonholes and buttons, but as part of the Hawthorn sewalong there's a post dedicated solely to this if you're feeling nervous.



Hawthorn is the perfect summer dress, it's casual yet chic and wearing it makes me feel so feminine! I'm already eyeing up some polka dot seersucker in my stash for the blouse variation and I've got my heart set on a colder-weather version made from either the Sorbet or Strawberry chambray from The Village Haberdashery...YUM! 



I wore my Neolithic Hawthorn to work the other day and I got SO MANY compliments. Like, a ridiculous amount...so thank you Colette Patterns and thank you Karen! I made this with the sole intention of taking it on holiday with me next week, but I love it so much that I'm now tempted to enter the Colette Pattern Contest.

Have you made this dress yet and are you entering it into the contest? If not, are you tempted at all by the design?
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Intergenerational learning is a wonderful thing! Passing down years worth of knowledge and expertise is as satisfying for the 'teacher' as it is for the 'learner', but perhaps not as commonplace as it should be.The Amazings are working hard to change this, offering people over 50 (the elders) the chance to share their passion and skills with anyone who wants to learn something new - through online classes, as well as local classes in London.

"We see the potential to change learning; the opportunity to re-think retirement; te possibility tof bringing together communities; and the chance to bring back the make-do and mend spirit, so we can at the very least, know how to hem a skirt or fix a bike."


The online classes are filmed in HD and priced between £8 - £20, upto 20% of which goes directly to the elders. Classes are available to you forever once purchased, they're broken down into helpful bite-sized sections for easy browsing and you can even contact the elder with further any questions. There's also plenty of incentive to introduce friends, with a credit system that leads to free classes. 

I think you'll agree that it's a fantastic concept, but are the classes any good? Well, I was offered the chance to try one out and I wasn't disappointed. Upcycle a Man's Shirt into a Summer Dress is ideal for beginners, or even more experienced stitchers who want to try their hand at re-fashioning. I certainly learned a few new tricks like turning a sleeve into a pocket (with the sleeve head as your pocket placket) and using an unwanted cuff as a back closing.


What I loved most about this class though, is how Judith's (the elder) experience and passion really shines through - exactly as as you'd expect of someone who was first introduced to sewing by her seamstress mother (and to darning by her grandmother) aged just three! I really enjoyed the conversational tone of the class and as the 90 minutes unfolded I learned all manner of interesting information and anecdotes, including: the history of traditional shirt making, the story behind the 'classic' sizing introduced by M&S over 20 years ago, that the distance from the nape of your neck to your waist equals the circumference of your head, and that you can manually use your machine's flywheel to safely sew through multiple layers.

So don't hesitate, have a go at something new today - you even get your first class for free!!! There really does seem to be something for everyone in terms of the range of classes offered by The Amazings. Among many others, you can...

 Needle Felt a Furry Friend


Retro Hair Dos


Make a Mosaic Flower Pot


Hand Sew an Heirloom Patchwork Quilt


Make Your Own Natural Beauty Products


Big Knit a Weekend Bag

Monday, July 22, 2013

I'm on an advice-seeking bender at the moment, but I hope you don't mind as you guys always deliver the goods!

When I wrote about my patchwork bunting tablecloth, I got some really helpful advice from Sew K2 about seams:

"The only suggestion I have is that unlike clothing construction where you iron your seams open, you should iron your quilting seams to one side. Usually you iron the seam towards the dark. Occasionally you will iron a seam open to reduce bulk, but not often."

So with this sound advice fresh in my mind, I've embarked on more patchwork fun and as you can in the picture, I've pressed all my seams to alternate sides to reduce bulk. 

My question to you is this: What do I do next? How do you finish seams in patchwork or quilting? Do you leave them like this and suffer the bulkiness in certain areas? Do you trim them down and by how much before you start endangering the strength of the seams?  Do you finish them in any other way?

So many questions...with hopefully many expert answers.

Thanks in advance!
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Guys, I want to thank you so much for being so amazingly solution-focussed! I totally love you for the host of clever advice following my Summery Mathilde conundrum on Monday, which broadly fell into the following two categories: construction-based and practical.

In terms of construction some of your suggestions included concentrating the gathers towards the centre, adding waist darts and changing the gathers back to the pattern's original tucks. All excellent suggestions, but I'll let you know into a little secret...I'm such a lazy arse! For me, when a make is finished, it's finished. I honestly can't fathom unpicking overlocked/finished seams and fiddling around to fix things. Terrible, but true!

Sooooo, this is where your practical advice came in very handy indeed. I'm kicking myself for not having thought the following: try it belted or tucked in and wear a push up bra, sports bra, camisole, slip or vest top underneath. It turns out that wearing a vest top underneath really does stop the gathers from dipping between my boobs...hurray! Aaaaand, it even looks quite nice tucked into high-waisted jeans...with the vest top still underneath of course!



So a big thumbs up to you for the helpful input and a massive thanks to those of you who were complimentary about my blouse before the 'fix'.


In other 'hilarious' news...I got pooped on whilst taking these photos yesterday evening! Yep, you heard me. Right in the middle of my photo shoot a bird did the biggest and loudest poop ever, part of which landed on my arm. It was such a gross feeling and the smell was something else! I had to photograph the rest of it so you could see how big and gross it was...pardon my foot in the photo, but I wanted you to have a sense of scale.


Have you ever been pooped on whilst taking photos for your blog?
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
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