Author: Susan Goodwin

Since I was three, I wanted to be a fashion designer. I filled sketchbooks with drawings and ideas and picked all my school subjects based on what I needed to get into fashion college. After three years of college, I got my start in the industry and have been working ever since. Full time, freelance, part time or a combination of them all. I have had dream jobs, terrible jobs and jobs you do to pay the bills. Through it all I have continued to sew. I make most of my own clothes, am partial to a bit of hand stitching in the form of embroidery. Here I share my tales of my sewing.
Posted on by — 1 Comment

Sewing Adventures – Penguin wee braw bag

All year I’ve been making these #weebrawbags and have a whole stack I’ll be sharing on the blog soon but when this penguin fabric turned up at Pitt Trading I just knew it was destined for one of these adorable bags.

This one is all done minus the drawstring at the top which I’ll get when I’m at Pitt Trading next week.

These are such a fast make and yet huge impact. I’ll share more details when I’ve photographed the other ones I’ve made but this one was just too cute not to share straight away.

Pattern: Wee Braw Bag pattern by Laura Zuckerkuss

Fabric: Ivory penguin, pink penguin and animal sketches From Pitt Trading

Alterations: didn’t use interfacing because I didn’t have any to hand

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Sewing Adventures – Pink Floral Adrift Dress

You all saw my gorgeous silk version of this a few weeks ago but this cotton lawn version is my very wearable toile.

After measuring up the pattern I decided to go with the longest skirt and ruffle lengths and add a bit of width into the back skirt panel. I also did a super sneaky change and swapped the skirt ruffle to finish on my right hand side and not my left hand side. My right is where my surgery was and I’m lopsided there and the ruffle adds a little bit more visual camo.

For the back skirt I added 4 cm at the fold line (so 8cm in total) and the same amount to the ruffle. It gave me a bit more space over my bottom and ensured the dress wouldn’t be tight as I wanted to maintain the loose silhouette.

I also eliminated the drawstring as I have to be slightly careful around my scar tissue. I sewed lingerie elastic onto the seam allowance of the waist join stretching it as I went to create the gathering. It worked well and provided a nice soft finish.

This dress takes a surprising amount of fabric but comes together so incredibly quickly that I feel like it would be a perfect summer dress and stash buster if you’ve got some lightweight lawns/cottons/silks in your stash that you’d like to actually wear and not just look at.

As this was my toile my neckline is the original neckline. It’s a fraction on the wide side but perfect for summer and who doesn’t love a dress you can pull on straight over your head?

I really like it and I can see it making many a trip to the beach and pool!

Pattern: Adrift dress by Papercut Patterns. Generously provided to Pitt Trading.

Fabric: Printed cotton lawn from the stash originally rom Lincraft.

Alterations: cut longest length skirt and ruffle, added 4cm on the fold to back skirt width and ruffle.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Sewing Adventures – Jinbei shorts for The Englishman

These shorts have been made many times over the years and am sure will be made many times more. Other variations can be seen here,  here and here.


I’ve used the same pattern after rescuing the pattern from the fire we suffered December last year. The plastic sleeve the pattern was in, had gone black and bubbled but the pattern inside was ok after a good airing. Though somewhat dusty with ash.

The fabric was another survivor of the fire. Originally purchased at Pitt Trading and I think they have some more in stock?
It’s lovely, light and has the slightest of seersucker like wrinkles and yet the fabric is dense and not see through. A perfect summer fabric.


Apart from the usual construction I took the opportunity to keep practising with my coverstitch machine with the hems and the elastic all sewn in using it. I find it quite easy to use and the tips from Lauren at lladybird on how to tie off the ends to prevent the threads unraveling has been invaluable.

One happy Englishman, even if he had to be bribed with biscuits to get his photo taken.

Pattern: Jinbei
Fabric: from stash but purchased at Pitt Trading
Alterations: changed construction methods to use coverstitch more

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Sewing Adventures: Silk Floral Adrift Dress

There are days when working in a fabric store is every part the dream job most sewers envision it to be. When silk like this comes in from a top end designer its one of those days.

When the owners of Pitt Trading decide they want to team up with Papercut Patterns to use their patterns to showcase said amazing silk when then that’s a really good day.

I immediately put my hand up to make up the Adrift dress as I’ve always thought it so pretty and it looks like an easy to wear pattern. I read some reviews online and mostly everything was positive except a few people mentioned it’s a bit on the short side. Being a bit on the short side myself I didn’t think that would be a big problem but as always I started with measuring the pattern to choose my size.

After measuring up the pattern I decided to go with the longest skirt and ruffle lengths and add a bit of width into the back skirt panel. I also did a super sneaky change and swapped the skirt ruffle to finish on my right hand side and not my left hand side. My right is where my surgery was and I’m lopsided there and the ruffle adds a little bit more visual camo.

For the back skirt I added 4 cm at the fold line (so 8cm in total) and the same amount to the ruffle. It gave me a bit more space over my bottom and ensured the dress wouldn’t be tight as I wanted to maintain the loose silhouette.

I also eliminated the drawstring as I have to be slightly careful around my scar area. I sewed lingerie elastic onto the seam allowance of the waist join stretching it as I went to create the gathering. It worked well and provided a nice soft finish.

The final addition was to block the neckline in a little. The original neckline is more boatneck width and that’s fine in a cotton on me but in the silk I wanted it a little closer. Instead of using the facings provided the neckline was finished with a fine satin bias binding.

The silk is a dream to sew, not too shifty took a nice Sharps needle well and even cutting out it didn’t move about so that was good. The print is so beautiful and oversize that I didn’t bother with any pattern matching apart from placing the front bodice panel to get the maximum amount of pink on it.

My new Bernina overlocker does a really nice roll hem so I finished the ruffles on the skirt and sleeves with that. It looks nice and neat and not like it was “just” overlooked. It’s a good way of finishing a hem that may have proven tricky using other methods.

Wearing wise I’m loving the change of silhouette, it’s soft yet feminine, it feels a little short to me but I’m getting used to that and I don’t feel like I’m flashing people or anything like that. Silk is dreamy against the skin (it’s not lined) and I wore it out for my birthday to have a degustation menu and the elastic waist was in it’s element!

Pattern: Adrift dress by Papercut Patterns. Generously provided by them in order to make the samples.

Fabric: Printed silk from Pitt Trading. Generously provided by them in order to make the samples.

Alterations: added 4cm to CB skirt fold, swapped skirt ruffle closure to other side, blocked in neckline, elastic waist

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Sewing Adventures: Sloth grocery bag

After the success of my spotty grocery bag and with New South Wales finally phasing out single use plastic bags it was a good time to make The Englishman a cloth bag to keep in his work satchel so he always had a reusable bag handy.


This sloth fabric from Miss Matabi was always meant for him and it was another fabric salvaged from the fire so it seemed like time to use it up.


Super simple bag, I measured along length of the fabric and cut 2 x 4cm strips. Then folded the remainder of the fabric in half, stitched down one side, across the bottom and overlocked the top edge.
On the bottom corners I measured squares 5cm x 5cm, cut them out then folded the side seams together and sewed across the diagonal line.


The straps were created from the 4cm strips by folding them in along the long edge by about 4mm and topstitching down, I then folded them half and topstitched either side to create a flat strap with no raw edges showing.


Joined to the overlooked edge the whole opening was turned under by about 2cm and stitched in place.
Easy, fast, stash busting and resulting in a useful bag. Win!

Posted on by — 2 Comments

Sewing Adventures – Kit Bags

Kit bags are super simple bags that hold your cycling kit. The Englishman uses them to keep his kit organized so each bag will generally contain knicks, jersey and matching socks. It makes getting ready for a ride easy, because all your things are contained in one place.

His last kit bags were left stained and gross from the smoke, water and ash from the fire. They weren’t coming clean so I decided to make new ones so his kit could be kept nice and clean. The bags were disgusting after the fire but many of his kits managed to survive. Though washing and laundering them to get the mess out but not hurt the special fabrics was a bit of a challenge.

In an effort to use up what we already have I grabbed these cotton bunny fabrics from the stash. Originally purchased to make something for our friend who lives in San Francisco they were still languishing in the stash having survived the fire. It was time to put them to use as I don’t want to have to buy fabrics when I have something useful already (sorry Meg promise to make you something better later).

I had a meter of each fabric. For the grey I folded it half and half again and then put in small snips and tore the fabric along the length. For the white I did the same but in thirds.

Construction is a simple fold over flap closure. The inner opening is turned under by about 2cm and stitched down, then folded inside out and used the overlocker to run up the sides. It was fast and not even totally accurately measured I just kind of went for it. The sides of the top flap were then top stitched under to keep the top looking neat.

2 more fabrics out of the stash and one happy Englishman, winning all round.

Pattern: Kit bags made up as I went along

Fabric: 100% cotton bunny print originally from Spotlight but was part of my stash

Alterations: at some point I should add some Prym snaps to the front closure to help keep them a little more secure.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Sewing Adventures: Peg Bag

Some projects are beautiful, flights of fancy or just plain gorgeous. Other projects are well, utilitarian? These definitely falls into the useful group and is made very so slightly cuter by the use of Japanese cat print canvas.

We needed a peg bag and rather than buy one I thought I’d make one. Taking a plastic adults size coat hanger (many use kids coat hangers but thats only useful if you have kid coats hangers lying about you need to use up?) I traced around it and then played with proportions till I got something that looked about right.

I cut the back, lower front and then when it came to the upper front realised I wasn’t quite going to have enough fabric. A little bit of patching later and hey presto enough fabric.

Super fast to come together and then for a bit of adding prettiness to such a utilitarian object I added some sashiko stitching to make the patchwork look deliberate, to hold the upper and lower fronts together and around the neck of the coat hanger to hold it in place.

Am so proud of it, such a simple job and yet it does it’s task perfectly and the cat fabric makes it adorable.

Pattern: Self Drafted

Fabric: from stash originally from Miss Matatabi

Changes: none

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Sewing Adventures – Deer and Doe Myosotis Dress v2

I loved my first Myosotis so much I pretty much started cutting out a second one after the first day of wearing my first version.

I was using this lush Liberty Tana Lawn which was another one I picked up when I was in the UK at some point.

Everything was exactly the same as the first time I made it except for the collar. In my first one I get these weird drag lines. It gets so bad while wearing that it actually looks like the garment has tucks in it.

This time I tried it on before I added the collar and discovered the bodice comes up into the column of my neck. To fix the problem I shaved over a centimetre off from the neckline. I think I would actually take more if I’m going to make it again as it has still a slight drag line to it.

Apart from that it was as straight forward sew. I skipped making buttonholes as I discovered that I can just pull it on over my head. It needs a good press but when I took these photos I hadn’t bought my lovely new iron yet.

It’s lovely and floaty and goes well with tights and boots for winter and am sure it will ease me right into the warm weather too. Snapped these photos on a sunny day after teaching at Bobbin and Ink.

Pattern: Deer and Doe Myosotis Dress

Fabric: Liberty Tana Lawn

Alterations: shaved 1cm off neckline, all other alts as per last time I made the pattern.

Posted on by — 8 Comments

Sewing Adventures – Deer and Doe Myosotis Dress

I’m so excited about this dress! Truly I am, I loved it when I first saw the Myosotis released by Deer and Doe but didn’t think the shape would be for me? Through the encouragement of some sewing friends I gave it a go and I am so glad I did!


I cut a straight size 44 with no alterations except on the bottom ruffle I cut it at the full length. I wanted the dress to hit just under my knee.
I only had enough of this Liberty Lawn to do the ruffle on the bottom but not the sleeve ruffle but that didn’t worry me as the sleeve ruffle would’ve come a very long way down my short arms.
Mid way through the make I popped it on and was a little bit “oh my gosh I’ve made a little house on the prairie dress” but once it all came together it lost that look.


It’s not a super fitted dress and I deliberately chose to make mine not super fitted in the torso. As a result I can pull the whole thing on without undoing any of the buttons and the comfort factor is huge!
Construction wise it comes together very easily but be sure to choose something that can gather easy because “holy gathering Batman!” There is a lot of gathers.


The pattern pieces all fit together really well but I had to use an easing stitch to get the sleeves in perfectly and there is no mention of that in the instructions.
I also raised the side seam pocket placement ever so slightly as the original placement was just too low for me.

These cute square buttons I got from Pitt Trading as I liked how they mimicked the tiny pixels of the print.


Now that I have seen the photos I notice I have some bust drag lines and some around the neckline from the side neck outwards. Some of this could be because it needs a proper press, am working with a less than great iron at present. I’m not overly bothered by these but it is something I will think about before I make my next one and I know there is definitely going to be more!

Pattern: The myosotis dress from Deer and Doe
Fabric: Liberty Lawn from the stash but originally ordered from Liberty when they had a big fabric sale early last year. I ordered a few pieces and had them sent to The Englishman’s parents and then picked them up while we were there at Christmas.
Alterations: raised pockets by approx 3cm at side seam, changed collar construction to get a neater internal neck finish. Changes for next time, look at drag lines on bust and from collar/high shoulder point

Posted on by — 4 Comments

Stitching le Tour – New Embroidery Patterns for Sale!

It’s almost Tour de France time and I couldn’t be more excited. It’s sure to be an exciting race and as I do every year I’ll be “stitching le tour” Being in Australia and being a cycling fan means lots of late nights. Easy to do for one or two nights but when we are talking about 3 weeks of late nights it gets tough.

My way to cope is lots of tea and hand stitching. Each year I work on different projects throughout the 3 weeks which means staying up late is not only easier it’s also productive.

This year I’m challenging myself a bit more and working on some pieces I have designed myself and when finished are set to hang in our apartment.

I’m working on 2 pieces, an interiors piece which features an idealised view of my dream sewing set up, sized for a 7″ (18cm) hoop and a second piece I refer to as “Army of mannequins” sized for 5″ (or 13cm) hoop.

Both are currently available in the web store for $8 a piece. You will receive a .pdf giving you the outline of the embroidery at actual size ready for you to transfer to fabric to stitch on. A digital colour guide and suggested stitches is also included in the .pdf. To get started you will need some cloth to embroider, embroidery threads, needle and a hoop.

To see my progress keep up with me on Instagram as I’ll be sharing my stitching there! Happy Tour time!