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 23/06/201423/06/2014 by Susan Goodwin — 2 Comments

Sewing Adventures – teaching and more knickers

I hope everyone has had a lovely weekend? Our weather has continued to be stunning so I managed to fit in a run and I got out on the bike too! Am so so glad I’m finally on the mend after being sick.

My weekend started off with a blast on Friday night with a Spoolettes meet up, we got to see the lovely Carmen’s drawing exhibition at Since I left you. They are stunning and I highly recommend getting there for a look. Meeting up with the sewing ladies is always a pleasure and I left feeling inspired to know such a talented group.

Saturday I did some sewing that wasn’t knickers! shock horror I know. I haven’t finished that one yet though so you will have to wait a bit longer to see the finished garment.

Sunday I taught a make your own knicker class at Sew Make Create and after some no shows and last minute cancellations ended up with a one on one class. Was actually pretty fun to teach just one person.

So as to not leave you completely bereft of new sewing here are some knickers I finished up last week.

Two pairs of The Georgiana Knickers

A pair of The Lizzie Knickers with a vintage lace trim

and a 2nd pair of The Lizzie Knickers where I am testing out a new way of attaching the lace. It looks super cute but I’m not happy with the topstitching technique yet so I’ll keep working on that.

and a pair of The Darcy Boxers for a friend recovering from surgery and in much need of some cute shorts to wear. Don’t forget to pick up your FREE boxer short pattern, we’ve been seeing some fantastic versions of it being made up.

Posted on 20/06/201419/06/2019 by Susan Goodwin — 6 Comments

Brown

Sometimes I feel like brown gets a bad rap because of the way it sounds. Brown. Harsh start and slightly wet ending, it’s not pleasant.

The colour itself is not too bad. Tans, taupes and mid shades of brown make for some good neutrals. It’s the solid mid to dark brown where it loses it for me. It has no life, it seems to suck light into and becomes flat and lifeless.

Or so I thought. I was proved wrong when it comes to wool. Wool excels in brown. The textures shine and shimmer and bring life to brown. Traditional tweeds with their flecks of golden yellow, cream and sometimes blue nestled in against the brown make my heart sing.

Certainly a case where the choice of fabric and texture, makes the colour come to life.

For more brown take a look at Pinterest

1 – via Need Supply 2 – via Need Supply 3 – via WhatareTheyWearingNow

Posted on 19/06/201419/06/2019 by Susan Goodwin — Leave a comment

Tom Ford

When Tom Ford took over Gucci it was a total transformation.

Suddenly the catwalk shows weren’t just above the clothes but had this over hyped saturated cinematic quality that fairly oozed sex appeal.
While the styles were jaw dropping I always felt that they were best suited to the tall lean model types. So it wasn’t the styles I was after it was the branding.

Ford took one brand and made the whole thing cohesive. The shoes matched the dresses for sheer sexiness, the bags got names and became as desirable as the clothes. It was a master class in branding. It was so closely tied to his personna that when he left I wondered how it could continue. But continue it did and that’s when you noticed that the brand Tom Ford built around himself was himself. The impeccable clothes, the perfect 5 o clock shadow, all of it designed to showcase his personal style and ethos.

After Gucci he has created his own lines, directed a movie and headed up numerous other ventures all with unbeliveable style.

1 – via Now Fashion

2 – via FashionMag

Posted on 18/06/201419/06/2019 by Susan Goodwin — 7 Comments

Liebster Award

The lovely Mel from Made by Melanie has nominated me for a Liebster award. It’s a series of questions you pass via various bloggers so you get to know a bit more about them.

So without further ado here is my Q and A

1. Why did you start blogging?

I started this sewing blog only last year. I had been sitting on the outskirts of the sewing community and honestly it looked like fun so I jumped on in. Previously I have blogged for my other online business, contribute to women in business blogs and run some community event blogs.

2. How do you get yourself out of a sewing funk?

I used to buy more fabric. Mum always says when you are feeling uninspired there is nothing like a new piece of fabric to get you started again. Now that I’m in stash busting mode, I like to take a look at my patterns and see which ones can be made up the fabrics I already have.

3. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

Japan or England.

Japan because it’s awesome and I love traveling there whenever I get a chance and England because that’s where The Englishman is from and I love going to visit.

England is far prettier than it is given credit for. Filled with amazing places and food. Too often people dismiss it or only talk of London as a destination but I’m thoroughly enjoying seeing bits of the country each time we visit.

4. Sewing for other people: love it or loathe it?

An entire garment from start to finish love it. Mending or alterations HATE IT. Except I’m stupid, too nice and polite and either offer or when people ask I say yes. I’m resolving that after the batch I have now, am not doing any more alterations ever. Unless people are willing to pay ridiculously large sums of money and bribe me with chocolate and Liberty fabric.

5. What is your best feature?

I’m willing to help. Ask me how to do something and I’ll show you. Ask me to help you move house and I’m there. It sometimes backfires on me but mostly it’s ok. I love sharing knowledge and learning from other people so I like to share what knowledge I have.

6. What is your favourite fabric shop?

Nomura Tailor in Kyoto, no trip to Japan is complete until I have spent hours in there (and a small fortune).

7. What is your biggest sewing sin?

I never swap out my needles. I sew till that sucker breaks. It’s a terrible habit but I’ve also not had problems doing that either. It would have to be a very fancy and expensive piece of fabric that would prompt me to put in a new needle.

8. If you could make any sewing process disappear, what would it be?

Alterations. I want every pattern to perfectly fit me as soon as I cut it out. That would be bliss.

9. Which other crafts, if any, do you do?

Counted cross stitch, softie making (which is kind of part of normal sewing too I guess), drawing and photography. Does baking count? am a keen cook and baker always looking to improve my skills there. I also quite excel in the art of cat fur accumulation, though in truth that’s mostly the mini.

10. Cats or dogs?

Cats! Well cat singular as I don’t think Miss Mini would be very happy if there were cats plural.

Mini proving one can never be too comfortable or too fuzzy. I would love a sausage dog but mini would hate it and be like 8 times bigger than it too. It would be hard to explain that the dog nearly suffocated because the cat sat on it! Plus we have no space.

Thanks so much Mel for the nomination, I hope everyone learnt a bit more about me. Now it’s time to nominate some others, so they can share along too.

Maria from How good is that?

Steff from Where I create

Amanda from Bimble and Pimble

Michelle from ButtonTreeLane

Natalie from Natalie Jane Handmade

Posted on 17/06/201419/06/2019 by Susan Goodwin — 4 Comments

FREE pattern thanks to Peppermint Magazine

Sometimes things happen that are just really awesome, and this is one of those things. Last week we told you the pattern was available and now here is a bit more of the back story on how it all came about.

When we released the patterns I got in touch with Peppermint magazine to see if they would be interested in featuring them? Not only were they interested they wanted a design they could offer as a free PDF download as part of their Sewing School.

Yes! how exciting to be able to share a pattern with everyone.

We decided to work on a unisex pattern. With a few changes it goes from a standard men’s boxer short to a pretty women’s boxer perfect for bed time. I made up some samples for a photoshoot and sent them up to the Peppermint magazine office.

Here is how it all looks in the magazine (image via Peppermint). How fabulous is this photo?

This entire issue is dedicated to all things sewing and has wonderful profiles on how different people use sewing every day and as a means of earning money. I urge everyone to pick up a copy as it is a fascinating and inspiring read.

To get your FREE boxer short pattern follow this link and be sure to let us know about your makes, we can’t wait to see what style and fabrics you choose.

Huge thank you to Peppermint magazine for not only producing such a fabulous magazine every issue but for also featuring our patterns.

Posted on 16/06/201415/06/2014 by Susan Goodwin — 14 Comments

Sewing Adventures – Malvarosa Dress

I hope everyone has had a good weekend? The highlight of my weekend was my attempt to cut my own fringe. It was getting a bit long and needed a trim. Turns out cutting hair is nothing like cutting fabric and I was in rapid danger of losing all my hair in trying to straighten up the original mess. So in a stroke of genius I stuck a piece of washi tape across the bottom of my fringe and then neatly trimmed to it’s edge. Unconventional yes but in a crisis, it worked.

In other weekend matters I managed some sewing and made 4 kinds of soup so my freezer is now nicely restocked. Most of my sewing is of the pattern testing kind so I can’t share it all yet so instead I’m sharing my Malvarosa dress.

This dress was made all the way back at the beginning of the year and has been waiting to be blogged until I got some decent photos of it. I wore it to our first Sydney Spoolettes meet up. Thanks to When All you Need is for the photo.

It appears however that my hate of getting my photo taken does quite clearly result in terrible photos.

These are the best of all the ones taken, 3 different locations and just all blah. I really dislike being in front of the camera. So while the photos are a fail, the dress however is quite the success. I’ve worn it a few times and while there are some minor tweaks I will do if making it again I’m pretty happy with this version.

From the original pattern I made some changes

shortened the dress through the body

It was just too long for my torso. So I took out some of the length. From bust up I left it alone and only took out from lower chest to hip. I took it out in 2 sections as I took out around 12cm to 15cm in length.

shortened the length of the skirt

Even with shortening the torso it was still too long so I took at least an additional 10cm out of the skirt length. It was possibly more as I can’t quite remember if I re cut the hem before finally stitching it in place.

added a centre back seam

I was working with vintage fabric and there was no other way I could fit the pattern on the meterage I had. In future I think I will do this anyway as I have a slight pooling of fabric at my lower back and the centre back seam could be nipped in just at the base which would eliminate this pooling.

blocked in the neckline to narrow the opening

Even on my wideish shoulders I found the neckline just too open. I added in 4cm to each side and then reshaped that back into the original neckline.

lined the bodice instead of using the facings.

The pattern called for a neck facing and a sleeve facing. they would have overlapped under the shoulder seam and I thought it would look bulky and messy. So instead using a lightweight voile I cut an entire front and back and did a fully bagged out lining for the entire upper half. Is incredibly clean finish, adds a nice shape to the body of the garment and means zero handstitching too.

added width to the skirt.

I was using vintage fabric and if I had cut the required skirt width I would’ve been left with only 10cm leftover fabric. Instead I decided to make the skirt a bit wider so I could use more of the vintage fabric.

Now to be fair most of these were due to me being just on 150cm tall (5 foot) so I had height issues to deal with, and because I was using a narrow width vintage fabric. So not everyone is going to need to make these changes. But I would certainly be checking the length before cutting any fabric as it seemed overly generous in length.

Overall it’s very very comfortable and easy to wear. The pockets in the drop waist seam are fantastic and really useful. I’m looking forward to making some cotton versions for next summer and am considering a winter weight version too?

Pattern: Pauline Alice Malvarosa

Fabric: Cotton pique purchased at Gardems in Brisbane during my first year of fashion college (and yes it’s old enough to be classed as vintage now..eek)

Shoes: Marc Jacobs suede booties

Posted on 13/06/201419/06/2019 by Susan Goodwin — 4 Comments

Black

Black seems to be a colour that gets co opted into many subcultures. Religious garb, goths, punks, rock n rollers, they all wear black. For some it’s tradition, for others they are clinging to the idea of when wearing black was considered anti establishment.

Black is not a colour I consider all that much. Apart from some tights and underwear until recently I never even owned any black clothes. In a rare moment I purchased a black dress (admittedly a black dress with enormous bronze metallic polka dots on it) but still it’s black. For me black was boring, it was for people who didn’t want to think about what they wore. They wanted to blend in, be like everyone else and their highest clothing ambition was to buy yet another pair of black polyester pants to wear to work.

For the most part that’s still how I view black for myself, but every so often I see a piece that challenges my notions of boring predictability and then I kind of nod and think, yep that’s doing it right.

Do you consider black to be safe and boring? or do you seek out black as a way of expressing something different?

To continue seeing black in new ways I’ve been collecting ideas on my Pinterest board.

1- via the colour inspiration 2 – via Elle.com 3 via Madewell 4 – via TheblondeSalad

Posted on 12/06/201419/06/2019 by Susan Goodwin — Leave a comment

Isaac Mizrahi

I knew of Isaac Mizrahi and his movie Unzipped came out when I was at fashion college. His styles were great in a very American sportswear way and I love his take on the prom dress styles.

What I really admired is his resilience. He lost his label so he designed for Target (one of the first big names to). His reasoning, why should people with less money have less style.

It is this practical approach that charms me most. He knows that not everyone can afford the big budget stuff and instead of ignoring them he looks at the commercial reality and makes it happen. A truly admirable aspect of a designer.

I often hear the term designer applied to many people and it’s true that sometimes an idea pops into your head and you have “designed” something. But to be a truly successful designer, that’s all about the hard yards. About week after week, year after year producing commercially successful ranges. That takes true talent, drive and a head for not only numbers but for interpreting the customer. It’s those traits that truly make a designer a success.

1- via PopSugar 2 – via VOGUE 3 – via VOGUE

I’ve found various copies of Unzipped on YouTube so if you were after something to watch while sewing I can recommend it as a snapshot into the American Industry at the time.

Posted on 11/06/201419/06/2019 by Susan Goodwin — 2 Comments

Vivid Sydney

It seems like I’ve been quite the social butterfly this week with wrap ups of The Spoolettes, The Finders Keepers markets and now Vivid! it will have to make up for all those times I’m a complete homebody and hang out at home for weeks on end.

Vivid Sydney has been going for a few years now. The basic concept is lights onto buildings, which sounds a little ok? and then you realise that the buildings include The Sydney Opera House.

That takes a simple light show and makes it really spectacular. Apparently the whole concept was dreamed up when they realised that Sydneysiders stayed in during the entire of winter. So they created a festival at night, right in the middle of the cold season. It could’ve been a complete flop but it’s actually a great success.

Posted on 11/06/201419/06/2019 by Susan Goodwin — 6 Comments

FREE Pattern – Unisex Boxer Shorts

Through the ever lovely Peppermint Magazine we have a Free Pattern for you

Image via Peppermint Magazine

The Pattern is for a boxer short that can be made up including a working front fly (men’s version) or made with side splits and a decorative elastic top (women’s version). The instructions cover both versions and sizing goes from a size 6 / XXS to an 18 / XXL. Also included is our Designer Manual which shows you how to flex your designing skills and personalise the pattern to your style.

Pop on over to the Peppermint Sewing School to grab your patterns.

We will be showing off more versions and running a sewalong for them in the coming weeks too.