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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.
DIY Christmas Decorations
Last Christmas season while pinning away on Pinterest I came across this fabulous DIY of covered baubles.
It got me thinking and soon I was raiding my small scraps tub for Liberty and Liberty style florals. Armed with my pinking shears I started cutting and cutting and cutting some more. Soon I had quite a bundle of small fabric swatches.
Next stop was getting some baubles. Off to reverse garbage I managed to score an entire box for under $5 and looking in the back of my own cupboard I found some very cute teeny tiny ones that are just so sweet.
Armed with an old paint brush and some watered down fabric glue I got to work. As I moved around each bauble I found that threading a bamboo skewer through the hanging section made it a lot easier to hang on to, not to mention way less messy, as by this time my hands were covered in glue.
Soon I had baubles on skewers propped up inside jars all over my desk. After a good 24 to 48 hours drying time I had so many pretty baubles.
Now some made their way to the new homes and trees last Christmas, but many more are on their way this Christmas (I so hope this post doesn’t spoil anyone’s surprise too much).
Beautiful day
Sewing Adventures
Well it seems I have gone from no skirts to a little bit of a skirt obsession (can 2 be an obsession? or is it more of a set?) I’ve gone from no skirts to 2 skirts in under a fortnight!
This latest creation is based on Pattern Runway free skirt pattern and made up in some voile from a recent Spotlight purchase. It seems to be a popular fabric with it popping up on Top Notch and Sew Brunswick and a number of sewers on Instagram and Twitter seem to have scooped some up too.
First up the pattern, I made a few small adjustments. I didn’t bother with the side seam pockets. The fabric is very lightweight and I was worried if I had pockets and put something in them and then was riding on my bike to do messages that the stuff would either fall or or potentially damage the lightweight fabric.
I shortened the length by about 20cm, and it is now just below knee length. No the pattern isn’t giant, I’m just really short.
I added about 5cm width to the centre front and centre back of the skirt but not the waistbands or the lining.The fabric is so lovely and lightweight and the pattern so pretty that I thought a few extra gathers won’t matter. Plus with the voile lining had the potential to make the skirt slightly less transparent. I used white voile for the lining and cut the waistband in the white, interfaced that and then placed the coloured voile on top. This way I got the strength I needed but I didn’t ruin the coloured fabric by being able to see the interfacing through the waistband.
Sewing it was very simple, in fact the hardest thing was locating a new extra fine needle to go into the machine to ensure a nice sharp stitch. The elasticated back makes it very comfortable and has the added bonus of not needing to put in zip or buttons! I did a smaller double turn hem as I thought it would work better in the fine fabric.
I really like it and am already planning to make another version. The pattern is fabulous and I cannot recommend it enough, not only is it a cinch to sew it’s free! So fab!
Hope you all had a productive weekend of sewing too?
Contrails in Cambridge
Christmas tree farm
Christmas tree farm
Last week / This week
Mini Obsession – scarves
Ok confession time, I can’t knit and when it comes to crochet I can make a chain, just a single long chain that I can’t seem to join anything on to?
The Englishman on the other hand watched a few YouTube clips and can crochet like a boss and will be turning out amigurumi figures in no time.
So when I say I’m in need of a knitted scarf it really means I’m buying the wool and sending it to my mum who will whip me up a scarf in next to no time. Or I’m scouring Etsy looking for a cool designer one.
Here are a few I’m loving at the moment
1. The Purl Bee 2. The Purl Bee 3. The Knit Kid 4. Yokoo
Does anyone else have any suggestions? I’m looking for something quite warm and snugly that will keep me warm during an English winter.
Sewing Adventures
After last week’s musings on skirts I decided to jump right in and make one on the weekend.
I had this pattern from one of those buy one get one free sales that Spotlight occasionally has. I had thought to make it up as a work skirt sometime?
The fabric is a vintage cotton with the pattern being printed on (including the green lines that appear to be the weave of the fabric, all printed!). I picked this up years ago at a thrift store and there was miles of it! So far I have made caps out it, dresses, this skirt and there is still heaps left. It is a great sturdy weight cotton and sews up a dream.
Now to the skirt. I omitted the waist tie as I thought this fabric would be too bulky for it to look good, and I added a contrast bind to the top edge instead of a self bind. Just for a bit of a pick me up on the duller green of the fabric. Fit wise the high waist takes some getting used to and the skirt is a bit too straight to be able to ride in (admittedly only an important factor if you ride your bike to work) but for general wearing is quite good.
One thing I didn’t factor in though? All my tops are prints! I have absolutely zero to wear with this skirt that doesn’t make me look like some kind of colour explosion (and I mean more than I normally do).
So I’ll be keeping an eye out for something to match to this and in the meantime will also be keeping an eye out for other potential skirt patterns?
