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Showing posts from April, 2015

Patterns I Own - a disturbing exercise...

A couple of weeks ago I got a new little file drawer thing to keep sewing patterns in (not all of them, because it's little, more the "working set" or queue).  It was a bit of an impulse buy but it's soooo pretty: Anyway, the purchase led to some sewing room reorganisation.  That sounds very grand, but "sewing room" is actually part of our bedroom, and "reorganisation" means I swapped one shelving unit and the chest of drawers around :) The "reorg" led to me deciding on a whim to catalogue all the patterns I have.  Because that wouldn't take long right?  I figured I would use Pinterest, as it's visual, and when Sara Lawson (Sew Sweetness) starting doing this a while back I was jealous. Many hours passed... WHAT???  I own 93 patterns for women alone  (note - this is now 94 as I realised when writing this I had missed one).  You can see them all here .  This doesn't even really capture it because several of thos

Princess Jasmine / Bollywood Costume

A little while back Issy got invited to a Bollywood party.  I saw this as an excellent challenge and way to use up some of the more garish fabrics I bought when I thought I might make her a gymnastics outfit I used the Made by Rae Flashback Skinny Tee  in the 6-10 version and my first ever Burda pattern for the pants.  I think I tightened the tee a bit more after this shot.  For the tee I just made the flashback with short sleeves and cropped it, then added a band around the bottom (using the same method for the sleeve / neck bands). For the pants, I used a pattern out of a Burda magazine (no idea which one as I have since tidied up).  It was a pattern for kids woven pants with an elasticated waist.  I made two versions (kind of).  The first was a shorts version which was sized to be very close (actually slightly under) her actual measurements .  I made these in a super stretchy spandex dance-wear fabric and these are the little shorts underneath the massive trousers.  Then I

Thread Theory Camas in Fantasia from Art Gallery Fabrics

Note:  I received the Camas Blouse for free to review and the Fantasia fabric as a gift from Sara Lawson, the designer.  All opinions are my own :) Sara Lawson recently offered to send out some of her new line  Fantasia (for Art Gallery Fabrics) ,  It seemed from her email that she really just wanted to get the fabric out there and experience the joy of seeing what people made with the fabric, so she cut it all up and sent it out to people who were happy to make something over the next few weeks.  I put my hand up for some of the knits and she sent me a couple of yards of the Kokka Sprites (Teal) knit: I have to confess, I am not usually drawn to patterns, particularly larger scale ones (the sprites are probably about 6 inches tall, for reference).  I don't dislike them, I just never feel I know what to do with them or how to wear them. I would have picked this, given the choice - which is about as close to a non-pattern print as you can get!!! Happily for me, Sara ha