Sleeping Bag Puffa Jacket – I try Upcycling

Often on my semi-regular walks on the Downs, I have admired my friend’s lightweight down jacket that she wears when the weather has just a little nip in the air but it’s not cold enough for a big jacket. I continued to covet my friend’s jacket and also considered the ££££ demanded by outdoor apparel […]

Black Skinny Jeans from PatternLab Block

My latest jeans project uses the Pattern Lab system to hopefully get a good fit on these trousers. I’m using PatternLab.Ldn skinny jeans block with some black stretch denim from the stash. Here’s my Affinity Designer sketch for these classic-looking jeans. The denim is a lovely deep inky black and I decided to use white […]

Cloned Ponte Pencil Skirt

UFO alert! This project has been in the UFO pile for a long time and I’m not sure why. The only probable reason is that other more interesting things got in the way. One day I had both my sewing machine and overlocker threaded with black thread so I just said to myself. “Line up […]

My FrankenStyle triptych and how I can’t dress down

Oh dear, some scheduling shenanigans happened this is the proper version, sorry if you received this too many times. Autumn seemed to arrive abruptly after the glorious summer of heatwaves that we have had this year in the UK. I find that although where we live, the weather is quite mild, it always seems to […]

Atlas Wrap Dress or my Hot Girl Summer Dress that wasn’t

One of the things I’ve noticed is that much of my sewing is Summer-centric. It makes sense that as I’m lucky enough to be able to travel a lot, I tend to make garments for those trips. This edition is another summer-suitable make but unfortunately, I didn’t get to wear this on this summer’s holiday.

Butterick 6225-Midi-length shirt dress hack

I wanted to make a medium-length shirt dress which could be worn on its own or as a duster over trousers. The image in my head was something loose-fitting with a gathered waist and full enough so that it would work as a dress but also open over my white linen trousers. I saw a […]

Waffle Patterns Kaede Utility Apron

Out of the blue just before my Italian holiday, I was contacted by Yuki of Waffle Patterns. She was testing a new pattern. She must have read my mind because the latest pattern was a utility apron/belt. That’s a bit out of the ordinary, you may think but, for the longest time, I had been […]

Soft Suit Combo – The Final Set

Here it is! Three garments, two patterns, one great suit. I’m over the moon with how this turned out. Even with a few errors, the set is everything I wanted from it. The shirt/jacket that I have been shunning for so long, is just great. The trousers have that smart/casual feel that I love and […]

sswaistcoat

Soft Suit Combo – the Waistcoat

The waistcoat is the final piece in the combo. This piece came into the plan last. I started to see a lot of these looks and liked the idea. The waistcoat is worn without a top underneath (see more on this later) and the overall look is the epitome of smart/casual. I’ve seen them in […]

Soft Suit Combo – the Trousers

For the last few years, I’ve been focused on perfecting the fit of my trousers and last summer I made the first of what is now a few pairs of linen trousers. I’ve had linen trousers in various colours over the years and they all were worn until they fell to bits. I’ve been meaning […]