Simple sewing: When you’re not really feeling it.

At the beginning of the year, I said I was going to slow down my makes so that I could concentrate on drafting and fitting. Well, my creative impulses kind of ground to a halt. Not only has my sewing dried up to a dribble, but I did not really achieve any of the planning […]

Designin’ December vs. Little Red Dress Project – Xmas 2022

It’s time for my favourite end-of-year challenge. Linda Maki’s Designin’ December is a sewing challenge to recreate or take inspiration from a designer item that you love. I spent a few years on the sidelines before jumping into this challenge and now this is my third entry. This year I might be able to kill […]

I snoozed and so I had to hack M7969

A while back I kept getting notifications that Minerva was offering a free download of the popular McCall’s M7969 pattern. I thought that’s great, I’ll have to get that. Well, I kept seeing the emails and kept saying I was going to get it, and I finally got ready to download the pattern, only to […]

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 […]

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 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 […]

Sewing Plans update – Half Year recap

At the beginning of the year, I posted some bold sewing plans and a fuzzy #makenine pledge. I’ve made a lot of my proposed makes from earlier in the year but as I expected lots of things have caused the original plans to pivot. Travel of course is a major factor in any of my […]

Supercool – white linen trousers

Following along in trouser mode, here’s a quickie. I’ve wanted to make a pair of white linen trousers for the longest time. I once had a pair which I think came from Marks and Spencer’s many years ago. I wore them until they fell foul of my chubby thighs and I eventually mislaid them somewhere. […]

Sorbet season, take two – McCalls 8090

Once again I was hovering on the edge of a trend, the Tiered Dress trend to be specific. It takes a while for me to get my head around whether I like a trend enough to get on the bandwagon. I dabbled a bit last year with my Blouse to dress hack to see if […]