My sewing brain is on summer vacation. It doesn’t want to think hard it just wants to sew. So I’m sewing “easy” patterns which I’m enjoying tremendously. There’s more actual sewing and less puzzle solving. I’m getting garments done and, bonus, they’re wearable. Rachel Comey’s design for Vogue Patterns, V1247, is my latest success. The pattern includes […] Read more…
Lisette Top: Butterick 6182 Pattern Review
It is the middle of Me-Made-May and I seem to be achieving the exact opposite of it’s desired effect. Instead of appreciating the clothing I’ve made by wearing them more often, I’m getting tired of my self made garments because I wear the same few pieces all the time. Someone give me a box store […] Read more…
Japanese Style Smock Apron to Sew
This is where I started; with a picture I saw on Pinterest. A simple smock apron of linen. A catalog item no longer available. This is what I figured out on my own the first go around. But I really wanted an apron more like the one I had found on Pinterest. So I made […] Read more…
No More Sloppy Back Pockets
Does this drive anybody else crazy? The welts on a double welt pocket should lay flat against the garment. Welt pockets that gap open permanently in a twisted way look sloppy. Having two twisted, gaping, horizontal lines across one’s backside isn’t stylish or flattering. What really drives me crazy though is that more and more […] Read more…
How To Easily Fix Baggy Pants
There is a fine line between stylishly baggy pants and sloppy, frumpy, baggy pants. And I think the line has a lot to do with, not the pattern, but your body. The younger and fitter someone is the more they can look cute, perhaps even fashionable, in loose fitting clothing. Well, I’m no longer young […] Read more…
Easy to Make Linen Apron
This version of my back cross apron is more what I was going for. (See my first version of the apron here: “Easy to Make, Back Cross Strap Apron“). It is made of linen but still only a yard of fabric. The drape is so much nicer than the quilting cotton. The basic construction is […] Read more…
Easy to Make, Back Cross Strap Apron
The Inspiration I kept seeing different versions of this simple apron but never a pattern. I’m not sure why I want this so much. I like the old world craftsman look it has and I think it will be a good solution to keeping my phone with me while I move about the house. I […] Read more…
Sewing a Princess Seam
The princess seam is perhaps ubiquitous and therefore not as appreciated as it should be. Or maybe it’s the name that turns us off. This is a great seam for fit and fitting. It runs over the bust in the front, separating the center of the garment from the sides. It allows for a […] Read more…
An Easy Way to Sew Matching, Tight Curves on a Difficult Fabric
Drawing curves freehand, as with sewing curves with out a pattern, turn out, more than not, to be lop sided. I don’t know why the human hand cannot draw or sew a perfect curve over and over again and I do not have an answer how to do such a feat but I have a […] Read more…
How To Make a Fit Muslin
More than likely you have heard about making a muslin of a garment before making the garment. You may know why or you may be asking yourself, “What?” Basically a designer will make a muslin for every prototype to work out all the details in the design, the fit and the construction of the garment. […] Read more…