With The Sewing Bee back on our screens, many people may feel inspired to start sewing. I’ve put down a few bits of useful advice for beginners or those who’ve had a long break from sewing and might feel they need a bit of a refresher… Choosing a pattern Many of the patterns out there are classified as ‘easy’ or ‘very easy’, but to make sure they are truly suitable for complete beginners, I have a few extra words of advice. Look to see how many pieces there are to the garment: a T-shirt pattern with 3 or 4 patten pieces will be much quicker to make than a ‘very easy’ dress that has several pieces or a lining. I once had three friends come to learn to sew together, two of them had very simple shift dresses with bias faced edges, and their friend had chosen a pattern also described as... read more
Two winters ago I cut out a coat in some beautiful grey wool that I bought in Ditto, but time was not on my side and Spring had sprung (twice) before I’d finished sewing. The coat pieces were relegated to a carrier bag and banished to the piles of denial beneath the cutting table. Although I don’t make New Year’s resolutions I did promise myself that this year I’d try to finish some of my started projects and not leave anything hanging around in bags gathering dust. So it’s been my mission this week to get this coat finished. I’m hoping to wear it tomorrow on our class trip to London, there’s nothing like a deadline! And here’s the finished article, I really rather like it, what do you think? The pattern I used was Burda 7131, option B. As ever, I didn’t quite stick to the pattern (I added a... read more
I love wearing vintage clothes but it’s not always practical for daily life. They are often too delicate or fragile, and can often be difficult to launder so don’t stand up to the requirements of everyday wear and tear. The other problem for many of us with wearing vintage is that gals were shorter and thinner back then. In addition to their smaller frames ladies would usually wear foundation garments to give them a defined waist and curvier silhouette. Even as a UK 10 I struggle to find dresses from the early 20th century that fit properly, without resorting to this kind of thing… If you simply can’t find vintage clothes to fit then why not cheat and make your own? There are some fantastic patterns available, here is one of my favourites from Simplicity… I made it in a wool/viscose mix from Ditto and used some scraps of red... read more
Last week I popped into Ditto to have a look at the new season fabrics, and totally fell for this beautiful vintage looking viscose crepe. Not sure what I’d make I bought 2.5m (my standard impulse-buy length), this way I knew there’d be enough for anything from a maxi dress or lining for a long coat. Spurred on by the beautiful weather, I made my gorgeous fabric into a retro smock-dress over the weekend. It’s perfect for this time of year as it can be worn with leggings, boots and an oversized cardi, or ballet pumps and bare legs. The pattern I used was Burda 6967. Never content with keeping life simple and using a pattern just as it is I decided to alter the neckline, losing the oversized collar and adding contrast piping to define the yoke and new neckline. I always doodle my ideas out first to see... read more
