I don't always blog everything I make, but I do usually share most things on Instagram
With February almost here...how did that happen? I thought I'd just do a quick and dirty blog post of my January makes, the good, the bad and the downright disastrous!
Firstly the Doris Sweater above. I love this version so much. The fabric is a super soft loosley woven wool blend, and it is so cosy. I feel the cold even in this mild winter we are having, so any excuse to cosy up is most welcome.
It's been a bit of a Doris'y month actually because I also ran up this quick Doris Dress from some vintage fabric I found in a charity shop while visiting my Mum who lives in Somerset.



And this Doris Dress sample for Ministry of Craft.



I also ran myself up a lovely wool blend A line skirt. Fully lined in some pretty ditsy print cotton.


And finally this disastrous dress.


I have rather sadly gained too much weight for my bodice block, and have had to re work it, this is the first dress I have attempted with my new bodice block, and it just doesn't work. My own fault really, I was in a hurry and didn't toile the dress, and now I have something that needs completely reworking or chucking in the charity bag...I haven't yet decided which it will be......

I love modern technology, browsing other blogs, joining in sewing forums, watching videos on line, but nothing quite beats curling up on the sofa with a cuppa and a magazine.
I'm really thrilled to now this month have my work in two great sewing magazines!
Firstly Love Sewing Magazine has a free supplement this month called Learn To Love Sewing, especially designed for beginners. There are fab tutorials in there, many by my fellow tutors at Ministry of Craft, and including my lovely Flossie's Pinafore. I'm so happy with the photos and design of the pages, the pinafore looks lovely.


Another great magazine is Sewing Made Simple, Guess who made the pink blouse on the cover?


And inside are two tutorials by me;



I have thoroughly enjoyed working on all of these projects...and a few others yet to be released, plus hopefully more in the future.
And this might explain my lack of posts lately here on the blog, I've some catching up to do.

The children all went back to school and college today, India is still home from University, but she was out today and I made the very most of the peace, and most importantly lack of demands to be fed, (children do need feeding so often! ) and spent a very happy morning in my shed running up this Weekend Doris Dress with a twist...or two!


It is a basic Weekend Doris, made with a retro style wool blend. (I sized up to accomodate the woven fabric.) I added in seam pockets*, a wider neck band to form a 60's style "cowl" neck, and hem band. The dress and sleeves are lined.
I'm really quite pleased with it, the lining has made it a substantial winter dress, so I'm ready for the coldest most miserable winter months of January and February, even if it is so mild at the moment that the daffodils are popping up at the park!


A close up of the fabric, and the little inseam label at the hem. I'm always so ridiculously pleased with myself when I remember to add these little touches!
And below, the lining:


You can see it is caught in place at the neck, cuffs and hem.

I must apologise for the not very focused photos, a combination of dark dreary days and having to use the self timer I'm afraid.

* Don't forget my inseam pocket tutorial if you want to add in seam pockets to a Doris dress, or any other skirt or dress.

Happy New Year!

Christmas is very almost here, and I have had to face the reality that  most all of my pre Christmas sewing plans are not going to happen. There is a not so little pile of cut out garments sitting out in my shed waiting for me. I'm a little sad at the thought, but on the other hand, I can look forward to going out there after Christmas festivities are over and taking my time instead of rushing to a deadline, that let's be honest I have set myself.
Even my little christmas tree hasn't made it out to the shed this year, instead it sits on a side table next to my spot on the sofa where I work on little hand sewing projects.


Wishing all my readers a very Merry Christmas and a New Year filled with love. x

I rarely make gifts these days, I'm a very selfish seamstress, and lately with teaching most weekends at Ministry of Craft, plus working on various other freelance projects and putting together a collection for college, there is not much time to sew for myself at all.
Despite that though, I made an exception for India's boyfriend, John. He is a stylish young man with very clear ideas about the kind of clothes he likes, (I realise my description of him makes me sound about 110 years old! ) as you can see from his blog.
He showed me a tote bag he liked and lost for ideas of what to buy him for his birthday a couple of weeks ago, I thought I would make him a bag very similar to the one he showed me.


I used denim recycled from some of Woody's old jeans, making use of some of the seams already in place, added an internal pocket with visible top stitching to the outside, a little denim inseam label and a kilt strap to fasten it.
I *think* I got the aesthetic right, of course John is far too polite to tell me if I haven't, but India assures me he likes it and is using it for University.
I don't usually enjoy this kind of sewing, but actually I really did! Very refreshing to work on something I wouldn't usually.

I spotted this gorgeous orange plaid/tartan* wool fabric in Abakhan quite some time ago, I stroked it and admired it, but at £10 a metre it was a teeny bit pricey for me, so I left green with envy at the lady buying several metres of it to make herself a coat.
Fast forward and on a recent shopping trip, I spotted the very last metre left on the roll and figured £10 was actually not at all too much to pay for enough fabric to make a skirt and I snapped it up.
I'd had an urge to make an asymetric wrap skirt for a while after spotting one in TKMaxx and several in Marks and Spencers.
I used my skirt block to draft the pattern. The back is one piece with waist darts and the front under wrap is one piece, while the overwrap is yoked. The skirt fastens at the right waist with a hidden button and at the front with an exposed open ended zip.
I cut the front wrap with the straight grain going vertically from the waist, but in retrospect that was a mistake, as the edge of the front wrap doesn't hang as nicely as I'd hoped.
Still a great skirt though, and has a kind of "post punk" vibe with the exposed zip. I wore it with my pleather biker jacket and my vegan dm's which I think works.
The offcuts of fabric made a cute beret too, but I'm not sure I can really get away with being so matchy matchy, so haven't braved wearing the two together yet, despite encouragement from India.




No doubt I will come back to this idea again soon. Despite it's flaws, this is one of my favourite skirts of this winter so far.

* So, is it plaid or tartan? I'm never completely sure, what do you think?

Tuesday was the day of my yearly mammogram so Woody had the day off to take me to the hospital. This year's appointment was in the morning, so we went for lunch in Stockport's Old Town afterwards, and did a little bit of vintage shopping at the same time.
Stockport is well known for it's Vintage Village  and over the past few years a few vintage shops have also sprung up around the market place.
I found this piece of vintage fabric in one of the shops for £5, probably a bit more than I'd usually pay in a charity shop, but still reasonable, and so bright and cheery I couldn't really resist!
It is a home dec fabric, the kind I think we had bathroom curtains made from when I was young. Of course it's intended purpose never bothers me, I knew I wanted a simple A line skirt in it. The Delphine skirt by Tilly Walnes is a fab A line pattern, a nice high waist and the kind of exagerated A line I love. I do think that this is my current favourite A line pattern, taken over from my own draft!
I'm calling it my Crystal Tips skirt because the bright colours remind me of a childhood cartoon Crystal Tips and Alistair.

Very much feeling the need to clean up around my blog and my Etsy store, so having a little sale. All my PDF patterns have been reduced to £5.00 plus VAT where applicable, and the remaining tweedy brooches also reduced...they make a nice little Christmas gift.

So, if you've been meaning to buy either Weekend Doris or Maude  as an instant download then now would be a very good time to do it. I'm thinking about no longer selling PDF's, sticking to printed patterns only, would love to know what you think about that, let me know in the comments. What do you prefer? The instant gratification of a PDF pattern or a printed pattern popping through your letterbox?

Last week I was a parent helper on Sid's year 6 school trip to the air raid shelters in Stockport. I have been wanting to help out on this school trip for several years, but always had a small child or two at home to take care of. This year I didn't and jumped with joy at the opportunity to help out. I do love local history, but mostly I just really wanted to dress up!

I had a Butterick 1777 in my pattern stash, and on my trip to Immanuels a few weeks ago I had bought the perfect fabric. The pattern was too small for me, so needed a fair bit of alteration, but otherwise went together easily. I'm not at all convinced it suits me, I'm not really an ideal 1940's shape sadly. I love the 1940's silhouette, but it doesn't love me!


I had rather a dilemma over my hair, my current pixie cut isn't very 1940's at all, I thought I might make a hat, but couldn't quite see how I would get a 40's style to stay on my head, and made this fascinator instead.


I very nearly didn't wear it, it's not particularly authentic, but I did make it from scraps so it fits in the "make do and mend" category at least.


I finished the outfit off with natural tights forgoing natural seamed stockings or gravy browning legs because I didn't want to be worrying about suspender belts and I didn't want to be cold. My plaid jacket from Pepperberry went well, as did my Clarks brogues and my knitting basket.
All together I think I managed a 1940's ish look....except for when I foolishly walked forwards while looking backwards and ended up tripping in my heels on some uneven pavement, crashing to the floor crushing my basket.....although I didn't ladder my tights!

PS, I promise Sid isn't as unhappy as he looks in the first photo. He just doesn't quite understand photos. He had a lovely day!

I had this notion that now I'm childfree during school hours I would have so much time to complete all the projects I seem to constantly have on the go, but somehow that hasn't happened! I've been working every weekend at Ministry of Craft , the only weekend I haven't worked I was hosting the La Leche League Great Britian National Workshop along with my co leaders from LLL Manchester. Add to that general Mumming and it's all been a bit hectic!
So no, Nora, Nell and Nancy my newest pattern is not yet available to buy, but soon, soon, I promise. I'm currently looking into alternative printing options for my paper patterns, but I'll update here as soon as they are ready.
Of course, no time to sew for myself means I have to plan and planning means shopping...I think? My sewing friend and neighbour offered to let me tag along next time she went up to Burnley to Immanuels, and all I can say is WOW!!!
I may have won the competition to see who spent the most out of those of us who went. I only spent £38, but I got a huge amount of scrummy fabrics for that price. Including this odd, yet somehow divine quited yumminess!


It's that horrible polyester/nylon knit with poly fibre quilting sandwiched in between...the kind 1970's dressing gowns were made of! I was drawn to it in the store, kept stroking it and picking it up, then putting it down, then picking it up again. I couldn't decide if I loved it or hated it, but knew I was drawn to it and for £3 a metre I couldn't leave it behind!
I had an urge to make a skirt with it, or possibly even a dress, although I decided the last think my bosom needed was more padding and settled on a skirt.
My friend told me that Gertie had made a quilted skirt recently, so I looked that up and so she had! I wasn't crazy then!
The Delphine skirt seemed the ideal pattern, mostly I admit because I found my tracing of it when I was tidying up and thought the exagerated A line would be perfect to get the most from the "sticky out ness" of the fabric.
The skirt went together easily, but was initially too long.I had thought I'd wanted a longer skirt, but after wearing it on this morning's school run decided that actually it felt wrong in the longer length, so as soon as I got home I rushed out to the shed and chopped off a few inches, and now I LOVE it!

Longer....


Shorter...

I have enough fabric left for a Doris Sweater, and I'm considering it!

Wow, this weekend was a busy one! Saturday I was teaching the new "Clone Your Closet" class at Ministry of Craft ,
A busy fun day was had by all, and everyone went home with a clone of one special garment, we had trousers, dresses, vintage coats..



Cloning a much loved item in your wardrobe is so satisfying. The lovely lady in the photos above copied beautifully a fit and flare dress...and btw how fabulous is her Weekend Doris dress?

Not content with one busy weekend class on Sunday I taught another, this time Bodice fitting. I think everyone attending learned something new about fitting, whether it was as simple as shortening or lengthening the bodice or a full bust or small bust adjustment.


Fancy a go at either of these classes or any of the other classes available at Ministry of Craft, then click here . There are classes running all year round suitable for every level and to suit your personal crafty tastes.
I'll certainly look forward to seeing you there.

My recent trip to Anglesey meant a trip of course to Abakhan in Mostyn, North Wales, much to my children's dismay...although Eden likes to shop with me and the others can be placated with treats from the cafe.
I bought a few lovely pieces there including this chocolate brown linen blend, which I knew had to be a Nell dress.
I'm still slowly working on the grading and sampling of all the sizes of my Nora, Nell and Nancy designs. I wish I were quicker, but I do all of my drafting and grading by hand with pencil, ruler, tape and scissors. Technical I am not, although one of these days I'm going to invest in a course to teach me how to draft and grade on the computer.

This linen Nell went together very nicely, and although style wise it's a bit of a departure for me, I love how comfy and easy to wear it is. I'm on the lookout for a long line cardy to layer over it in the winter, and it looks fabulous with my new vegan Doctor Martens, as well as with my usual flat geek shoes.

















The only flash of colour I couldn't resist adding is a piece of ornate ribbon at the back neck.

Starting this post with a silly but happy photo of me. After my last post full of doom and gloom I decided this place needs a bit of silliness and some smiles. Summer is tough around here, and it's hard not to let that affect everything. Thank you so much for all the lovely comments and messages of support after my last post, I appreciate every one, you are all wonderful!
This photo was taken last week in my mother in law's garden in Anglesey North Wales. We stayed there for five days, and it really was a lovely break from routine. Eden and I had a lot of fun taking photos in the garden of one of my new designs.
Yes, despite my low mood I've still been working over the summer, planning classes (see my learn to sew page for more details on those.) and designing three new dresses.
Nora, Nell and Nancy are not only the names of two of my friend's children that I have always loved, but the names of the three new dress patterns I plan to launch this month.....yeah I know I should probably keep quiet for now, have a big launch when they are ready, but come on, you should know me well enough by now to realise that's not really my style.

Let me introduce you;

Nora is an easy fitting tunic style dress with tucks at the centre front neckline , cap sleeves and optional in seam pockets.



Nell has a shaped front yoke with tucks at the side waist, long sleeves with tuck details at the cuff and shoulder, plus the option of inseam or patch pockets.




Nancy is gathered at the front neck, with short slightly gathered sleeves, and she makes either a great little blouse or easy to wear dress with the addition of waist ties.




All three designs work best with light to medium weight fabrics, for these samples I've used linen, viscose and a very washed and super soft cotton curtain. ( Nell )
I'll be working on grading these pattetns over the next couple of weeks, and all being well they will be ready by the end of the month...the children go back to school tomorrow.....