I had a piece of colourful denim fabric in my stash and wanted to do something different, make it stand out from the crowd! Time to think ‘outside the box’ Being inspired by the current trend of ‘asymnetrical’ I redrew a favourite skirt pattern to incorporate a band/panel across the hip at the back and down to the centre front. So, I now needed to find a piece of fabric for the bands that would compliment/contrast with the colours in the denim. If you have ever tried to find a fabric with the same colours then you will know just how difficult that can be. I started with a piece of silk ..read more

On a fabric shopping trip sometime back in the summer my husband spotted a gold/silver shimmery jersey fabric and suggested that it would make a lovely evening dress for a forthcoming festive dance, so who was I to discourage him! I purchased the remaining 3 metres left on the roll and took it home for deliberation. As Christmas approached I had a scan through my patterns, I found a suitable vogue design, but this dress needed a bit of lace adding to it. So armed with a sample piece of the gold jersey I set off to a local fabric store and found a lovely piece of border tulle lace fabric.   ..read more

My first project for 2016 is complete. I went off  to Abakhan Fabrics in North Wales and found this lovely poppy design fabric for new curtains in the dining room. I added a red and green border at the top of the curtains for a modern look. They hang from the pole with 6″ double pinch pleats. I love them. Just have to make some cushions to go with them now!   The post New Curtains for the Dining Room appeared first on Creative Stitchers ..read more

There seems to be a lot of jumper dresses in the shops this autumn so thought I would add one to my own wardrobe! I purchased a length of a really good quality grey wool rib fabric at our local fabric store just recently. I am not normally a fan of the colour grey, think it can be a bit boring on its own, but was sure I could add something to it to brighten it up.  In amongst my stash in my studio I found a short length of grey polyester georgette with a silver design printed on, which teamed with the rib fabric perfectly. I drafted my own pattern for this dress which has raglan sleeves ..read more

One of the most important part of sewing is taking time out for cake! This week we celebrated a birthday for one of the ladies on the dressmaking course. Unfortunately she was not able to attend on the day as she was feeling a little under the weather so we celebrated in her absence and wished her a happy Birthday – well we couldn’t let the cake go to waste! But the best bit was that there were no calories in it.     The post Time out for Cake appeared first on Creative Stitchers ..read more

With this Jacket I won a Stitcher of the Year competition with Love Sewing magazine, Sept 2016 I recently made this ¾ length jacket ready for the Autumn. The pattern for the coat is based on a Burda princess line coat pattern 8292, which I have had for some years, but I chopped it up to create the various panel pieces of the coat. The main tartan fabric is from Linton Tweeds, the background is black with a white and dark red threads woven through to create the tartan design. For some of the accent panels I used a dark red fabric which has little squares embroidered on. To this I added a layer ..read more

Needing a new dress for a ‘Black Tie’ dance I took myself off to the local fabric shop and purchased some blue allover sequin fabric. Because of the beauty of the fabric it didn’t need a complicated style. I used a Butterick pattern 4778 which I have had for many a long year! It’s a simple princess line with a low cut front, a square cut low back and a sexy little split at the left front side! Not having used this pattern for some years (and put on a few pounds in the meantime) I had to make a few adjustments to the pattern to make it fit. To ‘bling’ it up, and you can alwa ..read more

I recently made a gorgeous red silk dress for a friend of mine for her son’s wedding in the sout of France. The design was based on a Vogue jacket pattern by Belville Sassoon but I altered the pattern into a dress ………… like you do!! Made from a silk dupion I created lots of ruffles around the ‘boat’ neckline and because this sat at the top of the sleeve/shoulders it needed a boned bodice to prevent the dress from falling off the shoulders.  Made from a silk dupion I created lots of ruffles around a ‘boat’ neckline and because the dress sat at the top of the arms/should ..read more

I was having a little trouble with my bra just lately, the underwire was trying to make a break for freedom, so on examining what I would needed to do in order to repair it I thought ‘just how difficult can it be to clone one that I know fits me well?’ Unpicking I set to and carefully unpicked all the parts from just one side of the bra being very careful to remove the stitching only and not to cut into the fabric, this took me a good hour to do. I carefully pressed each bra piece and copied it to a paper pattern.      Using lace and a firm powernet I pl ..read more

I needed a new dress to go to the Valentines dance, and as usual ‘I simply did not have a thing to wear’ she says. I needed a dress that wasn’t overly dressy up, but looked smart and would give me room for dancing in. I used a Butterick pattern 5710 and some blue spotty fabric with plenty of drape. The dress is cut on the bias which allows the for a beautiful drape over the body, whilst the cowl neckline is added to the front of the dress by way of an additional pattern piece. It has little ‘cap’ raglan sleeves to which I added a small pair of shoulder pads. I kno ..read more