The last of the travel blog posts… and they’re a travel classic – pull on elastic waist trousers in a neutral colour. On the way to the airport. Worn with an In The Folds ruffle sleeve top I know, not the most exciting make, but, they were particularly useful whilst traveling. Worn here with that other travel wardrobe hero – the purple shirt dress as a duster These are the Onyz Ponte Pants – the January 2024 Closet Core Crew pattern. I made version B I used a light neutral “putty” coloured 4 way stretch rayon blend ponte from EOS. This is a great fabric. I bought several other colours at some ..read more

Irrational spur of the moment sewing. That’s what this was! I had just a few sewing hours left before the Italy trip and I really did not need to make another garment for it. But I did. Like a sewing mad person who acts as if life is all about sewing with a small amount of other activities like sleeping and eating thrown in as distractions. That label was perfect for this project! Such a happy top! How did this happen? Well. My dear friend M and I had one of our glorious sewing weekends and she made a wonderful tie neck artist smock type blouse from a sewing pattern company I’d never heard of ..read more

This dress was such a hardworking holiday wardrobe item. Hard at work in “our” Venetian palazzo It went everywhere and worked in so many different weathers and situations. It worked with tights and a linen jacket in Venice. It worked without the jacket on Murano It worked with bare legs and a slouchy light jacket in Rome And out to dinner in Rome (and I am not in the bottle shop above despite how it looks! This was a restaurant with an amazing wine list displayed on shelves) It worked on travel days too. Leaving Venice in crumpled linen style! Bundled up under a coat and scarf for train t ..read more

Yes. Still blogging about holiday sewing! These two pieces were made from favourite patterns: Closet Core’s Kalle and Sienna. Let’s start with the Kalle shirt. Breakfast decisions made easier by wearing an orange Kalle shirt This is a size 18 with long sleeves from the expansion pack and the body lengthened by 8 cm from the View A cropped length. Gelato and sunshine – what more could you want? This bright orange pheasant print fabric from EOS is so much fun. It’s an Italian stretch cotton shirting apparently also used by an outdoor outfitter in the USA. I might be biased but I think my shirt i ..read more

The Aims blouse is the second Seamwork pattern I’ve made and I like it a lot. Images from Seamwork This top came on holiday to Italy but, unlike the first Seamwork pattern I made, it was a part of a deliberate ‘sewing for vacation’ plan. I also learnt about Seamwork sizing from my first pattern and made this one as a size 14. Some of the me made holiday sewing Why am I so happy with it? Well, there are at least three reasons… The colours are great Colour matching the sea, the paving, the light, the pasta and the beverage at Manarola, Cinque Terre 2. The top can be worn in different weather ..read more

If you’ve followed my blog for a while you’ll know I’ve been a huge fan of Burda magazines. Not so much any more. Change in editors, reissuing patterns from earlier issues, and less diversity in styles and size ranges have almost convinced me to give up my subscription. So I’m trying a few other sources. Seamwork being one of them. My first foray into Seamwork’s large online pattern library was at the end of last year. I chose the Sonya dress. This design really appeals to me – the shape, opportunity for colour blocking or having fun with stripes. And those huge pockets! Sizing is always a bi ..read more

I love this pattern. I made it four times in quick succession when I first purchased it. And now this summer I’ve made it three more times over about 6 weeks. It’s an excellent simple shape for stretch fabrics. Using a woven fabric to face the neck and grown on cap sleeves/extended shoulders is practical and also an opportunity to introduce some whimsy. My versions are halfway in length between view A and B and this summer I made them in a size 18. The orange and hot pink one This is classic Lodo. The fabric does all the work. It’s a viscose nylon spandex woven stretch fabric from Spotlight ..read more

Repeating patterns is not boring when the fabric is fun. And almost irresistible when your daughter loves the pattern so much. So that’s my reason for making this pattern 5 times….. The last two iterations of B6677 for Felicity are both full length, one with the flounces on the bodice and the other hacked to have short sleeves. Both are size 14 with an FBA. And in the theme of keeping up to date with blogging my sewing projects, one of them has been waiting two years to appear on the blog…. Felicity really loves this pattern. The older one is made from a crepe viscose from The Fabric Store. I ..read more

This is my second cloud dress. Absolutely love the first one. Quite like this one too! This one is made with a soft furnishing cotton. I love the sweet horizontal rows of hearts. The first sign of trouble was when I pulled a weft thread to square up the cut ends. The rows of hearts weren’t on grain. First thought was its inexpensive fabric, of course it’s printed off grain. But then I wasn’t sure. The horizontal rows of the print did seem to be at right angles to the selvedge and warp. Was my problem that the weft wasn’t at right angles to the warp? Is that even possible? See how bad it is ..read more

Nothing wrong with posting Christmas themed sewing in January, is there? – I meant it when I said I’m committed to document my projects better! This post is about Christmas garments I made in Christmas 2022. They did get worn again just a few weeks ago, for Christmas 2023, so at least one of the photos is not ancient… Felicity’s dress in the photo above is from Christmas 2021 (!) and has already been blogged (phew!). Rory is modelling one of Christmas 2022’s efforts - shirts from Newlook 6197. All fabrics are cotton prints from Spotlight – my local bricks and mortar fabric store. Rory’s fabr ..read more