Do you plan your sewing? I try not to, too much. I generally have a loose, constantly changing ‘want to sew’ list in my head but I find that any time I make a longer or more concrete list I immediately want to sew anything but the things on my list. So just going with my immediate impulses generally works for me. However, at the moment my craft room looks like this: That fan set up is indicative of part of the problem. We’ve been having heatwave after heatwave of 40C+, which is just RIDICULOUS.  My craft room gets full afternoon sun (thanks neighbours for killing off that shady tree in o ..read more

Last weekend I headed over to Sydney for the first 2018 Cashmerette retreat. I’ll be honest with you, I was a little apprehensive about this at the start because I just wasn’t sure that it would be good enough to justify the cost. The two day course isn’t exactly cheap but I also wouldn’t call it expensive for what it is. But add in flights to Sydney and accommodation there and it was a real luxury purchase for me, so the stakes were high. I also wasn’t sure how much I would get out of it, given that I feel reasonably confident in my sewing and fitting skills. I justified it because I can’t ma ..read more

Hi folks! It’s been a while, huh? I have to say, 2017 kind of kicked my butt. Not anything major, but lots of small and medium sized things all got together to make sure I was just exhausted at the end of last year. As a result of that I took a break from the internet. And I have to say, it was honestly pretty great. I’m still on a slow down. I haven’t reinstalled instagram and I don’t think I will any time soon. But here I am blogging at least. This is an old make, now! I took the photos in November, edited them in December and now I’m blogging them at the end of January. That’s how it goes ..read more

Hello friends! Things have been pretty quiet here lately – not much sewing happened for a bit there. It’s warmer now and I suddenly want to make all the time, but taking and editing photos still remains the challenge. Hopefully I’ll have some more things up before I totally forget what I did when I made them. Anyway, for now I have another Simplicity 8250 for you!   I really liked my last version of this, but wasn’t managing to get much wear out of it because the weather was too cold, so I dipped into the stash and came up with this teal wool. I’m not sure where this came from – I thin ..read more

Hello folks! I have a skirt to show you today. It’s Simplicity 8250, which is a reprint of Simplicity 3775A.     I picked this up in my last ‘3 for $15’ haul at Spotlight. I just grabbed a bunch of vintage reprints because I always regret them if I don’t pick them up and then they go out of print. Initially this wasn’t on my shortlist to make immediately. I was a bit put off by how it looks on the model. It looks to me as if the skirt is sitting too low and the bolero too high, or perhaps it’s too small? Whatever it is, the proportions look a bit odd to me – or too modern per ..read more

A couple of months ago I was asked if I would like to sew something for the Sewcialists re-launch, with the theme of ‘tribute month’. I’m a bit wary of sewing on a deadline because it often leads to me rushing something and being disappointed in myself, but the timelines were generous and most of my makes are already directly inspired by other sewists’ makes so it fit in with how I sew already. After thinking about it for about two seconds I realised I was already planning to make a top directly inspired by Heather B! When I first saw her bee blouse, I actually gasped out loud. I WANTED ..read more

Hello my lovelies! I really need to come up with some better ways to start posts. Oh well, maybe this can be my signature thing or whatever. Here is my Ngaio blouse! I really liked this when I saw it on Leimomi’s blog – both back in the day when she made it for herself and then again when she released it as a pattern. I loved that it had bust cup sizes. I don’t care for the way the yellow top looks on the model – I mean, I think it looks fine but it’s not a look I want for myself. But the other one with a larger cup size is my JAM. I think for me I want the seamline to sit under my bust, when ..read more

As you might have noticed I’ve been in a bit of a sewing drought. There aren’t too many things I need in my wardrobe right now and for some reason the things I do need aren’t really getting me excited to sew them. Upside is the finished knitted items. Downside is no sewing output (I don’t need many things but the things I do need I really need!) and also feeling a bit weird and twitchy because if I don’t make something regularly I go a bit strange. Er. Stranger. Strangerer. See?? I broke my drought with some knits. First up was a pile of new Steeplechase bikeshorts. I wear a pair at least eve ..read more

Hoo boy this one is another one that was a long time coming! This knit started with the yarn. I wanted an affordable, thinner than 8 ply yarn, in nice colours. I can’t tell you much more about what started me wanting that because I bought this yarn almost three years ago! It’s Charlemont from valley yarns. I bought two hanks of Burgundy and three of Evergreen. The yarn is merino/silk/poly. The silk gives it a luscious sheen, and the colour is totally gorgeous (very hard to get an accurate photo of though it’s much less orange than it looks in these photos). But there’s enough poly in it to m ..read more

You guys, I finished a knit! This is Chuck by Andi Satterlund. I’ve seen Andi’s knits a lot on the blogosphere, and admired them, but I’d never bit the bullet on starting one because they are mostly in 10ply which is kind of hard to get here in Aus and also, I don’t honestly have that much call for 10ply jumpers. Until recently, that is! When we moved offices and the new office is basically refridgerated year round. In winter I end up wearing my outdoors jacket to sit at my desk sometimes, so I figured a 10ply jumper might be useful after all. The yarn is from my stash. I had some leftover C ..read more