I feel a bit of a fraud posting these two makes. They aren’t really anything new, and they are just a slight hack of the same jersey dress pattern I’ve been using for the last couple of years. Basically, I’ve used the body pieces of my self-drafted pattern (which I’ve always just called Repro, since ..read more

After finishing two projects in quick succession, I was trying to plan a couple more makes, ready for a Sewing Social this weekend. I had nothing suitable in the pipeline. So I was pulling out a bunch of stash fabrics for inspiration. A dark grey chambray (such a pleasing sound!) was calling to me. Then ..read more

I totally could have called this post something corny like “It’s A Wrap”. But I resisted. I just wanted you to know that. I’ve been wanting to try making a wrap dress for a couple of years, and when I was deciding what to wear to my niece’s wedding party (dress code: Spring Garden Party ..read more

It’s been a while since I’ve done any garment sewing. There’s nothing wrong with that – I’ve been doing some mending and other creative bits and bobs. But, just in time for a three day British Summer, I’ve gone and made a swimsuit. A few months ago I saw that The Good Stitch in Goring-by-Sea were running a swimsuit workshop, which is something I really wanted to do. Unfortunately it was on a day that I couldn’t do, but the very lovely Vicki, who runs TGS was arranging a second workshop to meet demand, and she checked in that I’d be able to do the second one, which was really considerate and ex ..read more

It’s time for looking back over everything I wore in May, and what I learned from it. My pledge was to wear clothes that made me happy. I jolly well nailed it! It’s been a lovely month of not wearing anything Meh! WordPress won’t let me embed my Instagram reel of my May outfits, so you’ll have to just click this link: https://www.instagram.com/p/C7rYBzBqsJy/ I decided to be scientific in my data analysis. I did a spreadsheet. Every day I noted what I wore, what my Joy Factor for it was (marks out of 5), what the colours were, why the outfit made me happy, and if there was anything I needed to ..read more

I got swept up into another monthly instagram challenge, #SewAprilBlouse24.  It’s run by Gabrielle of Cloth Edit and Ruan of The Yorkshire Sewgirl every year. It’s not a complicated challenge.  Basically: You make a Blouse, in April, and post it on Instagram, tagging in Gabrielle and Ruan. Blouse #1  My immediate plan was to resurrect a project I’d abandoned about three years ago. Back when I was a blogger for Simple Sew patterns, I opted to work on their Lottie Blouse pattern.  I’d link to it, but they don’t sell it any more I did a load of grading to make their basic, on ..read more

This was supposed to be a dress. Remember that Fabric Swap I went to a while ago, and came back with four fab fabrics? (Nope, I didn’t think you would, it was a long time ago!) One of them was a lovely navy sweater knit. The label on it said it was 140cm wide and 180cm long. I thought that I could just about squeeze a knit dress from it. However, as I found out when I started to look at how to cut it, it turned out to be only 120cm wide, which made it much too narrow to cut the front and back side by side, so it was definitely not big enough to make a dress. So I revised my plans, and went for ..read more

I made the Minty Ponte Top a while ago, at a sewing workshop. Workshops are great, I love them, but they are usually quite tightly timed. That meant I just followed the instructions, and didn’t have the time to really think through the optimal cutting layout to maximise the use of my fabric. So I was left with essentially the side bits that are left over from cutting on a centred fold. Buoyed by my experience with the eye-watering scrappy stripy skirt, I was determined to patch some of those bits together and make something useful out of them. My first thought was to make a matchy matchy skirt ..read more

Mend March is out of the way, so I’m on to the next Challenge month! I’ve been doing Me Made May, hosted by the wonderful Zoe of So Zo What do you know? and Check Your Thread, for 10 years (with varying degrees of success), and this will be my eleventh year. Eeep! It gets harder each year to find a new way to make the challenge meaningful. But I think I’ve got it sussed for May 2024. My wearing habits are very lazy. I wear dresses because that’s just a single decision to make in the morning. Separates require deciding on one garment, then deciding on a second garment to go with it. Too much ..read more

I went into Mend March knowing I was unlikely to meet all the daily prompts. I’ve tried enough of these monthly challenges to know I’m not very good at them! But I did a lot of mending and fixing up, and I posted 20 times, and as the late great Meatloaf once said, Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad. I mended more than I posted. I fixed a few holey tights. I’ve renovated several pairs of knickers and two bras, bringing them back to comfortable wearability. But it wasn’t all undies – I fixed a hole in a dress (that was right on my bum). Holey dress fix, Batman! Sorry – as soon as the word Holey was the ..read more