So I made these so long ago I’m struggling to remember details… September last year to be exact in our Lockdown Holiday 1.0 where we spent our holiday budget and annual leave on renovating our garden. Our child was thrilled. He cavorted barefoot in enormous piles of dirt for 2 weeks, his happiness progressing to the levels of ecstasy only a 2.5 year old can reach when my husband hired a little stand-on digger to move said dirt. I digress. My point being I had approximately 3-4 potential sewing hours a day for a full 2 weeks and I gotta say I liked it. It gave me the headspace to get stuck into ..read more

Hello Dear Readers, how ARE you? How is early 2021 treating you? Hopefully better than the shitshow that was 2020 but I suspect for many of you it is just more of the same. I have some new bits and pieces to share starting with this combination I made back in August last year. It's not the most exciting but I felt it worth sharing as the focus of my sewing over the last few months, and into the future is really trying to improve the fit of the clothes I make.  I feel with these pants I have cracked (oh I do laugh) part of the code of my personal pants fitting puzzle and that piece of cod ..read more

Hello dear readers. What is in your daily wardrobe rotation at the moment? Anything fancy? Back in July was my husbands birthday and our wedding anniversary. We had just come out of our first lockdown in May and we had planned a fancy dinner out with dear friends, and our first night away together without the boy since before he was born. A lovely new winter frock was clearly in order. Hoarded for some time in my stash (also since before the boy was born) was a couple of metres of the delightful Atelier Brunette Moonstone viscose, and when Style Arc released the Asha Dress I knew it would ..read more

Hello lovely sewing friends. I'm currently on a staycation, spending 2 lovely and very low-key weeks at home with my big and little loves. Normally we'd have taken a family holiday to warmer climates, and I would have sewn myself a resort collection, however Melbourne is of course still in Stage 4 Lockdown, meaning we cannot travel more than 5km from our home unless for essential services. We are ok with this. Both my husband and I have essential service occupations and we have been extraordinarily busy the last 6 months. We are very fortunate to still be able to work but goodness me we are ti ..read more

In our house animal print is known as Pard, and animal print pants Pardy Pants. It's possible (actually definitely true) that my boy and I have matching Pardy Pants, but sadly he's just about outgrown his. I'm toying with the idea of chopping them off and making them Pardy Shorts for summer.... But I digress. Late last year, when more than one person could be in a room, I saw a very stylish young lady (I'm guessing she was 9 or 10) accompanying her mum to a group pilates class I was attending. She had some very cute animal print dungarees/overalls on and a grey slouchy jumper and I instantly w ..read more

I set myself the goal at the start of May to make myself some proper jeans, you know, with a fly and everything (I did make some unblogged Style Arc Misty Jeans whilst early pregnant, and I shall be revisiting that pattern, however with a pull on elastic waistband I feel that they don't really count in my jeans making tally). Since having the babe I have gone through several pairs of RTW jeans, mostly purchased secondhand, and all have the exact same fitting issue - too loose in the waist, but fit in the hips/bum. I know I could try to alter some RTW jeans, or pay to get that done, and f ..read more

I'll admit that when the Tessuti Evie was first released I was't very impressed. Meh I thought, a pattern for little sylph-like millenials. Then I started to see some gorgeous versions, on ladies with many and varied body types, and I started to wonder what it would look like on me. I decided, as a Gift To Self, that I would shout myself the pattern at the end of my diet (I did the 12 week CSIRO Total Well Being Diet and highly recommend it). This coincided with the Sew Melbourne Garden Party in March, and thus the plan was hatched. It seemed all the cool ladies had animal print bias cut ..read more

Hello Friends. I’m not going to dwell on the very strange times we find ourselves in thanks to Covid-19. To say it’s a shitty time is, of course, an understatement of global proportions. For many it’s all consuming at the moment. Fortunately for my family and I it is not. I’ve had the time, headspace and resources to keep sewing. My stash is deep, my body is cold and my queue is long. I'm delighted to have a hobby that is so homebased, mindful and rewarding.  It’s coming into Autumn now, and I need warm layers (and jeans!). I decided to pair up the Papercut Patterns Pinnacle Top/Swea ..read more

Hello friends, I thought it time to dust off the old bloggo for another year. I’ve been sewing, regularly and mostly successfully, but not too many new patterns, mostly repeats of old favourites. But last November was Melbourne Frocktails, and I wanted to make something a bit swish that wasn’t a knit. I was drawn to Papercut Patterns Sierra jumpsuit after seeing Heather Lou’s gorgeous linen version. I feel Heather and I have a similar body shape, and hers looked so fab on her it was worth the time and investment. I decided that in a solid black I’d be able to get some decent wear from it ..read more

Are you on the Sew Liberated mailing list? She’s got some wise thoughts, has Meg. Recently she send out some such thoughts on pants, body image and weight fluctuation and one of her pearls of wisdom was that one should have a great, comfortable, well fitting pair of pants in your current size, one size up, and one size down. I’ve spent the last 12 months waiting for the rest of my baby weight to shift, and it’s been slow going. A combination of broken sleep, illness, general mama exhaustion and a reluctance to significantly cut calories in case it affects my (dwindling) milk supply has been my ..read more