A while ago one of my students Annie, sent me this picture. It is a Balmain biker jacket which she liked. Annie wanted to make a jacket like it on my Make Your Own courses and was asking if I thought it was possible. I immediately fell in love with the jacket and wanted one as well. So, we decided to make our version of the jacket. We both had a basic pattern for a biker jacket which needed adapting. Having added all the bits we wanted to the pattern, we made toilles, fitted them. Then it was time to decide on fabrics and cut out. Annie bought the Linton Tweed for her jacket from my shop; it w ..read more

This blog is for anyone who has been on my Perfect Shirt course. I found out recently that they no longer make the fusible shirt canvas that I have been using on the course for over twenty years. I can’t find another fusible canvas that works sucessfully with a domestic iron , so I’ve bought in some non fusible collar canvas, and some heavy cotton fusible to work hand in hand with it. So you can still make beautiful shirt collars and cuffs I though I’d give you the details of how I’m using the new interfacings. I’m cutting the canvas for the main collar on the cross as before, minus the seam a ..read more

Today is the start of my six-day tailoring course. All the preparation is done. The fitting, pattern alterations, cutting out of the main fabric, lining and trimmings, all done. The little parcels of pieces are all ready for the start of the course. I’m getting very excited to start my jacket. I like making a jacket on this course , so I demonstrate the techniques to the students as we go along. I’ll keep you updated during the course as to how we are getting along. The post Tailoring appeared first on English Couture Company ..read more

One of my pet hates are instructions for making up garments which make things look too complicated. Nothing puts people off doing something than looking at really difficult instructions. I very rarely look at pattern instructions but have come across students who have started a project but have given up half- way through due to the instructions. Here is the way I look at making up garments.   Join a minimum number of seams before doing more complicated techniques. It is much easier to, for instance,  put  a jacket pocket into the front of a jacket before you join on any more pan ..read more

When I was around 4 or 5 years old my mum taught me to read. Ever since then I have been fascinated by books. My ambition was to at some point write my own. I’ve started several books but never got much further than a few thousand words. Imagine my excitement, in September 2019,  when out of the blue I was contacted by a company called  Crowood press by email asking if I would be interested in writing a book on tailoring. After a split second I wrote back saying yes. They had seen my website and decided to contact me to see if I was interested. I wrote a synopsis of the book I wanted ..read more

I have just realised that between this blog and my newsletter I have left a few loose ends. Photos I promised to post after projects were finished. So, here is the catch up so you can see what I’ve been doing. Just after Christmas I started to make a shirt using the beautiful grey stretch satin. I did post a photo of the collar as it was being constructed. I was very pleased with the collar, as this sort of fabric is not easy to construct a collar usually. I used the new stretch interfacing on it, and it turned out well. Here is a photo of the finished shirt. I haven’t worn it yet I’m waiting ..read more

I decided a couple of weeks ago that I needed to make some new lingerie. I opened my lingerie drawer and almost everything seemed to be the same grey/beige colour. That’s one of the problems with making your own lingerie, it doesn’t wear out in the same way as the shop bought stuff. The fabric is still good, but the colour has faded. Great idea, new lingerie always makes me feel good. It doesn’t matter what you are wearing on the outside if you know you have beautiful lingerie on it really makes you feel special. I have been collecting pieces of lingerie fabric of all shapes sizes and colours ..read more

Just before the lockdown in November I had a delivery of fabric pieces in the shop. These pieces are usually snapped up by my students in the shop. I don’t normally put them on to the website as it takes so much time to do it, but, as I’m not teaching at the moment, I decided to put some of them on to the site. The picture shows just one of them. These fabrics are beautiful mainly pure wool fabrics. The length of each piece is on the site and I haven’t any more or less of this fabric. You will have to buy the piece if you want the fabric. Most of the pieces are around 2mtrs in length, so, ther ..read more

Happy New Year to everyone out there. I know we are in lockdown again but look on the brightside, more time to sew, more time to plan the garden and we don’t have to go out in the cold weather, it looks like we are in for some very cold weather, in some parts of Leicestershire this morning it was snowing quite heavily. (Not here in Syston of course!) I have, yet again made the same New Year resolution as I have for the last 20 odd years. Use up my fabric stash and not buy any more fabric!!! What a stupid resolution to make, I’m obviously not going to keep it. Although last year I did use up ab ..read more

A few weeks ago I was sent these lovely pictures by a couple of my students who came on the course to make a jacket as origianally made by Mlle Chanel. On this course we follow the traditional way to make one of these jackets which envoles quilting the lining to the outside fabric. Both of the ladies used a Linton tweed for their jackets. The one above was nick named Tutti-Frutti by the lady making it. The other jacket is made in a more sober, but classy black and white fabric, this fabric could be worn with just about anything. The trims for these jackets were made using scraps left over, o ..read more