Blog

I’ve just redesigned the styles on this here website. This is its formal christening: I’m dubbing it version 2. How original!

There were a couple of reasons I wanted to redesign it - technical and aesthetic.

The technical side

I didn’t really have a lot of faith in the styling code I’d written before. I wrote the v1 styles as part of my migration to Hugo, and there was so much going on with figuring out all the tooling and building out a gallery. Although I did put love and care into the v1 styles, I was styling at the same time as figuring out how to even make Hugo templates, and re-learning CSS having not really touched it in anger since around 2005. I’d tried out BEM, which seemed like a good idea at the time, but I grew to hate how heavy-handed it was.

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I achieved my 2025 goal of reading 52 books in a year! It wasn’t easy, and I’m definitely not going to do it again, but I am so glad I did do it. I’ve read things I otherwise wouldn’t, I’ve pushed my perseverance, and I’ve developed some really good habits that I am hoping I can hang on to.

The full list of books I read is at the bottom of this post, but first, I’ll share some of my reflections now that the challenge is over.

What I learned

I found it hard not to gamify this. When under pressure I picked shorter and shorter books. Never under 100, as that was the minimum I set for my rule, but let’s be real - even 150 is a very very short book.

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I recently got invited to a charity ball with a black tie dress code. I can’t resist a stressful project, so I decided that I’d make my own formal dress, despite only having two weeks’ notice. Why do I do this to myself?

Anyway, it worked out well, although certainly not drama free. There isn’t a lot of talk about this pattern online, so I wanted to add my thoughts to the world. Here’s a lightning quick review of the Simplicity S3099 dress sewing pattern, which I made in view B (full length), in a polyester duchess satin, with a polyester crepe-back satin for the lining.

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This year, I set myself a goal of trying to read 52 books. This was partly to exercise self-discipline, partly to rebuild my attention span for non-digital things, and partly to breathe some life into a hobby that I’ve always loved and felt guilty for allowing to languish. It’s half-way through the year now (honestly, how did that happen?), so it’s a good time to share my experiences and learnings.

I’ve finished reading 23 books (full list below). That puts me at 3 books behind - I should be reading my 27th book now. But I don’t feel bad about this at all - on the contrary. When I set the goal, I half believed I’d give up in March. Getting this far and still being roughly on track is a massive, resounding success.

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My fashion-design oriented career break is officially over, as earlier this year I went back into the world of software consultancy. It’s been a huge lifestyle shift for me, but a very welcome one! I’ve missed being part of something bigger than myself, and it’s really nice to flex my technical brain muscles again.

I’ve still been making, just not sharing any of it on my site - or indeed, anywhere. In the interests of clearing away cobwebs, so here are some making-related things that have been occurring lately:

• I’ve knitted two jumpers this year, and nearly finished a third. And yet, I haven’t blocked those first two! With the warm weather we’ve been having, I’ve not really felt any urgency to push them over the final hurdle. But I am looking forward to having a nice little collection of new warm things when the cold comes back around.
• I’ve done a few more sewing pattern tests. I must get some nice photos and add them to my gallery!
• I finally finished sewing that pair of rose Thea trousers that I started last summer. There’s absolutely no reason that they took so long other than avoidance. They’re my third pair, so I know and love the pattern - I just somehow started seeing them as a chore because they’d sat there unmade for so long. But now they’re done, I’m utterly in love with them! And they’re the best pair of Theas I’ve made. I wear my other two pairs all the time, and I’m already fantasising about making another pair (and taking less time over it).
• I sewed 99% of a Kelly dress in a beautiful Liberty tana lawn and then I’ve just left it on my dress form for 5 months with only buttons to sew on. I feel like there’s a real theme of “unfinished business” starting to develop in this list here.
• I made a delightful pair of cargo shorts for my husband for his birthday. They came out so well, and he loves them. God, it’s so satisfying to make something nice. And I really, really like working with cotton twill.

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When we were in New York last month (amazing, by the way!), I visited the famous Mood Fabrics on West 37th St. It’s such a huge shop - I was so excited! I’d actually planned to spend some time wandering around the broader garment district - but I spent so long in Mood, I never went to any other fabric shops. So that’s another thing on the to-do list for a repeat trip to NYC!

Here are my tips on how to shop at Mood Fabrics, mashed together with a diary of my own experience.

Finding the store - it’s not at street level. I walked past the shop at first because I was looking for a window display. Turns out you have to go into an office-style foyer, and take the lift to the 3rd floor. You exit the lift directly into the shop.

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In September last year, I decided to sign up to the Whole 30 Fabric Challenge: a challenge that encourages you to use or give away 30 metres (or yards) of fabric that you already own, before buying any more fabric. It is a reaction against the very consumerist notion that sewing and fabric collecting are two separate hobbies - a trap that most sewists eventually fall into.

It seemed like a great idea. I don’t have a crazy amount by some people’s standards, but I do have a lot. I do have the storage space for it, and I keep good digital records of my fabrics, so I’m fully aware of what I have, but it’s still a decently sized amount of fabric that’s just sitting there. Forcing myself to use it seemed like a good thing - for sustainability, and for my wallet.

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Last week I finished my Fashion Design course! I now have a shiny new qualification - a Diploma.

I’ve been thinking about how to document this achievement here on my blog. I wanted to write a big long essay about what I learned, how I found the course, and all the personal struggles and growth that came out of it. There’s been an awful lot of all of that. But to be honest, it’s too much. It’s been two and a half years, and navigating a creative (and deadline-free) course as an adult has brought plenty of challenges. I’m a different person now to who I was when I started, and it’s beyond what can be condensed into a blog post. Instead, I’ll just share my six-outfit collection from my final assignment:

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