Cotton Noodle

Equilibrium

Sun, 29 Mar 2026 09:56:00 +0000

The word I chose to represent how I live this year was “equilibrium”. At the back end of last year, I found myself continually pushing too hard on individual projects, to the detriment of all else (hello monotropism). Sewing dresses for parties on a deadline, learning D&D and writing adventures from scratch (!) at short notice, that sort of thing. I’d also started a new role at work that was using more of my brainpower, so it was all getting a bit much.

This year, I decided to allow myself to spread my efforts across my projects more thinly, in favour of a better balance. And I specifically chose the world “equilibrium” rather than “balance”, because you can balance a spoon on your nose, but that’s not a particularly sustainable way to live. “Equilibrium” is less precarious, and more self-correcting.

The upshot of living like this is that I don’t feel (as) mentally exhausted. But surprisingly, I’m also actually finishing more projects, because I’ve allowed myself to start things without the burden of finishing them. By not burning myself out with single-minded focus, I’m generally ending up with more (mental) energy. Doing a little bit, but more often, and then switching to something else is working pretty well for me.

Some of the things I’ve been spending my creative energies on this year:

Sewing, of course
Mending, too (including finishing unfinished projects that had waited for years)
Knitting, of course
Tinkering with this website, of course (including redoing the styles)
Baking bread (both from commercial yeast and my sourdough starter)
Baking sweet things, like amaretti biscuits on a whim
Expanding my cooking repertoire (I’m gathering a big bank of weeknight-friendly recipes)
Developing a video game concept
Historical research to support the above concept
Learning game development (I’ve only dipped my toe in so far)

All these things are trucking along at a steady, manageable pace. Mostly, anyway. It’s in my nature to get sucked into rabbit holes for weeks, but I’m trying to make a conscious effort to stop myself when I can feel this happening. Then I think about something else for a while.

Half-ass ten things

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking of Ron Swanson’s advice to Leslie Knope at his cabin:

“Never half-ass two things. Whole-ass one thing.”

And I tried that for years. It seemed like a great maxim. But different brains work in different ways. Whole-assing one thing is my danger zone, because I really truly will go all in. It’s taken me nearly 4 decades to figure out that to be the best version of myself, I need to reign myself in, not push myself harder. Half-ass ten things.

Restyling the Cotton Noodle website

Sat, 07 Feb 2026 12:00:00 +0000

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.

I wanted to pare it back, so:

I kept my Hugo layouts pretty much the same, but converted them to (relatively) semantic HTML. This meant gutting a crazy amount of BEM classes and layout-specific divs.
I removed my old CSS and started rewriting it from the ground up, taking a generally classless route (as a rebellion against all the BEM classes I had before).
I changed from media queries based on pixel breakpoints to ones based on reading width. I also designed mobile-first, with wider screens being the edge case.

The final CSS and HTML are a lot smaller now. They’re also more manageable and inherently comprehensible. They don’t feel as fragile as they did with the previous setup, which is a huge win. I also trust the responsiveness a lot more now too.

The aesthetic side

The v1 front page. I’ve preserved screenshots over on the versions page.

I still love the old v1 aesthetic, but I think I just grew out of it. It was intentionally very nostalgic for the days of the early web - basic, bright colours and heavy graphical concepts - because that’s the time period that was being evoked in my mind as I developed it.

But it also felt very clunky. I wanted to modernise the feeling of the site, while still retaining the simple, home-grown ethos. I guess I also just wanted it to look a bit more grown up.

So I took these concepts into my redesign:

Softer, warmer colours. The colour palette is similar, but less aggressive. I also added an extra main colour, which allows for more playfulness.
A generally smoother reading experience. Colour contrasts are less harsh, and borders are more subtle.
Consistency in visual rhythm. I now have a small set of spacing sizes that I re-use across the whole site.
The content width is narrower, for better reading.
I have a dark mode now.

I’m not a designer or an accessibility expert, so I’m sure I’m still breaking all sorts of golden rules with this design. But it definitely feels like it’s a more cohesive, considered look now, while still representing me.

The colourful squiggly underlines and the scissor bullet points & dividers are my way of keeping it kooky :)

The future

I’m going to continue to tinker with this site - I mean, that’s what personal sites are for, right?

But I’m not planning another overhaul anytime soon!

52 book challenge: end-of-year reflections

Sun, 28 Dec 2025 11:17:00 +0000

The slow-moving progress bar is at 100%!

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.

I also routinely chose unchallenging books, and ones that I was less inclined to want to savour, so I could get through them more quickly, which isn’t great. Obviously there were exceptions. But I usually like to mix in some books that test me in some way, and this year I actively avoided doing that (consciously anyway).

You can fit a lot more reading time in if you have the ebook on your phone (as opposed to reading exclusively on paper, or even the Kindle device). A phone is horrifyingly always there.

In fact, it’s crazy how many situations in life there are where my natural instinct is to just grab my phone rather than accept tedium, or awkwardness. That’s a whole separate topic, and something I’d like to improve as well - but it’s a great first step to be opening an ebook and reading a few paragraphs of that instead of mindlessly scrolling.

What I’m looking forward to, now that the challenge is over

Obviously, reading a wider variety of things. Very long books you can sink your teeth into. Poetry. Plays! Non fiction! Notoriously challenging books!

Reading at whatever damn pace I choose, and not worrying about pages per day. Maybe even NOT reading for a few days - imagine!

Not thinking about page counts when choosing books.

ONLY reading on paper. I ended up with the ebook version of pretty much all the books I read - I was kindle-first by the end, to maximise reading time. (I did buy paper copies of some favourites after the fact, for the collection.) But despite all the positives of ebooks that I listed earlier… Nothing compares to the experience of reading a physical book.

Taking more risks. Towards the end of the year I used reviews and recommendations to pick out books that I had good confidence would be enjoyable. I’m looking forward to rolling the dice and picking up a book at whim.

What I’m grateful for

I read a lot of books I might not otherwise have come across. Some really superb ones - A Short Stay In Hell comes to mind.

Persistence training. Not that my persistence is lacking (gestures at self-taught knitting and sewing skills) but all the same, a bit of grind is a good thing.

I discovered I like horror. The dwindling list of well-regarded novels under 300 pages lead me to a few in genres I hadn’t really explored, and I dabbled in them for the sake of variety. And that was great! I really enjoyed Rosemary’s Baby and The Hellbound Heart.

I well and truly kicked my Instagram habit. Mindless scrolling has dropped massively (although I still use Reddit a lot)

I think I’m really going to enjoy the epic novels I pick up next year. I’ve been craving sinking my teeth into something more sprawling.

Round-up

The books that touched my heart the most

Martyr!
A Wizard of Earthsea
Ethan Frome
The Forge and the Flood
Giovanni’s Room

Full list of everything I read

True Grit - Charles Portis
Sula - Toni Morrison
The Lathe of Heaven - Ursula K. Le Guin
The Hellbound Heart - Clive Barker
The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson
Rosemary’s Baby - Ira Levin
Speak - Laurie Halse Anderson
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy (Monk & Robot, #2) - Becky Chambers
A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot, #1) - Becky Chambers
It’s Not a Cult - Joey Batey
Ethan Frome - Edith Wharton
The Stepford Wives - Ira Levin
Tender Is the Flesh - Agustina Bazterrica
On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan
Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries, #4) - Martha Wells
How to Read a Tree: Clues and Patterns from Bark to Leaves - Tristan Gooley
A Short Stay in Hell - Steven L. Peck
The Secret World of Weather - Tristan Gooley
The Ha-Ha - Jennifer Dawson
The Word for World Is Forest - Ursula K. Le Guin
Yellowface - R.F. Kuang
The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky
So Long, See You Tomorrow - William Maxwell
Giovanni’s Room - James Baldwin
The Forge and the Flood - Miles Nelson
The British Museum is Falling Down - David Lodge
Rogue Protocol (The Murderbot Diaries, #3) - Martha Wells
Small Things Like These - Claire Keegan
The Trial - Franz Kafka
The Honjin Murders (Detective Kosuke Kindaichi, #1) - Seishi Yokomizo
The Cat Who Saved Books (The Cat Who…, #1) - Sōsuke Natsukawa
Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries, #2) - Martha Wells
All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1) - Martha Wells
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
Tehanu (Earthsea Cycle, #4) - Ursula K. Le Guin
This Is How You Lose the Time War - Amal El-Mohtar
The Unmothers - Leslie J. Anderson
Martyr! - Kaveh Akbar
Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection - John Green
Chronicle of a Death Foretold - Gabriel García Márquez
Pretty Hate Machine - Daphne Carr
The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon
Train Dreams - Denis Johnson
Foster - Claire Keegan
The Farthest Shore (Earthsea Cycle, #3) - Ursula K. Le Guin
The Tombs of Atuan (Earthsea Cycle, #2) - Ursula K. Le Guin
Orbital - Samantha Harvey
The Lady of the Lake (The Witcher, #5) - Andrzej Sapkowski
I Who Have Never Known Men - Jacqueline Harpman
The Death of Ivan Ilyich - Leo Tolstoy
A Wizard of Earthsea (Earthsea Cycle, #1) - Ursula K. Le Guin
Cannery Row - John Steinbeck

(For ratings, see my books page)

Simplicity S3099 Dress Pattern Review

Sat, 29 Nov 2025 17:22:00 +0000

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.

Why did I pick this pattern?

Of course, I looked at plenty of other patterns, including some gorgeous bias cut slip dresses, and some absolutely stunning pieces with bustiers and boning. I also considered drafting my own dress. But I only had two weeks - including sourcing pattern and fabric!

In the end I picked the Simplicity S3099 because:

The actual construction looked very straight-forward
There were not many pattern pieces, so it would be quick to sew
The simplicity of the design meant it would be make fitting adjustments relatively easy
It was physically available in John Lewis Leeds so I didn’t have to wait for postage

What fitting adjustments did I make?

I knew from the start that I would need to blend different sizes, and that’s normal for me. I chose 12 for my bust, graded to 14 at the waist, and left it at 14 for the hip.

My first toile looked awful; very baggy and gapey around the bust. So I pinched out a 3cm-ish dart from the neckline on the sleeveless side to improve the contouring, so the neckline would sit flat against my chest. I rotated that excess into the side dart. This actually baffled me for a little while - was it really OK to have one bust dart with a much bigger intake than the other? It would have been nice to distribute the excess into two darts, but I worried that this would make it look even more lopsided. In the end I decided it would be OK (and it was).

My second toile still did not look great. I ended up pinching out a centimeter from both side seams all the way from the underarm down to the hip. I guess this is the famous Big 4 generosity when it comes to ease.

I also cut a total of 4 inches off the hem.

I was pretty happy with the fit at this point. And to be fair - fitting this dress was generally pretty easy for me. I’ve spent a lot more time fitting other dresses before. My scoliosis means I often get asymmetry in fitted garments, but given that this was a one-shoulder design, asymmetry was par for the course anyway.

Transferring adjustments to the lining and facing … or not

All of these changes had to be reflected in the lining and the facing. For the facing, I just overlaid the pattern pieces on top of the main pattern pieces, and trimmed them / slash and spread them to match.

The lining pattern pieces threatened to be a bit more effort, especially given they’re so large and don’t fit on my table. I realised that the lining is actually the same as the main fabric down to the hip, so I didn’t bother transferring my modifications to the lining at all. I just used the main pieces for the top and swapped in the lining pieces for the skirt.

A word of warning if you do this though - make very sure that you know which side up you’re using. Because the pattern is asymmetrical, you need to have the pattern pieces the appropriate way up. The main fabric pieces should be the opposite way up to how you cut them for the main fabric. I did not do this, so I ended up using the wrong side of my lining - but it didn’t really matter.

Some thoughts on the construction

Although there weren’t many pattern pieces, that didn’t make it a quick sew. There were a fair few things to contend with.

The pattern pieces were enormous since it’s a full length dress without a waist seam. I usually cut on a cutting mat on my table, but I had to push the furniture out of the way and do this one on the floor - and that goes for the toiles and adjustments as well. My back hurts just thinking about it now.

Construction was generally straight forward, except for the slit. Honestly, I think the instructions for the slit facing/lining are badly written and possibly incorrect. Step 27 asks you to pin the lining in such a way that means step 28 doesn’t make sense. This is what I actually did:

I used this How to Sew a Lined Slit tutorial to wrap my head around how the slit should work. That tutorial has a facing that’s shaped on the diagonal rather than the rectangular version we have in S3099, but it was still enlightening.
Before pinning any of this, I pressed the facing under. I also pressed the lining under by 1.5cm along both the horizontal and vertical edges.
I used the image in step 27 to understand what the final layout would be, and then pinned the lining to the facing in place, being sure not to catch the main skirt.
I then flipped the dress so that I could see the seam allowance, and re-pinned it in exactly the same place from the inside, in such a way that I’d be able to sew it. This was fiddly and I had to be particularly careful to make sure the pivot point lined up with the marking.
I then stitched the 3 edges in one continuous line, being super careful around the corners and the point at the very top of the slit. There was a heck of a lot of finagling to move the main dress body out of the way.

I was lucky - after going through this procedure, it worked first time. I added a few slip stitches to tidy up the top of the slit as there was a little bit of raw edge sneaking out, but overall just going super slowly and super carefully paid dividends.

The pattern asks you to hand-sew the hem, but sod that. I just hemmed it a standard visible straight stitch. NB you have to do this before sewing the lining around the slit facing.

Final thoughts

I was really pleased with the outcome. If I’d had more time I’d have worked a bit harder at getting that pointy dart less pointy, and making those diamond darts a bit smoother (walking foot maybe?) - and I’d have made the flowers too. But I am so pleased with what I achieved in less than 2 weeks.

The dress is very comfortable to wear, but if I made it again, I’d make the slit higher. It gave me enough range of motion to walk around the event in my high heels, but the 20-minute walk to the venue in my flats was a real challenge, as I could only take small steps unless I held the skirt up! In hindsight, I should have shortened the skirt using the lengthen/shorten lines rather than just cutting excess off the hem. This would have raised the slit by 4 inches, which is what I think it needed. Live and learn.

A decent pattern all in all - but probably a lot better if you have a bit more time to invest in it!

52 book challenge: mid-year reflections

Thu, 03 Jul 2025 17:22:00 +0000

Currently reading: The Trial by Kafka.

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.

Reflections

I’ve hugely increased my reading, which is only a good thing. Time spent reading is time not on my phone. I’m a believer in the intrinsic value of reading as a soul-enriching experience. I am so pleased to have this impetus to read more rather than reach for my phone. It feels good. It is good.

That’s not to say that it’s been smooth sailing. Because I’ve got a target number of books to get through, for the first time in my life I’m pushing through on books that I can’t stand. And there have been a few of those this year. It’s crazy how a 150-page novella can take weeks to get through, when you can’t bear the style.

But even that has had surprising benefits. Pushing myself to read things I’m not enjoying, although very frustrating at the time, has taught me a lot. It’s like having required reading at school! These books are the point when my discipline is tested the most. And these are the ones where I discover what it is I like and don’t like.

On that note, I’ve discovered:

I deeply prefer literary writing. I like poetic language, I like the choice of words to give me pause. I love a beautiful turn of phrase. I will happily read a book in which plot moves very little, so long as the writing is gorgeous. I did know this about myself - but what I learned this year is that I have very little patience for writing that doesn’t look like this. If the language is dull, then by golly the plot had better make up for it. (I couldn’t bear The Cat Who Saved Books)
Just because it won a major international prize doesn’t mean it’s going to be an enjoyable read. (Orbital)
Classics and modern classics really work. (The Trial, Cannery Row, Of Mice and Men)
Sci fi and high fantasy have a pretty high hit rate for me. Classic sci fi and high fantasy, even more so. (This Is How You End The Time War, Earthsea series, I Who Have Never Known Men)

I set myself a guideline that books under 250 words are readable within a week. But sometimes I get ahead, and sometimes I lag behind, and it works out roughly OK on average. But the best books have been longer than 250 words. It’s hard to fall in love with something short. Which makes it all the more impressive when you read a very short piece and it punches you in the gut. (Foster)

My favourite books from this year:

Most memorable and beautiful books:

A Wizard of Earthsea (Earthsea Cycle, #1) - Ursula K. Le Guin
Martyr! - Kaveh Akbar
I Who Have Never Known Men - Jacqueline Harpman

Final thoughts

Would I do this challenge again? Well, ask me at the end of the year. My gut feeling at this point is no. I am really, really missing reading at a languid pace, not worrying about how many pages I “need” to read. And with the emphasis being on pure book count, I’m incentivised to book shorter books, which means I’m desperately yearning for a longer, more immersive book. I’d love to read the Dune series, which my husband’s been enjoying. I’d love to get into Lord of the Rings. I want to have a go at Anna Karenina. But those are completely off the table for me right now.

But do I regret starting this challenge? Absolutely not. As a one-off experiment, this has been a fantastic learning experience so far, and I’m grateful for all the new books I’ve discovered.

Everything I’ve read this year so far

Currently reading:

The Trial - Franz Kafka
The Secret World of Weather - Tristan Gooley

Finished (most recent first):

The Honjin Murders (Detective Kosuke Kindaichi, #1) - Seishi Yokomizo
The Cat Who Saved Books (The Cat Who…, #1) - Sōsuke Natsukawa
Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries, #2) - Martha Wells
All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1) - Martha Wells
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
Tehanu (Earthsea Cycle, #4) - Ursula K. Le Guin
This Is How You Lose the Time War - Amal El-Mohtar
The Unmothers - Leslie J. Anderson
Martyr! - Kaveh Akbar
Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection - John Green
Chronicle of a Death Foretold - Gabriel García Márquez
Pretty Hate Machine - Daphne Carr
The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon
Train Dreams - Denis Johnson
Foster - Claire Keegan
The Farthest Shore (Earthsea Cycle, #3) - Ursula K. Le Guin
The Tombs of Atuan (Earthsea Cycle, #2) - Ursula K. Le Guin
Orbital - Samantha Harvey
The Lady of the Lake (The Witcher, #5) - Andrzej Sapkowski
I Who Have Never Known Men - Jacqueline Harpman
The Death of Ivan Ilyich - Leo Tolstoy
A Wizard of Earthsea (Earthsea Cycle, #1) - Ursula K. Le Guin
Cannery Row (Cannery Row, #1) - John Steinbeck

Still making, just quietly

Thu, 03 Jul 2025 07:25:00 +0000

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.

My craft plans for the rest of the year are:

Make no plans. Ha! I’ve definitely come to realise that long term commitment saps all the joy out of my creative practice. I’m far better on a whim. So I’m going to operate on a whim. I have so many ideas, but I’m not going to make any decisions until I am literally cutting out the fabric.

That’s it. The gallery is due an update. I’ll get there sooner or later. It’s liberating to let go of expectation.

Mood Fabrics NYC

Fri, 04 Apr 2025 08:25:00 +0000

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.

The Garment Worker statue

Needle Threading a Button

Don’t go on a Sunday. It seems the whole garment district is closed on a Sunday! Thankfully, we realised before actually getting there (and we went to MoMA instead, yay).

Give yourself plenty of time. I spent 2 hours in Mood, and I could easily have spent another hour in there if we didn’t have other plans. There are loads of other stores in the garment district, so personally I’d factor in a whole afternoon if you want to explore. By the way, in Mood, the women’s bathroom is on the same floor as the lift, near the silks. Very useful to be able to refresh yourself if you’re planning an extended session!

Fabric

More fabric

Silks

Prepare to see a lot of fabric. Honestly I think I spent about 15 minutes just orienting myself! There are three floors, they’re stacked to the ceiling with fabrics, and they have all sorts of things that I’ve rarely seen elsewhere. Just so much choice.

Fancy fabrics

Brocades

Do a lap of the whole store first. I’m used to much smaller stores that have a few versions of the each of the common types of fabric substrate and weave. In Mood, there were entire aisles dedicated to wool knits, silk twills, etc. Whole racks of just denim. There’s a whole leather section too.

Leather

Wool knits

Getting your fabric cut. I carried my bolt of fabric to the nearest till and asked them to cut it for me. They filled out a little receipt and put a sticker on the fabric, so I could carry on shopping and pay at the end. I’m not totally sure if I was supposed to ask the staff to get the bolt out for me, but it seemed to go OK! There are some areas where it’s clear that you have to go to a specific till, e.g. the denim corner.

Buttons and haberdashery. Just like with the fabrics, you need to take buttons and haberdashery to the haberdashery counter to get a receipt, before you can pay for them. The tills are for purchasing only. Guess how I know :)

Browsing

Overwhelm

What did I buy?

Of course I bought fabric! I took four lengths home with me:

Linen

Printed linen in a sort of Persian rug style. I told my husband to pick out some fabric for me to make him a shirt, and he chose this - I think it’s a lovely choice!
Garden plants printed linen. This is really rather soft, so I’m going to make a shirt for myself out of it.

Silk

Denim

Bright blue silk satin. I’ve never worked with silk, so this might wait a while until I get gather the courage. But it’s super vibrant and gorgeous. It’ll be a lovely blouse.
Patchwork effect denim. I considered buying a more classic denim, but I just kept coming back to this one. I’m not sure if it’s going to be jeans or a jacket, but either way I think it’s going to be great.

Reflecting on Whole 30 Fabric

Tue, 11 Feb 2025 18:11:00 +0000

Whole 30 Fabric Challenge banner from @pinkmimosabyjacinta on Instagram.

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.

But 5 months later, I’ve managed to sew a grand total of … 1 metre from stash. In some of my Instagram stories, I did cheekily include fabric that was in transit to me when I signed up for the challenge - but I don’t really think that was in the spirit of things. Excluding fabric bought for pattern tests or gifts (which according to my definition of the challenge, were exempt), I’ve also bought 7 metres of new fabric, so that’s -6 out of 30!

In fact, my sewing practice all but came to a halt. I sewed nothing but pattern tests and Christmas presents during this time.

Where did it all go wrong?

Well, actually, it’s a matter of perspective. I don’t really think it all went wrong. In fact, I think it has been a really important learning experience.

Here are some of the things I’ve discovered:

I have a lot of rubbish fabric that I don’t actually want to use. All that cheaper fabric needs to get used for toiles, or donated/given away. If I’m not inspired by it, I’m not going to use it, and it just takes up brain space.
I have a lot of “nice” fabric that I’m too nervous to use. Turns out I’m inclined not to use the good fabric, either. Once it sits in my stash for a certain amount of time, it turns into a prized piece that needs to be used on the perfect project - and of course, nothing is ever perfect enough.
Buying a new fabric gives me “permission” to use it. I’m far more willing to roll the dice on a nice fabric that I’ve only just bought. There seems to be a grace period of 1-2 months within which a fabric is likely to be sewn, because I’m still excited about it - and if it’s not used straight away, it goes into stasis.

The last one is probably the most revelatory, as it highlights something in my personality. I need the encouragement of novelty in my sewing. I don’t think this is necessarily something to fight against.

What am I going to do differently now?

As of today, I’m declaring myself out of the challenge. But I am also going to work on using my stash, because it will be a lot more interesting if it’s less of a stash, and more of a revolving door situation. A bit like a fruit bowl that always has something fresh and exciting (and not rotten) in it.

Here’s my approach:

Wash all fabrics. Too many of my fabrics are unwashed, which adds an overhead to using them in a project. I need to remove all barriers to entry - anything to enable me to cut out an older fabric on a whim!
Use the good fabric, for goodness’ sake. There will always be more fabric. I have very few pieces that are truly sentimental, which do need to be carefully planned in. The rest of them should just get used whenever I’m ready to sew an appropriate pattern.
Make toiles out of the fabric I don’t like. I tend to use calico for my toiles. But depending on the pattern, why not use that cheap viscose challis, or that polyester gingham I bought for my course and never used? I have weird sustainability feelings about this - but am I really making a more ethical choice by just holding onto these fabrics? Is it not better that they serve a purpose?
Buy better quality fabric. Now that I’m allowing myself to buy fabric again, it doesn’t mean the flood gates are open. I’m going to buy less, but better quality. I will only buy fabric that has a good hand and appropriate drape, that feels like it’s going to wash and wear well.
Treat myself to new patterns to sew those stash fabrics. If I need novelty in my sewing life, then perhaps I can inject that by combining old fabrics with new patterns, and trick my brain with the shiny new thing.

Goodbye Whole 30. It’s been educational. Hello fabric shops 😄

I have a Fashion Design Diploma now

Mon, 10 Feb 2025 16:23:00 +0000

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:

My final collection on my Fashion Design Diploma.

This collection was designed for a client that I also had to invent. I created a sustainability-driven client who wanted their brand to focus on joyfulness and comfort. All the garments are easy-fit - either oversized or elasticated for ease of wear - and they’re made of natural fibres. The collection also had to tie into trend research, so these designs feature heavy influence from what’s anticipated to trend in Spring/Summer 2025: balloon hems, pirate pants, skirts layered over trousers, polka dots and linen. The colour palette is also inspired by trend forecasts, tailored to my imaginary client’s joyful brand.

I’m really proud of what I’ve learned and achieved throughout my studies on this course. I wouldn’t have even known where to begin if you’d asked me to design a trend-driven fashion collection three years ago - let alone be able to illustrate it!

And as you’d imagine, after nearly 3 years, I’m beyond ready to put this chapter of my life behind me. I’m starting on my next chapter right away.

Some yarn from Dublin

Thu, 30 Jan 2025 14:54:00 +0000

We just came back from a long weekend in Dublin. (Well, it was a long weekend for me - I tagged along with my husband who was there for work.) It was a lovely little trip; lots of Guinness was consumed, we did a 5 mile run, went to a Viking museum, and hung out with an old friend and met his delightful cat :)

On the last day I popped into a beautiful little yarn shop called This Is Knit:

This Is Knit, Dublin

I was a bit overwhelmed by the huge amount of choice, to be honest! I knew I wanted an Irish yarn, but they had so many options, and so many colours. After a bonkers amount of deliberation, I picked out six balls of Studio Donegal Soft Donegal. It’s lovely and soft has a tweedy sort of texture.

Soft Donegal yarn by Studio Donegal

I’m currently trying to figure out what to do with it. I would like to do something evocative of the Irish Aran jumpers, but it’s touch and go whether I have enough yardage here to make a fully cabled piece. And I’m actually flirting with the idea of using a known, well-fitting pattern as a base, and adding some cable motifs to it. I don’t really experiment much with knitting, but I’m starting to feel the pull. Will I? Won’t I?

I also might try out the new Sari Nordlund pattern, Stars Hollow. But then I also want it to be by an Irish designer to double down on the theme. Argh! Decision making is hard!

Improving my marker rendering skill

Wed, 22 Jan 2025 15:12:00 +0000

This week I spent some time improving my marker rendering skill.

On Friday I created a fashion illustration for an outfit concept I’m working on for my course, and I spent hours on it, working to the best of my abilities to render it in colour. But after I was done, I just felt so disillusioned. It looked so rough and amateur, and it had taken me so long because I didn’t really know what I was doing.

To be clear: three years ago I would have been stunned if you’d told me I could draw something like what I drew last week. But we always strive for better. I’ve spent a lot of time looking at such beautiful illustrations, and my standards for myself have shifted.

Last week’s drawing

This week’s drawing

So I decided to take a day to research and practice, and then had another go at the same drawing. Although I still have a looong way to go, I’m absolutely blown away at how drastically improved it looks. The splodginess is gone, and it looks clean and bold and graphic, which is what I’d been aiming for originally. I used the same markers (Promarkers) in the same colours, the same paper and the same base outline, but the new one is so much better. I’m surprised at how much improvement I was able to make in such a short space of time, particularly in an art form that I still consider to be black magic, that some lucky people (who aren’t me) are able to tap into.

Here are the things I changed:

Obviously I redrew the hair and face, as well as the hands and shoes. The extra detailing gives the new version more humanity which adds more of a connection, I think.
Block out the base colours properly by really saturating the colour, and overlapping previously coloured areas as I go. I followed this tutorial on colouring large areas. This made a huge difference, as the streaky blotchy look is (pretty much) gone.
Let the colour dry before going back in to work the next layer. (Previously I’d definitely fallen foul of this, with there being too much alcohol on the page and the colours just separating and running weirdly.)
I learned about the tip to tip method of mixing colours in markers. Rather than colouring with my shadow colour directly, I added the darker colour to my base colour marker by holding the tips together. This created a much better tonal match between my shadows and my base colour, because the two colours are already mixed in the tip of the marker. It also meant that the colours were much less stark, allowing for softer shadows.
I added diagonal lines in white pencil on the jacket to suggest the texture of the twill. This is pretty subtle, but it adds something.
I used different line weights and also added more fabric movement lines. I chose a 0.7 for the main outlines, and 0.3 and 0.1 for internal lines and details. The bold outline makes such a big difference in helping the image pop, and adding ink to the creases gives them more intentionality.

My takeaway from this experience is that when I’m dreading something because I find it hard, sometimes it’s because I’ve not learned how to do it properly yet. It’s worth taking a breath, and a step back, and focusing my energies on practising, before declaring that it’s something I’m simply not good at. Skills are things you build over time.

Improving my knitting skill

Tue, 14 Jan 2025 14:42:22 +0000

My knitting has … let’s call it an “organic” texture.

Although I’ve been knitting since 2012, I haven’t actually focused very much on improving the quality of my craft recently. I learned fair isle a few years ago, but other than that, I think my ability is basically the same as it was 8 years ago - despite being fairly prolific in my output.

I consider myself fairly advanced - I can knit lace, fair isle, cables - and ladder down to fix a mistake many rows back too. I’ve made blankets, socks, soft toys, scarves, and jumpers galore. But my ribbing is sloppy, and you can plainly see where I’ve woven in my ends. I’m noticing uneven tension and fit issues - garments too big, too small, or too imperfect. Knitting doesn’t have to be perfect, I know - but I feel like my skills have stagnated, and I could be better than this if I just applied myself a little better.

So here are some things I’d like to work on:

Ribbing tension. My purls are looser than my knits, so I need to learn to purl slightly tighter.
Fair isle tension at the joins of double pointed needles. I just need to pay more attention as I go.
Fit:
- Measure the garment as it comes together, and make changes if necessary rather than just resignedly carrying on to the end.
- Don’t skip the gauge swatch. I stopped doing this for a while, trying to do it by eye - but my eye isn’t good enough. I need to get the ruler out and measure.
Weaving in ends as I go. Until recently I’ve just left my ends loose and woven them in with a darning needle at the end, but that’s completely demoralising. I’ve started using a new technique for weaving as I go, but it messes with my tension, so I’d like to work on that.
Holding yarn in both hands for fair isle. I can’t do this at all, which makes 1x1 fair isle super tiring on the hands. This might involve actually learning to knit continental - we’ll see!

If you’ve got any tips on improving the quality of your knitting, I’d love to hear them. Please drop me a line!

A new page on incentivised content

Thu, 09 Jan 2025 19:51:22 +0000

I just added tags to all my blog posts and gallery projects that I consider “incentivised”, i.e. I received the pattern or fabric for free in exchange for pattern testing or content creation.

This all made me think very hard about why I do it, and whether creating this sort of content is at odds with my views about the web (marketing makes the web bad, etc.), so to think it through, I wrote out a piece on the topic of incentivised content.

I’ve published it as a page, rather than a blog post, as I’m using pages to present my stance on something. Blog posts are a point in time. But my stance might change, and if so, I’ll update the page.

52 book challenge

Wed, 01 Jan 2025 18:16:22 +0000

Book 1/52. Image credit: Penguin

I usually make a few new year’s resolutions, and forget them by the end of January. This year, I’ve decided to go all in on one really difficult target: I’m going to try to read 52 books this year.

This is a crazy target for me. My highest ever book count was 37, and that was years ago, when I was hyperfixated on the very concept of reading. I’ve not been like that in recent years. Last year, I read 10 books, and two of them I had to finish in audiobook form because my concentration was so shot. (No slight on audiobooks as a form of reading - but personally it’s a last resort.)

So this is going to be stretch. But I recently looked at my screen time, and I was not happy about it. I’ve cut down my social media time considerably over the last year, and yet somehow I’m still losing hours on internet guff. So I’m going to convert some of that time into useful book-reading time - if I have the urge to browse the internet mindlessly, I’ll open the Kindle app instead, and at least read something more fulfilling.

I expect to fail this challenge - but I don’t plan to. I’m not deluded; I don’t really anticipate that I’ll be able to maintain reading a book a week for a whole year. But if I start the year with every intention of achieving this goal, then I’ll be setting up some good habits and practices that I’ll benefit from in other ways. And at the very least, I’ll most likely still read more books this year than last year.

Now - for accountability - here’s what I’m aiming for:

Read 52 books in 2025.
No minimum page count, but no mickey-taking. Individual short stories don’t count. Novellas do.
Fiction and non-fiction are both in.
Comics and graphic novels don’t count. (Because I want to focus on my concentration on longform text.)
Audiobooks don’t count - visual reading only. (Same reason as above)

Wish me luck!

Bear print Jackson pullover (and pattern review)

Tue, 31 Dec 2024 09:12:00 +0000

For Christmas I made my husband this super cosy pullover with the Helen’s Closet Jackson Pullover pattern, in this HILARIOUS fur-backed sweatshirting from Minerva. It’s such a fantastic print, there was no chance of me not buying it. Look at those cool bears dressed like James Dean!

This is actually my fourth time sewing the pattern, but I’ve never done the same view/size combo twice - as it’s so versatile I’ve used it for different applications each time. And that’s not even including the hoodie expansion pack that I just noticed they released (which I’m very tempted by).

Here are the other versions I’ve made:

T-shirt for him

Pullover for me

T-shirt for me, out of scraps

The two t-shirts I’ve made from this pattern have been great. Really straight forward to sew, and I love the boxy fit. It’s a t-shirt - not a huge amount to say. But I’ve found the pullover version ever so slightly more tricky, and I wanted to share my thoughts.

Pullover sizing

If you’re making the pullover, you definitely want to choose your size carefully. Your pullover size is probably one or two sizes bigger than your t-shirt size. This is noteworthy because the pattern covers two garments with different ease requirements - so you can’t just go by your body measurements for both views. A pullover wants more ease than a t-shirt; you should be able to wear the pullover on top of the t-shirt.

This is definitely a case where you want to pay attention to those finished garment measurements. Helen’s Closet patterns do a great job of being super thorough with the measurements they provide - and you should definitely use them! There are also some diagrams in the pattern showing how it fits if you go up or down in size.

I didn’t think this through when I made my pullover - it’s a bit on the snug side. I can wear it, but it gets a bit suffocating if I wear layers underneath. I used the same size pattern for the t-shirt, and that fits perfectly.

For my husband’s pullover, I went up one size from his t-shirt size. I think it looks great:

Christmas bears!

Sleeves

My husband felt the sleeves were about an inch too short, and I don’t really think he has comically long arms. I, on the other hand, do have comically long arms, and I had increased the sleeve by 2" on my pullover. But it’s not really a surprise to me that his sleeves needed lengthening too, especially given it wants to be a cosy fit.

I replaced his cuffs with new ones that were longer by about 1". Next time, I’ll lengthen the sleeves themselves.

The new longer cuffs

The bigger grin means he’s happy with the longer sleeves

That hem band

Look, this might just be me, but I think the hem band is really small on this pattern, and the blousing is out of control. This could be personal taste, but I widened the hem band on both my version and his version.

For me: I made the size 6, and had to cut the hem band in a size 10 to get a comfortable fit. And my hips are smaller than the size 6 measurement! In fairness, that fabric was not super stretchy, but it was stretchy enough according to the pattern.

For him: I measured the pattern pieces, and at size 14 there is 20cm of ease between the body and the hem band! Comparing the fit to other garments of his, I ended up adding 2.5cm to both the front and back waistband pattern pieces - a total of 10cm. That’s still 10cm of easing, so there’s still blousing going on, but it’s a lot more within my tolerance, and I’m sure it’s a much more comfortable fit too.

In conclusion

I do really like this pattern. I will make it again and again because it is such a great basic. I like that it’s simple, that it’s genderless, and that there are so many views (6 when you add the hoodie expansion, which I am now certain I need to buy). I’ve had some issues with it, but ultimately they’re minor and I’ve still managed to get 4 brilliant garments out of it successfully. And there will be more. I’m jealous of this fur-backed fabric.

Knitting a baby blanket on a deadline

Sun, 29 Dec 2024 18:09:45 +0000

Knitting Christmas gifts is a lovely thoughtful idea that should fill you with generous Christmas spirit. But oh my goodness, you have to give yourself enough time!

Unfortunately, I’m no stranger to knitting on a deadline. It’s not my favourite way to knit, but boy, it helps me get stuff done. I started this one with three weeks to go - so I intentionally picked a simple pattern to maximise my chances of finishing it in time. I’m pleased with my choice - the On the Porch Blanket by Fifty Four Ten Studio. Even though it’s clear from the photo what needs to be done, I bought the pattern as I wanted the simplest smoothest route to success. Incidentally, I’d say it’s a great pattern for beginners as it’s really clearly written!

Foolishly, I ordered the wrong yarn first, and lost time waiting for the new yarn to arrive. I’d accidentally picked a non-superwash yarn. Imagine making a baby blanket that’s handwash only! (On the plus side, I decided to keep the extra yarn, so now I’ve got another project for myself in the queue.)

I finally started on the 7th of December. The actually process of knitting went smoothly - it is a basic pattern after all - I just really had to go at it. This translated to about a week of hardcore knitting (3+ hours a day), but my pace tapered off as I got closer to the finish line, through sheer knitting fatigue. I finished it on the 22nd, giving me time to wash and block it before wrapping it.

The finished blanket!

Looking at the finished piece, there are a few errors here and there. They’re mostly because the yarn was splitty and I had to ladder down to tidy up a split… but messed up the ladder. I’m viewing these errors as a maker’s mark, as signs of the blanket being handmade, with love. And on the flip side, I just knitted a 32" x 37" blanket in 2 weeks! (While juggling the rest of my life and Christmas planning too!)

The blanket was really well received, which makes it all worthwhile! I hope the little one feels wrapped in love when she snuggles up under it.

Drafting the Foss blouse

Wed, 04 Dec 2024 11:44:00 +0000

For the fashion design course I’m taking, I designed, drafted, fitted and created a summer top. And I’m so proud of it! Summer might be a distant memory, but I just rediscovered my notes about the process of creating this, and I had to share.

The Design

I started with a sketch, vaguely inspired by some silhouettes I saw earlier in the summer. I iterated on a few ideas, but ultimately landed on this empire-band peplum top. I wanted something that would be a fun challenge to draft, and I was really into under-bust gathering at the time.

Initial rough sketch

Fashion illustration

Technical Information

My assignment involved creating a spec sheet, which is the document in which you list all the measurements of the final garment, plus the details of all the supplies required. I also had to produce tech flats, which I created in Illustrator. I could have hand drawn them for my course, but I much prefer the clean look of the digital line drawings.

Tech flat

Drafting the block

I drafted and fitted a block to my own measurements. I did already have a fitted block, but I had to demonstrate the drafting process for my assignment. So I drafted a new one and took the opportunity to be more thorough.

Block pattern pieces

Block toile (tight sleeve!)

I used the Helen Joseph-Armstrong technique for this block – I find I have to do fewer fit adjustments than with the Aldrich method, as it factors in shoulder slope.

I did a bit of a half-arsed effort on the sleeve though. I made sure that it fitted well at the sleeve head, but since this design is short sleeved, it wasn’t necessary to fit the rest of the sleeve. I’ll have to come back to that when I want to use this sleeve block for another design.

Drafting the Design

Once I had the block fitting well, it was time to adapt it into my design.

Bodice drafting: splitting the midriff band from the bodice.

I first split the bodice at the empire line, following the line of the hem to make it horizontal, and using some contouring to cinch in under the bust. I then separated off the midriff band.

I lowered the neckline to a deep V (deep for me anyway haha) and did a bit more contouring there to stop the neckline gaping over the hollow of the chest. I switched the bust dart and back darts out for gathers, and drafted a three-quarter circle peplum, a button overlap and a facing.

Sleeve drafting: slash and spread, then smooth the curves.

To draft the sleeve, I first flattened the sleeve head to give it a more relaxed fit, as the block sleeve is very structured and formal. I then used the slash-and-spread technique to turn it into a flared sleeve.

Toiling and Fitting

Toile #1

My first toile was not bad at all, but also far from perfect – which was absolutely to be expected, since I’m a real human body and not a mannequin. To improve the fit I needed to let out the side seams a little and contour the neckline more.

I also made some corrections to the drafting. The length of the peplum was exactly what I’d intended – just past the natural waist. But when I put it on, I hated it! I’m not really a crop top girl. So I added a good 3cm of length to it.

I also decided to flatten the sleeve head even more, and extend the flare of the sleeve, as it just wasn’t fluted enough.

Toile #2

After a second toile, I was pretty much happy with the fit, aside from pinning out a little excess at the bust. Finally the drafting was complete and I was ready to put the final top together.

Sewing It Up

Constructing the garment

So many pins

Hemming carefully with a walking foot

Sewing the final top was a slightly different process to sewing the toile. After all, I hadn’t bothered with finishing seams, or with hems and closures on the toile.

The hems took a fair bit of work to hem neatly, as both the sleeves and the peplum were essentially circles, so they naturally twisted and a roping effect as I sewed. I had to use a million pins to hold them in place.

Sewing those buttonholes was nerve-wracking, too. They were really close together, and only just fit on the midriff band!

The Finished Piece!

Here it is! I’m chuffed with how it turned out. It’s not 100% perfect, but gosh, I feel like it’s pretty close. I’m only sad that I finished it at the end of summer, so I can’t really wear it until next year. But I’m over the moon with how it turned out, and I learned a lot along the way.

Resources for Pattern Drafting

If you’re interested in learning pattern drafting, these are the resources I recommend. (Not a sponsored list – just my honest suggestions!)

Patternmaking for Fashion Design by Helen Joseph-Armstrong. It’s expensive, but incredibly worthwhile. It’s very thorough and has clear explanations. It actually explains the “why” behind some of the drafting steps, rather than just giving you a formula. I find this makes it so much easier to make things fit, as you have the principles in your armoury.
Adobe Illustrator for digital drafting. I learned how to draft digitally via Pattern Workshop. Confident Patternmaking looks like another great option (although pricy) and Pattern Lab London has plenty of free tutorials.
Digital French curves. I use the Digital Pattern Making Rulers from Points of Measure. Absolutely not necessary for Illustrator drafting, but I find that they help me create sensible curves around sleeve heads, necklines etc.

Building a project gallery in Hugo

Tue, 03 Dec 2024 15:55:07 +0000

One of the key features I wanted to build for this website was a custom gallery. I previously had a basic one on Wordpress - it was entirely manually managed through their visual block editor. Huge hassle, and very slow and awkward. Eventually I did actually build a database-driven Wordpress plugin to automate it, which turned into a custom page type, but then before I ever put it live, I got fed up with Wordpress and decided to leave the whole ecosystem.

On the other hand, building my gallery in Hugo has been pretty straight forward. The gallery was one of the first things I did in Hugo, so I was learning the tool as I went, and yet it still came together rather quickly! And that’s also considering that I spent ages faffing around with the stylesheets.

I don’t open source my site code, for an element of mystique (by which I really mean I don’t want my draft posts public). But I do want to share some snippets to help anyone who’s trying to build something similar. This isn’t a tutorial, nor a complete explainer of the gallery - it’s more a collection of notes documenting my approach and choices.

My gallery as of December 2024 (pre go-live!)

My feature requirements

From the outset, I wanted to build:

A gallery view showing images and some data about each project.
Individual project pages including more data.
Multiple data fields per project:
- Common fields like name, completion date (month and year), pattern, pattern designer, and materials used.
- Optional fields like related links (blog posts, Instagram, external sites), where the materials came from, and my own notes.
Ease of adding more fields later.
Tags, categories, and years - all of which can be used to filter the gallery view.
Front page of the gallery shows the three latest images, to prevent unnecessary loading of images when landing on the gallery.
There is an “all” filter to show all years.

Out of scope for MVP

Multiple images per project, and carousel displays.
More than one pattern per project, e.g. pattern mashups, or sets.
More than materials description per project, e.g. if I used two different fabrics.
Specific knitting fields like needle size, yarn colourway, etc. (My existing gallery didn’t have these either.)

How I built it with Hugo

NB. I am going to assume that you have a rudimentary knowledge of Hugo.

These are the design decisions I made:

All projects are directories, and their images are stored with them.
Years are managed as directories. This has the side benefit of helping me to organise my project files, as I have ~150 projects, and growing. It also gives me the year filtering for free (ish - more on that later).
Custom taxonomies of gallery_tags and gallery_categories, to differentiate from the tags and categories on the blog.

Let’s dig into it.

Directory structure

This is what my structure looks like:

content
└── gallery
 ├── 2023
 │ ├── 2023-03-01-ankara-helmi-top
 │ │ ├── index.md // Project content and data
 │ │ └── helmi.jpg // Project photo
 │ └── _index.md // Section index for the year
 ├── _index.md // Section index for the gallery
 └── all
 └── _index.md // Section index for "all"

There’s already a lot going on here, so let’s have a look.

The project directory name contains the date

content
└── gallery
 ├── 2023
 │ ├── 2023-03-01-ankara-helmi-top
 │ │ ├── index.md
 │ │ └── helmi.jpg
 │ └── _index.md
 ├── _index.md
 └── all
 └── _index.md

Prefixing the project directory name with the completion date of the project helps me organise my files chronologically. The date gets stripped out of the title and slug automatically by the archetype (more on that later).

On the presentation layer, I only display the month and year (because for older projects that’s all the data I have). The day is actually arbitrary and is just used for sort order.

Years are directories, and so is “all”

content
└── gallery
 ├── 2023
 │ ├── 2023-03-01-ankara-helmi-top
 │ │ ├── index.md
 │ │ └── helmi.jpg
 │ └── _index.md
 ├── _index.md
 └── all
 └── _index.md

In order to be able to filter the gallery by year, I’ve created directories for each year. The idea here is that you can visit /gallery/2023/ and it will show you the projects from 2023. I’ve also created an “all” directory, which will show projects from every year.

But this alone isn’t enough - I also needed to set up some data and tweak the template.

1) _index.md in the year directory

Each year directory contains an _index.md file to signal that it is a section. And that file needs to specify the gallery type to match the parent section. This tells Hugo to use the gallery list template when it renders this page. (Bonus: this file also gives me a space to enter some commentary on each year, in the content section at the bottom.)

/content/gallery/2023/_index.md:

+++
title = '2023'
sort_key = '2023'
type = 'gallery'
+++

In 2023 I finished a total of 19 sewing projects [...]

Speaking of templates…

2) The gallery list template needs to search directories recursively

The standard way to list pages in Hugo is with .Pages, but this only goes one level deep. To recurse through the subdirectories, I needed to use .RegularPagesRecursive. However… I’m using this same list template for three key pages, which display different things:

/gallery (latest 3 projects)
/gallery/[year] (projects from that year)
/gallery/all (projects from all years)

A little bit of conditional logic is needed to determine the base page from which to recurse, and whether to only display the top 3:

/layouts/gallery/list.html:

{{- if eq .Path "/gallery" }}
 <h2>Latest Projects</h2>
 {{- range .RegularPagesRecursive | first 3 }}
 {{ .Render "gallery_card" }}
 {{- end }}
{{- else }}
 {{- $basePage := .Page }}
 {{- if eq .Path "/gallery/all" }}
 {{- $basePage = .Parent }}
 {{- end }}
 {{ range (.Paginate $basePage.RegularPagesRecursive).Pages }}
 {{ .Render "gallery_card" }}
 {{- end }}
{{- end }}

I keep the same list of links at the top of each list page, starting with “Latest” (which is just /gallery), iterating through each of the years, and finishing with “All” at the end. This seems fairly straight forward on the surface, but I hit an unexpected quirk while rendering it.

/layouts/gallery/list.html:

{{- if eq .Path "/gallery" }}
 Latest</span>
{{- else }}
 <a href="{{ relURL "/gallery" }}">Latest</a>
{{- end }}

{{- $thisTitle := .Page.Title }}
{{- $galleryRoot := .Site.GetPage "gallery" }}
{{ range sort $galleryRoot.Sections ".Params.sort_key" "desc" }}
 <span>&bull;</span>
 {{ if eq $thisTitle .Params.title }}
 <span>{{ .Params.title }}</span>
 {{- else }}
 <span><a href="{{ relURL .Path }}">{{ .Params.title }}</a></span>
 {{- end }}
{{ end }}

Notice that I’m using .Params.sort_key to order the years (you might have spotted that in my 2022 _index.md example earlier). Why do I need to do this, when I just want them to display in order of title? Can’t I sort by the title, rather than having to define a new field?

Well, there’s a weird quirk in the sorting of my particular directory names. This is what happened when I sorted by title:

 2024
 2023
 2022
 2021
 2020
 2019
 All
 2018 and Earlier

Eh??

Turns out lexicographical sorting means that the combination of letters and numbers in “2018 and Earlier” gets treated differently from the number-only strings like “2018”. To be clear, they’re all strings. I even tried casting them to strings. Something is going on under the hood here to sort them in a way that I did not expect.

Anyway, there’s probably a cleaner solution than this, but using a sort key was an easy enough fix.

Tags & categories

I set up new taxonomies called gallery_tags and gallery_categories to differentiate from the tags and categories used in the blog. This works absolutely fine out of the box, but I wanted to tweak a few things.

1. Changing the taxonomies’ display names

I didn’t want these taxonomies showing up as “Gallery Tags” all over the site. “Tags” and “Categories” is sufficient. So I created the directories /content/gallery_tags and /content/gallery_categories, adding index.md files in which I could specify titles in the front matter as with any other page. Again, I could add some content to these pages here if I wanted to.

2. Positioning the taxonomies in the hierarchy

I wanted the gallery taxonomies to show under the Gallery in the breadcrumb. Like this:

Instead of the default:

To do this I injected an extra link into the basic loop of page ancestors, in the case of taxonomies. I did the same for my blog tags, so they have the same hierarchical structure (tags show under Blog). Here’s the breadcrumb code now:

/layouts/partials/breadcrumbs.html:

{{- range .Ancestors.Reverse | append .Page}}
 {{- if eq .Kind "taxonomy" }}
 {{ $parentPath := index .Site.Params.parents .Section }}
 {{ $parent := .Site.GetPage $parentPath }}
 <li><a href="{{ $parent.RelPermalink }}">{{ $parent.Title }}</a></li>
 {{- end }}
 <li><a href="{{ .RelPermalink }}">{{ .Title }}</a></li>
{{- end }}

It’s relying on some custom params that I stuck in my site configuration to define the hierarchy:

/hugo.toml:

[params.parents]
gallery_tags = "/gallery"
gallery_categories = "/gallery"

3. Fixing the taxonomies’ permalinks

I also added some config to make the URLs mirror the breadcrumb hierarchy:

/hugo.toml:

[permalinks.taxonomy]
gallery_tags = "/gallery/tags/"
gallery_categories = "/gallery/categories/"

[permalinks.term]
gallery_tags = "/gallery/tags/:slug"
gallery_categories = "/gallery/categories/:slug"

The gallery archetype

The archetype in Hugo is the template from which new content is created. I use this to set up a few default values.

/archetypes/gallery.md:

+++
type = 'gallery'
{{- $nameWithoutDate := replaceRE "^\\d{4}-\\d{2}-\\d{2}-" "" .Page.File.ContentBaseName }}
{{- $dateFromName := replaceRE "(^\\d{4}-\\d{2}-\\d{2})-.*" "$1" .Page.File.ContentBaseName }}
date = '{{ $dateFromName }}'
title = '{{ replace $nameWithoutDate "-" " " | title }}'
+++

Yes, it’s NUTS, but I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t try to sneak in a little regex somewhere.

All it’s really doing is taking the directory name and extracting the date and title into their correct locations. In combination with a tweak to the permalink in the site config, this gives me nice URLs and titles that don’t have any date information in them at all, while maintaining my date-based file organisation. (I have the exact same set up on the blog.)

/hugo.toml:

[permalinks]
gallery = "/gallery/:title/"

Storing the project data

From here, it’s pretty straight forward stuff. All the project data is stored in front matter:

+++
draft = false
type = 'gallery'
date = '2024-11-01'
title = 'Clair De Lune Sweater'
gallery_categories = ['knitting']
gallery_tags = ['the petite knitter']

[params.project_data]
completed_date = '2024-11-01'
pattern_name = 'Clair de Lune'
pattern_designer = 'The Petite Knitter'
materials = 'Drops Alaska'
materials_from = 'Wool Warehouse'

[[resources]]
name = 'mainImage'
src = 'clairdelune.jpg'
+++
Notes go here, like content on any other page.

I use that mainImage resource to access the cover image from the gallery list page, so I can display those cute cards.

(NB. Currently I have completed_date as a separate field from the project date, as the publish date mught be different for projects that I can only share a while after I’ve made them - gifts, pattern tests etc.)

Displaying the gallery content

I have a custom template for the gallery list and gallery single. It’s straightforward stuff - reading the parameters out of the front matter - so I’m not going to go into any detail. The styling took me absolutely ages, as I’m not a CSS expert by a long way - but if you want to be nosy about that, you can go and view source directly!

Adding a new project to the gallery

Adding a new project looks like this:

$ hugo new content content/gallery/2024/2024-11-01-clair-de-lune-sweater

I add my photo into the directory, edit the generated index.md, and there she goes!

The gallery card showing my Clair De Lune knitting project

Conclusion

I really enjoyed building this, and I’m enjoying using it even more. I hope this breakdown was useful for somebody out there!

Re-knitting the Loki jumper

Mon, 02 Dec 2024 16:03:43 +0000

I’ve nearly finished re-knitting the Loki jumper by Istex Lopi - and when I say re-knitting, I mean I am making the same jumper in the same colours for the same person. Not because I am crazy, but because I knitted the first one as a present for my husband for our wool wedding anniversary (7th), and he loved it, and then I absentmindedly put through too many spin cycles in the washing machine, and it shrank.

My progress on the new version.

The original one I made in 2022.

I was absolutely heartbroken, I tell you. It was one of the loveliest things I’d ever made, and it was the first jumper I’d ever finished knitting for him - after literally three failed attempts at another pattern over the years. So I promised him another, in whatever colours he wanted. He asked for a replica of the original. Which is nice, because it means I chose well the first time!

And I guess this whole palaver gives me a chance to fix the fact that I installed one of the sleeves back to front on the original, so the increases ran up the outside of the arm.

I love the colours on the pattern cover too. (Image: Istex Lopi)

Some comments on the pattern

I never wrote about this pattern the first time I made it, so I thought I’d share some thoughts.

It’s a good, well-written bottom-up pattern. First you knit the body up to the under arm, then you knit the sleeves, and then you join them to work the yoke. This was actually the first pattern I knitted that was bottom-up, and I loved it - I still love it. The sea of stockinette stitch is an absolute doddle when you’ve got that new-project energy. And you don’t get stuck on sleeve island, because there’s the interesting fair isle to enjoy at the end.

The fair isle pattern is a bit annoying to knit at the start though. Those diamonds at the bottom of the yoke are 7 stitches apart, so the floats need catching, and I find that really slows my rhythm down. I didn’t think this the first time round, because I didn’t have that much fair isle experience at the time, but I’ve knitted a few since then so I know what I like now. That said, once you get past the diamonds, it’s smooth sailing - plus, the decreases begin.

I changed the neckline to a standard rib crew neckline because I prefer the look - I’ll be doing that again this time round.

Some comments on the yarn

I’m making this in Drops Nepal. The first one, made two and a half years ago, came out beautifully, and wore well. However, I’ve heard a few reports that the quality of this yarn has deteriorated, and that it pills a lot now. I’ve made a couple of pieces in the Nepal for myself, and they have pilled a fair bit at the sides. I’m really, really crossing my fingers that this doesn’t happen on this jumper, because that would make it even more devastating that I ruined the one that I made when the quality was still good. Fingers crossed.

Re-evaluating my relationship with Instagram

Fri, 29 Nov 2024 08:46:41 +0000

Alternatively titled: Stepping away from toxic content culture. Or: The dangers of consuming too much content aimed at Instagram marketers.

I’m not leaving Instagram, but I’ve re-evaluated my relationship with it. Over the last couple of years, I’ve felt shackled by content culture, and it became very toxic.

A lot of this is my fault because I watched a lot of Instagram marketing content that was aimed at small businesses and influencers who use Instagram as a marketing tool. Candidly, this is because I was thinking of starting a small business (but I’m not anymore). The trouble with watching all these Instagram marketing tutorials is that they blurred my understanding of what Instagram is for. They made me think that the goal of using the platform is to increase your following for its own sake.

My @cottonnoodle Instagram account in November 2024.

My follower count is 1713 at the time I write this, so not a huge number by Instagram standards, but I did work for it. This number became gamified, it became something I needed to min/max. I started feeling like my posts had “failed” if I did not gain followers.

Earlier this year, I took about 9 months off posting to Instagram. This actually wasn’t an intentional hiatus - the entire time, I was thinking about what I should post next, and feeling more and more anxious about how to address the hiatus when I returned. I overthought it. This is when I came to realise how unhealthy my relationship with Instagram was.

Instagram felt bad

Guilt when not taking photos of things I’ve made. And guilt when not sewing things in the first place! As if my sewing hobby only exists to feed the Instagram algorithm.

Fear of the algorithm penalising me if I don’t post often enough, or if I post erratically.

Pressure to make “relatable” “authentic” content ie. to be vulnerable in ways I’m not necessarily comfortable being online. But on the flip side, also pressure to make perfect content. Which resulted in photo shoots and editing taking hours.

Pressure to show behind the scenes and works in progress. Not that I don’t want to share this, but stopping to make content interferes with sewing, which is my actual hobby.

Pressure to write quippy, concise captions. The number of captions I’ve written that have been many paragraphs long… and that then got edited down out of concern that I’m being too wordy for the platform. I’m wordy, goddamnit! And I have a lot to say about my projects!

Pressure to create reels - oh god, reels. Yes, the Instagram algorithm favours video content over photos and carousels. Does that mean I want to make video content? No. Do I find it so much hard work, and inauthentic to myself? Yes. Did I feel the immense pressure to convert to producing reels instead of images? Oh yes.

So what changes now?

Creating this blog, and its shiny new gallery, instantly changed how I feel about producing “content”. Now that I’m thinking of this place as my home on the internet, and thinking of my gallery as my official public record of what I’ve made, I no longer have to treat Instagram as those things. Which takes some of the perfectionism pressure off. Incidentally, a lot of these same feelings had applied to blogging too (I’d started worrying rather a lot about SEO). I’ve already successfully let go of that, so Instagram is next.

I’m throwing away any desire to please the Instagram algorithm. I’m going to “destroy my feed”, Wreck This Journal-style, by intentionally disregarding its perfectionism and cohesiveness, and turning it into something more casual. I want to use it as a space to communicate and connect with others, not to collect imaginary internet points. I have no predictions for what it will look like. But it’s probably going to be a lot wordier, a lot weirder, and a lot less polished. And I’m going to stop feeling so damn guilty about it!

(An aside about marketing for others: I am conscious that I share “influencer-lite” content, with my pattern testing, and the occasional gifted patterns and fabric that I get sent. None of that is going to change - supporting small businesses that I care about is important to me. I understand what I’m participating in here. This article is to do with the fact that I’m no longer marketing me.)

Whew - writing this post has felt like a therapy session! Here’s to a new era of weirdness and authenticity.

Building a website with Hugo

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 20:08:41 +0000

I’m so excited about this new website, I can hardly even express it. Over the last week I’ve been furiously, obsessively, hyperfixatedly putting this thing together, and I am so happy about it.

I’ve been on the web since around 1997. To me, that era of the late 90s to early 00s was the golden era of the web. All those little websites that were entirely mad, entirely chaotic, and entirely human. I guess it helped that everyone was a nerd too, so it felt easier to connect to people.

I’ve recently been feeling nostalgic for the web of that time, and I’ve since learned I’m not alone in that feeling. A few months ago someone pointed me in the direction of the 512KB Club, which showcases websites that are less than 512KB in size, and although I love that, that didn’t exactly scratch the itch for me. Then last week, I stumbled upon the idea of the Indie Web, which led me to the idea of the Small Web… and well, let’s just say I was overjoyed to discover that there is a movement of people building little personal websites in the old-school hand-crafted way. That there exists a rebellion against the huge siloed internet giants that do all the hard work for you, and take away all of your creative freedom, while simultaneously turning you into a data object. Armed with this knowledge, I’ve spent the last week voraciously learning and building myself a brand new website.

Markdown and flat files, my new favourite CMS.

A little backstory about me and the web

I had my own personal website back in the early 00s, and it was home-grown. That’s how I learned to code - HTML and CSS turned into JS, which progressed into PHP and MySQL, which turned into Linux and bash when I got SSH access to my first web server, and then I spent my summer holidays installing various distributions of Linux just to see what they were like to configure. That’s how I spent my teenage years. (My favourite distro was Slackware, with xfce as my window manager.)

In 2005 I went to university to get a Masters degree in Computer Science. Facebook arrived while I was there, and I let my personal domains expire, because what was the point in maintaining all that now, when everyone was so excited to be on Facebook? After uni, I started out on my career as a Software Engineer, and discovered I had no desire to code outside of working hours.

Many years later I took up sewing and knitting, and discovered the online craft communities that still wrote blogs about it. When I started my own blog about it, I went to Wordpress. I stayed on Wordpress for 8 years. Eventually, when on a career break, I migrated to a self-hosted version of Wordpress so I could do more advanced things. I wrote myself a gallery plugin in PHP (and found it tremendously frustrating working with Wordpress’s tooling). This was when the itch began to make my place on the web more mine, and take it back to something simpler that wasn’t all composed of somebody else’s bloated platform and frameworks. And then I learned about the Indie Web. And here we are.

So I’ve been building this website.

After seriously considering rolling my own blog platform (which is what I had back in the day), I decided to go with a static site generator for simplicity. I picked Hugo, primarily driven by my existing skill set. And I’ve really enjoyed working with Hugo! I get to be in control of all the stuff I care about. I started out with a theme, for about 5 minutes, before realising I desperately wanted to write all my own templates. So these are all my own templates. I had to learn a lot of new HTML and CSS stuff - things like flexbox didn’t exist when I learned CSS.

I love how simple and clear the Hugo setup is (caveat: I mean clear and simple to someone who is happy on the command line). I love that I get to just write in Markdown, and then Hugo transforms my content using my templates. It does just enough automation, and gives me full control.

Some other things I’ve customised so far:

Image scaling and cropping through Hugo. Wordpress used to do this too, but it was so opaque, I had no idea what was going on. Again, with Hugo, I have total control.
Exif removal from images. I’m currently doing this with exiftool via a pre-commit hook so my Exif data doesn’t even go to GitHub (in case I ever decide to make my repo public).
My gallery is set up as a custom content type, with its own templates that keep it different from the blog.
I’ve also made some changes to how images get referenced, and how URLs are generated for my content. Maybe I’ll write a separate post about those things.

The whole site is backed up in GitHub. Images are configured to go in LFS, because I’m going to have many hundreds of them, and I wanted a scalable solution for storage that didn’t involve any extra scripting. This way, I can treat my images as any other file in the repo, and just fork out a little cash once I have too many to fit in the free tier storage. I might live to regret the LFS decision as apparently it’s pretty much irreversible without obliterating your git history, but OH WELL! Life on the edge. I didn’t have commit histories on Wordpress anyway.

I’m currently publishing static files directly to my webserver with rclone, but I’ll move that to GitHub Actions soon. Once I do that I’ll be able to blog from my phone, if I’m brave enough to publish without testing! Although naturally I am considering a staging site of sorts too.

I picked Krystal as my hosting provider, because they’re a UK-based independent and they have a B-Corp sticker on their website. They feel like a breath of fresh air after the clunky, bloated provider I used to use. Since choosing Krystal, I’ve become aware of free hosting solutions that have built in CI/CD and staging support, like Netlify and Vercel, but to be honest I’m wary of adopting another specialist platform. I want to stay on the DIY side of the line. I like my little public_html directory that I can ssh into. I feel comfortable with that.

What’s next?

I’ve still got a lot of tinkering to do - as I write, I haven’t finalised all my styles, and I haven’t migrated my content over - but gosh, I am so happy with my new space on the web that’s all mine. I’m over the moon, and so excited to be part of this new world. I feel so much more free to write here, far more than on Instagram or Wordpress (and not just because no one’s reading - ha!). It feels free because it’s my space, and I’m very much not thinking about SEO, or algorithms, or hashtags, or engagement. I’m writing to write, I’m not writing to be read. And that is so freeing.

Here’s to the small web!

On anticipating my next sewing project

Sun, 17 Nov 2024 19:34:23 +0000

I keep thinking about the Pinyon Pants by Sew Liberated. I’ve been fascinated by every pair I see on Instagram. I bought the pattern – and even got the printed copy (I never do that!) but I haven’t started on them yet. I haven’t got the fabric, and I’m mid-way through another project right now. But this Pinyon Pants pattern, man. I feel so excited thinking about it.

There’s something about this moment between committing to making a pattern and actually starting work on it that feels so optimistic. This huge sense of potential. At this moment, the trousers I end up making from this pattern could be perfect, fit me like a dream, and be the best garment I’ve ever made.

The Pinyon Pants croquis drawings by Sew Liberated.

But I haven’t started yet. I’m putting off starting because I’m putting off the point when reality hits. I’ve struggled with trousers so much in the past, I’ve struggled with fit. I tried the TDCO method, and it didn’t work for me. (Because that method doesn’t factor in the size of your calves! And I apparently have disproportionate calves? I did not feel that way before doing the TDCO method, which makes me resentful.) There is one trouser pattern that has worked for me, and I am going to copy the crotch curve and rise, but I don’t entirely have faith that it’s going to work.

And the thing is, I’m enjoying this moment. Right now, before I actually start working on the pattern, before I’ve even picked a fabric, before I’ve done a toile… Right now, the pattern sits in a liminal space between dream and reality, where it has the potential to be perfect, before I’ve had the chance to make mistakes and get frustrated with the fit. Maybe it will fit perfectly. Maybe they will be my perfect trousers. Maybe they won’t. Right now, I’m enjoying fantasising that they will.

Forget-Me-Not Natalie skirt sewing pattern review

Wed, 23 Aug 2023 13:18:04 +0000

Here’s another sewing pattern review for you: the Natalie skirt from Forget-Me-Not Patterns. I made it in this beautiful lightweight denim, and I’m over the moon with how it came out!

Full disclosure though: I am a part of the Forget-Me-Not patterns Insider program, which means I get free access to their patterns in exchange for social media posts about my makes. This blog post isn’t related to the programme though - I just want to talk about my new skirt y’all!

What fabric and size did I choose?

I made my Natalie skirt in the A-line view and the shorter length. I’m 5'6", for reference.

I chose size 36, and graded to size 34 at the hip (my measurements are waist 28.5", hip 37.5"). I think I got the size just right. I’ve got a pretty ropey track record with picking the right sizes for waist bands - they turn out either too big or too small - but I got the goldilocks measurement this time!

The fabric is a lightweight cotton denim from New Craft House a few years ago.

What is the pattern like?

I know I sound like a broken record now, but Forget-Me-Not patterns are a joy to sew. The instructions are clear, well-illustrated, and nicely structured.

The PDF is layered so you can print just the sizes you want - and I forgot about it again you guys. I printed all the sizes when I didn’t need to. I don’t know why I forget this every time, it’s even written right there in the instructions!

What was it like to sew?

This was a really straight forward, easy project. I’d 100% recommend this to beginners.

That doesn’t mean it’s boring - it’s not. There are some really nice elements to the pattern where you can sense the quality of the drafting. For example, the waistband is made from gently curved panels, and they form a beautiful V shape at the centre back - which is echoed at the centre front where the waistband overlaps itself. Very elegant, and satisfying to put together.

I also really like the adorable little belt loops. I’m not sure why but I just find them so cute.

What’s it like to wear the finished garment?

I find this skirt really comfortable to wear. I like how the waistband extends upwards, giving a super high waist look but without the feeling of being so constrained. The skirt sits on your natural waist, and the upper waistband is cut in such a way that it has the freedom to move with your body, so as not to constrict you.

I’m pleased that I picked this fabric as it makes this piece so versatile. It does crease a little bit, mind you. But that’s life.

Would I make it again?

I absolutely would. I’d love to make the flared view in the longer length - as that’s my typical silhouette. No regrets making the A-line version though; it’s nice to have variety.

In conclusion

The Forget-Me-Not Natalie skirt is a lovely pattern. It’s easy to sew, but it’s not “just” an A-line/flared skirt. That waistband, the waist tie, and the slanted pockets elevate it into something just a little bit more. Super pretty, and I suspect this is going to be my workhorse skirt for the rest of the summer.

PS. The top I’m wearing in these pics is also from a Forget-Me-Not pattern - the Sylvie top. I also wrote a review for the Sylvie pattern, go check that out!

Poison Grrls Rizzo Blouse

Wed, 02 Aug 2023 10:41:04 +0000

I finally used that yarn that I bought in Singapore ten thousand years ago and knitted the Rizzo blouse designed by Poison Grrls.

The construction of this was new to me, and I’ll be honest, a bit of a mind-bender at times. First you knit the back shoulders separately, and then join them; then you pick up stitches to knit each front shoulder separately, and then join them. Meanwhile, you’re also keeping track of increases for sleeves and an eyelet pattern on different counters. I actually ended up creating a spreadsheet to keep track of things at various points! I’ve been knitting for 11 years now and I’m only just starting to realise that I prefer charts to written instructions.

But I really enjoyed knitting this pattern, once I’d got my head around it. Although there is a lot of picking up stitches, which isn’t my favourite, I really like the effect it creates around the sleeve cuffs - they look a bit pouffy and gathered. Super cute.

Really cute sleeves!

The yarn is deep stash - 4 Seasons Merino 4 Ply from Spotlight in Singapore. I think it’s discontinued now. Merino wool is supposedly good for warm weather as well as cold - as any outdoorsy travel blog will tell you - but I’m guessing they’re not talking about thick hand-knitted merino wool. This one is definitely on the warmer side! I love the look, but it’s too much a properly warm day. Thankfully we don’t get many of those around here. I love mine, and I’ll wear it a lot - but generally I’d recommend making this pattern in something with a cooler hand, like bamboo or cotton.

Self-drafted A-line princess seam dress

Wed, 28 Jun 2023 10:00:00 +0000

As an experiment, I set myself the target of taking a garment idea from concept to actualisation in 3 days. And I did it! Well - actually it took me 4 days. But that’s far better than not doing it at all, which is what happens to all my other ideas!

Behold, my self-drafted A-line princess seam dress:

I ended up deviating quite a bit from the original design. Below are my original sketch, and a technical drawing of what I ended up sewing. The princess seams and the flared skirt stayed, but I ditched the side panels, the racer back shoulders, and the keyhole opening. I added a centre back zipper and a boatneck.

Making the Dress

I started by making a proof of concept on my mini-mannequin. The mini-mannequin was something I made as part of my fashion design course, and it’s definitely not representative of the human form, but it was close enough to allow me to figure out the drafting steps to transform a basic block into the style I was aiming for.

To draft the full-size version, I started with the Close-Fitting Dress Block from Aldrich’s Metric Pattern Cutting. (Which is actually not very close-fitting - if that’s what you’re after, you want the Body Con block!) I modified the existing darts into princess seams from the armscye, and added flare on the skirt starting at the waist. Then I changed the neckline to a boat neck shape, and drafted an all-in-one facing. I deepened the armscye too, as my toile was digging in a bit under the arm. This stage - the drafting and constructing the toile - took me nearly two full days.

Finally I sewed up the dress in my fashion fabric, which took another day. It shouldn’t have taken as long as it did, but the all-in-one facing was so fiddly to attach! It would have been a lot easier if the shoulder seam wasn’t so narrow, so lesson learned there. Boat necks + all-in-one facings = awkward.

I originally wanted to use two different coloured fabrics to emphasise the style lines, but I didn’t have any two fabrics in my stash that would work together. So I used this batik fabric that I bought in Indonesia 7 years ago (!!). To be honest I think the print is a bit too busy and is obscuring some of the design, but it’s pretty all the same.

The final dress has a bit of a 1950s vibe, which actually really reminds me of the styles I saw in the online sewing scene back in 2016. And my choice of print is only furthering the “vintage dress made in a quilting cotton” aesthetic! (Even though it’s not a quilting cotton!)

I’m definitely not done with this pattern - I’ve got ideas for how to iterate on it to make it a bit more contemporary… Coming soon. (If I can buck my ideas up that is.)

Esti co-ord in bright green linen

Thu, 22 Jun 2023 12:56:00 +0000

Recently I pattern tested the Esti co-ord for Tilly and the Buttons. As I was sewing from a pre-release copy, it wouldn’t really be fair for me to review the pattern until I make a copy from the final version. But I can say that this is a solid, simple pattern, excellent for beginners! There are no closures; the top just slips over your head, and the trousers are elasticated.

I tested the cropped length view - I can’t remember for the life of me why I chose the cropped length, when crop tops aren’t really my style! But at time of writing, it’s super sunny and warm in York, so a breezy belly is comfortable. Come autumn though, I will use my leftover fabric to extend the top, so I can tuck it in for that faux jumpsuit vibe.

The trousers are great. I love a pair of brightly-coloured, wide-leg, stretch-waistband linen trousers. This pattern hasn’t displaced the Tilly and the Buttons Safiya trousers (from the Make It Simple book) as my favourite trousers though, as I love the flat front waistband of that pattern. But I do like the patch pockets on these, so I might add those to my next pair of Safiyas - in addition to the in-seam pockets, of course!

TAUKO Magazine Auri jacket pattern review

Thu, 01 Jun 2023 10:30:00 +0000

Recently I was lucky to be sent an advanced copy of the Auri jacket pattern from TAUKO Magazine Issue 7. They let me choose which pattern I wanted from the issue, and I couldn’t resist the Auri with its wavy lines and colour blocking opportunities!

What fabric and size did I choose?

I used Sevenberry cotton twill. I actually bought a little extra twill in yellow to add the optional ruffles, but in the end I decided to keep it simple and focus on the green and blue.

This is a size 2. I chose the cropped length, full sleeve view, with no ruffles. I lengthened the sleeve by 1.5", which is a standard adjustment for me.

What is the pattern like?

Although it is published in TAUKO Magazine, the AURI jacket was actually designed by Jo Morris, the designer from Forget Me Not patterns. I’m a big fan of her designs, and I’m also an ambassador for Forget Me Not - so I knew I could expect high quality pattern drafting. And I was right about that! The drafting is excellent, and the pattern comes together very nicely.

This was my first time sewing a pattern from TAUKO Magazine though, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. It was a bit different to indie sewing patterns that I’ve made in the past, purely in the way the information is presented. The text is a lot more densely packed, and there are very few illustrations of the steps along the way. So a word of warning for anyone who relies on the visuals when following sewing instructions! I wouldn’t recommend this pattern to an absolute beginner as the instructions don’t hold your hand along the way to the same extent as other indie patterns do. That said, I’m not a beginner, and I found the instructions well written and easy to follow.

What was it like to sew?

I really enjoyed the process of sewing this pattern!

The curves were my favourite part to sew. I pinned only at the notches, and used my hands to ease the curves into place at the machine. This was incredibly satisfying. I cannot stress enough how satisfying this was. The seam allowance is 3/8" (1cm) rather than the more typical 5/8" (1.5cm), which allows you to do this sort of thing more easily as there is less seam allowance to ease into place.

The sleeve is a grown-on style, and the pattern instructs you to insert the sleeve flat, in the same way as a t-shirt sleeve is inserted flat. There’s something kind of thrilling about inserting a sleeve this way rather than setting it in! (Or is that just me?)

I made sure to match up the colour blocking on the side seams. It only takes a little bit of extra time to pin more precisely in that area, and it’s so worth it.

What’s it like to wear the finished garment?

I love the overall effect of the colour blocking, and I think my jacket came out looking cute. It fits me nicely.

The sleeves have a bit of a Dolman effect going on, which is not my favourite kind of sleeve to wear, as it does restrict motion a little bit. I wouldn’t wear this jacket if I needed to be doing lots of physical movement with my arms. But I wouldn’t really expect to be wearing a cute jacket in those circumstances anyway, so it’s no problem!

Otherwise, it’s a very fun jacket to wear. One of my proudest makes!

Would I make it again?

Absolutely yes. I don’t need another jacket though, so I would be more likely to sew it as a blouse. I’ve seen a few beautiful blouse versions of it on the #taukoaurijacket hashtag and I’d love to make one myself. I’d like to try adding the ruffle too!

In conclusion

The TAUKO Auri jacket is a really fun pattern to sew. I would recommend it to people who have a little bit of experience sewing, because the pattern instructions don’t include many illustrations. It’s a straight-forward and satisfying project, with lots of opportunities for playing with colour.

Forget-Me-Not Sylvie top pattern review

Wed, 24 May 2023 15:43:00 +0000

I made the Sylvie top from Forget-Me-Not patterns!

NB. I am a part of the Forget-Me-Not patterns Insider program, which means I get access to all their patterns in exchange for some social media posts showing off my makes. Forget-Me-Not haven’t asked to write this review though, and I get nothing for this. I just want to share the details of this lovely pattern!

What fabric and size did I choose?

I made a straight size 34, no mods at all.

This is a cotton jersey fabric from Selfmade.com. I picked it up on holiday in Oslo last year. I spent like an hour in the store touching all the fabrics and the haberdashery and generally being very excited. It’s suuuuch a lovely fabric.

What is the pattern like?

I’ve obviously sewn quite a few FMN patterns by now, and it was no surprise to me that this one was as excellent as the others. The instructions are illustrated and clear, and the steps for the round neck view and the cowl neck view are separated, which makes it nice and easy to follow.

The PDF pattern is layered, which I literally ALWAYS forget about before printing, even though it’s written right there in the instructions. I’m just foolish. But if you remember to do it, you can print only the size(s) you want to make, which makes cutting out a lot faster. And saves on ink. The pattern also kindly tells you which pages to print for the view you are making, which is nice.

What was it like to sew?

Being essentially a t-shirt with some stylish add-ons, this is a quick sew. I actually made mine as a palette cleanser in between some tricky projects, and it worked a treat.

My big tip is: when the pattern tells you to mark circles, mark the dang circles. You’ll find them around the V where the centre of the cowl meets the front bodice, and at the V where the cowl meets the back neckline. I didn’t mark these at first, and I regretted it. Particularly around the neckline. To make a smooth neckline, you want to start and stop stitching exactly where it tells you. And as long as you have the marking drawn on, then you’re golden. Don’t wing it!

What’s it like to wear the finished garment?

It’s comfy, obviously! It’s a t-shirt style, with loose airy sleeves, so about as comfy as you can get.

Would I make it again?

100% yes. Me Made May this year has taught me that I live in t-shirts, so the Sylvie is a great way to feel comfy and still have a bit of interest in my outfit. Plus, I saw some gorgeous versions on Instagram using stretch lace in the yoke, which are stunning. Really want to give that a go.

In conclusion

The Sylvie top is a classic Forget-Me-Not pattern in that it is an elevated basic. A beautiful top that’s easy to make and easy to wear. I’ll be wearing mine all summer, and looking out for more fabric to make another one in!

Megan dress with African wax print from Dovetailed London

Wed, 05 Apr 2023 09:43:00 +0000

I originally wrote this blog post as a guest feature for Dovetailed London, as I’m one of their brand ambassadors. I received the fabric in exchange for the blog post.

It’s my first Dovetailed London Ambassador make! To sew this dress, I used the Megan pattern from the book Love at First Stitch by Tilly and the Buttons.

I chose this dress pattern because it has clean, simple style lines, which let the fabric be the star of the show. It also has a lot of straight seams which makes pattern matching much easier! The pattern also recommends fabrics with a little bit of structure to their drape, and even suggests quilting cotton - so I knew it would work nicely in wax print, which has a little bit of sturdiness to it.

I had loads of fun playing with the contrasting motifs in this fabric. It’s actually mainly a red fabric, with the red check forming the bulk of the design. The blue stripes and white grid make up a border that occurs less frequently. I decided to use that border as a defining feature of my dress by placing it along the centre front, centre back, and waistline. And I love the effect this creates. It almost looks like I’m wearing a corset on top of the dress!

That’s actually one of my favourite things about African wax print fabric. It often has multiple design features along the length that you can get really creative with. I could make this same dress again out of the same fabric, but centre it on the red area instead of the blue, and the two dresses would look very different. Sisters, not twins.

I pulled out all the tricks to make sure my stripes lined up. I mirrored the pieces while cutting to make sure they were exactly even, I pinned like crazy, I transferred the stripes to the zipper. The process was actually far easier than I expected, largely due to the fabric itself. The grid lines create very useful guides, and the fabric is so stable that it allows for plenty of accuracy when cutting and sewing. I didn’t get all the pattern matching perfect, so don’t look too closely - but I’m very happy with how it turned out.

Wax print can take a bit of a beating too! I didn’t make a toile for this dress, so I did my fitting as I went along. There was a moment of panic after I sewed the neck facing, only to realise that I needed to take a whopping 5cm out of the back neckline. I ended up unpicking the facing, which was already trimmed and understitched, in order to make my adjustment at the shoulder seam. I then cut a new facing and sewed it in place with a 2mm seam allowance. The smallest seam allowance I’ve ever used! And the fabric was an absolute angel throughout. Despite all that manhandling, unpicking and restitching curved seams, it didn’t fray or stretch out, and the neckline looks really neat now. Thank goodness!

All in all, I love my new dress. It’s comfortable and wearable, and I’m kinda thinking about making that sister dress in red now…

Gold foil Tilly and the Buttons Bibi skirt

Wed, 19 Oct 2022 16:50:00 +0000

Inspiration finally struck for this meter of gold foil fabric! I made a top from it a few years ago, but this leftover length has been sitting in my stash just waiting for me to do something with it. So I sewed up this Bibi skirt from the Tilly and the Buttons book Stretch!.

The skirt is so simple, folks. It’s two pattern pieces (a skirt panel and a waist band). The construction is straight forward, and fitting is easy as you can just baste the panel seams before you sew them up properly. A super quick make. Which is really what I needed - a quick win to break up the ongoing saga of my self-drafted bodice block.

My concern about this skirt is that there’s no elastic in the waistband. It’s made with ponte which is a stable, heavy knit fabric, so in theory it should hold its form, but I can easily see this stretching out over time. I guess it’d be easy enough to unpick and insert elastic down the road if need be.

The fabric is a bit awkward to sew. You can’t press it or the foil melts off (ask me how I know). It’s also pretty bouncy, so I’ve topstitched all the seams to make them lie flat. I also topstitched around the top of the waistband to get it to hold the fold in place, but for some reason I decided to stretch out the waistband while I stitched that (I guess I was imagining that there was elastic in there) so the top is a little bit wavy when relaxed. But that doesn’t really show when I’m wearing it.

It looks pretty great as a faux dress with the original top too (which is incidentally also a Tilly book pattern, the Tabitha tee from Make It Simple):

Maybe a bit too Christmassy for this time of year, but a good option to have in the bank. I think I may finally be sold on the idea of matching separates!

Making a block using Winifred Aldrich's Metric Pattern Cutting

Mon, 03 Oct 2022 17:52:00 +0000

After many, many (many) iterations of trying to retrofit a bodice block from an existing pattern, I’ve decided to step up my game and do the damn thing properly. So I’m drafting one myself.

I bought myself a copy of Winifred Aldrich’s famous book Metric Pattern Cutting. This is a classic - and it isn’t cheap. It’s very much a text book, that teaches you the formulas for drafting patterns. It explains how to draft basic blocks, and then it shows you a whole bunch of different modifications you can make to those blocks - all mathematically. And I love it. I’ve fallen in love with the book. The technical angle works wonderfully for my brain. I’m a software engineer by trade, so I’m very much a precise/logical thinker. This makes so much more sense than guesswork.

I also treated myself to the Pattern Workshop course to learn digital drafting techniques using Adobe Illustrator. This was very much a splurge, and although I learned a huge amount from the course, I must say there are very decent free alternatives out there such as Pattern Lab, which I’m using to supplement my knowledge. At any rate, I’ve finished Pattern Workshop, I’ve watched many hours of Pattern Lab’s videos, and I am newly equipped with these fancy-pants skills that let me draft patterns digitally in Illustrator. VERY exciting.

Also I learned enough about Illustrator to be able to make a li’l logo for my site, so that’s cool:

My First Self-Drafted Digital Bodice Block

Here’s the first bodice block I drafted to my measurements, using the Close Fitting Bodice block from Aldrich.

I then used the tiling template from Pattern Workshop to print it out and tape it together (again, other alternatives are out there, I think Pattern Lab may have one):

Honestly, I was pretty giddy at this point. It felt like a PDF pattern that I’d bought. Obviously it doesn’t look at all professional at this stage, but it seemed surprisingly polished and real.

Here’s the first version sewn together:

I immediately altered the shoulder seam to slope the shoulder, which is why the armscye looks a bit short. Other than that, the fit was fairly decent for a first go. There’s a lot of excess around the back, and it was too long and too tight around the hips (so I folded it up). But not too shabby.

Version 2: Close Waist Shaping

I made a second version:

In addition to some minor tweaks (shoulder slope & dart angle changes), the most notable difference is that I’ve cropped it to waist length and added the close waist shaping from another formula in the book.

The close waist shaping instructions confused me. They stated quite matter-of-factly that the total waist dart intake needs to be 12cm. Surely this depends on the difference between your bust and waist? Yes. Yes it does. That 12cm is derived from the standard measurement chart given in the book, so I needed to follow the formula for my own measurements:

Width of block at bust line: Half bust plus 5cm ease from close-fitting block = 48cm
Desired width at waist line: Half waist plus 3cm ease = 39.5cm
Therefore my dart intake is 8.5cm.

This gives a 3.5cm difference from the total dart intake in Aldrich. Aldrich splits the 12cm over 3 darts (back dart, front dart and effective dart at side seam), so I simply subtracted my 3.5cm evenly across the given measurements for those 3 darts.

And here it is printed out (YEP, it’s still thrilling):

The fit is much better this time, and it’s starting to look like what I want.

Fit thoughts at this stage:

The front of the bodice rises up quite a lot compared to the back. I thought this was my own body shape (I have a flat back and upright posture so it wouldn’t surprise me) - but a little googling suggests that this is a known issue with the Aldrich instructions, as the front length doesn’t include any compensation for the bust fullness. So I will need to add a little length and curvature to the front. Edit 4/10/22: I just looked closer at the instructions and realised that they do actually tell you to lengthen the bodice at the centre front by 1cm, and I just missed that step. Sorry for doubting you Aldrich!

The length of the front darts is good but they are a bit too far apart. I guess you don’t really take a measurement of where your apex actually is, so it makes sense to have to adjust that.

I think there’s a bit too much ease, to be honest. There’s a good 7cm of ease at the bust and 6cm at the waist. Maybe this is down to taste, but that seems like a lot for what’s called a “close-fitting” bodice block. Although the ease is doing a nice job of concealing my torso asymmetry, so maybe I should roll with it.

And speaking of asymmetry, it looks as though my left shoulder is shorter than my right. I don’t really fancy drafting the two sides differently so I’ll need to compromise that shoulder length by getting the average of the two.

Next Steps

I’d like to do one more iteration to address some of the above issues before I draft a sleeve. There’s a bit of slack around the armscye, but I hear that’s a good thing if you’re planning to stick a sleeve in there, as it gives you greater motion. So I’ll give it a whirl and see how that goes.

Can’t wait to get this block sorted. I’ve got big plans, which I’m eager to get on with!

How to sew faster by batching tasks

Thu, 29 Sep 2022 14:27:00 +0000

I tried out a great technique to speed up sewing.

Recently, I had to make a dress on a deadline. By which I mean, I left it til the last minute to make it! I had so little time that it barely seemed possible to finish the dress. But rather than give up, I used the pressure to try out a technique that would make my sewing more efficient: task batching. And it worked so well!

Batching your sewing tasks is such a time saver - and it doesn’t even involve cutting any corners. (Insert joke about trimming seam allowances here.) You’re not skipping any of the important steps - you’re just rearranging them.

Should you sew faster?

Don’t get me wrong! On most sewing projects, I like to take my time. I really advocate for sewing slowly and enjoying the journey. Plus, it’s not great for the planet to be making loads and loads of clothes quickly. Fast fashion is not a good thing.

But - sometimes you have a deadline, and you need to pull out all the stops to get your outfit made. And that’s where task batching comes in really handy.

What is task batching in sewing?

The principle of task batching is that you group together as many similar tasks as you can, and then do them all before moving on to the next type of task.

For instance, the pattern instructions may tell you to sew a seam, then finish it, then press it. This makes clear logical sense, and is a fine way to write instructions, particularly for beginners. But if you follow these steps in this order for every seam, then you’re constantly switching up your workspace to suit different tasks. This might mean physically getting up and walking around the room, moving your machines, or reconfiguring your machine settings.

For example, these are the different spaces I use:

My cutting table where I pin
My sewing machine
My overlocker* (which shares a space with my sewing machine, so I physically move them to make room)
My ironing board

Typically I have to use all of these spaces on a similar step. When you multiply that by the number of steps in a sewing patter, that’s a lot of time spent moving around or moving machines!

* If you don’t have an overlocker, then you’re probably changing the settings on your sewing machine between straight seams and edge finishing. And you’re trimming seam allowances too!

So what to do instead?

Your goal is to do as much of the same kind of task in one go as you can, before moving on to the next kind of task.

How do you do that?

First, identify a batch of seams that can be sewn together.
Pin all these seams.
Move all your pinned pieces to the sewing machine and sew them all one after the other.
Overlock all these seams.
Press all these seams.

Now you’re ready to pick up the next batch of seams.

Obviously you can’t do all the seams in your project in one batch, because there are dependencies between them. For example, you probably want to finish your side and shoulder seams before you insert a sleeve. But you can probably batch together more seams than the pattern instructions suggest.

Top Tips for Batching your Sewing Tasks

1. Take time to save time.

Sit down for 5 minutes before you start sewing, and rewrite the pattern instructions into the order that makes sense. I usually reword them into a simple shorthand for myself at this stage.

This means there’s no need to stop and read full-length pattern instructions between each step. It’s great if you’re an experienced sewist who doesn’t need the step-by-step details for everything.

2. Identify independent seams.

It’s worth reading through to the end of the pattern and finding as many unrelated seams as possible. For instance, there may be a waist tie, collar, cuff or skirt that you can pin/sew/overlock at the same time as your shoulder seams.

(I like to think of this in terms of dependency trees, but then again, I am a software engineer…)

3. Batch up all kinds of pressing tasks - not just seams.

Look ahead for any pressing tasks that can be brought forward into the first batch. Waistbands, neckbands or ties can be pressed in half before the time comes to sew them.

It can also be nice to press hems before sewing the pieces - particularly on sleeves, which become more fiddly to press after they’ve been sewn into the garment.

4. Consider the changes to settings on your machine.

Batch up steps that involve changing the settings on your machine. Gathering stitches, bar tacks, topstitching in a contrasting thread colour, and rolled hems - these all involve faffing around with your setup.

Plus if you batch them all together, that also minimises the number of times you can forget to put the settings back afterwards!

And that’s it.

I hope you enjoy using this technique. Enjoy your speedier sewing!

90s-themed Shelby dress

Wed, 21 Sep 2022 16:45:00 +0000

I’d planned to make this Shelby dress for a 90s themed birthday party I was going to. I bought the fabric and the pattern well in advance - but thanks to some other sewing deadlines I had, I ended up with only two days to make it! Spoiler: I managed it in time.

This time pressure gave me the impetus to try out a technique I’ve been meaning to do for a long time - task batching. I mean. It’s not exactly revolutionary. I do the same thing in the kitchen when I’m cooking.

I’ve got a blog post coming up on how to batch tasks, so look out for that!

The dress is inspired by a particular music video from the 90s…

I’m really pleased with how it came out, given the sheer panic I was operating under while making it. I actually cut the midi length, which meant the pieces were too long for my cutting table, and I had to cut on the floor (which also meant scissors rather than my trusty rotary cutter). That wasn’t great for my back as I have a condition that means I’m super prone to backache. Annoyingly, I actually ended up trimming the dress to just above the knee anyway, so I should have just made the short version and used my cutting table after all! Oh well.

The dress came together really nicely - even considering it’s viscose, which I really used to struggle with, but I’ve got enough experience with viscose now that I am better at manhandling it.

The only real issue I had was that the button band facing wanted to hang differently from the outer dress fabric, which caused some weird pulling around the front centre. I suspect I accidentally cut the outer fabric on a slight bias. I had to redo the hem a couple of times to get it to work, but I got there. I ended up hanging the dress and pinning it where it wanted to hang.

The buttons are actually pearlescent, which you can’t tell in the photos. I added the extra three up the neckline in homage to the original dress from the music video.

The fit isn’t perfect - but given how little prep I did (no toile!!!) I’m overjoyed at it. It’s slightly too big, which is fine at the waist as you can use the back ties to cinch it in. But around the bust, the princess seams don’t sit properly on the bust point, and there’s a little bagginess going on. But I don’t care. I’m very happy with this dress. And I’m very happy with the lessons it taught me.

My sewing plans for autumn 2022

Sat, 20 Aug 2022 23:54:00 +0000

It’s time to admit that we’re entering Autumn sewing season. Thankfully, I’ve got sewing plans that I never got around to last Autumn, which I’m still excited to get into this year. Assuming I get around to them this time.

First of all, I need to interrupt this broadcast to give a huge thank you to TipStitched for the How I Create Digital Sketches video, which explains how to make images like the one above. Game changer.

Let’s dig into it!

First up, I’d like to make myself another pair of Ginger Jeans. This will be my second pair of Gingers. I took a jeans making workshop at Bobbins and Bolts a couple of years ago and made a pair in indigo denim, but I needed a lot of handholding at the time and so far I’ve been too nervous to attempt them again by myself.

I feel like my sewing skills in general have come a huge way since then, so I’m ready to give them another shot. Plus, I need some more jeans for the cold weather.

I’ve coloured them in green here because that’s what excites me… but I don’t actually have that fabric in my stash! I’ve got some more of the indigo denim, so I’ll start there and if it goes well, then I’ll invest in some vibrant green denim (if I can find any with the right stretch percentage).

The Ottoline jacket is next on my list. I’ve picked a beautiful pink colour for this image, and I’m picturing that in canvas … but I don’t actually have any of that fabric either. (Did I get a bit carried away with my new Photoshop skills? Yes. Yes I did.) In reality I’m going to make a wearable toile in a beautiful light blue denim that’s already in my stash.

I’ve never made outerwear, so this will be a first. I’ve got a mild nervousness about it but I don’t have a rational reason for that. I’ve made collared shirts aplenty, and my machine is heavy duty enough to sew denim, so I don’t know what I’m scared of. The unknown, I guess. Another chance to face up and be brave.

The third thing on my list is this polkadot Shelby dress, which is vaguely based on Gwen Stefani’s dress in the Don’t Speak video. That video being on repeat when I was in my family’s home in the Philippines in 1995 is a pretty formative memory for me. That album was one of the first CDs I bought, and it remains one of my favourites.

I’m making this for a friend’s birthday, which is 90s themed. So it’s the only thing on the list with a deadline, and that deadline is freakin’ soon so I’m going to have to get a move on.

Gucci Dress

The other thing that’s on my list is to draft a pattern like this Gucci dress. I’m currently learning pattern drafting from Pattern Workshop and the excellent book Metric Pattern Cutting by Winifred Aldrich, and I reckon it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch for me to draft this for myself.

The dress retails for £2550 and if I can get this right, I can make myself a version for under £50 in materials I reckon! And probably £2500 in time and skills because this is going to take me ages…

Let’s see how far I get with these plans ey!

An upcycled cushion and three knitted jumpers

Sat, 11 Jun 2022 16:49:00 +0000

I tend to prefer sewing clothes, but every now and then I’ll make something for the house. This week I made a cushion cover, and also made the cushion itself out of upcycled materials.

I have some old cushions from Habitat that are well over 10 years old and completely flattened and stained. They came round the world and back when we did our stint in Singapore. The last time I unzipped them to wash the covers, I discovered that the fabric of the cushions had completely disintegrated - and I mean completely. There was just dust left. Which is… kind of freaky?

Anyway I had this lump of cushion filling.

So I took a couple of old toiles, unpicked the darts, and sewed them up into a 45x45cm cushion casing.

If you look closely, you might notice that fancy felled seam. These piece of old toiles weren’t wide enough, so I had to piece them together. I took the opportunity to practice using the new felling foot I bought for my machine after reading David Page Coffin’s Shirtmaking, in which he heavily encouraged the use of the felling foot - and I must say, it is rather good.

Then I fluffed all the stuffing up to bring it back to life. This made a LOT of mess as all that disintegrated fabric was mixed up in there. I ended up putting on a facemask to avoid breathing it in 😷

Next up, I squashed it all in and stitched the gap shut on the machine. I did a crap job of making that neat because the huge stuffed cushion was a bit awkward to manipulate! I usually hand stitch cushions closed, but what’s the point? No one’s going to see it.

Cushion done.

Finally I made a cover made out of a fat quarter of quilting cotton that has been in my stash for years. I made the cover in the same dimensions as the casing so it’s not saggy (had to mess with the seam allowances a bit to make it work as my fat quarter was a bit skinny).

There you have it. Trash & stash into something useful.

A lot of knitting updates this week, too. I went to Scotland for a week and didn’t fancy taking my big project with me, so I started a new one (I know, I know!!):

As you can see it’s going insanely quickly. Not only is it stockinette on nice worsted wool and lovely big needles (relative to my other projects), but it’s also my first time knitting a bottom-up sweater. I’ve been afraid of them for the longest time, but I now have no idea why. It’s so satisfying! I’ve already knitted the whole body up to the under arms, and am now on the first sleeve. Usually when knitting top-down, the fun bit is in the yoke, and the body and sleeves are tedious because you just want to be finished. But doing it bottom-up means I do the “boring” bits while I have all that new-project energy, and I get to look forward to ending on the yoke.

This one has a fun yoke, too. You’ll see.

Here’s the birthday sweater I’ve been working on since the dawn of time (or last Christmas) - far slower progress.

My plan is to finish the sleeves on the blue jumper and join them onto the body first, before I return to finish this project. It’s not long til it’s done, but second sleeve syndrome right?

And my third concurrent knitting project, the one I’m making with my knitting club, is going nicely too:

We’re a good way into the cables now. This is the most intricate of my three projects, and it takes the most work for sure. I find it quite hard on the hands to knit, although that has improved since I switched to the correct size cable!

Adventures in retrofitting a bodice block

Fri, 27 May 2022 19:01:00 +0000

This week I’ve been working on a bodice block.

A bodice block has been on my list for such a long time, and my recent experience trying to fit the Etta dress bodice to my asymmetrical body made me so disillusioned with the idea of fitting a pattern that I finally decided it was time to start on a block. If I can get a block right, then I can compare it to patterns I make in the future and get a clear idea of what adjustments I need to make. Plus, I’m very excited about the idea of drafting my own patterns using the block as a starting point.

I’m actually using the Etta bodice pattern as a base for my block, as I already have the pattern, and it’s shift dress with a bodice that’s reasonably close to what a block pattern would look like:

I chose the high back neck version rather than the V-neckline version that drove me crazy before. To convert it into a basic block I’ve raised the neckline on the front and back, and removed the back neck dart - I already know from my fitting journey that I have a flat upper back so it won’t be missed. I also moved the closure from the back to the front by drawing in a seam allowance at the front centre and adding in the centre line at the back. This makes it way easier to fit (just with pins) and I don’t need to bother with zips. (I wasted loads of time on zips with my Etta).

So far I have done three rounds of fitting on one toile. I failed to photograph it on my actual body, so you’re going to have to use your mind’s eye for the next few paragraphs. Sorry friends 🤷

First I did a toile with my standard shoulder slope modification. To do this, I cut out the armscye, lower it parallel to the grain by 1/2", and then redraw the shoulder seam line. I do this on the front and back. It’s a dead easy adjustment that took me ages to discover - but now I do it on every pattern.

I sewed up this first version and found that the bust dart was a good size (Tilly and the Buttons draft with a B cup, which is a 2" difference between high bust and full, which matches my measurements). But the apex was too high, causing the bodice to ride up a bit as the toile naturally wanted to sit with the apex in the right place. This led to wrinkling above the bust. So I pulled the bodice down to smooth out the wrinkles, drew on the correct apex, then unpicked the dart and sewed it with the new angle, pointing at the next apex. This worked perfectly! I’m pretty happy with the fit of the front at this point.

First toile, showing the lowered bust darts. It looks better on me, I promise! I think my dress form is an dressmaker’s A cup

Next I turned to the back, which is where I had all the issues on my Etta toile. The upper bodice was super baggy, which I expected after my Etta trials - but this time it was WAY less complicated to diagnose and fix because there was no V-neck or back dart! I just took a horizontal 3/8" slice straight across the back. I also took a dart out of the centre back.

The fit looked reasonable at this point, although it is definitely more slack on my right shoulder than my left. So at this stage I decided to transfer all my adjustments to paper for my second toile. I moved the bust dart down properly rather than just pivoting it, and I converted that centre back dart by slicing the whole thing vertically and rotating out that excess all the way down to the waist. I also moved the shoulder seam forwards by an inch (really what is up with my shoulders? answer: scoliosis)

Pattern pieces after round 1. Not pictured is the adjustment I made to the sleeve head to match the 3/8" removed from the upper back.

Feeling pretty good about round 1. I suspect I’ll still need to make an upper back adjustment of some form, and I’ll also look at the neck, length, and sleeve in the next toile.

Artisan Splash Lyra dress, and a knitting update

Fri, 20 May 2022 17:20:00 +0000

I’m back on the sewing train!

I have an event to attend this weekend and I fancied making a nice dress for it, as my wardrobe is lacking in the “nice day dress” department. I have a couple of workhorse dresses that I always turn to, but I want more choices.

I’ve got a bit of post-viral fatigue going on, so I chose a familiar project to keep the effort level relatively low. I’ve made the Lyra dress by Tilly and the Buttons a couple of times before, and I had plenty of appropriate fabric in my stash. (Full disclosure - I was actually a pattern tester so I got my copy of the pattern for free.)

What didn’t click for me until I’d started cutting out the fabric was that I’m actually using the same fabric as is used in Tilly and the Buttons’ marketing for the pattern! Whoops. I usually try to steer clear of copying other people’s makes, but I don’t really mind with this one. I mean, the fabric really really does work for this dress. (Plus, I made the midi-length, so mine’s different anyway!)

While I was assembling the bodice, I tried it on and I got really excited about the idea of a sleeveless cropped shirt in this fabric - doesn’t it look great with these pink shorts?

I have a little leftover fabric, so I’m going to see if I have enough to make this happen. I’m thinking of using the Helen’s Closet Gilbert shirt pattern.

One thing I’m not super happy about is the collar stand. I find collar stands really fiddly to sew evenly, so I unpick and re-press and re-stitch until it works. This, obviously, takes ages. In the name of “perfect is the enemy of done”, I’ve allowed myself to have some sloppy stitching on this dress (where it’s not visible), but I’ve vowed to invest some effort into learning a good technique. So I’ve picked my copy of Shirtmaking off the shelf.

I first read this years ago, before I’d ever tried to make a proper shirt. But I think the information will be more meaningful to me now that I have a few stand collars under my belt (as it were). Looking forward to learning some more precise techniques.

Knitting Update

On the knitting front, I now have two projects on the go. Here’s the Birthday Sweater (by Ankestrick) - so very close to done!

Annoyingly I ran out of the dark pink just before the end of the first sleeve - but I think the light pink cuff situation is effective.

I’ve cast on my Marzipan Pullover (by Sari Nordlund) for knit club, too - in Drops Nepal:

The cables have only just started - but I’m already enjoying them! It’s been literally 9 years since I last knitted a complex cable pattern - I made a whopping great big Umaro blanket as a gift for family back in 2013:

Cables are super satisfying. A bit slow, but they look like magic.

Thanks for reading. See you next week!

Birthday sweater progress

Fri, 06 May 2022 11:15:00 +0000

I mentioned last week that I was planning to take a couple weeks off sewing, because life is super busy right now. Well. I didn’t expect to get ill and be forced to do absolutely nothing all week! At least I’ve watched Heartstopper 3 times through and read through half of Alice Oseman’s body of work. (I may have gone on one of my obsessive deep dives on the Heartstopper/Solitaire universe. It may also not be over.)

Although sewing’s been on pause, I have started to pick up the pace on my knitting over the last couple of days. But I’m definitely not going to finish this Ankestrick Birthday jumper before my knit club starts a new project at the weekend:

I don’t think I’ve ever managed to post about this jumper without also mentioning how slow it is to knit! It’s taking forever due to it being 4-ply (skinny yarn) and half-brioche stitch (2 rows required for every 1 row visible). My upcoming project, the Marzipan Pullover by Sari Nordlund, is going to be a very different experience since it’s on a thicker yarn (worsted weight). And although it does have cables to slow things down, they’re only on the yoke. The rest of the body and sleeves are on blessed rib stitch. I am excited for the feeling of knitting on turbo mode.

Ready for Marzipan madness. This will be my first time knitting with Drops yarn. I’ve heard such good things about it, and it’s so cheap I had to do a double take.

Thanks for reading - see you next week!

My corduroy Amelia skirt is done!

Fri, 29 Apr 2022 16:23:00 +0000

This week I finished sewing the Amelia skirt by the Pattern Stash! (NB. This pattern & the kit were sent to me in exchange for a post on Instagram.)

I was daunted by the corduroy as I’ve never worked with it before, but I found it surprisingly easy to sew with. Of course, now I’m daydreaming of sewing corduroy jackets and trousers. But I suspect I should probably focus on warm weather clothes, on the off chance we get a sunny spell here in the next few months. This is a short skirt though, so it should be versatile enough for the warmer season.

I actually found the lining quite hard to work with. It was probably because I focused so much on getting the corduroy right that I was blasé about the slippery viscose-acetate lining. I found it shifted and moved around a lot, and generally took on a different form every time I looked at it. I clearly need to invest a bit more time and care when working with such delicate fabrics in future. Still, it came out nicely enough:

Sewing to a deadline is never my favourite, as I’m very slow and methodical when it comes to sewing. The instructions for this skirt said it would take around 5 hours, but I must have spent at least 10, and that’s not even counting the toiles!

I’m taking a week or two off sewing now as life and work are super busy, but don’t be fooled - I’m still daydreaming and planning. I think I want to do an instant gratification tee out of fabric in my stash next, as I’m not very happy with my summer wardrobe. I like wearing tees but I generally have boring ones, so I’m ready to add a little more spice. (Read: block colours in my classic palette of pink and teal.)

Knitting Update

I had to frog the sleeve and start over! :( I misread the instructions and decreased way too early and too often. I don’t feel like I’ve lost much though, as this realisation coincided with my double-pointed needles arriving in the post - and I can knit a lot faster with those. So I’m not really that disheartened.

Thanks for reading! See you next week.

Amelia skirt sewing progress, part 2

Fri, 22 Apr 2022 17:53:00 +0000

I’m back after a week off! I skipped last Friday’s weekly sewing review as I was busy swanning around Vienna. We went to 5 art galleries plus another art exhibition in London and my brain was absolutely saturated by the time I got home. I probably could have done with more of a zone-out type of holiday, but I had a great time all the same - I just want another holiday immediately, please and thank you.

I got to wear my newly made Agatha dress to the opera and a fancy restaurant, all of which was fantastic. I love wearing me-mades in formal settings. It feels devious somehow.

I came across a huge fabric shop - but it was outside of opening hours, much to the relief of my wallet. I enjoyed this window display though. Are those enormous hams? What is that gigantic cheese shaped thing?

Since I’ve been back at home, I’ve been working on my Pattern Stash Amelia skirt (NB. project materials given to me in exchange for a social media post, but this is not that post). I was previously making a wearable toile, but as soon as I got the information I needed out of the toile, I parked it in favour of the real thing as I’m approaching the agreed deadline. I’ll return to the toile afterwards as it’s so close to done, and I really like the contrasting colours.

Wearable toile. Waistband not finished - but parked for now.

So I’m on the final project now. I’m going entirely out of my comfort zone with this fabric choice. Corduroy! Fiery orangey red! I had never worked with corduroy and this colour is not like anything in my traditional colour palette so this was brave/reckless. It may or may not have something to do with the fact that I made my fabric choice the morning after a big boozy work party. I may or may not have been thinking straight.

But. It’s working out well. I’m glad I didn’t play it safe, as I’ve already learned loads.

This colour is hard to photograph. Especially when you’re a bit lax with your lighting.

Honestly, I was daunted by the corduroy. I’ve read so many “how to sew with corduroy” blog posts over the years that I had the impression that it was a difficult fabric to work with. Well, spoiler: it’s not. I’ll write a bit more about that in a future post.

The pattern has come together quite straight forwardly. It has a few slipstitching steps that I’m going to do on the machine instead because sod slipstitching. I haven’t quite got my head round how the lining attaches to the vents yet, but it’s nearly done!

Top tip: Distract your cats before you attempt to take photos of your sewing project

My knitting project continues to take several millennia to complete. I’m on the first sleeve now, and I really thought the sleeves would fly by - but this damn half brioche stitch is so slow! I’ve ordered some double pointed needles as the magic loop method is getting on my nerves, and any possible speed improvement will be valuable at this point.

I’m keen to get it done because knit club are starting on a new project soon and I don’t want to have two knitting projects on the go at the same time.

Thanks for reading. See you next week!

Amelia skirt sewing progress

Fri, 08 Apr 2022 13:34:00 +0000

I’ve been working on a skirt this week - the Amelia Skirt from The Pattern Stash. For full disclosure, I was sent this pattern (and a kit including fabric) for free in exchange for an Instagram post about the skirt. This post is not part of that exchange - I just wanted to share a little about the making process.

This is my second toile of the skirt. On my first toile I did a straight size 10 - I should have known that was a silly idea! My hips are less curved than most patterns are designed for, so I always have to do some heavy modifications to make the hip curve straighter. I took in the side seams and increased the intake of the back darts, but I quickly realised that my changes were distorting the lines of the pattern - the panels weren’t nicely distributed anymore. So I decided to trace off the size 8 at the hip, and grade to a 10 at the waist. I also picked some leftover linen to make this a wearable toile. You may recognise this fabric from my April dress!

The fit is far better now. I’m also very pleased with my invisible zip insertion. It used to take me a minimum of 30 minutes to get a zip in nicely, with multiple rounds of unpicking - but I’ve got the technique now, and I typically get it right on the first try. I freehand the first side and then pin the second side very lightly. My problem before was over-pinning - so my big tip is to let the zip lay where it wants to lay!

There is an invisible zip in this side seam. Truly invisible! Patting myself on the back.

I’m looking forward to completing this toile and getting started on the real deal. I’ve picked a bright fiery red corduroy, which is a bit outside my comfort zone in terms of both fabric and colour. But it’s good to push ourselves. I do have bits of bright fiery red corduroy all over my house now though.

Thanks for reading. See you next week! :)

Fibre Mood Agatha dress pattern review

Sat, 02 Apr 2022 18:17:00 +0000

Behold, my Fibre Mood Agatha. I can’t get over how beautiful it is. This is probably the prettiest thing I’ve ever made.

There’s a lot I love about the design of the dress. The curved waistband which rises to meet the V of the plunge neckline. The fact that the waistband is doubled, such that it provides a nice bit of structure around the waist to support the weight of the skirt. The floaty, breezy quality of the sleeves due to their being semicircles - and the way the hem of the sleeve lines up with the waistband. And that plunging neckline! I worried it might be too revealing for me, but I think it’s perfectly tasteful and just a bit flirty.

The fabric is some sort of synthetic jersey - I thought it was rayon at first, but it has a springy sponginess to it that reminds me of a scuba or swimsuiting, so perhaps it’s poly. It’s very soft and slinky, and has a good weight to it that gives it a superb drape. I bought it from Gillies in York with the intention of making some pyjamas out of it. Can you imagine if I’d wasted this gorgeous fabric on pyjamas!

It does have a directional print, and this pattern technically shouldn’t be made with a directional print, because some of the skirt is on the bias and the back of the sleeves are upside down. But I don’t really care - I think the print is abstract enough that you would need to look closely to recognise that they are palm trees. I’m OK with it.

I found the fabric a little bit tricky to work with, as it was both slippery and weighty so it had a tendency to slide around. But I feel like my skills at grappling with fabrics like this have come a long way, so I although I had to put a bit more effort in (i.e. more pins), I never got frustrated with it or felt out of control. Just takes practice, like everything else.

I must say I’m not crazy about Fibre Mood’s pattern instructions. They leave you to fend for yourself a bit, so I wouldn’t call them beginner-friendly. For instance, the edge of the front bodice needs to be interfaced, but there is no pattern piece for that interfacing, nor is there an explicit instruction to apply it. There’s just a note next to one of the diagrams stating factually that the highlighted yellow section is interfaced.

I also got a little confused when attaching the sleeves, as mine didn’t match up to the bodice in the same way the diagram suggested - it wanted a 1cm seam allowance left on either side of the sleeve, but my sleeve consumed the full space, i.e. it was 1cm too long on each side. After a while, I realised that this was because the instructions gave two options for finishing the sleeve hem - either a rolled hem, or a 1cm standard hem - and my choice of rolled hem meant that only 0.2cm of the 1cm hem allowance was actually used. I wonder if they intended for that 1cm hem allowance to be trimmed when doing the rolled hem - but if so, it was not made clear at all. Never mind. I just sort of fudged it a bit under the arm, but I did it the same on both sides so who cares.

One final gripe about the pattern is that the skirt piece is printed in full. Yet it’s symmetrical! What a huge waste of paper and printing/taping time. I actually folded the pattern piece in half and cut my skirts on the fold anyway.

For what it’s worth, I managed to cut size 36 out of 2.5m of fabric, despite the pattern saying it needed 3m.

But. Please put all that aside. It’s all worth it. My complaints about the pattern are insignificant in comparison to how much I adore the final dress. I did enjoy sewing it, and even with the sleeve confusion it didn’t take all that long to put it together. It’s quite a straightforward sew - and creates a garment with a really stunning effect.

I feel ~fancy~!

The hotel sewing kit

Fri, 01 Apr 2022 16:54:00 +0000

This week I’m sharing some creative writing on the topic of sewing. I wrote this a couple of months ago in a 5-minute writing challenge on the topic of “an object related to my hobby”. PS. I’m just dabbling in creative writing, be kind 🙂

I often collect miniature mending kits from hotels and stash them in my handbags, because the time you need a mending kit is not when you are in a hotel room with your luggage – and therefore hopefully also with a spare change of clothes – but rather when you’re out and about, at a nice dinner, or in the office, with only the clothes on your back, and a significantly higher need to look presentable.

Once, I repaired a seam at the centre back of a grey pencil skirt while sitting, by necessity in my knickers, on a (closed) toilet in a cubicle in the loos on the fifth floor of an office block in central Leeds. Turns out you want a little more kit than just these tools to fix a broken zip, but you can do a temporary salvage, in a pinch.

The zip had come away from the fabric just three quarters of an inch, and I suppose I might have been able to get along without repairing it, but I’m not really that sort of person. So I found myself perched in my pants on the cold toilet lid, making the burst seam worse before I could make it better, and not entirely convinced I could make it better in the ten minutes before my next meeting anyway. What would happen if I only made it worse, without making it better? Well, there was that flimsy gold safety pin – though I didn’t have a huge amount of faith in its ability to support the strain on the seam that holds my bum in. So I had to get it right.

I discovered it’s hard to thread a needle while sat in your knickers in a cramped space under fluorescent lighting and time pressure.

And that my insistence to favour the sewing machine over any hand-sewing at all had robbed me of an opportunity to develop a useful life skill.

It also turns out there’s far less thread in these kits than you think.

What do you do when once you have miraculously managed to slip-stitch that seam back into place? Rip the thread with your bare hands like an animal? Yes, yes that’s exactly what you do. And then you sit there staring at it for a full minute, cursing the amateur nature of your handiwork and lamenting the fact that this toilet stall does not feature a steam iron so you could at the very least press out the crumples impressed into the skirt by your frantic hands. But now you’ve only got ninety seconds left before your meeting, and you’re still in your pants, so you hoick the skirt on – and thank god that the zip doesn’t immediately burst open – do a quick sanity check in the mirror, not that you have any time to correct any mistakes now. Then you step back out into the office, and say not a single damn word about any of it.

Agatha dress, Erin dungarees, Thea toile and Birthday sweater progress

Fri, 25 Mar 2022 14:31:00 +0000

I made my Agatha dress this week! Here’s a teaser pic ahead of the full post I’m writing about the making of this dress.

My latest make

In short, I adore it. It’s not my typical style as I tend to lean more cutesy, but I’m looking to add more elegant pieces to my wardrobe and this dress nails that brief. Can’t wait to share more about it soon.

The next thing I want to share is not actually a make from this week, but a new pattern release: the Tilly and the Buttons Erin dungarees. You might have seen this pattern all over Instagram this week. I was a tester for this pattern a few months ago, and I’d never worn dungarees as an adult before so I had no idea what to expect!

There have been some changes to the pattern since the test version, so I’m not going to write a proper review until I’ve made a pair in the final version of the pattern. But I am showing off my tester version now that I can.

I made a couple of mistakes on these that mean I’m probably not going to wear them outdoors, but they’re good for around the house. I could have done with sizing down around the hip - I hadn’t checked the hip measurement so it’s a bit baggy around the bum. I also picked a denim that I think is actually too structured for the pattern, so I’m not crazy about the way it hangs. At least I know exactly what changes I want to make next time.

My final bit of sewing news is that I got a bit carried away with my Thea wearable toile last week. I put the sleeves and the collar on and did the fancy topstitching and everything. Then, when I was trying it on to figure out where to put the buttons, I realised I’d forgotten to use it as an actual toile - and it still doesn’t fit! Argh. So, it’s just a fancy unwearable wearable toile. Here’s a photo of it for posterity.

Only just noticed that the collar stand topstiching is dodgy (I sewed it from the inside by accident). NEVERMIND, this thing isn’t getting worn anyway

I am going to size up for my proper Thea, as I think I read the numbers wrong on the measurements. Back to the drawing board. Or at least, the tracing table.

What’s next in sewing land for me? Not sure just now - might do an instant gratification project before I approach the Thea again. Perhaps those Erin dungarees. I also have some exciting project plans that I can’t reveal just yet!

Knitting Update

Here’s my customary weekly knitting progress shot. I feel like I’ve been close to the end of this ball of yarn for weeks. Surely it’s going to run out soon? I’m going to decide on a whim which colour I switch to next. It will probably be dark pink.

Thanks for reading, see you next week!

Fitting Thea top toiles, and knitting progress

Fri, 18 Mar 2022 10:47:00 +0000

I’ve been following my heart this week. By which I mean I’ve changed my mind a LOT and flip-flopped between 4(!) different sewing projects. Remember last week I was saying I only work on one project at once? Ha.

My goal at the start of the week was to finish with the fitting the bodice of my Etta dress, and then I could switch onto another project. I’ve been working on this fitting project for weeks and frankly I’m bored out of my mind with it - and frustrated too. It’s been something I’ve wanted to do for ages, as I was hoping to turn it into a bodice block for drafting my own tops and dresses. But it’s very challenging for me.

I’ve got scoliosis, which means if you look at my back from behind it looks like a reverse “S” shape, rather than a typical spine which looks like an “I”. Fortunately it causes me no physical discomfort at all, despite what I used to tell my PE teachers to get out of netball lessons. It does have a cosmetic impact though, which generally doesn’t bother me. I never wanted to be a ballerina anyway. But if I want a well-fitting bodice, I have to be a bit clever about it, because if it fits nicely on the right it doesn’t fit nicely on the left.

The pooling isn’t a posture thing - my left upper back is flatter than my right upper back, so it needs less fabric. My shoulders slope differently too, and my ribcage is rounder on the right

Turns out I’m not clever enough yet to figure this out. Perhaps a V back bodice with a neckline dart was a bad place to start. After about 6,000,000 toiles with a mirrored back bodice, I finally had one attempt at modifying the left independently of the right and immediately lost all motivation when I realised that taking a wedge out of one side was going to have implications on the angle of the neckline and the overall pattern placement of the Ankara fabric I wanted to make this dress out of. Utter disillusionment. After 4 weeks of faffing with this pattern, I’ve said sod it. I’ll try again when I have more fitting and drafting skills.

So, in comes project number 2 for a bit of ~~excitement~~. It’s this combo again:

Liberty Glastonbury tana lawn

Liberty Thea shirt

Because I don’t learn, I made a toile again. This time it went really well, actually. Too well. Look how nice these old bedsheets actually are.

Liberty Thea toile #1. Needs an FBA, reduce length of bodice, and increase length of sleeve - but really not bad otherwise

There are a few modifications I needed to make after the first toile, but I liked the fabric so much I actually decided to make the second toile a wearable toile. That is, make it up like a real top. Which essentially makes it project number 3.

Here I go again.

Because the fabric is a little bit formal-shirt looking, I’ve decided to spice it up with a little contrast top stitching. I’m thinking a bit of pink and teal (classic) and maybe use some of the weird stitch patterns on my machine to create a design element out of it.

But I mentioned 4 sewing projects, didn’t I? I was falling asleep on Wednesday night when I remembered my work Christmas party is next week. Yes I know it’s March, but it was also Omicron in December, so we’re doing it now. Am I actually mental, deciding at the last minute to make myself a dress? Probably yes. Especially when it’s a dress of a style I’ve never even tried on before, so I don’t know if I’ll like it on me. But apparently I am hyper-motivated to sew this week, so I crack on.

One of the perks of working from home is that you can cut out a sewing project on your lunch break.

Fibre Mood Agatha

Knitting Update

The knitting project seems to be taking forever. I’m not sure if these weekly photos are helping or hindering. They’re encouraging me to push at it so I can see progress, but then I take the photo and I can hardly see any progress. It is feeling super squishy though!

Half brioche stitch is still slow

Fibre Mood Agatha

Parking the Etta dress and making other plans

Fri, 11 Mar 2022 14:21:00 +0000

Loads to talk about this week, even though I haven’t actually switched on my sewing machine.

The dress hack I was working on last week hasn’t really excited me, so I’ve just let it sit for now until the urge to pick it up returns. I always try to keep a “one project at a time per craft” rule (a WIP limit of one, for all y’all in software engineering out there 👀). I’m moderately strict about it because every time I’ve broken that rule, I essentially end up parking the first project for months, and then I end up feeling guilty about letting it languish, and it’s a whole mental burden, and another pile of mess in my house, and so on.

Anyway, with all that in mind, I printed and taped the PDF pattern for the Fibre Mood Agatha dress this week. ha! I couldn’t stop thinking about making it in this vibrant rayon jersey I picked up in town a couple weeks ago:

Agatha dress by Fibre Mood

Palm print rayon jersey

I am feeling a little unfinished-project guilt about the Etta dress so I’m not 100% sure if I’ll cut into this fabric yet. That said, I do think it’s important to work on the project that you’re drawn to. This is a hobby after all. No one’s holding me accountable other than me.

I’ve also been daydreaming about shirts and shirt dresses a lot. I love shirts! I love collars and sleeve plackets and button bands and yokes and pleats. I have this one fancy shirt from Anthropologie that I wear loads because it’s so pretty:

Anthropologie shirt (photo from last year). Yes I am aware my hair is blocking much of the shirt detail. But you get the idea.

I want more shirts like this in my life - not so much the patchwork thing, but the bright prints and slight blousiness. A bit of a statement piece but not too loud. So I’ve been mashing up patterns and fabrics from my collection in my mind:

Dashwood Studios Circle Line Austin rayon

Dashwood Studios Circle Line Temple rayon

Lady McElroy Artisan Splash cotton lawn

Lady McElroy cotton lawn

Liberty cotton lawn

Liberty Glastonbury cotton lawn

I LOVE all of these fabrics. But the problem is they’re all so super special and delicious and beautiful that I’m terrified of cutting into them. They are the fanciest nicest most expensive fabrics in my stash and I know I need to just use them as I’ll enjoy them more as garments that I can actually wear, but I’m still intimidated about starting. Also pretty much all of them are going to require some level of pattern matching (because it would be a shame not to really show off those lovely prints) which only adds to the fear level.

I get pretty excited imagining the combinations with these shirt patterns though:

Sewaholic Granville

Tilly and the Buttons Lyra

Colette Aster

Helen’s Closet Gilbert

Fibre Mood Norma

Liberty Thea

Tilly and the Buttons Mimi

I didn’t realise I had so many shirt and shirt dress patterns until just now.

The combo I’m most likely to start with is the Liberty Thea in the Liberty Glastonbury fabric. I’m thinking the collar and necktie from view D, and the sleeves from view C. Assuming I have enough fabric.

In other news, my pattern weight collection has expanded considerably this week. I use antique brass bell weights of 1lb or under, and my rule is that I can only buy them if I see them in person. I spotted four 1lb weights in the window of a local antique shop, and simply had to snap them up!

Antique weights as pattern weights

Knitting Update

My Birthday Sweater continues at a nice pace. I’m just about at the point where I have to switch from my medium sized project bag to a full size tote bag.

I have loads more of the pink, so I’m thinking of doing one sleeve in pink and the other in a different colour.

Thanks for reading, see you next week! 🙂

Knit club meetup, ankara plans, and Etta toiles

Fri, 04 Mar 2022 14:59:00 +0000

Welcome to the first of a new series! Each Friday I will be writing about what I’ve done in sewing land over the past week - plus any knitting or other crafts I’ve managed to slot in.

I’m kicking off this new sewing series on a bit of a tangent, with last Friday’s knit club meet-up - our first ever! Ari, Jolynna and I have been knitting online together every Sunday for over a year now - with two of us based in Yorkshire and Jolynna based all the way in Australia. Celebrating Jolynna’s recent move to the grim north of England (welcome!), we consumed a solid number of gins and stouts and got raucous in my favourite local viking pub Valhalla. Throw away all your assumptions about knitters! Although I did have to go home early and then spent a few days in an introvert hangover, so maybe your assumptions aren’t far wrong on my part.

Speaking of knitting, I’m working on the Birthday sweater by Ankestrick. I bought waaaay too much yarn when I bought supplies for the Joanie Boatneck (as seen above) so I had enough leftover for a whole extra jumper and maybe more. I started knitting this around Christmas last year and it’s going super slowly, because it’s half brioche stitch which effectively means every 2 rows compresses down into one, and it’s 4-ply yarn which is pretty darn skinny. But it’s a mindless knit, so I can slot it into my day fairly easily.

This has taken me 7 weeks so far.

Sewing Update

Onto sewing next. My current project is inspired by this dress I found on Pinterest, using this fabric I bought on holiday in St. Lucia last month:

Inspiration dress from Afrikea via Pinterest

Ankara fabric I bought in Castries market, St. Lucia

I’m using the Tilly and the Buttons Etta dress pattern as a base, and hacking it with a double layer flutter sleeve. The main challenge on this project is getting the Etta pattern to fit me properly. I want it to be really well-fitted, which is something I’ve actually never achieved on a bodice! That’s because I have scoliosis, an atypical curvature of the spine that means my torso is asymmetrical in various ways. My shoulders are uneven and flat, and my ribcage is offset and twisted. The Etta dress was always going to be a tough one to fit because I’ve tried it before and I know the back neckline gapes. It’s been a journey with many toiles:

So far I’ve done such things as:

Flat shoulder adjustment (the opposite of a rounded shoulder/dowager’s hump adjustment)
Remove the dart & its excess from the neckline to make the shoulder even flatter, only to add a dart back in to remove even more excess from the neckline (argh)
Drop the shoulder point
Lower the bust point
Lengthen the bodice

It might have been easier to draft the bodice from scratch.

It’s been a lot of trial and error so far, but for the first time I’ve viewed fitting as part of the sewing process, rather than an obstacle that I need to get around before getting to the good bit. So I am viewing this as the good bit too. And with this perspective, I am enjoying it. It’s all learning and I like learning.

So, I’m almost there on the bodice. I don’t want to overfit, and I’ve made the conscious decision (for now) not to create a separate back bodice piece for the left and right, because I think that’d drive me crazy when it comes to pattern matching. So I’m going to accept a little bit of poor fit on one side.

First attempt at the sleeve - it needs to be BIGGER. Plus I need to mess around with the two layers and figure out whether or not they need the same amount of flare.

Once the sleeve is sorted, I need to mash up the pattern’s skirt pieces with my self-drafted skirt pattern from last month, as I know that fits well so I won’t need to reinvent the wheel. Then I’ll do a full toile and soon be ready to cut into my real fabric, eee!

Thanks for reading, see you next week! :)

Forget Me Not April Dress - Pattern Review

Sun, 20 Jun 2021 19:06:00 +0000

I made the April dress and Gemma belt by Forget Me Not patterns and I’m absolutely in love!

This pattern was an impulse purchase - I bought it on the day it was released. That’s totally uncharacteristic for me, as I tend to hum and haw about pretty much every purchase I make (“a latte, no a cappuccino, no a latte” is a bit of a running joke in our household!). But this dress pattern sang to me immediately - I’ve never seen a wavy seam line like this one, and I had to try it out.

I picked these two linens to complement the ocean wave design, and it came out exactly as I imagined it (for once!). The fabric is the bio-washed 100% linen from Higgs and Higgs in mint and ice blue.

I really like Forget Me Not. There’s something so professional about the patterns. I don’t mean that in a cold and soulless sort of way, because they are absolutely warm and full of heart. What I mean is that the patterns and instructions are incredibly neatly organised, and thorough. The attention to detail is fantastic, and everything is well thought out. The pattern just works. Jo really knows what she’s doing!

I especially love that the PDFs are layered by size (and also by bust size on this pattern) so you can print just the lines you’re interested in. And then on top of that, there is a guide telling you which pages to print depending on the view you’ve picked. This is great because 1) less wastage of paper and ink, and 2) after taping it together, it’s just brainless cutting out without having to figure out which size is which.

(I realise this is starting to sound like an ad, but I promise it isn’t! I have tested a FMN pattern in the past - the Vera top - but this is nothing to do with that.)

I made the dress in size 34 with the medium bust size, and the size 32 belt. I think ideally I probably should have graded the dress down to a 32 at the waist, as tying the belt does disrupt the wavy hem a little bit. I could take it in at the side seams but let’s face it, I probably won’t mess with it now it’s done. More room for fish and chips this way, right?

I think the waist tucks are inspired! They make the cinching of the excess more even and orderly (which this perfectionist appreciates). The keyhole finish at the back is so elegant, too - this is my first time making a closure like this, and I adore how clean it looks.

This is the longer length skirt, in the gathered view. There’s a flat view as well, but I wanted more volume. I also went with the simpler side-seam pockets rather than the advanced wavy pocket that sits in the waistline. I’m intrigued by that technique though, so I’ll have to try it next time.

The only thing I did differently to the instructions was to understitch the pocket bags, as the notes don’t instruct you to do that. I just really like understitching.

All in all, a lovely pattern and a dreamy dress!

Closet Core Pouf - tips for sewing

Fri, 14 Aug 2020 16:09:00 +0000

I’ve now made two of these floor poufs by Closet Core Patterns - and I love them both!

My two poufs - in ankara (bottom) and quilting cotton (top)

This pattern has been written about a lot in the sewing community, and is very well-loved. I completely understand why: not only do you end up with a fun and practical pouf (useful as a seat, a footrest, or a majestic throne for a cat) but it also scores very nicely in the sustainability department. It can be made from fabric scraps, and it can be stuffed full of whatever bits of fabric you have lying around - scraps, cutoffs, bits of thread or yarn, retired blankets, ancient towels, the ugly curtains that were hanging in your house when you moved in, ratty old faded knickers (clean ones!), etc. Each pouf holds an inconceivable amount of otherwise purposeless fabric.

I’ve always had a guilty conscience about my fabric waste. I’ve struggled to find a reliable way to recycle fabric waste in the UK - I used to donate it to H&M, but I’ve read things that make me very sceptical about what they do with it. One of the reasons I sew my own clothing is to reduce consumption, so I felt uncomfortable about replacing that consumption with waste. But these poufs mean that I make use of literally every scrap of fabric I buy. Even the really tiny useless ones. Shove ’em in a pouf. Boom.

And it’s a free pattern! Blows my mind.

If you’d like to sew your own Closet Core Pouf, the original tutorial is superb and easy to follow. But here are some of my extra tips!

Firm ankara pouf stuffed with lots and lots of scraps - and covered in cat hair because my little fuzzbutt Philip adores it.

1. Don’t finish the curved edges of the segment pieces during the initial overlocking phase.

It’s easier to do them all in one go once you’ve sewn the whole circle together - or even once you’ve attached the piping.

2. Don’t sweat the matching in the centre.

You might not get those little points to perfectly sit together. It’s fine. In the original sewalong by Closet Core Patterns themselves, that centre section doesn’t match up perfectly either. So what, who cares - just do your best! You can always sew a cute button on the top to conceal the joins - or even turn it into a design feature with some applique, like @pimp_slapped’s version.

The centre points don’t match perfectly. It’s totally fine.

3. Use an adjustable zipper foot for the piping.

For my rainbow pouf, I used store-bought piping that had a diameter of about 10mm. Turns out 10mm is ginormous. The standard zipper foot that came with my machine just could not handle it - I couldn’t get my needle close enough to the piping.

After a lot of frustration, I figured out that what I needed was an adjustable zipper foot (not an affiliate link!). This kind of foot lets you move the presser foot portion from side to side, so you can position your needle right at the edge of the foot. It’s magic.

You can, of course, use a piping foot. But I couldn’t find one that would accommodate such large piping. If you’re going to splash out on one or the other type of foot, I’d recommend the adjustable zipper foot - because it is less specialised and can be used in other situations where you need to sew super close to the edge of the foot. (When sewing zippers, for example!)

4. Your piping doesn’t have to have a 3/8" flange.

Apparently the tape part of piping is called the flange. Heh.

I used readymade piping for my rainbow pouf and it had a 5/8" flange. I trimmed it down for the top and completely forgot to do that for the bottom. The world didn’t burn down. It was fine.

In fact it was a bit easier to manhandle it with the bigger seam allowance.

Lovely squishy rainbow pouf stuffed with a duvet and curtains

5. Take extra care to hold the sides out of the way when attaching the piping.

This probably goes without saying, but I want to emphasise it because I screwed it up so many times: it’s super easy to accidentally catch the sides and sew enormous tucks while attaching the piping, especially if you’re attaching it pin-free (which I also recommend, by the way). Hold that fabric well out of the way, and keep checking that it hasn’t moved under your sewing needle as you go.

6. The inner bag is definitely optional.

You can still wash your pouf even if you don’t make an inner bag - you just need to find somewhere to stash all those scraps in the meantime!

I made an inner bag (basic drawstring style) the first time round, and I found it made it hard to stuff the pouf into a good shape without the inner bag resisting me. I ended up taking it out, and now I use that bag to store scraps for my next pouf.

Because yes, there will be more poufs.

Ankara Etta dress and Panda Hawthorn dress

Sun, 11 Aug 2019 11:59:00 +0000

Two dresses in one post!

The other month I sewed a wax print Ankara dress in such a horrendous rush that I ended up stupidly stressed out about it. But I am pretty happy with how it came out:

Despite numerous late nights sewing, and a lot of patience and understanding from my husband (thanks P!), I very nearly didn’t finish it in time for the wedding I was making it for. I was hand stitching at 11pm the night before! And there is a lot of sloppy work on the inside that I’m not totally proud of. So I swore never to sew anything on a deadline ever again.

But then of course… I had another wedding to go to this summer. And wouldn’t it be nice if I could make a dress for that too…?

I bargained with myself that if I didn’t finish it a week before the wedding, then I’d buy myself a dress as a treat instead. But HEY LOOK, I managed it with a week to spare, and entirely stress-free! Behold my Panda Hawthorn:

I have made a Hawthorn before, but the bust darts came out so nipply that I only wore it once and I felt ashamed the whole day long. I think I still have things to learn on the pointy dart front, but I’m much happier with how these turned out.

I lowered the bust dart points so they were below my apex, and then I also sewed them to a point about 1/2" below that and then tapered gently to the real end. This, plus a hefty helping of steam, made my panda darts less pointy. Still not perfect, but much less distracting.

Things that went wrong making this dress:

I ignored the print when cutting out the pieces, and ended up cutting a new front bodice piece so the pandas were more prominent. Lesson: think about print placement even if you think you might want a random distribution.
I made a collar and then ended up cutting an entire new set of collar pieces because I wanted more pandas. There are pandas on both sides of the collar now 🐼🐼
The darts initially came out nipply again so had to redo them at least three times.
I sewed all the skirt buttons on half an inch too high and had to redo them! I am really good at sewing buttons now.
I bias bound both armholes before realising they were pinching my underarm. I tried to get away with only redoing the bottom and not having to use more binding, but it was a hot mess of tucks and puckers. So I unpicked both armholes and refaced them both with fresh tape.

And the things that went right:

Gosh this is a lovely fabric to work with. It’s Lady McElroy Panda Retreat cotton lawn, and it’s lush. It presses well and doesn’t crease too badly by itself. Shame it’s so £££
The pattern is easy to sew and the instructions are clear. A very fun sew.
I feel good wearing this thing. I love the silhouette, I love the print, I love the fabric, I love the buttons. It feels very me!

Despite all the adjustments and do-overs, I really enjoyed making this one. I never felt frustrated once, which I wouldn’t have expected if you told me how many things I was going to end up doing twice. The repetition felt like iterative development - each time I did something again I knew it was getting better and better.

The wedding that I made this dress for was yesterday, and it was a wonderful joyous day (congratulations T & L!). I even met a new sewing friend (hi A!) and we talked sewing and cats all through dinner. Superb.

I can also confirm that the Hawthorn is a good dress for dancing the night away in. Not that I really make a habit of that!

Finally, my panda dress made its maiden voyage at a very timely moment - I learned at the wedding that two twin pandas have just been born in Belgium! Fingers crossed for those little beasties. The twin pandas on my collar are now dedicated to them.

Details:

Dress: Colette Hawthorn
Size: 2 throughout
Alterations: lowered bust dart by 1", lowered armscye by 3/4"
My measurements at time of making: full bust 35", waist 28.5", hip 36"

Chambray Granville shirt

Sun, 24 Mar 2019 19:16:00 +0000

Look, I made a thing! A shirt, an actual bona-fide shirt! After not sewing anything for well over a year because there wasn’t space for my sewing machine, I moved house, dusted off the old Janome, made a cheeky Hollyburn skirt to check I still knew how to sew, and then jumped right back in at the deep end with a Granville shirt. And I think this proves I still know how to sew much better than that slightly dodgy Hollyburn skirt did.

But here’s the thing: it took me about 4 months to sew this thing. There were gaps of weeks where I didn’t pick it up at all, because life is busy and I get sleepy. It was a serious test of my resolve to keep going on a project that had long since lost its excitement. I’m usually a real flake with my projects - as soon as something loses its initial sheen I’ll jump ship to the next shiny thing. But I’ve been working on my perseverance. And it turns out perseverence pays off. Who knew.

I even got into a whole “slow sewing, slow living” thing while thinking about (rather than working on) this project. But I’ll save that for another time. You want to hear about the project. I’ll share the details.

The pattern is the Granville shirt by Sewaholic. The fabric is a super soft chambray from Samuel Taylor in Leeds (because I live in Yorkshire now, people). I got the buttons at Abakhan in Chester.

I’m an hourglass shape, and this pattern is drafted for a pear shape much taller than me. So I mixed up the sizes: size 6 at the bust, size 4 at the waist, and size 0 at the hem. I also took 1" off the hem and 1.5" off the sleeves. I didn’t do a test run with sleeves though, did I? I made the shirt up with two sleeves with beautiful plackets and then attached them to the body and realised they were comically long. So I had to make two more sleeves with beautiful plackets. Hey - at least I got loads of practice making beautiful plackets.

I was expecting to have trouble with the collar. I know some people mentioned the pieces coming out too long and having to be cut down to size. Nothing of the sort happened to me and my collar sewed up a dream:

The fit is pretty darn good, I’d say. My only complaint is that it’s a little tight around the high bust if I button it up to the top. I don’t intend to wear it that way, so it won’t be an issue. Just something to think about for my next Granville.

There’s a lot of flaring going on at the hem. I thought that I’d lose most of that flare by using the size 0 hem and taking an inch off the length, but it does still kick out a touch at the sides. I was thinking that I’d alter the pattern for next time, but looking at these pictures I actually quite like that little shaping. It’s kinda dainty:

And finally, here’s a shot from the back. Hangs nicely, I reckon.

All in all, I’m incredibly pleased with myself and think I’ve earned the write to once again call myself a sewer/sewist/person who sews. I’m going for an instant gratification project next, but then I’ll make something a bit more pizzazz.

BOOM!

WIP: Gústa Knits Diamond Scarf

Sun, 08 Apr 2018 17:05:00 +0000

I’ve been knitting furiously this week! I’m a bit more than halfway through the diamond scarf from the pattern book I got in Iceland, Simple Knits with Gústa . I’m making it in Mosa Mjúkull, the wool made by the same designer. Every pattern in this book uses three balls of it, which I appreciated as I could just buy the three balls and choose a pattern out of the book later.

Here’s how it’s coming along - most of the way through the second of three stripes:

The diamonds are drastically more obvious in this photo than in real life! Must be the contrast. This Mosa Mjúkull wool is reasonably fuzzy so you don’t get a lot of stitch definition. I found that a little disappointing at first, but I’m sure it will look better after blocking - hopefully more like the picture!

There are no instructions for this scarf, only the chart. I’ve never worked from a knitting chart before, so there was some intense concentration during the first few rows. I had to keep reminding myself that every even row switches up completely: you read it back to front, and the purls and knits swap over. Total mind-bender! But I’m totally converted to charts now. The visual prompt is very intuitive.

I’m not sure if I’ll make another pattern from this book. I had a go at the shawl pattern before I started this, but I found the instructions confusing. The most exciting things in the book are the mittens with the lovely Icelandic colour work, but I’m not a mittens kind of person. Who knows - perhaps I’ll whip some up as a gift one day!

I'm back! Let's make some stuff!

Sun, 01 Apr 2018 04:57:00 +0000

Hello again! I’m back!

It’s been a little while, and a few things have changed. Mainly: I no longer live in Singapore! I’ve moved back to my homeland, the UK - I now live in Yorkshire, the land of gorgeous landscapes and Yorkshire puddings - and Rowan wool!

Now that time is on my side, I’m really excited about getting on with making things again, sharing what I create, and being part of the online makers community.

I’ll be starting with a knitting project as I just went to Iceland and bought a pattern booklet and some Icelandic wool:

Icelandic patterns and wool

It’s actually a blend with Peruvian alpaca, which is nice because I totally forgot to buy any alpaca wool when I went to Peru last year. It has good squish content.

The patterns in this book are really adorable, and it’s hard to choose what to make. But I reckon I’ll make a scarf, as I have become a scarf fiend recently and am rarely seen without one.

I shall report back!

And for some unrelated fun, here are a couple of holiday snaps from Iceland. This place is stunning beyond my ability to describe.

Outfit-along and sewing update

Fri, 20 May 2016 22:45:00 +0000

Hey… that’s not a sewing project!

This wool is for the Outfit-Along which I’ve impulsively decided to take part in. If you’ve not heard of it, this event runs for the months of June and July, and to take part you have to knit one garment and sew one garment to make up a whole outfit. I’m going to be making the official OAL patterns - the Zinone knitted lace top and the Hollyburn skirt - but you don’t have to go with those as long as you make a whole outfit.

I haven’t knitted anything proper in about a year - the last serious knitting project I made was a baby blanket for my niece last June. I’ve been musing about picking up my knitting needles again as I don’t want to lose the skill, so when the OAL popped up on my blog feed the other day, the timing was perfect. Plus, I already mentioned that I have another Hollyburn skirt on my sewing plans. There was no way I couldn’t sign up!

I’ve already made my gauge swatch, and it was bang on first time, which was nice. If you’re not a knitter, you might not know what a gauge swatch is. Basically, if two knitters knit the same square using the same wool and the same needles, the finished square may not come out the same size. This is because different knitters have different tension, meaning they may hold their wool more loosely or tightly as they sew - it’s really down to personal preference as to what feels good when you knit.

Therefore, before starting a new knitting project, you always have to make a gauge swatch - a test square - to calibrate your particular tension against what the knitting pattern expects. Otherwise you might end up with a top that’s 50% bigger than it’s supposed to be! If your sizing is a bit off then you change the size of your needles and try again. Lucky for me, my gauge swatch was just right. I’m going to chuck it in the washing machine and see if it can cope, because let’s face it, I’m too lazy for hand-washing.

Anyway - that’s enough about knitting - what about my sewing projects? Well -

This week I finished a Bettine dress in this gorgeous teal filigree fabric from Chinatown. I absolutely adore it - except for the small fact that the hem of the skirt is far too narrow and I can barely put it on! Why didn’t I learn from my previous Bettine? Totally gutted. I’m not giving up on it though - I’m going to buy some more of the fabric to replace the skirt with a slightly differently shaped one. I’m also thinking of putting a side zip and waist band onto the old skirt so I can wear it on its own.

And this is what’s on my sewing table now:

Hawthorn cutting chaos. I still haven’t found a way of cutting out fabric that I like. I used to pin the pattern pieces to the fabric and then cut around them, but I always ended up shaving a bit of the pattern piece off. So now I draw around the pieces and cut them after, but it’s extremely tedious and it’s hard to draw accurate lines with tailor’s chalk. What’s your favourite way to cut fabric?

Bear Renfrew t-shirt

Sun, 15 May 2016 23:15:00 +0000

It’s the bear-bear Renfrew! My cosy new t-shirt with bears on!

This was so much fun to make! Especially after making my fern print Mimi which took forever and involved fabric that didn’t behave. This t-shirt was planned as my first foray into working with knits, but completely by accident (because I wasn’t pay attention), the fern Mimi took that crown. This t-shirt was an absolute breeze compared to that. The fabric is a fairly thick jersey - almost maybe sweatshirt material - and it did exactly what I told it to. Heavenly! And it took hardly any time at all to make, which I really appreciated as I had to go to work on the weekend I made it so I didn’t have many spare hours.

Apology up front: the pictures in this post have come out a bit desaturated, oops! It was a really bright day when I took these photos so the colour got a bit washed out and I’ve struggled to put it back in. The pic at the top is the truest to the colour - it’s a nice vivid blue with a hint of grey. We can pretend that the rest of the pictures are using a cool Instagram filter.

The pattern is the Sewaholic Renfrew. I bought the paper pattern. I’ve decided I’m never going to buy a PDF pattern again (unless it’s the only option) because 1) it’s so nice to have the real, physical product and 2) I’d honestly rather wait a few weeks for a pattern to reach me than lose a precious evening to sellotape. Time is money, friend! (Goblin salesmen from WoW yeah? Anyone? Just me?)

There were a few steps in the construction that I was worried about - the neck, arm and waist bands which are a bit shorter than the opening you sew them to, and the sleeves which are sewn flat - but it all went surprisingly smoothly. The trick to the bands is to put a pin in every quarter of the way around, matching seams - then with the band on top, gently stretch it to the right size as it goes through the machine. On my very first go I went pin-mad but it just got really fiddly. It was much easier with fewer pins.

There are little bears mountain climbing all over me!

I picked the size 4 and it fits nicely with absolutely no adjustments. Is that how knits work? Is it always this magical?! I bet I just got lucky this time.

The fit is just right across the bust and has enough ease around the waist for a proper big dinner. For future Renfrews I may go for a size 2 at the waist for a snugger fit, but for this particular tee I think the looseness adds a casual vibe that goes well with the casual fabric.

So comfy and cosy. I want to make twenty more like it!

Slinky Knits are Hard: The Fern Mimi

Sun, 08 May 2016 00:07:00 +0000

I know, know - I said a couple of posts ago that my Tilly spree was over as I had ordered some new patterns. But I’d forgotten for how long it takes for post to get to me here in Singapore. And while I was waiting I wasn’t very well going to sew nothing, was I?

After my first Mimi blouse came out stiffer than I’d hoped, I wanted to try it out in a fabric with good drape. So I picked up this cute rayon with a monochrome fern print. I love wearing rayon - it performs well in a humid climate like Singapore because it is breathable, and yet doesn’t crease with wear like other breathable fabrics such as linen or cotton. From a wardrobe perspective, rayon’s a real winner.

Well. This particular rayon was a real challenge! I’d heard people complaining before about how their fabric “shifts” and “moves” when they work with it, but I had no idea what that meant. And now I do. Holy moly this fabric has a life of its own! It’s slinky, it’s lightweight, and oh, it also turns out to be a knit rather than a woven. Just stand in the same room as it and that will be enough for it to stretch, forming waves that distort the grain, taunting you. But I bravely (recklessly) decided to plough on. Why did I do this to myself?

Cutting it was a serious task. Even folding the fabric to pin the selvedges together before cutting it was a serious task. I decided to use my new rotary cutter as I’d read that scissors distort slinky fabrics like this as you cut them. Well, turns out rotary cutters do too. This was the least precise cutting I have done by a long way. Eventually I gave up on all hopes of the fabric laying straight as I cut it and just resorted to hope and crossed fingers. (Figuratively crossed fingers, of course. Crossing them while holding a rotary cutter would be a trip to A&E waiting to happen.)

Sewing took ages. This fabric enjoys being near the sewing needle, so totally unrelated bits of blouse kept getting caught up in my seams. I am a real pro with the seam ripper now.

But somehow, against all odds, it worked out really well in the end. It’s so comfy to wear! For all that the slinky rayon kept slinking right off the table while I was working with it, it’s delightful against the skin, and has exactly the drape that this pattern deserves. And I think it looks great!

I used Tilly’s pussy bow Mimi hack to transform the collar. There’s a bit where she asks you to sew and trim seam allowances up until the notch. Then the remaining seam allowances get sewn to the neckline of the blouse. I didn’t manage this quite right as there’s a couple of millimetres of the unfinished seam allowance exposed right at the corner which I’ll probably blanket stitch. If you try this hack, make sure to pay close attention to that corner.

I used these cute little hexagonal buttons. Because I had trouble with the top closure not lying flat in my last Mimi and ended up adding a hidden hook and eye, I put two buttons up there this time - but that didn’t do the trick either. I just can’t get that top corner to lie flat. Luckily, this time the top corner is completely hidden by the bow so it doesn’t really matter.

Here’s a view from the back - I think the gathers work really well in this fabric.

You can see from the side that even though it’s got quite a bit of ease, it drapes in a lovely way. Ha, I just noticed while writing this that you can also see how completely off grain my cutting is too, given how the print is angled completely differently on the front and back pieces. Oh well!

I did not expect I’d be saying this, but the finished piece is certainly worth all the frustration I had working with the fabric. Once I’ve worked through the fabrics I bought in my last haul (yes, I’m still that naive that I think I’m going to empty my fabric stash) I’ll try to make another pattern in a slinky rayon like this. The comfort and breeziness of this blouse are through the roof, and I want to wear it every day, so it’ll be great to nail the slinky fabric skill and fill my wardrobe with me-made rayon tops.

The birth of the fabric stash

Sun, 24 Apr 2016 23:47:00 +0000

I went fabric shopping today, and bought a silly amount of fabric.

It was brilliant.

This is my first serious fabric “haul” - and I sure hope there are many more to come, because this was exhilarating! It was also exhausting. Fabric is so heavy. Who knew fabric was so heavy?

I think I’ve mentioned the fabric market at People’s Park Food Centre before. It’s a shopping centre down in Chinatown. The ground floor is a hawker centre (an open-air food court) which is ideal for a quick lunch to get your energy up before you start on your circuit of the fabric shops on the first floor. And you’d better make sure you’ve got energy, because there are many, many fabric shops. And there’s so much variety! And it’s so affordable! When we one day move away from Singapore, I think this will be one of the places I miss the most. I’ll have to take some pictures next time I’m down there - I’ll have to be sneaky though, as a lot of them don’t allow photography.

Even the shopping bags are adorable!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to walk you through what I bought…

The first thing I picked up was four metres of this blue and cream gingham-ish cotton for S$6 per metre at Maggie Textile. I say gingham-ish because it is a little bit thicker than gingham, and the base colour being a cream rather than vibrant white means it doesn’t evoke that summer-school-dress feeling.

I’m thinking of making a Colette Hawthorn dress in this one, so I bought buttons to match. I probably should have taken the buttons out of the packet to show off their shape and colour. You’ll just have to wait for the finished Hawthorn!

An aside for any word geeks out there: I recently found out that the word gingham actually originates in this area! It comes from an old Malay word ginggang which meant “striped”. The spice trade brought the word to the Dutch, and from there it found its way into English.

I bought five metres of this $S3/m plain white cotton fabric, for the Hawthorn muslin. I really like the white seersucker Hawthorn on the Colette website so there is a part of me that is hopeful that my muslin comes out wearable, but being realistic, I’m probably going to end up slicing-and-dicing that thing to get it to fit!

This one really excites me! I love how bright and wacky it is, like colourful doodles in a notebook. I got it at Brighton Accessories House, which I think might be my current favourite shop in the fabric market, as it has a lot of Japanese printed cotton like this for S$6.60 a metre, as well as a big selection of buttons and zips. I’m going to make some more envelope pillowcases out of this fabric.

This teal cotton came from Brighton Accessories too. It has an interesting grid texture and it’s pretty soft. I’m considering using this for another instant gratification Tilly and the Buttons Bettine dress. The print is quite large though, so it might look a bit weird around the gathered waistband. I picked up three metres so I can keep my options open.

I really have no idea what the fabric content of this one is. I think it’s a cotton mix. It’s some kind of suiting trouser material in stable knit - bit stiff but also a bit stretchy. Plain black is pretty boring, but I’m very intent on making things that I will actually wear - and a wearable wardrobe has to include some neutral basics. I’m going to make a Sewaholic Hollyburn skirt out of this, to replace a ponte skater skirt from Uniqlo that I’ve nearly worn to death.

This Sevenberry fabric comes from Golden Dragon at the People’s Park Centre (not the People’s Park Food Centre where the fabric market is). The print is very me! I really enjoyed the Sevenberry fabric I used for my palm print Megan dress, so I might make another Megan with this.

And finally, I swung by trustworthy Spotlight at Plaza Singapura to buy some matching thread and interfacing. They obviously sell thread at the fabric market, but I’ve gone a bit weird and want all my thread to be Guttermann because I like the uniformity on my thread rack. At Spotlight, I walked past this and just couldn’t not buy it…

It’s an adorable bear print cotton jersey! Spotlight is considerably more expensive than the fabric market as this cost $S15 per metre - and that’s including my member discount. But look how cute it is!

I am always strongly drawn to clothes with prints of animals. It’s a constant test of my self restraint. They’re so delightful, but typically pretty juvenile - which is not the look I want to go for. This fabric is quite subtle and not too cartoonish. Or at least that’s what I’m telling myself. I’ll be making a Sewaholic Renfrew shirt out of this, as my first real foray into sewing with knits.

Phew! Now to bung it all in the washing machine so it’s ready to sew!

Chilli Bettine Dress

Wed, 13 Apr 2016 19:20:00 +0000

Yet another Tilly and the Buttons piece… I made this Bettine dress! With chilli print fabric! Because spicy food is my favourite food!

Making this dress felt a lot like cheating. It has extremely simple construction as it is targeted at absolute beginners. I think I’m in the “advanced beginner” camp by now, so this was a doddle to put together! I made the version without pockets (not a fan of how they look) and omitted the cuff tab, which meant I was left with very few pattern pieces and very few seams. And no darts! It was a very quick make, to the point that it seems like I barely did anything to the fabric for it to turn into a dress.

I did a 1.5" full bust adjustment on the front bodice piece because I am a C/D cup and Tilly’s patterns are drafted for a B cup. When you execute an FBA, you increase the length of the bodice piece. Typically, there is a horizontal dart on the bodice which then gets redrawn to consume that extra length of fabric, but this dress has no darts! Tilly recommends ease-stitching the extra length in which I found very straight forward.

The fabric came from Malin Textile at Chinatown and I paid S$11 (£5.50) per metre for it, down from S$13 (£6.50). It frayed like crazy while I worked with it, which was irritating. But it came out so cute! It’s a fun dress. I like the grown on sleeves. They’re different.

It’s not at all easy to pull over my head though. I have to do a very awkward wiggle dance to put it on. It’s probably because I cut a size 1 for the hips whereas I’m a size 2 plus FBA in the bust, and the skirt is a tulip shape so it narrows towards the hem. As there are no closures, the narrow hem needs to go over my head and past the bust when I put it on, and it takes a fair bit of encouragement to coax it to where it’s supposed to be.

A much more graceful wiggle than the one I had to do while getting dressed.

I’m not sure what I could do to fix that next time, though. My first thought was to try it with an A-line skirt, but I think the skirt does need to hug the hips in order to balance out the bagginess on top. Maybe I will just try it in a jersey, once I’ve learned how to sew with knits. And I’ve already ordered a couple of knit patterns so that won’t be too far away!

Palm-print Megan

Sun, 10 Apr 2016 16:22:00 +0000

My palm print Megan dress is finished!

The fabric is by Sevenberry and I’m in love with it. It’s light, but has some structure. It holds a crease when you want it to, but doesn’t crease through wear. It’s great!

I really like this dress. I put most of it together very quickly without much thought, which was rewarding after how long my first Megan took me. But when I was about to put the sleeves on my husband commented that it actually looked really good without sleeves. So I thought I’d have a go at making bias tape and using it as a facing. It took me a whole day to figure it out, but I got there in the end - one new dress, two new skills. And he was right! The Megan is brilliant without sleeves.

The one thing in this pattern that I’m still unsure about is the length of the dart tucks on the front of the bodice. One of my original fit adjustments was to lengthen the bodice, but I didn’t know what to do with the dart tucks so I left them as they were. I think I need to lengthen them by the same amount so that they lie flat.

See how that dart tuck billows out just a touch at the bust? I think the bodice fit is pretty good apart from that. I can’t easily get that part of the bodice under the machine now it’s been fixed to the skirt, so I tried to hand sew it flat - turns out I still don’t have any patience for hand sewing. Might try slip stitching it later. I don’t think it’s a big deal though, I’ll just mark the dart longer on my pattern piece and bear it in mind next time.

I’ve done quite a few Tilly patterns in a row now, and it’s time for me to branch out. I finished a Bettine dress yesterday and I’ll be posting about that soon, but I’ve ordered some Colette and Sewaholic patterns to get a bit more variety in my me-made wardrobe.

Speaking of which, I signed up to Me-Made May! I’ve pledged to wear at least two pieces that I’ve made myself each week in the month of May. Looking forward to it!

Anchor Mimi Blouse

Sun, 03 Apr 2016 19:34:00 +0000

Look, it’s my first blouse! I made the Mimi blouse from Love at First Stitch.

I made no alterations to this one as I made it immediately after making my alteration-ridden Megan dress (the one with the six bodice muslins) and I just wanted to get my teeth stuck straight into the sewing. I think the finished piece fits me alright - but then it’s a loose fitting garment with no darts or anything, so there wasn’t much risk there.

I bought the fabric at the People’s Park Food Centre in Chinatown, which is amazing by the way. Fabric stores as far as the eye can see - and cheap too!

This is a cotton, but beyond that I couldn’t tell you much about it. I thought it was a lawn when I bought it, but it isn’t especially drapey, so I suspect it’s more of a poplin. Anyone got any tips on how to identify different types of cotton?

Unfortunately the pattern calls for drapiness, so the finished blouse is a bit stiffer than I would like. It’s wearable, but I’m not really all that sure about the way it hangs at the back when it’s tucked in:

That’s not as much of a problem when it’s untucked - but that’s not really my style. I tend towards an hourglass silhouette, so I’d typically tuck in a loose fitting blouse at the waist. We’ll have to see how often I reach for this one in my wardrobe.

I did have a couple of other issues making it. I must have sewn the yoke interfacing on a little wonky, because the corner above the top button really wants to stick out, and no amount of pressing will subdue it. I had a go at restitching it without much success, so in the end I whacked a hidden hook-and-eye in there. Bit of a duct tape solution, but it did the trick…

The other issue was really just foolishness on my part. Put the buttons on the wrong side, didn’t I? Totally didn’t think that through. At least I know I’ll never make that mistake again. It feels very weird buttoning up a blouse this way round!

All in all, a successful make, but I’m not sure how much I will end up wearing it. I’ve just picked up some drapey rayon to make up another version and see if I can make this pattern work for me.

Making another Megan

Sat, 02 Apr 2016 00:56:00 +0000

Firstly, a brief announcement: my blog has a new name! Cotton on Cotton is now Cotton Noodle. I changed it because wanted something that wasn’t so close to the name of an established brand. Picking a name is hard, and it’s even harder the second time around as you have something to compare it to. The new name quietly alludes to the fact that the blog was born in Singapore. Or maybe I was just hungry.

Anyway, back on topic… Here’s my work-in-progress:

After putting all that effort into fitting the Megan pattern, I’ve kicked off another version. This fabric is a Sevenberry cotton that I managed to find in the chaos of Singapore’s Mustafa Centre. I like that the palm print is quite busy, while the monochrome stops it from being loud. This is going to be another work dress so I want it to be relatively subdued.

I lowered the neckline a touch, giving it a soft V-shape. I’m also considering keeping it sleeveless. Otherwise, I’ve kept the same alterations as last time.

I’m having loads of fun making this one. I think as I’m getting better at sewing, and have to stop and refer to instructions less and less, I am getting more of that rush of joy that comes from creating something with my own hands. It’s this feeling that makes me love being a maker. I’ve been a knitter for a few years, so it’s nothing new to me - but I am enjoying how sewing brings this sense of gratification and pride more often, as garments are faster to finish. Yup, I think I really like sewing.

Anchor buttons

Sun, 20 Mar 2016 12:09:00 +0000

I discovered self cover buttons!

I’ve just finished off a Mimi blouse (another pattern from Love at First Stitch) and just have to share how cute my buttons are!

I’d never made self cover buttons before, so when I made these I was really giddy at how perfectly they came out. Check out how they’re the perfect size for an anchor to fit on!

And you know what? It’s a total coincidence. Ha! I didn’t think about it at all, I just picked out a fabric I liked (yay anchors) and bought 1/2" buttons because the pattern told me to. I was literally squealing with joy when the two came together so nicely!

Photos of my Mimi coming up soon. What shall I make next?

I made a Megan dress!

Sun, 06 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Behold… I made a Megan dress!

A few weeks ago I picked up a copy of Love At First Stitch by Tilly Walnes, from the Kinokuniya at Ngee Ann City. (If you’re in Singapore, I really recommend the sewing book section there - there are a lot of books that have paper patterns included, including those from bloggers like Tilly, Collete Patterns and Gertie. I got a little over excited in the shop!)

I’d read the reviews for Love At First Stitch so I was pretty hyped for the book. And it totally lived up to expectation! It’s a gorgeous book, very beautifully put together - and Tilly has a lovely conversational way of writing which makes you feel like you’ve known her for years.

Shamelessly copying one of Tilly’s poses from the book

But I’ve gotta say, I found the Megan dress a real challenge. Nothing to do with the pattern or instructions - but just getting the bodice to fit. The pattern is drafted for a B-cup, but I am a C/D, so I knew I was going to need a full bust adjustment. But I wasn’t expecting that I would end up making six muslins of the bodice…

The five discarded bodice pieces that didn’t make the final muslin

And on the plus side, I am now an expert at sewing darts after having done about 30 of them as part of this muslin saga!

In the end, I made a 1.5" full bust adjustment, lengthened the bodice by 1/5", and took 2" out of the back neckline. I also shortened the hem by 2".

And now it’s all finished! The fabric is a cotton poplin I bought at Spotlight.

I’m really proud of it. I’ve made it for work to force myself to wear the stuff I make on normal days rather than saving it for special occasions.

There are a few errors in it, but I’m okay with that (I’m telling myself). I’m not too crazy about the dart tucks around the bodice as they don’t seem to lie properly, and the zip is a bit stiff. But it’s all cool, because I made a dress!

Two Hollyburn skirts

Sat, 13 Feb 2016 16:21:00 +0000

In my first month of sewing I’ve made two Hollyburn skirts. The sewalong at Lavender Lane helped enormously through the process. (NB. Lavender Lane link removed, blog has sadly expired.)

I printed out the PDF pattern, and even just taping that together was a real learning curve for a newbie like me! Somehow I ended up with wonky grainline markings in the pattern – but I think I got away with it.

I made this green version first (my first ever garment!):

I was pretty pleased with myself. Within a few days I had turned a length of fabric into a wearable item of clothing!

Just don’t look on the inside… The tension on the zig-zag seam finish is off so they’re all scrunched up. And the waistband interfacing is exposed in places! Some of the seams are wonky, too – I could not get that cheap polycotton to hold a pressed fold for more than a few minutes.

All in all though, this skirt is the end product of a serious learning experience. I had a lot of fun making it, even the frustrating bits along the way like redoing the zipper four times. (Now I understand why basting is always recommended.)

Then I made this version for my birthday, and all my feelings of pride about the green skirt were blown out of the water:

I’m really happy with this one! I took all my learnings from the first version, and applied them fastidiously and painstakingly. And isn’t that fabric gorgeous? I picked it up at Spotlight.

I didn’t match up the print on the seams, but other than that I was possibly a bit too perfectionist. This afternoon I read in Love At First Stitch that if you mess up a couple of stitches, you don’t actually have to redo the whole seam. I’ll get through my future projects a lot faster with that bit of knowledge!

I wore the floral skirt out on my birthday – my husband treated me to dinner at Lime House, which was great fun. I loved the jerk chicken carpaccio (bold but delicate) and the macaroni pie (wholesome and comforting). I ate a huge amount – by the end of the night I was grateful for the ease in the skirt’s waistband!

I see myself making many more Hollyburn skirts – they are exactly my style, and so easy to wear.

My first project! Pillowcases!

Sat, 13 Feb 2016 08:09:00 +0000

I started out on my sewing journey in the typical way: I made a pillowcase!

It actually happened at the perfect time – my husband and I wanted to get new bedding for the new year, but we couldn’t find pillowcases to match our king-size pillows anywhere in Singapore. When I realised I could make pillowcases easily with my new sewing machine, it was like it was fated to happen! My beginner’s project immediately turned into a mission – I had to make 2 sets of 4 king-size pillowcases to replace our old ones.

So I trotted down to Spotlight to find some fabric. I knew it would be a learning curve picking out fabric for the first time – but goodness me, it took ages. I was probably in there for an hour, poring over all the different types of cotton and trying to find a good balance between the feel, the colour, the pattern and the price. I ended up choosing bright green cotton poplin in polka dots and stripes. Bright colours lift my spirits, and I’m on a real green kick right now!

I made my very first pillowcase following the [envelope closure pillowcase tutorial over at Make It & Love It[(http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2013/01/envelope-closure-pillowcase-for-bed-pillows.html). I finished the seams and pressed it neatly, and then went to put it on my pillow feeling super proud of myself… then I realised I’d made the darn thing far too big! Turns out American king-size pillows are bigger than UK ones. First important lesson learned – double check your measurements!

(Well, maybe the first important lesson I learned the hard way was to lower the presser foot before sewing. I had quite a panic after getting about a foot of thread tangled up in the feed dogs.)

So. I ripped out all the seams from my oversized pillowcase, did some measuring and some maths, and started over. This time it fit perfectly! I made four:

I also modified the approach so that each pillow is made with two pieces of fabric rather than one. I found it hard to manipulate such huge pieces of fabric.

The final numbers I ended up with to fit a UK king-size pillow are:

Front piece – 20.5" x 34.5"
Back piece – 20.5" x 42.5"

This gives finished dimensions of 19.5" x 33". I first hemmed one short edge on each piece by folding it up twice by 0.5", and then used 0.5" seam allowances.

A couple of weeks ago I made a second set. They’re in the wash right now so I’ll have to share the pictures later!

5 things I learned in my first month of sewing

Thu, 11 Feb 2016 15:08:00 +0000

Now that I’ve been sewing for over a month (okay, maybe closer to six weeks) I thought I’d write down five of the big discoveries I’ve made along the way. Some of these beginner sewing tips I had read beforehand, but I never truly understood them until I experienced them for myself!

1. A good pair of scissors is really, really worth it

I started out buying two cheap pairs of scissors (less than S$7 or £3.50 each), but I ended up going back to the store a few days later to upgrade to a pair of Fiskars (around S$60 or £30). The cheap ones felt like they were tearing through the fabric rather than cutting it. With the Fiskars I can make nice, clean, accurate cuts, and they’re genuinely a joy to use.

2. A decent iron makes a world of difference

I upgraded our 10-year-old iron for a new one that actually takes out creases, produces steam, and doesn’t leak. It’s heaven! I genuinely enjoy pressing (and normal ironing) now that my tools are working with me rather than against me. It’s not even a particularly flashy iron - just having one that works is the key! And on the topic of irons…

3. Leave your ironing board out (if you can!)

Pressing is less of a chore if the ironing board is always out. It does seem to be true that you spend as much time at the ironing board as at the sewing machine. A large part of why I used to hate ironing my clothes is that it’s such a chore to drag the ironing board out of the cupboard and set it all up. Now the ironing board is up all the time and next to my sewing machine, it’s so easy to switch between the two whenever I need to.

4. Foot pedal control gets easier with practice

I don’t drive, so I don’t know if the same thing applies to driving - but I found it very hard to have decent control over the pedal at first. I could only make my machine run at two speeds: off, and way too fast! After a few weeks I think my foot muscles have gotten acclimatised to things, and I have much finer control now. I still mess it up now and then, but practise does seem to be making a difference.

5. A lint roller can collect threads after seam ripping

This may be a well known technique to experienced sewists but I was so proud of myself when I figured it out myself! After ripping out stitches, you end up with lots of short threads in your fabric. Running a lint roller up and down them in the direction of the stitches will collect them easily. Just need to be careful not to catch the raw edge of the fabric with the lint roller, or else you’ll unravel it!

There you have it. I will share more discoveries as I go along! See you next time.

Cotton Noodle

Equilibrium

Half-ass ten things

Restyling the Cotton Noodle website

The technical side

The aesthetic side

The future

52 book challenge: end-of-year reflections

What I learned

What I’m looking forward to, now that the challenge is over

What I’m grateful for

Round-up

The books that touched my heart the most

Full list of everything I read

Simplicity S3099 Dress Pattern Review

Why did I pick this pattern?

What fitting adjustments did I make?

Transferring adjustments to the lining and facing … or not

Some thoughts on the construction

Final thoughts

52 book challenge: mid-year reflections

Reflections

My favourite books from this year:

Final thoughts

Everything I’ve read this year so far

Still making, just quietly

Mood Fabrics NYC

What did I buy?

Reflecting on Whole 30 Fabric

Where did it all go wrong?

What am I going to do differently now?

I have a Fashion Design Diploma now

Some yarn from Dublin

Improving my marker rendering skill

Improving my knitting skill

A new page on incentivised content

52 book challenge

Bear print Jackson pullover (and pattern review)

Pullover sizing

Sleeves

That hem band

In conclusion

Knitting a baby blanket on a deadline

Drafting the Foss blouse

The Design

Technical Information

Drafting the block

Drafting the Design

Toiling and Fitting

Sewing It Up

The Finished Piece!

Resources for Pattern Drafting

Building a project gallery in Hugo

My feature requirements

Out of scope for MVP

How I built it with Hugo

Directory structure

The project directory name contains the date

Years are directories, and so is “all”

1) _index.md in the year directory

2) The gallery list template needs to search directories recursively

Creating the menu links for the years

Tags & categories

1. Changing the taxonomies’ display names

2. Positioning the taxonomies in the hierarchy

3. Fixing the taxonomies’ permalinks

The gallery archetype

Storing the project data

Displaying the gallery content

Adding a new project to the gallery

Conclusion

Re-knitting the Loki jumper

Some comments on the pattern

Some comments on the yarn

Re-evaluating my relationship with Instagram

Instagram felt bad

So what changes now?

Building a website with Hugo

A little backstory about me and the web

So I’ve been building this website.