A coatigan to remind me of my grandma’s carpet: Burda 12/2011 #114

I was lucky enough to get 2 yards of this totally glorious fabric from emmaonesock last year. It looks like a fabulous vintage carpet. It’s a wool fleece with raised areas, a brushed texture, and decorative selvedges. The design seems to be knitted in as you can see below on the reverse. The fabric arrived

Fabric swap skirt: Burda 01/2011 #137

Fabric and pattern swaps. What a wonderful idea. @adelaidesewists organised this swap in July. I took 13 lengths of fabric and it felt good. My no-longer adored fabric was going to a good home and not landfill. Someone else is going to make something amazing from it. I come home with 6 lengths of fabric

Linton Tweed pencil skirt: Burda 03/2010 #136

I have thoroughly enjoyed the sewing journey with this skirt. Which is fortunate, because the end result was much less satisfying than the journey to get there. But that’s fine. This fabric was such a delight to sew. It is a silk, wool and cotton blend purchased from Linton Tweeds in Carlisle whilst on holiday

Silver crushed velvet dress: Burda 01/2018 #101

This is a story of going to the fabric store to buy fabric for a specific pattern but buying something we loved that wasn’t really suitable for that pattern. Anyone else do that? When we realised what we’d done, all the Burda magazines came out and Felicity and I spent a pleasant hour or so

Monochrome floral tunic: BurdaStyle 08/2020 #125

Experimental sewing. Wearable, but getting close to a wadder. I guess we’ve all been there. I wouldn’t have said this when this top was fresh off the sewing machine, but subsequent episodes of wearing have led me to conclude that its not quite the right fabric for this pattern. What is this pattern I hear

‘Bib Skirt’: BurdaStyle 10/2020 #118

Bib skirt. Burda. Really? What were you thinking? You have to hope it sounds better in German. Brooklyn Farm, at which some of this pinafore was sewn, provided the most wonderful backdrop for these photos. It’s allowed to look great – it was a movie set. Of course once the pinafore was made it needed

The spring coat I haven’t made yet: BurdaStyle 03/2010 #101

This was the final pattern I auditioned this summer for the beautiful yellow roses fabric. And it’s a winner. So. Why haven’t I actually made it up? Well. Timing. March seemed the wrong time to make a spring coat for an Australian sewist. But I do very much love my trial version. I used an

The last of the summer sewing

The season has turned, I’ve brought my winter coats back into the wardrobe. It’s almost too late to be blogging about summer sewing… but not quite! This top is Burdastyle 06/2016 #129 I’ve even used a similar colour to Burda. Mine is made from a floaty cotton voile that has been in my stash almost

Style Arc’s Adeline African wax print dress

I really, really love this dress and I am wearing it, again, right now as I press publish on this post. I’m surprised to have arrived at the end of summer without having made at least one more version. Four Lodos and then distraction in the form of lovely yellow roses fabric might be the

Liberty lawn robe: BurdaStyle 01/2012 #134

I’ve made myself a summer robe with Liberty lawn and I love it. It seems indulgent to use such delightful fabric for clothing I don’t wear in public but I do wear it most days a week, even if only briefly I have a large stash of lovely fabric this is not my only piece

Flag Lodo

I‘m up to my fourth Lodo dress this summer. And I don’t think summer coming to an end will stop me sewing this pattern a fifth time. How good would a winter Lodo look with a turtleneck and tights? This version might be my current favourite – partly because of the fun I had deciding

Pink linen shirt dress: Burda 07/2004 #135

I’ve really gone back to the archives of my Burda magazine collection for this one. Moving up into the Plus size range will do that to you! I’d learnt from my mistakes about sizing and this time I traced a size 46 with a 2 cm petite adjustment above the bust and out to size

NYC in the snow and rain dress: 04/2010 #108

I still haven’t cut into my yellow roses fabric…. I am often but not always this indecisive – I do sometimes sew up other fabrics from my stash that are irreplaceable or have a back story. This fabric is the partner to the Paris street scenes fabric. Both were bought on a bit of a

Zero Waste sewing: Liz Haywood’s Ursa dress

It was impossible to resist Liz Haywood’s zero waste Ursa dress pattern when it was released – zero waste and a cowl neck? In a sack dress style perfect for a hot summer day? Exactly what I love! The hard part was working out which of the several drapey fabrics in my stash I should

Jenny Shorts

This is another winner pattern from Closet Core Patterns! And I’ve only just scratched the surface by making the shorts. The first version was a trial using an unloved fabric from the stash. Bright happy colours but not on my good list for showing some dye run during prewashing. You know how this turns out