Pink Tais turns into a Closet Core Sienna Jacket

If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you’ll know I love to buy fabrics whilst travelling. You’ve been warned! This is another one of those posts where I talk about what I sewed from fabric I bought a long way from home. A brief but wonderful trip to East Timor in 2019 resulted in

Is a kaftan a cocktail dress?

I think the photo answers that question! I used Cris Wood Sews Envelope Dress zero waste pattern and a floral rayon I purchased on holiday in Glasgow in 2014 to make this ‘cocktail kaftan’. Why was fabric purchased as a souvenir? Is that really a question for a sewist? I’ll answer it anyway. It wasn’t

Christmas dresses

Using Jocelyn Proust Christmas themed Australian animal prints to make Christmas dresses has become a tradition. This year, wombats and waratahs became a Sew Different Tulip dress for me. The whole menagerie of Australian animals was made into another version of B6677 for Felicity. Yes of course there was a matching mask! If you follow

Style Arc Adeline dress #2 and #3

I’m on a red dress roll. Must be Christmas! This fabric was a souvenir from Barcelona. I fell in love with the colours and I love border prints. As a bonus it’s an overprinted jacquard. Almost certainly made from synthetic fibres but interesting and unusual. The base is white (as you can see above) and

Red Papercut Tide dress

I’ve admired the Papercut patterns Tide dress ever since it was released (as the Kobe dress). Such a clever but simple design with the pleating and cut out at the back. In a recent sale I succumbed and purchased it. And then spent several happy hours looking though my fabric stash for suitable fabrics. Of

Pink dresses: McCalls 7922 and Butterick 6677

An invite with a request to wear something pink. Some people would add a pink accessory. Not Felicity. She needed a new pink dress. It was no surprise that there were several pink fabrics in my stash. But, also no surprise, none of them were deemed suitable. Apart from the delightful silk charmeuse with some

Two Helen’s Closet Hazelwood Cardigans

I’m late to Helen’s Closet patterns but that will be no news to regular readers – I’m a late adopter of many new indie patterns. The Hazelwood cardigan struck a cord though, so I dove in this winter. I made View A (the long version) in a size 16 B cup. My first version was

Blue and orange Closet Core Cielo top and Burdastyle 07/2012 #134 skirt

This was an indulgent project. Not because the fabric was precious or special. But because it was totally decided upon on a whim. This project leapt ahead of other projects that would have been more practical and actually filled a wardrobe gap. Just because I felt like sewing the three 1 metre lengths by 115

Handmade Halloween: Burda 07/2016 #111

“Mum can you make me a dress for Halloween?” “Sure, what were you thinking?” “Carrie. Pink prom dress covered in pigs blood. I’m thinking the same dress you made for Christmas in 2016.” Actually nothing like Carrie’s prom dress, but no problem. Great I’m thinking. The Christmas 2016 dress is still around so I can

Orange shirt: BurdaStyle 06/2009 #136

I’ve been admiring the collar on the Myosotis dress for some time. Then it dawned on me – there’ll be a BurdaStyle magazine pattern for that. After a pleasant hour or so trawling through my Burda magazine collection I found just what I was looking for in the June 2009 issue – a long line

Success and failure with asymmetric hemmed tops: Newlook 6412 and Butterick 6765

I’ve made two tops with asymmetric hems from non Burda patterns in the last few months. My Burda magazine collection must be feeling unloved. Who even am I? I’m pretty happy with this pattern. It’s a mash up of Butterick 6765 style B and C. This is a size 18 bust and waist out to

Strawberry almond tart

The wisteria is flowering and strawberries are delicious and plentiful. It feels like Spring! The Weekend Australian Magazine had a very tempting recipe for a strawberry almond tart. Resistance was futile! Crustless strawberry almond tart 150g butter, at room temperature ²/³ cup (150g) raw caster sugar 3 large eggs, at room temperature 1 teaspoon vanilla

Basics – a Burda pencil skirt and a Forget-me-not Patterns Vera top

This is one of those boring posts about basics. Great for blogs that are mainly personal journals, like mine. Not so good for blogs that other people actually read. And to make it worse, this post comes with not so great photos of creased garments and tired faces because the photography was done at the

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