pattern review

A jobbing sewist’s review of Vogue 8904

I have had a passing fancy for Vogue 8904 – an interesting “shingle” dress made up of layers of contrasting fabrics, and have, unusually for me, read reviews prior to making, which said things such as “really easy”; “made in an afternoon”, “I didn’t need to read the instructions”, and so on. You get the […]

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Archie, GCC, Sewing, vintage

Tweed

You’ve all probably immediately gone to thinking about tweed fabric, but I had one of those weird flashbacks to my mother wearing Tweed perfume when I was a child. I immediately had to google it and found that it was launched in 1925 and “Tweed is an enduring, distinctive, retro classic fragrance that has retained […]

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Knitting, Machine knitting, reusing wool, straightening knitting wool

Straightening used knitting wool

I made this post originally as part of a regular post but have been asked to separate it out, so decided to create a menu button for tutorials – I hope I manage more than this one, I don’t like the idea of being a one trick pony! [later edit: I’ve had to delete the […]

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GCC, Knitting, Machine knitting, Sewing

A new trackie!

As I do more and more walking in the winter, I find myself needing walking clothes, particularly for those day walks where I don’t want to look too scruffy, so I have made a new tracksuit. For the top I used my new BFF, Vogue 8854 – this is the third time I’ve used it, […]

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GCC, Sewing, vintage

A suit – sort of!

Last night I put the finishing touches to a skirt and vest that I’ve been making for the last few days. I bought a remnant in Tessuti’s Melbourne – 91cm of wool houndstooth check. I bought it intending to make the skirt from Vogue 1247, but I had enough left over for the vest – […]

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GCC, Sewing

Weekend sewing

I had a really productive weekend of sewing – I managed to clean up a whole pile of projects just waiting for elements to be added/changed/finished. I also made a couple of things from scratch. Whilst I was rummaging in one of my many boxes of fabric leftovers, I found this fabric, which I had […]

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cooking, GCC, Sewing, vintage

Betty Boop gets covered!

Ever since I made the Betty Boop bathing suit I have been wanting to make a cover up, but it had to be the right cover up, preferably with a ’50s vibe. To my joy I found a pattern in Melbourne (I think I squeaked when I saw it!) that is from 1957 and is […]

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family sewing, GCC, Sewing

Been quiet on the western front!

So, yes, I haven’t blogged for a week (!), but I have been uber busy. I’ve been catching up on work (for which I am recompensed, so need to do it!), but I’ve also had quite a few projects on the go, all of which needed things to be bought so they could be finished (zips, […]

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GCC, Sewing, Travel, vintage

Extreme sports

Believe it or not, I used to be into fairly extreme sports. These activities included things such as rock climbing and abseiling, caving, scubadiving (not overly extreme, but worth listing), barefoot waterskiing, and aerobatics (I did this whilst pregnant with Tom and he believes that it explains a lot about him!), and yes I do […]

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