self-drafted, Sewing, Tutorial

Lined pencil skirt with vent and a mini tutorial

At my last pattern making class Sarah, my teacher,  decided that it would be good to make a pencil skirt with a vent and line it. Didn’t sound too challenging! I packed up my pencil skirt block from Winifred Aldrich’s book Metric Pattern Cutting for Women’s Wear, some fabric and lining and off I went. The […]

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self-drafted, Sewing

Another Muresk top and a tutorial

I wasn’t going to blog this latest Muresk top (others are blogged here) and then I thought it had a little story which deserved to be told, namely that this top is partly made from the ponte given to me by my lovely friend Hélène when we played together in Montréal and uses the scraps from […]

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self-drafted, Sewing, Travel

Two directional top

One of my few remaining pieces of RTW is a very stretchy top that I used to love, but which I haven’t worn for about three years. I decided that I would like a new one, so rubbed off the pattern and then went shopping in the stash. I found a small remnant (what else?) […]

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self-drafted, Sewing

New tops are the tops!

I’ve been pretty busy this month and I’ve made a couple more tops, both of which I really like – hence the statement that my tops are the tops… I had another go at Kwik Sew 4175, going down a size and raising the neck a little. This time I used a remnant from Knitwit […]

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self-drafted, Sewing

The making of a raincoat pattern

One of the very few gaps in my wardrobe is a lined raincoat. I have many North Face style waterproof jackets, but they aren’t very elegant and I wanted something a bit nicer for travelling. I also prefer to wear things I’ve made for myself. I have this Vogue pattern from the 1990s in my […]

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self-drafted, Sewing

Stylearc Estelle Jacket

Oh yes, I am on the long jacket bandwagon and this one was inspired by Megan from Meggipeg – thanks for enabling Megan! This of course, is the Style Arc Estelle jacket and I made it from a beautiful taupe ponte from Knitwit. I love Knitwit’s ponte as it holds it shape really well, and their wool pontes make […]

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Repurposed, self-drafted, Sewing

Rapt in my wrap

Having been inspired by the wrap from Heaven Wrapped I set about making one for myself. This wrap is also from Heaven Wrapped and is the most luscious cotton/viscose/cashmere blend, which is both light and warm.   I made the holes round for this one and actually did it in my pattern making class at Workspace-FADS, as […]

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self-drafted, Sewing

Self-drafted shrug

I saw a lovely shrug in a high-end shop near me and immediately whisked it off to the change rooms for examination. It was basically three rectangles, two of which were folded in half and the third folded to form armholes. I got out my measure tape and made some rough sketches, took it all home […]

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self-drafted, Sewing

Leftovers jumper with brown trousers

I really must work on my blog titles! Anyway, I made this jumper with the piece of fabric I bought from Pitt Trading in Sydney to be a shawl collar on my Oslo cardigan and which wasn’t long enough. I am pleased to have it out of my stash, but it’s been a beast of a thing […]

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self-drafted, Sewing

Ruched cuffs and collar: a tutorial

I was quite pleased with my recently made tops with the ruched collar and cuffs, and I thought I’d share my trial one as a mini-tutorial. I am doing the cuff, but the collar is exactly the same process. The first thing to do is to make a pattern piece. I loosely measured my wrist and worked […]

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