fadanista

Itch to Stitch Danube jeans skirt

Kennis from Itch-to-Stitch has just released “Danube” which is a classic five-pocket jean-style skirt. I was a tester for this skirt and it’s always such a pleasure to test Kennis’ designs as they are almost perfect with enough small issues to make the testers feel like they are earning their keep! The first skirt I […]

Sewing

Jalie Éléonore jeans with real pockets

I have made a lot of these Jalie Éléonore pull on jeans (see here and here for a couple of examples), but have finally made a pair with front pockets. I had been resisting on the grounds that I didn’t need the bulk but they don’t actually add any bulk. There was originally a little […]

Sewing

Office Man jacket

I have made my first ever item from my first ever Ottobre magazine, the family edition 07/2017, and it’s the rather quaintly named Office Man jacket. Never mind the office man, this is a perfect jacket for the retired man and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to make it. I […]

Sewing

Moggy dress

No, this is not a dress for cats of indeterminate breeding, it is, in fact, my Mother of the Groom dress, which became known as the Moggy dress! My dress is based on Vogue 1542, which I bought in LA when I went shopping with PammyOh. I think this pattern is rather gorgeous, however, I […]

Sewing

Powder blue outfit

I have spent a fair bit of time trying to identify the colour of this outfit and finally worked out that it was “powder blue” or “#BECFDD” according to the Australian Standard. The fabric was given to me by Sarah and is a gorgeous wool crepe which we think dates back to the 1980s. The […]

Sewing

Little black twirly dress

In an earlier post I described a black wrap dress I made for Bridgette’s hen’s party. Well that was the second dress I made; this is the first one, which I decided wasn’t quite fancy enough. It is the So Sew Easy Brief Encounter dress, which I made once before in wide stripes. Did I […]

Sewing

Loose covers for the win

For at least the last five years, and perhaps even longer, I’ve been thinking I need my furniture reupholstered, and it was going to be the first thing I organised when I retired. Three years on and many phone calls, emails, and frustration later, I was no further advanced and stopped inviting people to my […]

Knitting

Outlander shrug with hood

Hands up all of you who watch Outlander and have become besotted with the knitwear. It took me a couple of episodes to start noticing the amazing handknits and then I couldn’t look at anything else. I immediately had a look to see if, perchance, the patterns had been published and there were lots of […]

Sewing

Wrap dress with a difference

There are a couple of IG challenges that I am participating in, one of which is for a wrap dress for Sew together for summer, and the other is the Make a garment a month sewalong, the theme for April being “Alternative April”. I thought I might combine the two challenges and make an […]

Sewing

Helen’s Closet in my closet

Helen’s Closet is a new to me pattern maker and I instantly loved her Blackwood Cardigan and Avery Leggings so of course, they had to be adopted. I made the Blackwood from a quite lovely piece of fabric from Knitwit. It is a wool blend and is nubbly but not a bouclé, I don’t really […]