2015

I rarely make gifts these days, I’m a very selfish seamstress, and lately with teaching most weekends at Ministry of Craft, plus working on various other freelance projects and putting together a collection for college, there is not much time to sew for myself at all. Despite that though, I made an exception for India’s boyfriend, John. He is a stylish young man with very clear ideas about the kind of clothes he likes, (I realise my description of him makes me sound about 110 years old! ) as you can see from his blog. He showed me a tote bag he liked and lost for ideas of what to buy him for his birthday a couple of weeks ago, I thought I would make him a bag very similar to the one he showed me. ...

Christmas is very almost here, and I have had to face the reality that most all of my pre Christmas sewing plans are not going to happen. There is a not so little pile of cut out garments sitting out in my shed waiting for me. I’m a little sad at the thought, but on the other hand, I can look forward to going out there after Christmas festivities are over and taking my time instead of rushing to a deadline, that let’s be honest I have set myself. Even my little christmas tree hasn’t made it out to the shed this year, instead it sits on a side table next to my spot on the sofa where I work on little hand sewing projects. ...

Tuesday was the day of my yearly mammogram so Woody had the day off to take me to the hospital. This year’s appointment was in the morning, so we went for lunch in Stockport’s Old Town afterwards, and did a little bit of vintage shopping at the same time. Stockport is well known for it’s Vintage Village and over the past few years a few vintage shops have also sprung up around the market place. I found this piece of vintage fabric in one of the shops for £5, probably a bit more than I’d usually pay in a charity shop, but still reasonable, and so bright and cheery I couldn’t really resist! It is a home dec fabric, the kind I think we had bathroom curtains made from when I was young. Of course it’s intended purpose never bothers me, I knew I wanted a simple A line skirt in it. The Delphine skirt by Tilly Walnes is a fab A line pattern, a nice high waist and the kind of exagerated A line I love. I do think that this is my current favourite A line pattern, taken over from my own draft! I’m calling it my Crystal Tips skirt because the bright colours remind me of a childhood cartoon Crystal Tips and Alistair. ...

I spotted this gorgeous orange plaid/tartan* wool fabric in Abakhan quite some time ago, I stroked it and admired it, but at £10 a metre it was a teeny bit pricey for me, so I left green with envy at the lady buying several metres of it to make herself a coat. Fast forward and on a recent shopping trip, I spotted the very last metre left on the roll and figured £10 was actually not at all too much to pay for enough fabric to make a skirt and I snapped it up. I’d had an urge to make an asymetric wrap skirt for a while after spotting one in TKMaxx and several in Marks and Spencers. I used my skirt block to draft the pattern. The back is one piece with waist darts and the front under wrap is one piece, while the overwrap is yoked. The skirt fastens at the right waist with a hidden button and at the front with an exposed open ended zip. I cut the front wrap with the straight grain going vertically from the waist, but in retrospect that was a mistake, as the edge of the front wrap doesn’t hang as nicely as I’d hoped. Still a great skirt though, and has a kind of “post punk” vibe with the exposed zip. I wore it with my pleather biker jacket and my vegan dm’s which I think works. The offcuts of fabric made a cute beret too, but I’m not sure I can really get away with being so matchy matchy, so haven’t braved wearing the two together yet, despite encouragement from India. ...

Last week I was a parent helper on Sid’s year 6 school trip to the air raid shelters in Stockport. I have been wanting to help out on this school trip for several years, but always had a small child or two at home to take care of. This year I didn’t and jumped with joy at the opportunity to help out. I do love local history, but mostly I just really wanted to dress up! ...

Very much feeling the need to clean up around my blog and my Etsy store, so having a little sale. All my PDF patterns have been reduced to £5.00 plus VAT where applicable, and the remaining tweedy brooches also reduced…they make a nice little Christmas gift. So, if you’ve been meaning to buy either Weekend Doris or Maude as an instant download then now would be a very good time to do it. I’m thinking about no longer selling PDF’s, sticking to printed patterns only, would love to know what you think about that, let me know in the comments. What do you prefer? The instant gratification of a PDF pattern or a printed pattern popping through your letterbox? ...

I had this notion that now I’m childfree during school hours I would have so much time to complete all the projects I seem to constantly have on the go, but somehow that hasn’t happened! I’ve been working every weekend at Ministry of Craft , the only weekend I haven’t worked I was hosting the La Leche League Great Britian National Workshop along with my co leaders from LLL Manchester. Add to that general Mumming and it’s all been a bit hectic! So no, Nora, Nell and Nancy my newest pattern is not yet available to buy, but soon, soon, I promise. I’m currently looking into alternative printing options for my paper patterns, but I’ll update here as soon as they are ready. Of course, no time to sew for myself means I have to plan and planning means shopping…I think? My sewing friend and neighbour offered to let me tag along next time she went up to Burnley to Immanuels, and all I can say is WOW!!! I may have won the competition to see who spent the most out of those of us who went. I only spent £38, but I got a huge amount of scrummy fabrics for that price. Including this odd, yet somehow divine quited yumminess! ...

My recent trip to Anglesey meant a trip of course to Abakhan in Mostyn, North Wales, much to my children’s dismay…although Eden likes to shop with me and the others can be placated with treats from the cafe. I bought a few lovely pieces there including this chocolate brown linen blend, which I knew had to be a Nell dress. I’m still slowly working on the grading and sampling of all the sizes of my Nora, Nell and Nancy designs. I wish I were quicker, but I do all of my drafting and grading by hand with pencil, ruler, tape and scissors. Technical I am not, although one of these days I’m going to invest in a course to teach me how to draft and grade on the computer. ...

Wow, this weekend was a busy one! Saturday I was teaching the new “Clone Your Closet” class at Ministry of Craft , A busy fun day was had by all, and everyone went home with a clone of one special garment, we had trousers, dresses, vintage coats.. Cloning a much loved item in your wardrobe is so satisfying. The lovely lady in the photos above copied beautifully a fit and flare dress…and btw how fabulous is her Weekend Doris dress? ...

Starting this post with a silly but happy photo of me. After my last post full of doom and gloom I decided this place needs a bit of silliness and some smiles. Summer is tough around here, and it’s hard not to let that affect everything. Thank you so much for all the lovely comments and messages of support after my last post, I appreciate every one, you are all wonderful! This photo was taken last week in my mother in law’s garden in Anglesey North Wales. We stayed there for five days, and it really was a lovely break from routine. Eden and I had a lot of fun taking photos in the garden of one of my new designs. Yes, despite my low mood I’ve still been working over the summer, planning classes (see my learn to sew page for more details on those.) and designing three new dresses. Nora, Nell and Nancy are not only the names of two of my friend’s children that I have always loved, but the names of the three new dress patterns I plan to launch this month…..yeah I know I should probably keep quiet for now, have a big launch when they are ready, but come on, you should know me well enough by now to realise that’s not really my style. ...