Sewing
Scrapbag confessions
This was going to be a post about my home sewing scrap bag, and the result of doing zero waste sewing, but it turned out I couldn’t really measure the effect because I didn’t start with a clean slate. To explain: at the beginning of 2020, after dallying with zero waste for several years, I…
Read MoreZero waste with hand woven fabric
Last year I had a very special sewing experience: I got to sew hand woven fabric for the first time. The fabric was woven by Tracy of Knit-Spin-Weave, our local yarn shop. You may remember she made a zero waste bolero in hand woven fabric for the Zero Waste Sewing blog tour. I dropped in…
Read MoreThe Cendre Top blooper reel
It’s not often that I misjudge a fabric/pattern/thread combo, but it happens! Please take a look and enjoy a giggle. How can it look so wrong? On reflection, the babycord looks a little like velvet, the taupe thread looks like old-gold trim and probably the puffed sleeves add to combination. So the message is: match…
Read More3 sewing ideas to save your back and neck
If you’ve had your head down churning out scrubs and masks for the past few months, you’ll be familiar with how unkind repetitive sewing can be on the body. I have no idea how sweatshop workers cope, but my own clothing factory career (as a cutter) was only kept afloat with regular chiropractic care and…
Read MoreTicking off that bucket list
I don’t know about you, but it inspires me to see things other people are doing while in isolation at home, whether it’s sewing their stash, perfecting bread making, learning an instrument, Marie Kondo-ing their house or setting a new world record for non-stop Netflix viewing. I thought I’d review my sewing bucket list, written…
Read MoreRevisiting the puce floral
Almost exactly a year ago I made a raglan sleeve dress from the book Built by Wendy. The original post with the finished dress is here. (Here’s where I started the project, and here’s progress part-way through after excessive dithering and indecision.) I wore it last summer and liked it, but every time I put…
Read MoreHappy Corduroy Day 2019
In this rural antipodean outpost, it appears that I alone am still flying the flag for Corduroy Appreciation Day, long after the world has moved on to denim, drill and gabardine. Corduroy Day is today, the 11th of November, the date which most closely resembles the wales of corduroy (11/11). You may remember previous corduroy…
Read MoreCountry show day
On the weekend was our town’s one-day country show. Regrettably, our family couldn’t go, but we still entered some things in handicrafts and cooking. (Read about last year when I entered some dressmaking, the year before when I wished I had, and the year before that when we went for the first time.) I entered…
Read MoreHey, got time for sewing?
Afternoon handbag challenge
Sewing brief: in one afternoon, make a new handbag (cross body style) using only stuff we already have at home. The time has come to move onto my next handbag. Since my children were born, I’ve gone from…. For the next handbag era I fancied a cross-body bag so I wouldn’t have to carry it…
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