The knit fabric experiment

The zero waste hoodie top pattern is almost here! Are you sick of hearing about it yet?! (No? Last week’s post is here.) The pattern is with the Editor at the moment, getting checked, wormed and vaccinated before it’s released into the world. So this is a short blog post to show you the knit…

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Breezy wrists: revisiting the zero waste Jedi coat

Regular readers of this blog may remember the zero waste coat that looked like a Jedi costume. It was adapted from the tessellated coat + dress from Zero Waste Sewing. Here’s the coat from the book: It was one of those garments which I was very happy with and thought I’d nailed every aspect: pattern,…

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7 challenges of zero waste patterns

The challenge of zero waste patterns

Zero waste patternmaking is going through a time of experimentation, both with actual patterns and how it can be applied to clothing manufacture. I’ve been experimenting with zero waste patterns for the past 4 years and been challenged, had fun, stretched my brain and found it unexpectedly freeing. Here are some of the discoveries and…

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Making Danielle Elsener’s zero waste scrub top

Making Danielle Elsener's zero waste scrub top

The free scrub pattern I did last week led me to Danielle Elsener of DECODECODECODE’s zero waste scrubs, and I thought I’d give them a go. I’m fascinated that two patternmakers living on opposite sides of the Earth both endeavoured to make zero waste scrubs, took very different approaches, and produced such different-looking patterns which…

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Yay! It’s publishing day, and blog tour roundup

zero waste sewing book publishing day

Publishing day is finally here for Zero Waste Sewing! A blog tour has been running over the past week, with each reviewer making something from the book. They all made something different, and all of them departed from the instructions at some point to make it their own. This is one of the hopes I…

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The zero waste coat that makes me look like a Jedi

zero waste coat with light saber

Yep, it’s funny how an idle comment can change your perception of a garment…. Over the past few weeks I’ve been making some of the clothes from Zero Waste Sewing in different fabrics, and this week I made a coat. Zero Waste Sewing has couple of coat patterns. One of them has a matching dress…

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The zero waste Boho Dress

Boho dress

The boho dress from Zero Waste Sewing is a summer holiday sort of dress, for wearing at the beach or pool, sipping white wine at a BBQ, holiday shopping or just wearing on a hot day. It’s fairly quick to sew and pulls on over the head. Easy to wear – just add sandals. Here’s…

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The zero waste geometric top

Geometric top with zero waste jeans

It’s less than 7 weeks until Zero Waste Sewing is set free in the world! Or unleashed, as my husband is fond of saying. Leading up, I’ll be making some of the projects from the book on this blog, and today here’s one of them. The Geometric Top is composed of 2 squares, 2 rectangles…

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Hitting the virtual road: the Zero Waste Sewing blog tour

Blog tour dates

Happy New Year All! Here’s to a year of creativity, fun and fulfillment. Coming up in March, Zero Waste Sewing will be available in shops and there’ll be a one-week blog tour leading up to Publishing Day, for your reading pleasure. Each day, Zero Waste Sewing will be reviewed on a different blog. I thought…

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Making a zero waste pattern

Making a zero waste pattern

We have passed the 100 day mark and now there’s only 96 days to go until Zero Waste Sewing is published. I thought I would talk about how I make a zero waste pattern and show you an example from the book. A zero waste pattern uses 100% of the fabric, with no scraps or…

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