Diary of a Chain Stitcher

Well it's that time again already, the end of another busy month and time to round up all the latest news from the indie sewing pattern designers! As usual if I have missed anything that you know of, or if you are yourself an indie designer who I have somehow overlooked, please leave me a comment or get in touch via email or twitter and I'll make sure to add the new info in. New Indie Pattern Companies Many of you may already know Sally of Charity Shop Chic , she's super talented with a pair of scissors and a sewing machine, has an effortless sophisticated sense of style and has just released her first collection of sewing patterns! Capital Chic Patterns launched this week with a summer collection of six super chic womenswear PDF patterns aimed at intermediate to advanced sewists or those who are looking to develop their skills a little more. I was delighted to test the Martini Dress and White Russian Sweatshirt but also have my eye on the Champagne Skirt ! Whic...

I've got some exciting news for you today! There's a new indie pattern company in town! I've long admired not only the classic and sophisticated style of Sally from Charity Shop Chic but her ability to turn at first glance ugly garments into beautiful pieces with some pattern cutting magic. So you can imagine how excited I was when she revealed to me a couple of months ago that she was releasing her own line of PDF sewing patterns as Capital Chic Patterns . (FYI I am lucky enough to count Sally as a friend and cocktail buddy but all the opinions I share with you here are unbiased and honest)  She's started with a bang with a collection of six gorgeous womenswear designs, each with multiple variations and print-at-home or print-at-copy shop options. The designs are focused on workwear, cocktail wear and day-to-night looks and are intended to have a modern, fashionable feel with clean lines and well thought out details. They are also each named after a well known cock...

Following on from my post at the weekend about the dress I made at the sewing bee to celebrate the 150th anniversary of John Lewis I thought I'd share some pics and info about what went on during the day. I don't want to speak for everyone but I'm pretty sure that we all had an awesome time! Thank you to the John Lewis team for looking after us so well and  Brian Doherty  for taking the majority of the beautiful photos included in this post. It's so lovely to have some photos of me and the girls sewing! On arrival at the Oxford Street store that morning we spent a bit of time deliberating over our fabric and pattern choices then set to cutting out straight away. Lots of ladies cutting full skirted dresses meant we took over the haberdashery department slightly! Once we were cut out and ready to sew we all settled down around one large table which was a really enjoyable set up. I was so engrossed in sewing and chit chat I almost forgot where we were at points! ...

A couple of week's ago I was delighted to be invited to take part in the John Lewis Sewing Bee to celebrate their 150th year of trading . I headed along to their Oxford Street store one Saturday morning and spent an amazing day making a mess of their haberdashery department sewing up dresses alongside some new and some very familiar faces. I've got another post coming up to give you more of an insight into the day, today I wanted to take a look at my completed dress! To celebrate their anniversary John Lewis have released a special edition collection of cotton prints which they've brought back from their archives. We were challenged to sew up a dress with one of these fabrics during  the day (which with the amount of gossiping and chatting to customers we did was not a successful mission FYI!). It was a seriously tough choice but in the end I settled on the purple colour way of the reproduced 1950s design which Roisin and Clare also picked in different colours and nic...

I wasn't going to say anything about the recent comments on independent pattern companies and their pattern testers. Then I realised that I have been testing a fair bit recently and there are in fact a few test garments due to hit the blog in the near future so perhaps I should clarify with you guys my own personal approach to pattern testing and blogging. I in no way want to oppose anyone else's opinions on the matter or prompt any kind of further discussion I just thought perhaps you as readers would like to know how pattern testing and reviewing works for me. Most importantly first of all; I'd never tell you guys I love a pattern when I don't or pretend a pattern is up to scratch when it's clearly not. For me the point of my blog is to share my sewing experiences and to be able to ask for help and feedback when I need it in order to improve my sewing. I know I do a fair amount of raving about patterns which I have success with but that's because I am genuin...

Today I've got a make to share with you which I briefly mentioned in my round up of Me-Made-May . I finished this project at the start of the final week and it's such a success that I wore it twice before the end of the month and it's been on at least once again since then! It's the blouse variation of Colette's Laurel shift pattern which my wonderful Dad treated me to for Christmas last year. I nudged him in that direction as I loved the style of it despite the reservations I had about how it might work on me as I've tried on many an unflattering shift dress in the past. However, despite the lack of waist darts I don't at all feel like I'm wearing a sack and I am absolutely delighted with the result!  The only other Colette pattern I have made up for myself is their free Sorbetto Blouse which I had some real fit issues with. For this make I cut the size 2 and overall was pretty delighted with it straight out of the envelope. It's...

This year I decided not to make a Me Made May pledge, but instead to document all the 'me-made' clothing I felt like wearing and was practical for my life during May. I didn't want to feel the pressure of having to wear hand made clothing a certain number of times a week but I was interesting in thinking about how suitable my current hand made wardrobe is for my day to day life. I also chose not to do regular blog posts on the subject to instead to record my outfits with easy selfies and snaps via Instagram. This meant this aspect of the challenge was a lot less time consuming and stressful this year, although I still managed to fail on a couple of days and had to take a couple of non modelled garment pics after the event! It felt like many bloggers chose to use Instagram this year (with the hashtag  # mmmay14 if you want to check it out) and I for one loved being able to follow everyone's May journey this way! Anyway, so how did I get on? Well I wore at least o...