Diary of a Chain Stitcher

Well it has been another whirlwind of a month with an awful lot going on in the indie sewing pattern community and it looks like a lot more to come in March! I'm heading to the Knitting & Stitching Show at Olympia at the weekend and am hoping to discover some new patterns and companies. We've had a tiny taste of spring sunshine here in London last week (as well as a very un-springlike storm!) and I'm well and truly ready for winter to be over. I can't start wearing my spring wardrobe yet but I sure can start planning my sewing and gathering the supplies! I'm excited to see what new season patterns are going to be released. New Pattern Companies Sew Sin City launched with two new knicker patterns; the Linda Mid-Rise Panty and the Rhyanne Low-Rise Panty . Taylor is hoping to release a handful of new underwear patterns every few months and is focussing on functional yet pretty lingerie. I like the classic shapes of these first two and the sheer polka...

After that fairly mammoth post about my boned silk dress mid week I thought I'd share a couple of slightly more straightforward projects today! Thank you all for the lovely comments and likes for my dress. Its so great to hear that so many of you enjoy those lengthy posts that go into all the details of instruction; they're my favourite thing to read on sewing blogs and probably to write too! I've got the last of my selfless sewing projects from Christmas last year to show you today. In case you missed them I've already posted about the silk robe I made for a friend's birthday and the hoodies I made for my brother and stepdad. I've spoken in those last two posts about how difficult it is to sew garments as surprise gifts for others because you need to fit them. Fortunately I get lucky with my mum as she is a very similar size and shape to me. In fact I think most of her fitting issues would be exactly the same as my own! I made her a Laurel Blouse a couple o...

The dress I've got to share with you today has been a real labour of love and I enjoyed every single second of making it. Even the whole day spent fitting the bodice! I like nothing better than a reason to sew myself something special and challenging and what better reason could I have than the wedding of my step-sister 10 days ago? I mulled over what I wanted to make for over a year and bought the fabric long before I decided on a style and pattern. When I visited Mood Fabrics NYC last April I spent a good hour pawing at bolts in the glorious silk section and when I glimpsed this vibrant Kelly Green 4 Ply Silk Crepe it was love at first sight. It has got the most amazing thickness and weight to it combined with such a luxurious drape and sheen. Its similar to what I would call a silk morocain here in the UK. At $35/yard it was a real treat but similar silks this side of the Atlantic are likely to cost double. I on the spot decided that this was going to be used for my wedding o...

I have been desperate to post about the dress I worked so hard on to wear to my step-sister's wedding last week but the gloomy London winter light is making it impossible to get any decent pictures. Fingers crossed for the weekend! In the meantime I've got the next in my series of posts about gifts I sewed for loved ones for Christmas and birthdays at the end of last year. Well actually this is a trio of hoodies, the first of which I sewed back in 2015 for my brother for Christmas. The second was my stepdad's Christmas present this year and the third was for my brother's birthday; identical but a different colour as he loved the first so much! In my last post I wrote about the challenge of sewing clothing as gifts being the difficulty of getting them to fit but remain a surprise. Hoodies are a little risky in that you want the right amount of ease and don't want the waistband ending up too snug or the sleeves too baggy. However they are quite forgiving in tha...

I made a fair few handmade gifts that I was really proud of back in December. The first of which was this silk robe which was a birthday gift for my friend Checca. I wanted to give her something super special as it was a special birthday plus I knew she'd appreciate something I had sewn as she sews too (and is very talented at it, I keep on at her to start a blog!). That did mean the pressure was on to make a really good job of it though as she'd spot any mistakes! I do enjoy sewing gifts for the home and other small soft goods but what I really like to sew is clothes. However, when making clothes as gifts I always come a bit unstuck when it comes to the fit as you can't try it on them without ruining the surprise! For Checca's present I thought about what clothing I could make that had a more generic size range and wouldn't need a fitting. I suddenly remembered that I'd chosen the Almada Robe pattern with some of my original Seamwork credits as I couldn'...