Diary of a Chain Stitcher

At almost a month on from Christmas (already?!) I though it was high time I showed you the handmade gifts I sewed up this year. I was lucky to have a fairly quiet run up to the festive season at work so was fairly ambitious with my unselfish sewing but have learnt from giving myself to much to do in previous years! I started early, tried to choose projects I knew wouldn't be too problematic and limited myself to only making for people when I thought of something I could make that they would REALLY like and use. As a result I thoroughly enjoyed the whole process of making each of these things. I think the most fun part of sewing for others is getting to make items and use fabrics that you wouldn't necessarily choose for yourself and the idea started with the fabric for nearly all of these projects. First up a special tote bag for my Dad who is an avid vinyl record collector. I have a few second hand vinyl stores in the area I live in so whenever he comes to visit we always...

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...

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'...

It seems very late in the day to be showing you guys some gifts I made for Christmas but I'm so proud of them I can't skip sharing! Despite deciding that trying to make too many gifts each year wasn't worth the panic during the run up to Christmas, I expected to have a fair bit of time in December and knew my family deserved some treats so went all out with the sewing this year. Of course I then ended up working some fairly crazy hours and with much less time to sew than I hoped it all became quite the rush! Some late nights were involved but it was worth it to see the looks on their faces on Christmas Day. I've sworn I'll cut down this year but I doubt that will happen again...partly because it's too difficult to resist the opportunity to sew some things which I'd never make myself! First up are my Mum's and Sister's which have a New York theme as both of them love the Big Apple. If you follow me on Instagram you may have spotted that I've just ...

I've got another little bit of unselfish sewing to share with you today and something I'm absolutely delighted with and I hope the recipient is too! I mentioned in last month's Indie Pattern Update that the ladies over at Fabrics for Sale had just launched bundles for making your own velvet scarf . They offered to send me one in return for my review and when I looked at the selection of fabrics on offer this gem of a velvet devoré leapt off the page at me screaming that it was perfect for my Nan. I was sold. Before I was offered a kit I already thought it was a great idea; it's a gorgeous luxurious gift to give someone either made up or in kit form, plus the variety of velvets there are to choose from are to die for! I'm a big fan of velvet (despite the tricky little thing it can be sew!) and have often pawed devoré's in fabric stores wishing I could think of a reason to use one. Working as a costume supervisor I've seen some absolutely stunning...