Diary of a Chain Stitcher

I've got a slightly different post to the usual garment sewing today as I wanted to share this cover I made for my overlocker/serger a couple of weeks ago. My sewing space is in our living room so I'm always trying to find ways to tidy/hide things away or at least make them look nice and non intrusive. I often put my sewing machine away but my overlocker sits out on the desk and up until now has been covered by the thin and flimsy cloudy plastic cover it came with. 

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...

I adore the skirt I made from the ever popular Rachel Comey Vogue 1247 pattern and have been meaning to make up the top that comes with it for ages. In fact the top was what interested me in the pattern in the first place. I finally got my hands on just the fabric I had first envisioned the top in when Stoff Stil got in touch a few months ago to see if I'd like to try out some of their fabrics. The silk section is one that I gravitate towards whenever I'm checking out a new fabric site as I just love working with it and Stoff Stil did not disappoint with a particular gorgeous colour range of sand-washed silks among other things. For those of you who have not come across sand-washed silk before it's a silk (usually satin) which has been washed with the addition of sand or small stones. This gives the satin side of the fabric a texture and lustre that is hard to describe but it's much softer in the way that a brushed fabric or peach skin might feel touch. You migh...

I've got something slightly different to my usual completed projects to share with you today. To celebrate the opening of Mood Fabrics NYC's brand new showroom for home decoration fabrics the Mood Sewing Network bloggers were invited to do an extra home related sewing project for the network. I jumped at the chance to try out something new. I spotted a peak of the new store on the Mood Fabrics Instagram earlier in the week and I so wish I could visit in person! I've been wanting to brighten up our lounge for a while now and what better way to do this than with colourful scatter cushions in a variety of prints? To be honest while browsing Mood's range of home dec appropriate fabrics online I did get a little carried away and briefly consider a larger project such as curtains or a roman blind. I was also getting seriously sucked into dreaming about what could be done with some of the gorgeous laser cut velvets. However, this 'sewing for the home newbie'...

A couple of weeks ago I was delighted to be invited along to Sew Over It's Summer Party for an evening of lampshade making, cocktail drinking and chatting with a number of lovely London based sewing bloggers. Many of them are well known to me now (a fair few Spoolettes were in attendance!) but it was so great to finally meet some more familiar online faces in real life!  In case you have not come across Sew Over It before it is a gorgeous little sewing cafe in Clapham, South London, run but the very talented Lisa Comfort who many of you may well recognise. Classes and workshops are held in the cafe and a shop selling a carefully selected range of fabrics and haberdashery occupies some of the space. The shop also of course stocks the Sew Over It pattern range and sewing kits. I managed to resist temptation as I've already got their Ultimate Trousers lined up in the sewing queue but I was seriously eyeing up the Ultimate Wrap Dress pattern! As you can see below it was ...