Diary of a Chain Stitcher

I (like the majority of half of the online sewing community it would seem!) fell in love with the Wilder Gown pattern from Friday Pattern Company when it was released last year. Bohemian and easy breezy chic with on trend gathered tiers, it was irresistible to image it sewn up in a plethora of different fabrics (and if you search #wildergown on Instagram you can see just that!). Despite wanting to make it and wear it right that second I was a little hesitant about what the high gathered neckline would look like on me. I'm quite petite and short in the shoulder with a bit of a bust so this kind of style is never a failsafe win in my book. After seeing it look wonderful on lots of different body shapes as it surged to popularity online though I thought it was worth a go. As the pattern for the full length gown is quite a fabric eater I decided to give the top a try first to check out that neckline before investing too much time and money in a dress. The month before I'd o...

The next item of my travel wardrobe is done and dusted and it is a true staple. These denim shorts are made with the new Dawn Jeans pattern from Megan Nielsen and were an absolute joy to sew. I'd forgotten how much I love getting my teeth stuck into a challenge and a garment with so many little details and techniques to master. I used a denim which I picked up at the last  Fabric Godmother  open day, I believe it was this 12oz Raw Denim if my memory serves me right! I actually managed to squeeze these out of what I had left over from making a pair of Persephone Pants (still awaiting a blog post but there is a sneaky peak at the end of this post !). They don't take much fabric as lots of those little bits and pieces for pockets and fly you can squeeze in around the main pieces. This denim is nice and robust for a pair of jeans or shorts and is the kind of denim which will only get better with wear. I got so much pleasure out of sewing all those little details particu...

I know its the time of year for some unselfish sewing but the project I've got to share with you today was a real treat to myself. A treat to sew and a treat to wear! About a month ago I visited a new fabric shop in Richmond.  Loving the Fabric has an absolutely gorgeously curated collection of fabrics for dressmaking many of which have been collected during the owner Gay's travels around the world. Her knowledge of and appreciation for beautiful and unusual fabrics was so impressive and I spent a very happy two hours there talking all things fabric and sewing! It was a real pleasure to browse an independent fabric shop filled with charm and passion; the whole experience felt very personal. Apologies for the slightly poor quality of these indoor pics; there was no way I was getting out on my balcony in these bad boys during December! Gay very kindly offered me some fabric for any upcoming projects I had in mind. I'm sometimes reluctant to take advantage of such off...

A little bit of sunshine in Britain and my mind races straight on to summer, my favourite time of year! When I made my first pair of Megan Nielsen's Tania Culottes in wool crepe to make them suitable for winter wear I fell totally in love with the pattern. They had a definite place on my list of things to sew for summer and when the perfect fabric came along I couldn't resist whipping them up straight away...even though the temperature is no where near the short skirt and bare legs stage of the year yet! You may recognise this fabric from my Flora Dress ! Susan from Sew Box very kindly supplied me with this beautiful John Kaldor viscose print for my pattern testing version of By Hand London's most recent pattern. It's such great quality, the print is exactly the type of floral I like and it has the most gorgeous drape to it. I remember reading a few posts suggesting that rayon and other fabrics with a similar soft drape were a ideal match for the Tanias...

I've had my eye on the Tania Culottes pattern from Megan Nielson basically since it's release. I've always loved this style of skirt but never got on with it very well due to the potential for knicker flashing with the combination of length and flippy fullness, especially considering the amount of trekking around London in all weathers and lifting around costumes I do. Luckily for me Megan has managed to draft a beautiful culottes pattern which looks exactly like a skirt when worn and my lovely boyfriend treated me to the pattern for my birthday! Considering my birthday is at the very end of August when we in the UK are just about clinging on to the end of any summer weather we are lucky enough to get, I thought making these up immediately in a lovely voile (which was the vision I'd had in my head) might end up being a bit of a waste. I didn't want to have to wait 9 months to wear my finished garment! However, I couldn't bear to wait 9 months to m...