Diary of a Chain Stitcher

Today it's my turn to share with you the outfit I've made for the Vogue Cocktail Hour Social Sew-Along in aid of The Eve Appeal ! I really enjoyed taking part in their Big Vintage Sew-Along last year and am delighted to be one of the bloggers spreading the word about their campaign this year. McCalls UK have selected a variety of cocktail hour appropriate patterns including dresses. jumpsuits and separates. The proceeds of the sales of these patterns from March right through until November will be donated to The Eve Appeal who are the only UK national charity raising awareness and funding research into the five gynaecological cancers. They do invaluable work focusing on risk prevention, early detection and screening. There are a whole host of fantastic bloggers taking part in the sew-along and sewing up their choice from the patterns to show you their potential and inspire you to make your own! So this is the maddest outfit I've ever made and I LOVE it! I chose the...

I had such success using the berry coloured triple crepe from Remnant Kings to make my Ailakki Jumpsuit last year that when Hazel contacted me to see if I'd be interested in trying out another of their fabrics I said yes please! A quick browse of the site and this amazing leopard brocade  (actually ex- River Island stock) had jumped out at me. The good news for you guys is that there's currently a 20% off store wide sale running right now! Get on it quick if you're hankering for a piece though as the sale is to make way for the new spring collection. I was really intrigued by this fabric as it looked to have some depth and interest which I couldn't quite work out online. I wasn't disappointed when it arrived. Its quite thick and loosely woven which gives it a wonderfully unusual crinkled texture. In fact it crinkles right up in the wash and needs a good press to flatten and stretch it out into shape again! That somehow sounds like a negative thing but I lov...

I'm really excited to share this finished project with you today. I'm sure most of you have spotted some of the gorgeous projects that have been made by other bloggers as part of the McCalls Big Vintage Sew-Along . Today it's my turn! To get us inspired McCalls have selected a number of designs from the 1930s through to the 1960s. The proceeds from the sales of these patterns will be donated to The Eve Appeal , a charity who raise awareness of and fund research into gynaecological cancers. I was keen to join in as, whilst not really a vintage dresser, I love all the unique details in vintage designs. The market today is awash with a lot of 'clean lines' and simple designs that after a while all seem quite similar so it's been lovely to get stuck into a project with some interesting design features and different construction techniques. It was tough to choose between such a plethora of gorgeous styles but I eventually settled on Vogue 9082  from the 1960s. I...

So this fabric is AWESOME. It was definitely the piece I was most excited about packing in my suitcase as I left the US last month. It's a Rag & Bone embroidered raw silk and is one of the most unusual yardages I have ever laid my hands on despite being only $18 a yard. It's a kind of home dec weight but so tactile because of it's uneven slub and dense embroidery. The white stitching against the vivid indigo blue is beautiful and I think it's the contrast between the uniformity of the embroidered design against the raw, natural feel of the base fabric that drew me to it. Unfortunately it's not/no longer available online but I often find myself drawn to the Rag & Bone yardages so make sure to check them out here . When I spotted this one on the shelves in Mood Fabrics LA I had one of those 'I have no idea what to do with you but I simply must have you' moments. I knew I needed to make something with clean simple lines to showcase the beautiful emb...

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...