Diary of a Chain Stitcher

I can't remember which image I saw that inspired this top. I possibly spied it on Pinterest or while I was scrolling through Instagram . All I can remember is that I couldn't find a sewing pattern for it! Again I'd limited my options by wanting to make it last minute before holiday so it had to be a PDF download but it sort of surprised me as I felt sure I'd seen many boxy little button up tops with v-necks around. Anyway, admitting defeat I turned to my pattern stash to see what I could use as a starting point. The closest to the vision in my head was the Kalle Shirt & Shirtdress  from Closet Case Patterns . I've made a maxi length version of this before which incidentally I also wore a lot on holiday and got a lot of compliments on! This time around I started with the cropped length of the pattern and I cut the size 8 as before. I'm sort of between the 6 and 8 on my top half and could probably stand to go down to the smaller size but I'm happy ...

If you follow me on Instagram you might have seen that Ed and I went back to Africa for a couple of weeks in January. Ed has spent a lot of time in a number of countries there but last year's big trip to Botswana and South Africa was my first and I completely fell in love with the continent. We couldn't resist returning and this time travelled around Uganda, again camping in a tent attached to the roof of our hired 4WD. The absolute best way to experience the wilds of Africa! We had another amazing experience including trekking to see the mountain gorillas in Bwindi and the chimpanzees in Kibale plus a whole heap of other adventures on our self drive safari. I'll write another post with more details of our itinerary if anyone is interested but for now I'll try to stick to the sewing!

I made a few presents this Christmas including a double gauze Named Lahja dressing gown for my Mum, a Deer & Doe Sirocco jumpsuit for my sister (which I love and will definitely be making one for myself so expect a review of that pattern in future) and this shirt for my brother. I’ve made a fair number of shirts for men now (my first here about 5 years ago!) but thought it was worth posting this particular one as I used a different pattern which is very worthy of sharing. The previous shirts I’ve made have all been based on the Walden/Colette Negroni pattern and the pattern has required a bit of work to get the look I want; namely taking the pattern for a traditional collar with stand off of a RTW shirt and adding that and a classic front placket (following this shirt sew-along from Male Pattern Boldness ) to replace the Negroni’s facing. As this was the first shirt I have made for my brother and I was therefore essentially starting from scratch I decided to take a look at ...

I've finished my first project for my holiday wardrobe and it is probably the one I was most excited about because of the fabric! For those of you who haven't read my handmade travel wardrobe pos t I'm going on a safari holiday in January so when I spotted this beautiful cotton charting with mini big cat print stocked by The Fabric Store I couldn't resist ordering it. I had in mind a crisp little sleeved shirtdress with breast pockets and all those classic safari chic details and I'm delighted with what I ended up with, although I didn't get there without a bit of a struggle. I've been meaning to try a design from Hot Patterns for quite some time. For a long time I've been eyeing them up on the Sewbox stand at the big craft shows and been intrigued by the big strong envelopes and wearable styles packed with interesting details. Sewbox stock a huge range of these patterns along with a good selection from other independent designers. I was h...

Today I've got a garment to share with you which hasn't turned out as successfully as I hoped but was still an enjoyable project which I learnt a lot from. I spend less time on Pinterest nowadays but still enjoy a browse from time to time and the board I probably pin to most is my Sewing Inspiration board. It's an accumulation of all kinds of things that inspire my sewing, from complete outfits, to fabric, to little details I'd like to incorporate. For the last year or so I've been making more of a conscious effort to look back through these pins and actually make something of them! At the moment I can't stop pinning maxi wrap dresses and solid tops with interesting sleeves. Over a year ago I had a spate of pinning military green shirts in a slightly heavier weight, to be worn open over vests and t-shirts almost as a kind of lightweight jacket. Around the same time I came across the perfect shade and weight of khaki green oxford cotton in Classic Textiles...

Yes, it's another post about fabric I got from Mood Fabrics on my trip to LA! But it's another gorgeous bit of yardage which I feel like I made a good decision about what pattern to pair it with! I vaguely knew what I wanted to make with it when I spotted it on the shelves. I love a classic plaid flannel shirt and the check of this Marc Jacobs cotton crepe really reminded me of that style of plaid. However, instead of a snuggly flannel this is a super fine, silky cotton crepe with a lovely drape, ideally suited to a very different type of shirt, one for layering under snuggly jumpers! I really liked the idea of a different kind of plaid shirt and set about finding the perfect pattern. My first thought was a Grainline Archer as I already own and love the pattern but in my head I was imagining something a little more oversized that would show off the drape and flow of this lovely lightweight fabric. Then Kennis from Itch to Stitch put out a call for testers for ...

I've got a bit of unselfish sewing to share with you today and one of my first ventures into sewing menswear. This is actually the second shirt I've made from scratch, plus I did a bit of shirt customising earlier in the year too which I fully intend to share with you but I'm so pleased with this one I couldn't wait to blog about it! For my stepdad's birthday this year I promised to make him a shirt. This was way back in April and we had the fabric picked out and ordered by May so considering I finished this just a few weeks ago I was a bit slow about getting it done; sorry Peter! I'm blaming a hectic summer of work and feeling a bit nervous about getting this as close to perfect as possible without much practice! I'm pleased to report he was very happy with it though (and I'm delighted!) so hopefully it was worth the wait. He picked out this gorgeous Italian cotton shirting from the Mood Fabrics website and it was a brilliant choice. It's grea...