This project is this weeks result of longing to spend a bit of time in the sewing room and also opening boxes of stashed fabric and thinking….I need to do something with this. Because I sew..a lot….people give me fabric and honestly I have a room full of bits and pieces that I would need a hundred lifetimes to use up…
Read MoreFor the next item in Ruby’s capsule wardrobe of extraordinarily pretty things, I was decisive about what I wanted to make. For ages I have had a beautiful Japanese embroidery book that has the most elegant embroidered camisole I have ever seen. If ever a vintage girl wanted a cam - this was it! From time to time, I’d look at this photo and think about making one and it also seemed like it wouldn’t be too difficult for an early stages project in my dressmaking adventures. It has lots of scope for embroidery and if it worked, I knew it would be a staple garment that can be worn with almost anything.
Read MoreEvery year, it gets to just before Christmas and I wish I had made a Christmas quilt....every year. But this year, I actually did it!
Read MoreA whole new batch of pdf embroidery patterns are now up in my Etsy shop. Take a little wander back in time with my Bloomsbury Squares designs as they chart the dramatic changes in fashion during the 20th century.
Read MoreSo.. the tuffet. Well, this is a project that has been on the back burner, or rather on the top of my cupboard for quite some time. It all started when I was visiting my dear friend Sylvi in Houston last year. She was making tuffets and teaching tuffet making and I went along with her to one of her classes. Of course, I came home with the pattern.
Read MoreYorkshire folk are renowned for their plain speaking, no nonsense way of doing things. I am not so good at this! Probably because I like writing and creating and all sorts of chattery nonsense really. But....being a 'recycling' kinda gal who believes 100% in using up and making everything pretty ... AND in order to not feel too bad about the amount of fabric in my sewing room...I decided today, to dig deep and have a go.
Read MoreSo on this dark and chilly winter's evening, when I was thinking about what to make, red stars were in my mind and very soon on the sewing table.
Read MoreThis has been an epic project and last week it was finished! As always, with a big quilt project, it feels like it has been a long and colourful and exhilarating journey and once it is done, you feel a little bereft. It is worse when the quilt is for someone else, but let's be clear - THIS ONE IS NOT GOING ANYWHERE - it is for me and my gorgeous new Chaise Long (Christmas pressie from my Sweetheart!) and my books. What could be more wonderful than languishing on this, under this with a good read on a chilly winter Sunday afternoon?!
Read MoreI am not a dressmaker and these projects are massive learning curves and really just a beginning. What is amazing to me, is that so far, both projects have turned out to be wearable and perhaps a little bit more even... amazing. I put this down to the fact that the garments are made in 100% soft cotton jersey. It is more forgiving and yields to your body shape however many curves you have and I do have curves.....
Read MoreBack from holidays feeling revved up and ready to go in the sewing room. Hope you have had or are having a fab time on your vacation, wherever it may be. We certainly had an amazing time. We visited Venice last year for a few days and fell in love with this magical city and decided to return to take a closer look...a much closer look in fact.
Read MoreSo excited to write about this one - really, I cannot tell you how much.......Where to begin....at the very beginning, I suppose. Last year, when I was finishing up my City & Guilds course, I was doing some research on 'reverse appliqué' and confess I was rather unenthusiastic about this part of the module. That was, until I came across 'Alabama Chanin'. It opened up a whole new world to me and oh boy...it is just totally fabulous.
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