Hello everyone! Today we’re going to go through a FBA (full bust adjustment) for the Saltspring dress. Most patterns (including Sewaholic) are designed for a B cup size. It’s important to keep in mind that your cup size in pattern making may be different from your bra cup size. To figure out your size, start …

Hi all! Miss Emily, of My Vintage Visions Blog, sent over this adorbs little original 1920s knickers pattern. Aren't these just sweet? /want/ I'm off to cut my hair like the illustrated model on the pattern there. Maybe I'll make some knickers when I get back,

I know many of you are just learning to sew…..or maybe you have sewn for a while but aren’t as familiar with sewing terms. I have been meaning to do thi

I made a doll dress yesterday that led me to developing this pattern to share! I'll post pictures of the actual dress made by this pattern tomorrow, and maybe eventually do a sew-along post for it on my sewing blog, if anyone's interested.

I love this idea! Will someone puh-lease make this for me? Maybe I'll just have to make one for myself!

In September I went back to college. I had spotted this Ashby pattern ages ago and just couldn’t get it out of my head. I had romantic visions of studying, surrounded by books, with this drap…

Are you looking for a new hobby? Or maybe you want to get a friend or family member into sewing? There are so many reasons to start! Let me give you some of the reasons that I started and will continue to sew.Why Sew? I'll Tell You!It's an investment in yourself.Hobbies are generally good for mental health. Sewing has

Another lovely free quilt pattern from Amy Butler , the Nigella quilt. I love the colours in her Nigella fabrics. Download the pdf patte...

handmade gDiaper cloth insert tutorial, learn how to sew a gdiaper cloth insert with a free pattern download! free gdiaper insert tutorial

I never did make it to the fabric store. Maybe this weekend? But my week was full of Gypsy Wife progress, and since I'm pretty sure I'll throw this quilt in a fire if I pause and think about working on something else, I'm trying to forge ahead. In lieu of a design wall, I've been using my design floor, which I unfortunately share with my kidlets. More than one construction truck has driven over my WIP in the last few days. See that short pink piece? I cut it an inch too long (as there was no measurement for it in the pattern and I was guessing) and of course I guessed wrong and OMG. It meant ripping out a bunch of seams, including some gorgeous partial seams. I'm trying to tell myself that it just means I got to practice partial seams so that I can be totally wicked awesome at them, but a small part of me was like, "Don't you make me do those again!" (Note, I should have referred to the errata that Jen Kingwell posted to see if she had the measurements posted, but I didn't. My bad.) Auditioning fabric for more strips. I've been cutting and piecing in sets of 3-5 depending on what works best with the pattern. It seems to work for me. If you're familiar with the pattern, you might notice my substitute block. I didn't have a filler block for that piece, and I didn't think I could make one more square in a square, so I made my own. I don't like it as much. I wish I had just made a square in square. But I'm not fixing it. Nope. It's staying AS IS. More strips. And more. As my quilt has grown, it's gotten more difficult to keep my kids from touching it. All the more reason to hurry up and finish it! I'm a bit further along than this picture shows, and I've got fabric cut for my next five strips. I think I'm about halfway through? I waver between really liking it and worrying that I don't. I really think I'll have to see the full top before making that judgment. But that's not terribly uncommon for most of my projects, so hopefully this one will turn in my favor. Dear GW Quilt, I will rock your face off. Love, Audrey

Follow these easy steps and sew your own pencil skirt.

This baby pouch is not adjustable like a ring sling, but instead is fitted for the wearer. The original post also provides a link where you can get measuring instructions and the sewing pattern.View This Tutorial

Here are a few details about the "First Baby Dress." The fabric is white Imperial Batiste and I edged the sleeves with lace scraps from my stash. I usually do three rows of baby wave stitches on the sleeves. I added the Madeira hem to add a little elegance to the dress. I drafted the scallops using my Lace Shaping board. Intending to have the Madeira hem turned to the inside of the dress, I goofed and it ended up on the outside! This happens more often than you would believe.... After experimenting with a few stitches I decided to leave the hem as it was and stitched the scallops in place using a simple Applique Stitch. It is a little plain compared to using a Pin Stitch, but is more in keeping with the older style dresses. I couldn't believe how fast it went using a simple stitch! This also answers the question, can you still save money sewing? I don't count the cost of the pattern since I use them over and over, so the cost for the fabric and lace was barely over $10! If you have had the fabric and lace for over a year (which was the case here) you might want to consider the project FREE! Don't forget the "Free Giveaway" which ends Friday night! Michie'

More tea vicar? Tea House Dress in Heliotrope ~ Linen Cotton Blend or maybe I’ll go to the Cinema instead. I was captivated by the whole idea of a tea dress and notions of floating around in a longer length day dress sipping china tea with cocked little finger. The Sew House Seven Tea Dress seemed to fit the bill, and I had seen so many people looking good in it. But: Not all patterns work for all bodies. A fairly obvious statement really, but it is so easy to fall into the Instagram trap of seeing lovely dresses in pretty fabrics and be fooled into thinking you might look good in it too. Fortunately I made a test version, mainly because I was apprehensive about the waist ties and the kimono sleeves. With good reason. I used a Lady McElroy Penny Faces Marlie cotton lawn that I had in my stash, although I see that Lamazi Fabrics have it in their inventory. It is a lovely silky smooth 100% cotton lawn, fine but with plenty stand, so I felt it would give a similar performance to the linen cotton blend I was planning on using for my afternoon tea version, even if it was a bit lighter weight. I must say at this point, that the fabric is really nice to work with. It is a closely woven cotton lawn with quite a fun pattern, and the dark grey/blue background colour is one of my best shades to wear. Both fabrics matched the suggestions on the pattern envelope. I only had 1.5 metres so plumped for the shorter top version as a trial, with somewhat less meterage than specified. It was slightly exacerbated because I had to make some attempt to line up the faces. Making the top was straightforward. The pattern instructions were clear. The short version has no pockets, with some pattern Tetris I had enough to cut wide Obi- style waist ties, even if there was a join halfway down the length of them. The problems arose when I tried it on. I had opted to make a size smaller than my measurement suggested, grading to a size larger below the armholes, but that wasn’t necessary as the body is quite wide. Usually if I make the right size for my bust measurement it is huge around my neck and chest, but this design is pretty accommodating in that respect. The fit around the neck, shoulders and bust was fine, but the waist ties did nothing for my thick waist (if you look at the picture from the Sew House Seven Tea Dress pattern you will notice that the girl has a very tiny waist which is enhanced by the Obi style ties. I should have known better. Added to that the grown on sleeves made my shoulders look much wider than they are. Looking back to previous unsuccessful makes (principally my failed Zadie jumpsuit which didn’t suit me for 101 reasons) I should have known better. Again. But the final nail in the coffin was the pleat that comes away from below the back neck yoke gave a lot of volume to the back. In a softer more drapy fabric it probably wouldn’t be an issue but in this case, without the belt I could have hidden all my Christmas presents under it, and with the belt it looked like a full blown parachute. I solved this problem by unpicking the yoke and removing the pleat completely. It definitely looked a lot better, and was now wearable. The extra length of the full skirt would probably have helped weigh the whole thing down, but I wasn’t confident, and in a plain linen it would look suspiciously like purple scrubs. Last minute change of plan. I need something with more structure around the shoulders. I have relatively narrow shoulders in relation to my bust and wide waist, so a set in sleeve would provide better definition and detract from and balance what lies below. I found The Cinema Dress by Liesl and Co. It has a similar yoke and skirt shape but a set in sleeve, a small amount of waist suppression and no waist ties. I have a previously made linen dress in a loose style with a set in sleeve which I have always felt happy in. It is a good plan to use a garment you are comfortable in as a starting point, but I wanted something with a little more shape this time, hence the choice of The Tea Dress. I quickly bought the PDF and sent it off to be printed. I like the 40g paper offered by DottyPrint. They were really helpful because the PDF was a single file containing both the A4 sheets and the larger printer files and I didn’t know how to separate them, but a quick phone call to Dotty Print resulted in me uploading the entire file and they were able to print off only the pages needed. I received my pattern in the post the next morning. Rather than cut out my precious fabric I decided to make a muslin of the bodice. I used an old sheet. I carefully measured the pattern pieces, and compared the finished garment measurements in the pattern instructions with the body measurements and my own measurements. I needed to assess how much ease had been allowed in the original pattern as I wanted a similar effect to that of the pattern illustration, then compared the result to what I would end up with if I didn’t alter the pattern. It seemed that the size 14 would be suitable although it wouldn’t have sufficient ease around the waist, I could assess the neck and shoulder situation from the muslin. The mods that I wanted to make from the muslin (working in inches because the pattern is written in inches), were ½” forward shoulder at the shoulder point (a normal alteration for me) Lower bust prominence on the princess seam by 1½” Increase waist by 3” to create a total 4” waist ease - adding ¼” to each of the 6 vertical seams. I made all these alterations to my paper pattern then cut out my lovely Heliotrope Linen Cotton Blend kindly supplied by Lamazi Fabrics. I have had a sample of this glorious crocus coloured mid weight linen fabric pinned to my notice board for 12 months, so when the opportunity arose to make something out of it for the Lamazi Blog Team Post I jumped at it. I was really careful to mark the wrong sides of the fabric. Although both sides look similar it is important to be consistent as slight variations in shading can show up if you mix the two faces of the fabric, and major errors in sewing can result by sewing up the pieces the incorrect way (as I found to my cost in front of 2 million viewers when I made that mistake under pressure in Week 6 of The Great British Sewing Bee and was subsequently eliminated). In retrospect the linen fabric has too much bounce to cope with the looser style pulled in with a belt on a body like mine, whilst it would be fine on a slighter or more hourglass shape, I am sure the sample shown on the Sew House Seven website is a linen. Once again the pattern went together nicely. The pattern alterations gave me a dress that fits me like the designer intended. The fabric was a pleasure to work with and I am in love with the colour. I even found buttons exactly the right colour in my local yarn shop. It is much easier to appreciate what the correct fabric should be for a garment once you have made it for the first time, The Sew House Seven Tea Dress is perfect for a drapy fabric, the kimono style sleeves don’t need fabric with body to it, but different fabrics will give a dress with a different character suited to different bodies. This is a quote from The Sew House Seven Tea House Sew Along https://sewhouse7.com/blogs/news/fit-and-fabrics-for-your-tea-house-dress-top-1 “As for fabrics, you may choose a rayon challis, wool challis, linen, silk charmeuse, crepe de chine, cotton voile or lawn - just about any woven fabric that isn't too stiff or heavy. If you do use a cotton, I prefer a light-weight cotton however, I've seen some nice ones in quilting cotton to my surprise. Quilting cotton is a bit stiff and so expect the sleeves to be a bit more stiff and less fluid however, it could be the look you are after. I find that the dress takes on quite a different look depending on what fabric is chosen.” It is very much a case of getting to know what suits your own body, and for me that is a constant learning curve. My final adjustment: (never assume that the fit is perfect - there is always more fiddling to be done!) When I tried on my finished dress I felt that I could reclaim some of the waist shaping from the original pattern, so I took out most of the extra waist ease that I had added earlier. I have lost some centimeters around my waist and am now less inclined to wear ‘baggy’. I now have a dress which is a happy marriage of a looser style that I had previously made, but with a more slender profile that I feel is more appropriate to my current figure and still accommodates the lumps and bumps that lurk below the surface. If you aren’t sure what styes suit your figure, look in your wardrobe to find things you are (or were) happy wearing and use that as a starting point. Fashions and shapes change, but you can use previous experiences to explore current designs and find similar aspects. Try thing on in shops and take photos of yourself in styles you think you might like, and when you find something your are comfortable with then look for patterns that are have the same characteristics. Line drawings on patterns are usually much more informative than pictures of skinny models. Take heed of the fabrics suggestions on the pattern envelope, and trust the designer. She will have made up the dress in a huge variety of different fabrics, and you will probably only need to make one, but don’t fall into my trap of believing that just because others look good in it - so will you. This is a lesson that is taking me years to learn. Thank you to Lamazi Fabrics for providing me with this lovely fabric. I am really looking forward to seeing what the other members of our Lamazi Blog Team come up with next. Janet

Here's a great idea from The Natural Beauty. You can use various ingredients and scents, whatever appeals to you. You'll find more information on how to make the powder from Emmy on The Natural Beauty web site. Here's how to make the puff: To make your own powder puff you'll need the following supplies: 1 8" x 8" swatch of plain Cotton, Terrycloth, or Bamboo Fabric 1 8" x 8" swatch of Fleece or another fuzzy textured Fabric 1 6" - 8" long piece of Ribbon Cotton or Synthetic Batting Creating a powder puff is easy. Simply follow the simple sewing instructions below: Trace a 6 inch circle onto both pieces of Fabric, then cut them out. Sandwich the Ribbon between the two circles and stitch most of the way around the outer edges, leaving about an inch of the circle open. Turn the circle inside out and stuff it with batting. Using a slip stitch, close the opening on the puff. Thanks to Emmy for the great idea.

This stitch is done with herringbone stitch as the base. The herringbone stitch is tacked down using small straight stitches at the crosses. There are two ways this can be done: one, by using just a single stitch over the crosses. Second, by...

Sewing knits is not scary, promise! Personally, I find they're easier to sew than wovens as the stretch allows some flexibility in fitting pieces together and fact they don't tend to unravel at the cut edges. I'm lucky enough to have both a serger and coverstitch so I normally do my knits sewing on those but it's not impossible (or even super tricky) to sew knits with a regular machine! Here are some posts to get you started if you're new to knits: Know Your Knits: Part One Know Your Knits: Part Two How to Successfully Combine Different Knits into a Single Garment (by KID, MD) Getting ready to sew with knits Different Methods of Knit Bindings / Bandings Conquering curling knits: Banding instead of hemming How to Sew a small cuff onto a larger edge (video tute) Pin It

Hawaiian shirts aren't exactly made with ME in mind. So why not customize one to fit my own unique style? I'll show you how I turned a men's Hawaiian shirt into…

In one of my recent YouTube videos , I said that I had made my husband several things for his Christmas stocking this year and enough people asked to see what those ideas are that I went ahead and made another video to tell you what I sewed for my husband this year! Men can be hard to buy for and

a blog about fabric, patterns, quilting, toys, sewing, craft, travel and life in Australia

So what do you get when you take Water Plants and add some curving lines? Cobwebs in the Corners! Since...

Well, maybe not that new. But new to some, so I'll make a little tute here. These LadyFlowers are "Becky, Bertha and Bubbles". Becky, Bertha and Bubbles are all stitched with the same technique - a drizzle I have named "Braided Lace". I have the instructions for these little LadyFlowers and almost 80 others in my book, My LadyFlowers by Rosalie Wakefield. Here's a picture: I know, I know... *sigh*. Sounds familiar. I advertise and then I advertise some more. That's partly the reason for this blog, but the bigger reason is that I like to talk about Brazilian dimensional embroidery and am always willing to teach/share the things I've discovered. While I'm advertising, you can read more about the book, My LadyFlowers, on my website, here. All of the LadyFlower designs/patterns in the book will fit those little 2.5" frames, and are traceable patterns. However, you can tell from looking at the picture above that all you need are a dot for the drizzle and a spray of lazy daisy leaves and some beady or French knot curves and you'll have a design ready for your favorite wearable item or a crazy quilt, or a fabric postcard for a friend -- anywhere you can poke a needle! I know you are more interested in learning about the Braided Lace Drizzle, so I'll tell you how to do it. I'll show you, too, with pictures as I write, since many of us are visual learners. (And you can always drop me a note if you have questions). You're all familiar with the basic drizzle, right? Thread your needle, come up through the fabric, unthread your needle, and start applying thread. Finish by re-threading the needle and going back down through the fabric and out. If you'd like to see a picture, please visit our BDEIG website. We have a "getting started" page that contains all of the basic stitches with diagrams and directions. Here. (Look around while you're here - there are freebie designs and lots of other good information, including all of the new Seminar 2013 classes, plus you can join the guild and learn even more!!!) Back to work. Braided Lace You need: Two darners Two strands Lola (100% rayon Z-twist floss, from EdMar Co.), or your favorite floss weight. Needle Threader Pincushion for Drizzles Thread a darner with Lola. (Repeat for the second strand.) Knot each end of a Lola strand separately (or just center one strand of Lola so that the fabric bite is approximately 1/8"). Bring the threaded needles up through the fabric, unthread needles. Re-insert the 2 darners, point down, about 1/8" apart into the pincushion. Like this:  You'll double cast on 18 times (this is 36 cast-on loops total, 18 alternating, on each side). Work as follows: With your left hand, cast on over the right needle. With your right hand, cast on over the left needle. (The floss will cross in front) Like this (I did this a couple of times using different floss colors ...): After you have cast on 18 sets of loops (or 36 times, total), your Braided Lace Drizzle will look like this: See that pretty braided center vein? By the way (if you are "arranging" colors, the loops on the left side of the drizzle will be your flower "petals"). The right-size loops are 'gathered' into a tight center -- you'll see what I mean in a minute. OK. After those loops are all on your needles, you will thread ONE needle: Thread the left-side floss into the right needle. Thread the right-side floss into the right needle. Like this: or this: Now ...and very carefully so nothing pulls out, push that threaded right-side needle a little deeper into your pincushion: ...and always holding your floss loops against the needle (so nothing loosens or gets all wonky), carefully pull out that left-side (unthreaded) needle. Now you have only one needle, the right-side threaded needle. See? (I went and neatened up my fingernails as soon as I got finished here ...) OK. Finish the drizzle by pushing the right-side needle down through the fabric a little deeper into the pincushion. Remember to slip a pin or needle into the outer two floss loops so they don't twist and kink and knot for you (it's really hard to undo these with only one free hand...). Here's what I always do: Oh, oops. Don't let these colors confuse you. I stitched this flower twice - you'll see in a minute. On the above picture, the red loops were cast onto the left-side needle. This is just a better picture, trying to show you about the pin through the two outer loops to prevent kinks and knots. On the earlier photo, the blue loops were on the left-side needle. OK? I guess I'd better show you: As an interesting side note, the Braided Lace technique is a "reversible" stitch. I'll talk more about that in a minute. First, let's finish the drizzle. Pull the drizzle down snug to the fabric and the needle all the way through to the backside. Slip one of the strands of Lola out of the needle eye (you can use this long floss tail to knot off by hand later if you want). With the one remaining threaded needle, come back up through the fabric at the base of the drizzle, or right next to where you started. Pull this threaded needle all the way through. With the tip of this threaded needle, guide the outer drizzle loop/edge/center braid of the drizzle to around in a circle to meet the beginning to the end and pull down snug. You'll have what looks like a circular flower with the blue loops forming the flower 'petals' (red loops in the flower pictured just below). Finishing: And done: By the way, if you don't like your "joins", you can tuck them beneath another flower, or you can use any green, come up from the center and make 2-3 long bullions or cast-on stitches to give an impression of calyxes. As a "technical" note, when you are using Z-twist floss and double cast-ing on, you'll notice the right-side loops "untwist" slightly, or flatten out (the reason why Z-twist bullions are wrapped clockwise). [Perle Cotton is S-twist, by the way, and for those who do not have access to Z-twist floss, just reverse the procedure.] I pretty much speak in "Z-twist". When these right-side loops 'flatten out', you'll see that they sort of tuck into each other and make a nice, smooth center for your flower. That's it: Braided Lace! Braided Lace looks different on one side than the other. When I cast on with the blue loops on the left needle, these will make 'petals'. If I cast red loops over the left needle, I'll have red 'petals'. As I mentioned earlier, this stitch is reversible and you can flip the drizzle so the 'petals' will tuck under, or you can position the drizzle so that the 'petals' pop up. Pretty both ways! See: At the top of this post, you'll see that Bertha, Becky and Bubbles are kicking up their skirts and enjoying themselves. If you prefer the more demure LadyFlower "Garnet", let those left-side loops rest against the fabric, or even tuck them under with your needle. The picture below introduces you to the LadyFlowers, "Amber, Opal and Garnet": I have lots of more advanced techniques in my book, My LadyFlowers, if you have already learned the basic Brazilian embroidery stitches and are feeling adventurous. Always remember, too, that if you are trying to follow my instructions and something different comes out of your needle, just give it a name and continue - you have created a new design! Be sure to drop me a note, either in the comments below or by email, if you have any questions at all. I really LOVE Brazilian dimensional embroidery. Can you tell? Rosalie

Pin It If you’re looking for a simple and quick summer project, you’ve come to the right spot! Here’s a list of 101 fresh and fabulous sewing tutorial for Summer! You can find beach chairs, picnic totes, home decor projects and some beautiful summer dresses that I love, love, love! There has to be something… [read more]

Thank you everyone for all the offers to come and teach English Paper Piecing (EPP) where you live. Maybe I'll plan a world tour for about 5 years time when I've got more than just EPP to teach! ha h

Easy techniques will quickly increase your sewing confidence + helpful tips will guide you to a successful sewing experience.

We have had a major break through with potty training over the past week. The little guy now tells me when he needs to go pee while he is wearing his training pants. Yay! He has been going to the potty really well when he runs around the house bare bottom but not so much when I put training pants on him. I decided to try the non-waterproof training pants exclusively for a few days and see how it goes. The first day the training pants were wet pretty much every time, but by the second day we had a few dry ones in between. Now his training pants are staying pretty dry. He is also telling me when we are out and he needs to go potty though I still have him in a diaper. To celebrate how well he is doing, I am making more pull on training pants in a variety of fun colors. I make the trainers out of recycled t-shirts with a bit a lycra stretch. I line them with hemp and organic cotton fleece. The insert is sewn in and made of three or four layers of hemp fleece. The pattern I am using is sort of a cross between boxers and briefs. It is cut longer in the legs and has a snugger fit than some of the other patterns. I really like the fit since he can bend down and there are no gaps in in the legs. The pattern is the Alva Training pants from Fitzpatterns and it is only $2 for the pdf file so a great deal. I added the contour insert and liner to my pants to make them absorbent. I know I write this all the time, but I hope to post a tutorial on how I make the pants. They are really super cute and fun to sew.