top 16 of 2016

Around here, we’re still old school, blogging almost every weekday. And we’re so thankful to you for reading!

2016 was a great year for the blog. We hosted a successful sew-along for the Gallery Tunic, offered some wonderful inspiration and had some fun guest tutorials like this, this and this. Many thanks to all of those who contributed to the blog last year. We couldn’t provide our blog readers with so much inspiration and so many ideas without the work of all our wonderful contributors.

Here on the Oliver + S blog we’re all about spreading the love of sewing far and wide. So we are here to help you by holding your hand as you go along doing one sewing project at a time. Click on over here to the Oliver + S blog, anytime of day or night, we’re always here, we never sleep!

We wanted to share some 2016 blog highlights with you. Be sure to click on through to revisit them or to discover them for the first time. This list is la crème de la crème of 2016 and you might want to pin these blog posts onto your sewing Pinterest boards.

1) Tips and Tricks for Twin Needle Hemming
Once you start sewing patterns that call for knit fabric you are sure to make at least one t-shirt. And you will quickly discover that sewing a t-shirt is fun and easy! When you are sewing with knit fabrics, you’ll want to check out these tips and tricks for twin needle hemming because they will give your garments a professional finish. These tips and tricks are not only good for hems on t-shirts, but also for the Playtime leggings and knit dresses and tunics.

2) Reversible Bucket Hat Tutorial
The Reversible Bucket Hat is the most popular of the free Oliver + S patterns. Learn how to sew the Reversible Bucket Hat with this step-by-step photo tutorial. If you are looking for more ideas for the Reversible Bucket Hat pattern, included is a list of almost a dozen links for more inspiration.

3) Peplum Top Tutorial
Here’s a simple set of instructions to turn two of our patterns for girls and women into cute peplum tops. They use the Oliver + S Playtime Tunic pattern and the Liesl + Co. Maritime Top.

4) Hide-and-Seek Dress with Woven Yoke
Mathew shares a fantastic tutorial on fabric weaving. The tutorial is demonstrated on the yoke of the Hide-and-Seek Dress, but this weaving technique has also been done on the Secret Agent Trench Coat and Tea Party Sundress, so be sure to click through to see those popular posts as well.

5) Join Bias Binding in the Round
Learn how to join bias binding in the round with this step-by-step photo tutorial. This method is used to join the bias binding in the round for the leg openings on the bloomers in the Tea Party pattern and the Seashore bloomers. It’s a really slick technique.

6) Tiered Maxi Dress
Learn how to make a tiered maxi dress using the Popover Sundress (which is a free pattern) in this fun tutorial. It’s the perfect dress to wear for those easy breezy warm weather days.

7) How to do Lacework
Rebekah shares her exquisite formal flower girl dress that she sewed using the Fairy Tale Dress. And she has also included a lacework tutorial. She guides you through the process.

8) Exposed Zippers on Welt Pockets
Thanks to Deb we have a nice tutorial on how to add exposed zippers on welt pockets. They look fantastic on the Book Report Dress!

9) Beachwear with Oliver + S
Shelley shows you how you can make beachwear using Oliver + S patterns! She demonstrated it using the Nature Walk pants and the Field Trip Raglan T-shirt.

10) Bistro Dress to Easy Shift
Liesl demonstrates how you can take the techniques presented in the Oliver + S Building Block Dress book and apply them to women’s patterns as well to make exactly the dress you’re dreaming of. She transformed the Bistro dress into a shift dress.

11) Free Pattern for 13 and 14.5-inch Doll Skirts
This is a free printable skirt pattern for 13-inch and 14.5-inch dolls. These doll skirts are the perfect thing for that special doll owner in your life. They are absolutely adorable and are super quick and easy to make! If you enjoy sewing in miniature, then be sure to also check out the half dozen links on sewing for dolls.

12) Woodland Clearing fabric collection
In January Liesl introduced the her Woodland Clearing fabric collection that she designed for Robert Kaufman. Then later in the year we shared a bunch of creations made from it.

13) Sewing translator
Have you ever wanted to translate a sewing term into another language and realized that regular translation tools don’t speak sewing? Enter sewingtranslator.com! A little bit after it was introduced we enhanced it to be even more useful, with some new features and languages.

14) Introducing the Oliver + S Building Block Dress book
A new pattern is always an exciting thing. The Building Block Dress book is like a huge bundle of Oliver + S patterns all in one place. This book gives you so many possibilities at your fingertips because Oliver + S makes you the designer. After Liesl introduced the new book, we shared dresses sewn by the testers, had an online book tour, and held a design contest.

15) Top 15 tools for sewing
When putting together an essential sewing toolkit, here are fifteen tools to consider.

16) Selecting Thread Color video
Everyone loves videos and last year we filmed seven Quick Sewing Tip videos including:

• Two different ways to use a seam ripper
• Liesl’s favorite hand sewing knot
• How to open buttonholes using just a seam ripper
• How to use up your spool and bobbin thread at the same pace
• The benefits of using beeswax when you are hand sewing
• How to sharpen your tailor’s chalk