Tamara

Great choice. It’s a nice sew.

Liesl, this made me laugh so much I almost choked on my drink. I was really excited to create samples for you of the “Desktop Wrist Rest Pattern”. I could not get those teeny, tiny oval eyes to have smooth edges. I went through all of the fabric you sent and then used some of my own trying to get 2 eyes that were the same.

What makes things…[Read more]

Here’s how I roll…

I learned to sew in 7th grade Home Economics class. I wasn’t particularly good and got a B (which was devastating to me). The summer before high school, I enrolled in a summer class at the high school for sewing. The pattern that I picked – a fully lined fitted blazer. I sewed it in a no-wale brown corduroy. I’m short,…[Read more]

The imperial measurement of babies makes no sense to me at all. I can much more easily visualise babies in kilograms. A large baby is like an average cat (4-4.5kg) – my second child. An average baby is like a small cat (3-4kg) – my first child.
And you @juliamom2009, on my reference scale, had a pair of guinea pigs! 😅
( I weigh these animals every…[Read more]

I moved from the US to Canada after my oldest two kids were born. All I knew was that my two preemie kids were 1150 grams (about 2.5 pounds) and 950 grams (about 2 pounds) at birth. So, when I’d go to the meat counter, I’d have to stop and think – did I want a Nathaniel’s worth of meat, or a Melissa’s worth of meat….I didn’t want to look like…[Read more]

Nice one @yirg 😃
@todd that cracked me up, your summation of the American psyche almost sounded like it came from a Canadian or Aussie! 😅
…. And made me realise a way in which metric may just pervade after all. Don’t you measure your guns in millimetres? I know nothing of guns but even I’ve heard of a 9mm pistol. How many sixteenths’ of an inch…[Read more]

Hi @nathaliecarol I think it depends on the border print itself. If, like in Juliamom’s case the border is “soft”. Ie curved, floral or ill defined, then cut as per the pattern.
However, if the border print has a very defined, straight edge bottom, then I would adjust the pattern pieces and “square off” the hem. It’s as simple as lengthenening…[Read more]

Hi Nathalie – I used a border print and left the hemline as per the pattern piece…you can see it in this photo:

I find it strange that a simple to use, base 10 measurement system has not been adopted by the entire planet. Quilting, sewing and map making might be the last hold outs.

I learned Imperial for Cartography when I was in university. I find it best not to convert between the two. Too much room for error. I add masking tape to my throat plate to…[Read more]

You’ll hand stitch the lining to the zipper in one of the final steps.
If you read the last steps it should be mentioned there. Meanwhile, just follow the instructions and it will all come together beautifully.

I have had to do this a lot. It sounds like my daughter is built similarly to your son – if I was going by the size chart she would wear a 2 with the length of a 7! I was given a bit of advice by Liesl a couple years ago, though, to only size down the width a couple sizes from the length, to preserve proportions. I find that this works for…[Read more]

Hi Connie @totter2
Fusible web is like double sided interfacing. It’s used to stick two different fabrics together.
If you want white windows, you’d have to cut rectangles of white fabric and use fusible web to stick it down.
Thus, your windows can be whatever you want them to be.
If you don’t have fusible web, you could use fabric glue, or pins…[Read more]

Hold this thought for the weekend @enbee we’ve got a blog post coming up with lots of inspiration for jeans from Oliver + S patterns!
My all time favourites were mashing the back half of the After School pattern with the front half of the Field Trip! But there are other great examples.

That is exactly what I needed, @sarvi. I can’t thank you enough! Now for a fun weekend of sewing 🙂

Thanks so much, Sarvi 🙂