Nicole

Well, last night, 12/24, my cousin saw pictures of my in the clutch bags and wanted one. We trooped to the basement, she picked out fabric she wanted. This morning, I whipped out a bag as quickly as I could for a 3 pm dinner. Turned out well. Better than I expected. Since I didn’t comple all my sewing, some people will receive gifts in…[Read more]

Hang in there, miss N. My grumble is a general one — I wish my space didn’t look like an explosion in a lint factory.

Ooh, that’s a sneaky one — I wouldn’t have thought of that either. Hang in there, ladies, we’re in the home stretch.

Haha, I’m reminding myself that my 5 year old has so little experience of piping that I can always tell her it’s a design choice for it to look like that, much as she claims that some of the notes she plays on violin are “beautiful to me, anyway…”

Happy Holidays, folks!

I’m thinking about starting a new topic here entitled “Stupid things I’ve done while writing/grading/illustrating/formatting oliver + s patterns.” Fortunately, most of them get caught in the process, and if not then, during testing. But there are so many potential pitfalls. You’d all feel like sewing geniuses, comparatively speaking.

Happy…[Read more]

Deck the halls with boughs of … how about Stilton, port, and fig jam?

Perfect, carefully applied piping, seams trimmed … and forgot to sandwich the collar in there. Sigh! Last minute Christmas sewing at its best.

Perfect, carefully applied piping, seams trimmed … and forgot to sandwich the collar in there. Sigh! Last minute Christmas sewing at its best.

Perfect, carefully applied piping, seams trimmed … and forgot to sandwich the collar in there. Sigh! Last minute Christmas sewing at it’s best.

Cute snowflakes! Wishing everyone happiness whatever you’re up to.

Love the snow!

Thank you too to all the people who have posted on the forum and in the flickr group. What I see and read here, both in response to my questions and to other peoples enquiries keeps me motivated and inspired.

Happy Christmas!

Helena

I finished the dress! It looks amazing! I have also finished my basic Christmas sewing. Everyone I wanted to make something for has something 🙂 Although if I have time I’ll probably make 2 more tshirts and a pair of leggings but if I don’t get to it that’s fine 🙂

I finished the dress! It looks amazing! I have also finished my basic Christmas sewing. Everyone I wanted to make something for has something 🙂 Although if I have time I’ll probably make 2 more tshirts and a pair of leggings but if I don’t get to it that’s fine 🙂

I think the reason this has been really hard on me is that I, myself, am not a very good sleeper either (guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree). I wake up at the slightest sound and then remain awake for an hour or more before falling back asleep. There are nights where between P getting up, and my own waking, I may only get 3 hours of…[Read more]

Funny, I think of myself as a great sleeper, even though I wake several times a night, every night (and think this is why I remember so many dreams). I think what I’m doing that makes me think I’m a good sleeper is that I stay very relaxed and drowsy. Alcohol knocks me out but it’s awful, unrefreshing sleep. Interesting what kind of sleep feels…[Read more]

I think the challenge lies in getting the finished dart to have the same dimensions/fit as the original.
You’d need to cut and spread the pattern before cutting out the fabric in order to add the seam allowance. That way once you’ve sewn the gathered dart it hopefully ends up the original shape.
Take pictures of what you do, I’ll be curious to see it!

Don’t you wish there were a pause button?

Don’t you wish there were a pause button?

I just wanted to jump in here and say that I’ve probably never slept through the night without being medicated. I’m just not a good sleeper. I didn’t sleep when I was a kid either; I was always worried about one thing or another. Fortunately for my parents I was also a very stoic child so I never got up and bothered them. 😉

Anywho, have you…[Read more]