Black Friday to Cyber Monday: Save 20%

There are still two full days left to save 20% off everything in my shop using the code BLACKFRIDAY at checkout!  It's been manic so far, and some of my favourite fabrics are running low.  *sob*

Speaking of favourite fabrics, I've finally decided to part company with my wovens.  Due to my current focus on knits, my poor sad wovens weren't getting much action and I also desperately need the shelf space.  As my friend Kym pointed out yesterday, sorting and listing my wovens was like a trip down memory lane- each one of these fabrics has featured in blog posts and makes allllll the way back to 2007.  When looking them up prior to listing I found that a huge amount are Out Of Print / Rare, which made my inner hoarder want to keep them even more.  Or sell them by the FQ on Etsy and and retire to Malta.  For sake of ease they're bundled by colour or theme.

And finally, I've listed quite a few random one-size-only clothing items that have been hanging in my sewing room since last year.  They're already made so ready to ship!

The Mod Dress

In case you missed it on Instagram or Facebook, I'm working on drafting the Paneled Pinafore in ladies' sizes.  This is version three and I'm just about happy with everything.  Version One is all in a grey ponte and it's trickier to see the seam lines so for this one I used a big fat striped ponte for the centre panels so you could see those princess seams.

The front has a more dramatic curve that nips in at the waist for an at-a-glance hourglass shape.  As the seams are more of a decorative feature than a shaping feature, the hourglass is somewhat of an optical illusion but princess seams are the perfect seams for adjusting fit to your individual body.

From the side you can see that there is a looser, drapier fit than it looks from the front.  There is negative ease through the bust but not through the waist because I think this pattern will be good to throw over jeans or trousers (in tunic length) or tights in mini / knee length. 

The back has less dramatic curves and also pesky thumbs causing pooling.

If you're waiting for an action shot to show you different things you can do while wearing this dress, the style clearly lends itself well to giving The Eyebrow to your son's friend who is spying on your photoshoot from around the side of the building.

This just in: Herzblatt, Girli Elephants, Rocketboy and Frogprince

Four new prints in the shop!  Herzblatt translates to either 'heart leaf' or 'adorable' but in this case I say both.  I can see this fabric being used for a lot of Christmas makes with the gorgeous greens and red!  Girli Elephant is a reprint of a fabric that sold out in it first run before I got a chance to stock it, it's a lovely large-scale print in pinks, browns and orange.  Rocketboy is another large scale print, this time with flying rockets, planets and stars in four unusual shades of blue.  And finally Frogprince, another riotous fairytale print in greens, yellow, orange and deepest chocolate brown.  The smiling lightening clouds are my favourite bit.

Pattern Anthology Winter Collection: Johnny B Good Remix

The ladies behind Pattern Anthology (Andrea from Go To Patterns, Kate from See Kate Sew, Melissa from Blank Slate Patterns, and Shauna from Shwin Designs) have just released their second collaborative pattern pack 'Winter Wonderland' with eight patterns being sold in bundled form for a two week period:

 

I was invited to take part in the Winter Wonderland Tour in the Pattern Remix Section and decided to have a play about with Shwin Designs's Johnny B Good Hoodie.

This pattern is in the 'Boy' mini-collection (as well as the full eight-pattern collection), and it features a button-down front, optional shoulder patches, a back yoke, and either a collar or hood.  My mission: to keep the most distinctive design features but bring the Johnny B Good over to the girly side.

Shoulder patches, check.

Back yoke, check.

Collar, check.  But as you can see, there's no button front!  I removed the placket allowance, cut the front piece on the fold, and drafted a facing to go all the way around the neckline to allow me to cut into a v-neck (and also to enclose all of the collar seam allowance bulk).

The body was lengthened to tunic length, and given an a-line shape and curved hem.  My fabric is a ponte knit (that was intended for me I might add) so using a stretch fabric coupled with a more feminine silhouette meant I made some non-design-feature changes to the pattern*.

It came out super-cute if I do say so myself! I love the sharp collar and neckline, the shoulder patches and yoke fancy it up beyond a basic top, and the bonus multi-colour dotties will make the tunic coordinate with a tonne of leggings.

Thanks for having me, Pattern Anthology, and make sure to check out the collection that will only be available as a discounted bundle until the 18th November.  Individual patterns will be sold by the specific designers thereafter.


*After making a muslin, I Frankensized to get the fit I wanted.  The shoulder width, shoulder patches, armholes, and chest width are size 2.  The neckline and collar are size 6. I also added 3" to the size 6 sleeve length.

Scandinavian Style Series: Jegsuit Jeggeralls

 

When Stacey from Boy Oh Boy Oh Boy Crafts asked me if I wanted to participate in her Scandinavian Style Series, of course I wanted in considering that I source and sell Scandi fabrics, and sew probably at least 95% of my makes in (what I would consider) a Scandi-influenced style.  Bright colours, easy-to-wear-comfort, and print mixing are just one facet of Scandi Style; there is a whole 'nother aesthetic to Scandi fashion that is a lot more subtle.  So for this challenge I wanted to step away from the Loud and Proud Scandi Style and work with a more neutral look.

Can a full-on jeggings jumpsuit be considered neutral?  Who knows.  Let's just go with it.  A lot of the Scandi sewing blogs I read use a predominantly neutral palette (grey, black, navy, white) but with a pop of colour for high contrast.

Sunflower yellow is almost the opposite of the colour wheel as denim blue so it's the perfect 'pop'.  I sourced the sunflower metal zip, and found a coordinating yellow for a plain long sleeve tee.  Guys, so hard not to use a print for the tee, so hard.

But I let myself use a print sparingly for the slouchy beanie hat.  The Sweetcones print sticks to the neutral palette but has the subtle graphic design that sneaks into Scandi fabrics all the time.

For added visual interest I stitched in some wide elastic in the back.

The piece of jeggings fabric I had wasn't tall enough to make the jumpsuit a seamless affair so I had to give it a waist seam.

Sorry, Maia, I clearly should've used that seam to add pockets.

Thanks for having me, Stacey! Click on the button to see the awesome stuff everyone else has made.

The Postman Always Rings Twice

A big box of fabric from Lillestoff arrived last week with quite a few restocks as well as four new prints and two new solids.  Squirrels is a large-scale print in a delicious autumn / winter colour palette, the Owls is a gorgeous small scale print (that I believe is already out of print so swoop like an owl), Tulipa Dotties is a bright polkadot print that not only matches with Tulipa Flowers but also makes a great blender due to the number of colours included, and with the Blue and Orange stars I finally have a perfect coordinate for Pretzels, hooray!  Two new solids are available in Fuchsia and Turquoise Blue.  The range of blues that have passed through my shop (I've had bright turquoise, dark turquoise, petrol, mid blue, sky blue, royal blue, navy blue and now turquoise blue) amuses me in their nuanced-ness.  I've included a shot above with Sunny Sky, Jack and Frogfriends, and Missing Duck for comparison.

And before I could even get that first box uploaded (or my holiday announcement taken down for that matter), a second box of goodies arrived with the greatest arrangement of Squirrel Fabrics the world did see.  We've got Wintertime squirrels in three colourways of Dark Slate, Cranberry, and Petrol and two Sweetcone acorn coordinates.  Both of them make a really neat chevrony / lattice pattern from a distance:

Everything is now available in the shop!

The Cat's Pajamas

My brief for this Halloween was a cat costume so that Maia could play the black cat familiar to her witchy best friend.   I nearly Bimaaed a cat hoodie to wear with black leggings until I discovered a large piece of black polar fleece on the top shelf (and being that my years-old fleece stash is the stash I'm keenest to bash) and decided to make a cat onesie instead.

It's got a double layer fleece hood with a drawstring to hug the face should one desire (hugging this face is frankly irresistible) and I split the hood in such a way that I could insert big ol' ears in the seam.

It's got a long front zip, drop crotch (ugh to that term), and slouchy legs so she can wear it comfortably for a good couple of years.  Onesies are for life, not just for Halloween.

I forgot to put a tail in the back seam but, as you can see, it in no way hinders her ability to strut around like a gd Cat Boss.