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Showing posts from October, 2017

Floral Leggings

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Pattern Review: New Look 6439 I can honestly say I never imagined I'd ever sew leggings. In my head leggings were very much an item of clothing that I would be happy to buy - similar to tights, cardigans and underwear. However, after making these textured trousers here I felt that I would be willing to branch out! Leggings are so easy to sew I am kicking myself for not trying them earlier. This leggings pattern (that I may or may not have stolen from my mum...) contains 2 pieces. No waistband required. You simply fold down the top of the leggings to encase the elastic.  In terms of adjustments I did make a few: A quick and necessary FBA (Full Butt Adjustment). I used this great blog post from Closet Case Patterns  and added 1/2" to the back leg inseam and graded in 1" to the centre back. These leggings are designed to sit just below your belly button, but I knew that I wanted them to be high waisted. I added on 2" so that they sat on my natural waist.

Do I hear Santa...?

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Pattern Review: The World of Cross Stitch Nov 1999: Christmas Table Linen Yes, this is a Christmas cross stitch pattern, but too be honest it isn't very Christmassy. It is also very far away from table linen. Behold a seasonal coaster and bookmark! First up the bookmark. The original design was for a seasonal cake band. The design on the bookmark was to be repeated as necessary to make the length of the band. I have never used a cake band in my life, let alone a cross stitch one. Since I read a huge amount,  a bookmark seemed about right.  This was a really enjoyable simple cross stitch, and some much needed relief after my complex cross stitched Mai . I interfaced the back of the bookmark and lined it with some cotton lining from my stash.  The coaster was originally designed to be a candle stick holder. Urm...what? Who has a candlestick holder? Doesn't everyone just use empty wine bottles these days?? Anyway, I thought that it would work well instead as a

Remnant Busting

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Pattern Review: Simplicity 1370 This pattern has appeared so many times on the blog! It is a great pattern to use up fabric remnants. This fabric was stolen and used originally for a midi skirt . I had enough left to squeeze out a mini skirt! I really don't have anything else to say about this pattern. For those new to the blog I cut a size 16. I underlined the linen with some cotton lining from my stash. I omitted the waistband due to fabric constraints and used bias binding to finish the waistband and hem.  The print is really fun and goes with my standard black accessories. It will also work in the winter with boots and tights which is always a win! Expect more of these on the blog until I find another TNT remnant busting pattern! This is the end of my backlog of summer sewing patterns. Time for some Autumn/Winter sewing. In the meantime you can view my Pattern Review here .  What are your preferred remnant busting patterns? 

Goodbye Summer!

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Pattern Review: Vogue 8870 Summer is now well long gone here in London. However, I am sure that you are relieved as this year I have made so many summer versions of Vogue 8870. Here is the final one and I promise I will keep this review short and sweet! This iteration was a wearable muslin to see if I could get away with drafting it as sway dress with no waist definition. I have tried sway dresses countless times and yet I never learn my lesson. With my shape a loose dress looked terrible so I hacked it in two and popped in some waist elastic like the original version suggested. You can still see the slight pooling from my swayback, but because of of the blouson style it isn't too noticeable. The fabric is some poly viscose that I purchased from Dalston Market. It was ridiculously cheap which is why I picked it for a wearable muslin.  I don't have too much else to cover in this review that I haven't covered in these reviews here.  It has ended up