Search Results for: been making and opening

The Kinetic Tee pattern – out now!

Please welcome our newest sewing pattern – the Kinetic Tee! This one has been so much fun to develop and draft – it’s an asymmetric tee but due to some (ahem) clever drafting, it’s quick to cut out AND to sew up, and feels really great and comfortable to move in, too.

Move in a workout tee that really sets you apart from the team! This loose fitting asymmetric tee has plenty of interesting seaming in the front and back with slash openings at the left shoulder and right front clavicle. Choose from either a cut-on short sleeve, or dropped shoulder long sleeve in twisted or straight options.

A digitally printed Active Jacket

So you might be thinking “Wait – haven’t I seen this jacket before?” and if you follow me on Instagram then you’d be right. Or if you follow this blog on RSS or by email, then you may also be right, as I’d taken these photos last fall but wanted to save the post until the book came out, and then accidentally made my draft post live when I added some tags to it (I do love Wordpress but it is WAY too easy to do that – on my old blog platform it was almost impossible to set something live accidentally!).

But in either of those circumstances, you didn’t really get to see or hear very much about this jacket, but I am SO happy with it and bursting to share!

The “Sew Your Own Activewear” Vest Top

What better place to start than the Vest Top, which is featured on the cover of the book? The description of this design is:

This close fitting, sleeveless top is ideal for the gym, climbing wall, tennis court, or any outdoor warm weather exercise. It features a flattering waistband, scoop neckline and front princess seams for enhanced fitting possibilities. On the back, a triangular shoulder yoke adds visual interest while leaving your shoulder blades unencumbered. Sew this up in thin, wicking, four-way stretch fabrics with either contrast or hidden elastic edges.

We made espadrilles!

Along with making my first pair of socks a few months ago, I got to tick off another First this weekend when my friend Sophie came over and we made shoes! These actually weren’t her first pair of shoes – last year she took an intensive shoe-making class where she got to use lasts and industrial shoe-specific sewing machines, but making espadrilles using home-friendly methods was new for us both.

I’ve been wanting to make shoes for a while, encouraged by other sewists like Jasika who make very professional-looking shoes that you’d actually want to wear! So when the opportunity arose to choose some Prym products (aka Dritz in the US) to try out, their espadrille-making supplies were high on my list, and they kindly provided the soles in my size (EU40) as well as in EU37 and EU45 for good measure. The other sizes, miraculously, correspond to Sophie’s shoe size and James’s, so they’ll all get put to good use!

A cape in progress

I don’t tend to post about in-progress garment much anymore. I think part of the reason is that I tend to make projects quickly, so there’s not much to document and I roll any construction notes into the finished garment post, but also because I’m not not exactly light on garments to post about and it takes enough time putting together the ones I do share without adding any more to the To Blog pile!

But I’d been making a lot of quick garments in the past few months and decided I wanted something a bit more involved to sink my teeth into, so I started making a cape, using this Burda magazine pattern from 2011 (still available to buy as a pdf). I had some gorgeous teal wool coating a friend had bought for me in Tokyo in January, and I thought it paired really beautifully with some black and pink abstract tartan fabric I chose from Sew Essential as my #sewphotohop prize draw. It’s a lightweight John Kaldor satin with a lovely hand that you really could believe was silk, but alas, it doesn’t appear to be on the site any longer!

A totally 1980s jazzercise costume

Many of you may be frantically planning and plotting what costume to make for Halloween next weekend, but for me, the biggest costumed event of the year was last Friday, at my friend Gez’s 1980s-themed 40th birthday party. Gez has thrown fancy dress parties for years, so I already knew that people would make an effort, but by keeping a small and pared-down wardrobe for myself, I didn’t really have any suitable 80s vintage clothing already. So I knew I”d have to make something from scratch.

I didn’t want to go the full-on Dynasty “hair & shoulder pads” look, so I was a bit stuck until I realised that I could totally do the 1980s Jane Fonda jazzercise look instead! I sometimes have shiny 80s lycra on hand for making early test versions of patterns, but I’d run through all of that in developing the Lightspeed Leggings pattern (poor James!).

Announcing the Tessellate Tee pattern!

After many months in the making, I’m super pleased to announce the arrival of my first printed pattern – but not as you’re expecting!

The Tessellate Tee pattern is a collaboration with Love Sewing magazine for a stylish teeshirt pattern which can work for either casualwear or activewear, depending on your fabric. The geometric seamlines continue on the back, and you can either choose to colourblock the pieces with three different fabrics (as shown in the magazine), or sew it all up in one fabric, or even just use two fabrics to accentuate the middle triangle or diagonal line.


Photos courtesy of Love Sewing magazine

Looking for your perfect long sleeved teeshirt for these cold winter days? The Tessellate Tee has a banded neckline and generous ease in the waist and hips, plus flattering geometric seaming on both the front and back making this top ideal for colourblocking. It can be made in a variety of stretch jersey fabrics, such as cotton jersey, wool jersey, ponte roma, sweatshirting, French terry, or supplex lycra with at least 20% crosswise stretch. 1cm (3/8in) seam allowances and 2cm (3/4in) hem and sleeve hem allowances are included.

This pattern is only available in Issue 23 of Love Sewing magazine, and is included in the printed supplement sheets with fully illustrated instructions printed in the magazine itself.

How to buy

If you’re in the UK, Love Sewing magazine is widely stocked at WH Smiths and most of the bigger supermarkets. If you live outside the UK or prefer online ordering, you can buy issue 23 here direct from the publishers, or alternatively, you can buy issue 23 from Newsstand (while it’s the current issue) may work out cheaper for some shipping destinations.

Love Sewing have posted the Size Guide & more model photos here, though if you’ve sewn my patterns before then you’ll probably already be familiar with my sizing (there’s no change here, though the top has a little more ease through the waist and hips than my XYT Workout Top or VNA Top patterns).

The Add On Pack!

Annnnnnd, if a colourblocked long-sleeved teeshirt isn’t enough for you, then you can make your tee even more workout-friendly with my Tessellate Tee Add-On Pack which is available to buy for only $2.99 (about £2)! This is less than the cost of a coffee (or a pint!) and the small pieces mean there aren’t very many pattern pages to print either.


This expansion pack for the Tessellate Workout Tee pattern allows you to add thumb cuffs onto the sleeves (without any hand sewing!), a hood with a special opening for your ponytail, and a zippered back pocket – perfect for cycling and hiking. Choose to add just one, or even all three onto your Tessellate Tee!

StyleArc Pamela – the perfect summer dress?

I must be the only sewist on earth without enough casual dresses, but alas, the weather has turned very hot and summery and I’ve taken to just wearing the same jeanskirt and pair of 17 year old shorts (no, really) around the boat while I work from home. I realised I could just make any number of knit dresses, but that’s too easy, and besides, my knit stash is a little low and my woven stash is spilling over.

So I decided to pull out the StyleArc Pamela dress pattern I originally planned to make for my Mexico travel wardrobe last year, and pair it with the same blue linen (blend?) that was gifted to me by Veronica back in 2012.

It’s been ages since I sewed a woven for myself, so of course I forgot that they require pressing, which means heat and steam standing by the iron, ugh! But let me tell you, it was all worth it in the end because I totally love this dress. I think it might be the perfect summer dress, as it’s both casual and a little different, and you can change the look just by tying it either in front, or in the back.


(Yes, I had been wearing the dress all day before these photos – including two lots of treadmill running to whilst shopping for new racing flats!)

I bought the pattern when I was a StyleArc size 14 (I’m closer to a 12 now), so the dress is a little bigger than usual on me, but this works for summer because you can get a looser fit by tying the integrated ties in a bow under the bust. Or, if you want, you can also cinch in the waist by wrapping the ties around to tie it in the back. I’ve been wearing it about 50/50 according to my whims.

There are a lot of great little details in this pattern – the shawl collar extends to the centre back neck, falling nicely into an inverted pleat at the inset corner.

An orange O'Keeffe skirt

As I switched over to my summer wardrobe this year, I noticed an unwanted side effect from all my recent marathon training – way too many of my cute summer clothes were now baggy, droopy, and sad, including my aqua pleated La Mia Boutique skirt. Big sadface! I’d worn it in heavy rotation most summers since I’d made it, but off to the charity shop it went, creating a “bright summer skirt”-shaped hole in my wardrobe since.

Enter the Sinbad & Sailor O’Keefe skirt pattern, which I’d bought right after it came out last year, and never quite got around to making. Pair it with some fabulous bright orange textured fabric I’d been lovingly gifted, and the hole was well and truly filled!


(Remember the lace tee from last summer? Yup, I wear that all the time, too!)

I made size 14, which seems pretty true to RTW sizes (though the first time around I cut out the pattern pieces in size 10, my US size, as it wasn’t clear which sizing the pattern was using – good thing I caught it before I cut out my fabric!). The skirt fits nicely around my waist and hips, but still provides enough ease to sit and walk with my mega-long stride comfortably, and the length is perfect for me, too.

Sewing Indie Month: An XYT maxi dress tutorial from Closet Case Files

As part of the wonderful Sewing Indie Month celebrations, each of us are collaborating and sharing tutorials throughout the month of May. During the planning phase of the month, I requested to partner with Heather from Closet Case Files as she’s also a fellow stretch fabrics fanatic plus I loved her Bombshell Swimsuit pattern (if only English summers ever got warm enough to swim, eh?).

Well, she’s since gone and released Nettie, a fantastic bodysuit and bodycon dress pattern, and it’s already on my To-Sew list for later this summer. I can never wear RTW ones as my torso is too long, so I’m excited to finally wear some! (That, and her dress looks SO much like Wolford’s £300+ dresses!)

As we were discussing which tutorials to do, Heather was really up for hacking my XYT Workout Top pattern and making it not only something suitable for casualwear, but also a dress! She’s gone and done it, so if you’d like to make your own, read on…

The tutorial

Hello everyone! Heather here from Closet Case Files. I’m on Fehr Trade today to share a tutorial for Sewing Indie Month.

One of the things I love most about the independent pattern community is the way that the unique taste and point of view of each designer shines through in their work. I was really excited to be paired with Melissa for Sewing Indie Month; I have tremendous respect for her skills and knowledge, and love her cool and modern take on active wear. It was a good pairing, since we both love designing for stretch fabrics. For my Fehr Trade tutorial, I thought it would be fun to put a Closet Case spin on the XYT Workout Top.

Since I’m not the jogging type of girl (more of a leisurely bike riding lass), I thought it would be fun to take the great design lines of the XYT and make a summer maxi dress. I loved the racerback option, and thought it could look sexy and sporty in a mix of lycra and powermesh.

XYT Workout top by Closet Case Files-12