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Inspiration

Behind the scenes on my “Serging Activewear” shoot

Thanks so much for all your enthusiasm on the launch of my Serging Activewear Craftsy class guys!! I wanted to talk a little today about what went into the making of this class because I know you all love hearing about this sort of thing, but also I found it fascinating to see how much work goes on in preparation, too!

As I mentioned earlier this week, I actually started working on the class prep back all the way back in December! The leadup isn’t usually quite this long, but we started the new year with a very intense few weeks of devising the script with my fantastic category editor, Elaine, over Skype. Basically, we had to work out what I was going to talk about, in what order, and what sort of samples I’d need to sew up ahead of time in addition to the ones I’d actually sew on camera.

Inspiration

Activewear Masterclass – new date added!

Wow, so many of you have booked my Activewear Masterclass in July that we’ve gone and added a second date! So if you wanted to attend the first one but couldn’t on that weekend, you can now book for Sunday 30 September as well!

Like the July date, this is a one-day masterclass held at New Craft House here in London, and you’ll learn how to sew strong and stretchy seams on a regular sewing machine, adapt patterns to your specific sports, plus sew up a pair of leggings and a workout top, ALL IN ONE DAY! Plus you’ll receive a signed copy of my “Sew Your Own Activewear” book, too!

Gallery

A floral bias top

Happy Friday everyone! I like to buy souvenir fabric whenever I’m travelling, and when I was in Malaga last summer competing in the World Transplant Games I bought one meter of a lovely floral poly satin at a fabric shop we stumbled across in the centre of town.

I’m not usually a floral woman but this digital print really spoke to me for some reason, and now that the weather has warmed up it felt right to cut into it – and what better way to showcase the beautiful photo print than with a little bias top pattern I’d already tested? So I pulled out Burda 6501, which I’d made last summer in a viscose print and worn loads since.

Magazine

Burda magazine May 2018

And just as I thought this review would bring me up to date with the latest Burda, they go and release the June issue (which I have already, and will hopefully be reviewing soon!). As with March and April’s reviews, I’ve included links to the PDF versions of each pattern here so you can still get it if you really like a design, as I realise that the magazine itself may not be available anymore.

Magazine

Burda magazine April 2018

Hot on the heels of my delayed March review is this delayed April review! 😂 As with March, because this issue isn’t available on most newsstands anymore (except Australians, who’ll have to wait a few weeks to get it), I’ve included the links to the PDF versions of the patterns in case you see something you like!

Magazine

Burda magazine March 2018

First of all, thank you all for your well-wishes on my health. I’d love to tell you that my posting again means I’m feeling better, but it’s more a case of the number of “blog posts I need to write” building up so high that the anxiety levels are outweighing the effort involved to write them. And it’s kinda ridiculous that I’m writing about the March Burda in May, but getting this issue was a drama in and of itself, since for some reason it wasn’t on any of the usual newsstands in London, and then the issue I ordered online got lost in the post, so I had to order another copy off eBay, ugh. But because my March, April, and May reviews are so late, I’ve included links to the pdf patterns on BurdaStyle.com so you can still grab the pattern if you want to.

Article

An uninvited rest period

Sorry for the radio silence over the past few weeks. I try to keep to a regular (and on-topic!) post schedule but having partially recovered from the awful flu I’d picked up in February, I then had three other separate, nasty viruses jump on board for the ride, meaning I’ve been sick for over 2 months now. 🙁

Gallery

Two pairs of Cycling Shorts

These are the final garments I’ve got to show you from my “Sew Your Own Activewear” book – for now, anyway! And it’s fitting that I’ve saved these to the end because I wore both of these shorts hard all summer long, and I wanted to show again how you can mix and match features to make garments that work for you. The thirteen designs in the book were only ever intended as a starting point – you have my full permission and encouragement to change them up, repurpose bits of one design onto another, and make what works for you and your chosen exercise!

So in that spirit, last summer I decided I loved the Cycling Shorts design, but I wanted them for running. So I didn’t increase the back rise (a cycling-specific adaptation that’s not needed for running), and I also left off the chamois padding and silicone hems for similar reasons.