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Two Monstera sweatshirts

I seem to be really good at making multiple items out of the same fabric recently. Rather than have an odd metre or two sit in my stash, I’ve been making an effect to use up the excess to make something for someone else and share the love.

Case in point – I’d bought a few metres of digitally printed, loop-back sweatshirting from Fashion Formula using this “Turquoise tropical leaves” print design in advance of filming my my Craftsy/Bluprint “Serging Activewear” course last year. I had to sew up some of it before I flew out to Denver, then you got to see me sew a bit more of it on screen, but then it sat unfinished at home for a few months during the summer heat wave.

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A snuggly yellow Raglan Tee

Happy Friday everyone! The weather is so drab and grey here in London that I thought it was worth posting about this little ray of sunshine I made myself last winter. Normally I can track down when I’ve made something by the odd in-progress photo on my phone, but I must’ve whipped this one up very quickly last year because there’s no trace of anything in progress! But, to be fair, I used the Raglan Tee design from my “Sew Your Own Activewear” book, which is a very quick make indeed!

Magazine

Burda magazine November 2018

I’m gonna apologise right now that this review is late, and I don’t know when I’ll be able to pick up with the rest of my usual monthly Burda magazine reviews. I managed to scan this issue literally on the last day before we packed up everything in the flat at the start of December. Now we’re back in the boat, but living in the very small Captain’s Cabin while we finish the renovations on the front/main part of the boat. But in the meantime, 95% of our stuff is in boxes so until we have a proper lounge again, I won’t be able to scan these magazines to do the reviews (though I did do a mini review of the January issue on my Instagram Stories this week so it’s worth following me to catch those!)

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A Simplicity sports bra

I hate writing bad reviews. It’s even worse when it’s in my “specialist subject”, as there’s a subset of people that will think it’s just sour grapes or something. But I really, really wanted to like this pattern. I get asked all the time for recommendations for a good sports bra pattern, and Simplicity 8339 looked good on paper – lined, supportive straps, wide under-bust band, and a variety of cup sizes.

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Two winter trousers

I made two pairs of trousers last winter and never quite got around to taking proper photos of them, let alone blogging about them, what with the frenzy of book launch posts, then getting sick. So for completeness’ sake, and because they’re both great makes, I wanted to be sure I documented them properly.

Article, Inspiration

Happy 2019! (My year in review)

Happy new year! It’s traditional for me to reflect on the year that’s just finished on the first of a new year, and this year’s a weird one because I’d love to just say “this year sucked”, but there were some fantastic things that happened this year amoungst all the sickness, disappointment, frustration, and hard work. So let’s try and focus on those.

Gallery, Inspiration

Kinetic Tee – meet our athlete model!

One of my favourite parts of the pattern development process is deciding who our athlete model will be. I absolutely loving selecting people who not only show off my designs in the best way possible, but also hopefully inspire you all, too. I’ve always used real athletes instead of professional models, and these are folks with day jobs, dreams, dramas, and goals just like you and me. I always get a little nervous asking if they’ll model for me, but I’ve yet to have anyone refuse, so I’m not sure why I feel that way!!

Gallery, Inspiration

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.

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Black soy Longshaw Skirt

I have got such a backlog of finished makes to show you! The problem with working an office job in amoungst spending every weekend at the boatyard AND trying to push out a new pattern (which is 95% done now, I swear!), is that what precious little time I’ve got left goes into sewing instead of actually taking photos of said makes. So I hope you’ll forgive the quality of these photos and instead applaud our creativity in taking them at all!

If you recall, one of the four makes in my Fall/Winter plans was a Longshaw Skirt from Wendy Ward’s book “A Beginner’s Guide to Sewing with Knitted Fabrics”.

Magazine

Burda magazine October 2018

This is turning into quite the magazine review week! Between getting my next sewing pattern ready for release (it’s with my testers now!) and working on the boat renovations every single weekend, I’ve had precious little time to devote to sewing recently, and when I do, I end of sewing easy TNT garments instead of spending time photoshooting or blogging about them! But I have been keeping a list so I can eventually blog about them, and the advantage there is that I might be able to wear a few as sets for the photos!