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A green gratitude teeshirt

These are weird times. Apart from my birthday dress, I’ve really only been sewing face masks for myself, J, family and neighbours and even though I’ve got loads of lovely fabrics paired with specific patterns that are ready to go, I haven’t actually felt like sewing them. For me, most of the joy of sewing is in the making itself, but I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t enjoyment in the wearing it for others to admire, too. Without that component, on top of my usual routine being upended for the past 3.5 weeks, it’s just not been easy to get into the right mindset to create.

By go-to for times when I’m in a funk is to sew a “quick knit top”, which, for the past few years has meant a teeshirt using the “Loose Fitting Top Block” from my Sew Your Own Activewear book (my go-to teeshirt pattern). So I grabbed some cotton-lycra jersey from Ditto Fabrics in the most perfectly “me” shade of olive green from my stash, and did some cathartic sewing early on in March.

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A linen tie-sleeve teeshirt

Last year the June issue of Burda magazine contained a pattern for a simple teeshirt with sleeves that tied, and it’s not left my mental To Sew List over the intervening 6 months!

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A boxy Burda fleece

When I was compiling my 2019 year in review post I was surprised and a bit saddened that I didn’t actually sew any Burda magazine patterns last year despite buying it every month and liking quite a few patterns in every issue. So I resolved to try and sew more from my magazines, and when January’s contained this wonderful, boxy sweatshirt I just knew I had to sew it up!

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A sequin party top

About three or four years ago when I was in Ditto’s shop in Brighton, I bought a remnant of matte silver sequin fabric. And for the intervening years, it sat in my stash, as every year I somehow missed sewing it up for “sequin season” so it stayed there for another year…

But not this year! This year I was determined to make something with it and started looking for a basic tank with minimal lines that could let the sequins shine. It turns out I’ve had the perfect pattern for even longer than the fabric and hadn’t realised it – Colette’s free Sorbetto top pattern (which was revamped a few years after its original release, if you weren’t aware). I’ve made the older version a few times, always without that central pleat (ugh), and it turned out to fit nicely into the scant metre of fabric in the remnant.

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Big Sleeve Energy – A yellow ramie Cielo Top

I was instantly drawn to the lantern sleeves on the Closet Case Patterns Cielo Top when they released it as part of their Rome Collection earlier this year, and specifically to the top as I tend to wear separates a lot more often than dresses. But I wasn’t really that into the samples they made using drapey fabrics – as soon as I saw the tech drawing I knew I wanted to make it in a more structured fabric to really draw attention to those sleeves and let them stand up on their own rather than have a more 70s bell-sleeve vibe.

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A pale blue running Raglan Tee

I’ve had the idea of this top in my head for quite a while, and the fabric in my stash for even longer. I really wanted to show how versatile a design the Raglan Tee in my “Sew Your Own Activewear” book can really be, and that you can still introduce a back pocket into it even if the invisible zipper technique shown in the book is a bit too tricky.

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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!

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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!!