Are you getting ready for DESIGNIN’ DECEMBER 2017?

We are!

Have you picked out your Designer Original and the supplies you need to make your Designer me-made COPY? Or are you just in the planning stages – don’t worry … there are still about 45 days left before DESIGNIN’ DECEMBER 2017 begins! Pull those ideas out, polish them off!

Ever since the first DESIGNIN’ DECEMBER I’ve seen many fabulous garments in the stores, magazines, online, on social media, on the runways … so many beautiful garments! And I say,

“Why buy when you can make it yourself – better and for less money?”

You’ve seen my Designer Originals here … this Haori jacket from zasue.com …

and this dress – which I apologize, I am going to actually make into a skirt and top.

Everything’s cut out and ready to sew!

I’ve shown you my plans for my Designer me-made COPY of my Designer Original. Leave a comment that you want to join in, here or on any DESIGNIN’ DECEMBER post, and I’ll share your post on my blog in DESIGNIN’ DECEMBER, along with everyone else’s, and it will be eligible for PRIZES! Continue reading →

I’m back!

Last weekend started out as a busy weekend and turned into a challenging week, but let me show you what I did!

I am still working on my sister’s dress – part of my “Sister’s Sewing Project”. She would like this dress, in this 100% cotton border print and I am using this pattern, Butterick B6089 (sorry for the flash glare).

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The battle is over!

It started off bad. I wanted a dress like my mom and aunt. I wanted it out of this fabric (100% Rayon, which I love) and I thought I could alter this pattern to what I wanted. That’s when my problems started. If you missed it, you can read about it here.

So forget about the dress! I managed to salvage as much of the fabric as I could and I made a top instead. Continue reading →

A long drawn out battle with beautiful fabric …

and I’m not quite finished yet!

Let me tell you what’s up …

I have been searching for a pattern and fabric to make a “replica” of my mother’s and aunt’s dresses in this photo. My Aunt was a seamstress back in Europe and she not only sewed for clients but also for herself and my mother. She used no patterns and could make anything! I thought I had the magical combination for this dress with this 100% Rayon Denim Challis I had in my stash – a favourite fabric of mine!

I still think this pattern, Vogue 1395, might work but it doesn’t have the rounded neckline that I want. Being lazy, I thought I might just make two bodice backs and use those to make the bodice instead.

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What can I say? I still had some denim strips left!

And I’m certainly not one to waste recycled denim! So let’s make another bag. This one is not quite big enough to hold my iPad, not like the last one I made. This one seemed to go together quicker too! Perhaps it wasn’t as “fancy” or perhaps I’m actually getting used to throwing them together?!?

Again, I started by sewing my strips together, pressing them, ironing on the fusible interfacing, and trimming the two outer bag walls to the right size.

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Head’s up!

I’ve been locked out of my Instagram account. I think I’ve been hacked! So much for #sewphotohop! Does anyone have contact info for a real person at Instagram?

EDIT: Thank you Mads I have emailed. Sarah, I’m trying your idea too!

A FURTHER EDIT: I also opened a second IG account just so I could use their “report a problem” on that second account to report my first account had disappeared.

A FURTHER EDIT: Thank you again! An IG rep emailed me back and gave me back my IG account. Thanks for the help and support everyone. Now I’ve got to go take some photos for my next blog post. 😘😘

Happy sewing to you!

How to sew a recycled denim handbag. Part 2

Back again! To recap last week’s post … I wanted to make myself a 100% recycled denim bag, using denim strips like those bags I saw on Pinterest. Last week I cut up my denim jeans, pieced and sewed the strips together and fused on the interfacing for my outer bag walls. I sewed the pockets and the zipper pocket on my bag lining. I sewed the bag strap. I did my topstitching – I love topstitching and Amber, my Singer 421G was a work horse!

This week, I continued on. I prepped the opening zipper, cutting it to the right length and topstitching the zipper tabs on the ends. I switched from the brown zipper to this blue one as it fit around my iPad just right.

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How to sew a recycled denim handbag.

I was trying to think of an eye-catching, mysterious title for my blog post. I couldn’t. I have too been immersed in bag making lately – sewing creatively, instead of blogging creatively!

The only other handbags I’ve made I posted about here and here. I made one of them for my sister – she’s seems to be happy with it. I made her’s by copying something she already had.

This time I wanted to make a handbag for myself out of 100% recycled materials, specifically denim. I have been collecting a few images on my Pinterest and I’m quite inspired by this recycled denim Chobe Bag with the denim strips sewn together.

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My Fabric Stash … and a game!

A while ago, I detailed how I organize my Pattern Stash, here. Over the years, I have probably collected, and received from others, over 200 patterns. I still use the same method I blogged about back then, but now I also have a photo of each of my patterns on my iPad. Always at my fingertips!

I put the envelopes in plastic pages into binders with all the dresses together, jackets, etc.

I put the instructions and pattern pieces into one plastic zip bag and store the bags numerically in banker boxes.

I find this way I can easily browse through all my pattern drawings and the information on the back. After I have made a decision on which pattern I want to use I move to my banker box and pull the pattern instructions and pieces out.

My fabric stash is long overdue for some sort of organizing. Continue reading →

… and it’s the last of it!

Last week I made a lovely dress out of my Tower print fabric, here. I purchased enough for a dress and a top so I was determined to get a dress and a top out of it, even if I made an error cutting out the directional print on one of the skirt pieces last week!

This is one of my favourite patterns for piecing tops together. I also have had success with the “By Hand London – Polly Top” and the “Teach Me Fashion – Two Tone Singlet“.

Continue reading →