Melbourne magic
I hopped over to Melbourne recently for the most amazing weekend with some lovely ladies from blog land. This was a whirlwind trip, as Simon (who was surprisingly happy to join in on all the sew-ist activities) and I ran around town over a weekend, catching up with sewing peeps and trying to soak in as much as possible that this incredible city has to offer: Food, street art, coffee, galleries, did I say food?
TJ's Garden Lola
Isn't this dress crazy beautiful?!! My jaw dropped when I saw Tj's version of Lola. At first I thought, where the heck did she get that amazing knit and how did she manage to line up the print so perfectly across the panels?!?! But at a closer look, I realized that she DREW. IT . HERSELF!!! This girl has talent!
New friends
I had a little ray of sunshine dropped in last week from the big apple to brighten my day! Jennifer from New York's Workroom Social was visiting Toronto, and it was such a treat to hang out with another lovely sewing diva and chew on big ideas and lofty dreams.
Josephine Kimberling's magic touch
I wanted to share some of the beautiful dresses made by the super talented fabric designer, Josephine Kimberling. Taking a look at through her gallery, you can see such a great variety of awesome sewing patterns made up of her beautiful fabric, including some from the Victory Patterns' collection.
It's pretty inspiring. I want to live in her world of florals, rainbow streamers, and soda pop! Here's a little peek at her versions. Hoooly mama! I'm in love with her version of Chloe! Give me mixed coordinate floral prints and day of the week. Feast your eyes, ladies!
It's pretty inspiring. I want to live in her world of florals, rainbow streamers, and soda pop! Here's a little peek at her versions. Hoooly mama! I'm in love with her version of Chloe! Give me mixed coordinate floral prints and day of the week. Feast your eyes, ladies!
DIY Bucket bag
We all have that trunk, closet or drawer that is overflowing with scraps of fabric left over from previous projects. Too beautiful to throw out and yet too small for another project, these forgotten bits of fabric tend to sit collecting dust. But despair no more for we have the perfect solution! Sewers grab your collection of fabrics and prepare to be very busy creating multiples of the following tutorial as it is both a fun and functional way of using leftovers.
Sallie's Sewing Spotlight
SATSUKI DRESS
Sallie seems to have the Midas touch. If you poke around on her blog, you'll see that everything she makes is gold! Even her amazing illustrations, holy moly, woman, UBER talented!!! I love this version of Satsuki; the silk has such a beautiful, dark smokiness to it and a beautiful drape. I've become partial to this dress in black, and it's so nice to see such a lovely version and such pretty photos! Take a look at Sallie's post on the dress too; it's a good laugh! (Thanks Jessica for pointing Sallie's blog out to me!)
How to sew an Understitch
If you've ever sewn a pocket bag or a neckline facing and you find that the inside parts keep peeking out, trying to steal the spotlight from your beautiful the garment, it's likely because you haven't sewn an understitch along the seam of the finished edge. An understitch is used along edges where you have inner linings or facings that you want to remain concealed on the inside of the garment. This stitch that will help all those inner parts to stay put, leaving you with crispy clean finished edges!
Sophie's sewing spotlight
I like Satsuki for its simplicity and because it lends itself as a blank canvas for lots of fun, decorative and personalized techniques. Sophie's done just that by creating beautiful cutout lattice-work along the front and back neckline. She's done such a fantastic job! I thought it might inspire you to do something creative with your Satsuki or another dress pattern. Thanks for sharing, Sophie
The secret's out: Victory Patterns now in Print
I've had to use all my strength I could muster to restrain from announcing this properly over the past few months, although I don't think I did a very good job, because I had to leak the secret here and there.
But here's the BIG NEWS...
But here's the BIG NEWS...
Oliver & S + Victory Patterns
The lovely Liesl and Todd behind Oliver + S are hosting my patterns on their site, amongst a selection of other wonderful indie pattern designers. I feel privileged to have been invited to join them. They asked me to talk a bit about my background and the pattern line, so if you're interested, here's a link to their post.
Finishing edges with bias binding
Hey, let's talk about one of the best edge finishing techniques ever: Bias Binding!!! Who, what, when, where, why is binding you ask?!? Binding is a bias cut strip of fabric with pre-folded edges. The fact that it’s bias cut makes it ideal for finishing curved edges.
Marimekko, with love
To celebrate my birthday, my best friend and I trotted off to the textile museum as they're having a Marimekko show. It's the depth of winter, and I've been longing for the colors of spring, and this show was more than a fix. I am so in love with the world that Marimekko built, their vision, consistency, approach to marketing, their contributions to fashion and industrial design, textiles and art, ALL of it!