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Want to know my favorite sources for macrame supplies AND 3 easy tutorials for beginners? Better grab your coffee and a comfy chair, ’cause … More getting started with macrame – supplies & tutorials »

The post getting started with macrame – supplies & tutorials appeared first on My French Twist.

Have you been keeping up with the wonderful makes that have been popping up on the Sewcialist blog this month and with the eye candy appearing with the hashtag #tributemonthsewing over on Instagram? In case you’ve missed any of them, here are some quick highlights!

I’m here to ring the ‘over halfway’ bell and remind you to finish up those Tribute makes, and get them posted online before the end of the month deadline if you’d like to appear in our theme roundups at the end of the challenge. Post your make on Instagram using the hashtag #tributemonthsewing. Alternately, if you aren’t on Instagram you can send us an email at sewcialists@gmail.com with a link/photo if you’d like to be included.

Now, if you’re anything like me, you’ll have been full of ideas of which Sewcialist you wanted to pay tribute to, your mind awash with plans and... [read more]

You may have seen this pic on Instagram where I asked if this fabric is weird or weirdly good. The consensus was that the fabric was good! When you look closely, you can see bubbles that are textures, not just the printed ones. It’s an odd fabric, for sure. I like it, but… after just a few minutes of wearing the partially completed dress, and asking my husband for his opinion, the dress started irritating my skin. My back was feeling scratched, and not in a good way. I imagine my scars would have started to feel irritated, too, if I left the dress on.

This is the first attempt at a wearable dress from the S1878 pattern with princess seams, and the fact that it’s not wearable is disappointing. Truly. I put a lot of time into getting the pattern ready to go and cutting this bubbly fabric out (and the fabric wasn’t cheap, either). Then I’ve ended up with... [read more]

If there’s one thing that 57 years on this earth have taught me, it’s NEVER say never.  However, there are garments that I am most unlikely to ever make.

[1]  No menswear- unless I get back into theatrical costuming at some point of course, or decide to do drag.

Mind you, this

Or this [always had a crush on Durer, roowwwrrrr]

Or this

[2]  No crinolines.  They really don’t do it for me, too much boing and sproing.

[Watch from 1.55 for maximum boing]

Mind you, panniers, or a good farthingale could tempt me…

For many years I wouldn’t make buttonholes in anything, now I love them.  We all go through periods of dodging basting, or understitching…not any more.  My biggest bugbear these days is still welt pockets…*shudder*

Have you heard? The well-loved Belgian sewing magazine, La Maison Victor, has been translated into English and is being sold locally in shops all over the US, UK, Australia and Canada! 

How cool is that? 

To celebrate their new launch, La Maison Victor asked me if wanted to take part in a blog tour with some other awesome North American sewists and I was happy to hop on board. They sent me an early copy of their first English edition to check out and I'm here to share what I thought of it. (And stay tuned for some information on the 100% vintage findings and fabrics that made their way into this make!) 

First of all, wow, this magazine is nice to flip through. It's pages are full of pretty pictures from craft projects and stylized photo shoots that accompany the 8 sewing patterns inside. The patterns... [read more]

Continue reading Skirting It!

Hey there Sew pals,

I hope all of your navigational equipment is working in the noggin and you are finding a way through August.
All is well at FOB HQ, I’ve had a few fabric deliveries and had some time not only to sew for myself, but a few gifts for my favourite ladies.

In other exciting postal news, I have bought TWO Wool and the Gang kits, one was on sale and one was just so delicious I couldn’t control myself. My autumn craft goal is to move beyond scarves and knit some garments. I went for  the Double Trouble jumper in rust and the Addicted to Love cardi in luscious forest green.
I will take this as a chance to thank my junior office colleagues who happily sign for and stash my sewing post without any protest, I owe you all fancy coffees.
I am planning to take the cardi kit on holiday with me in September, thought being the tape... [read more]

A huge range of fancy trims I used on the SWAP collection.  I’ve NEVER spent so much time on making something fancy [other than the wedding dress beading] and I was surprised to find that I really enjoyed it.  I made pleating boards, I hand-sewed fancy ribbon trim, I layered up different purchased trims, [and did some serious damage to my fingers, thimble notwithstanding!]  I even pinked bias strips AND pleated them.  Unbelievable.  Here are some reminders of the pretties.

Once upon a time, I only made very plain things, but no longer!  More recent makes, not all steampunk, include these delights.

Still to come…

Hi All

I seem to be looking quite cross in the picture above – but I am actually very pleased with my latest project for the Minerva Crafts Blogger Network*. You can read all the details about it over on the Minerva website – here.

I used the most beautiful Atelier Brunette viscose crepe this month – the colour is incredibly rich and the viscose means it is both drapey and breathable on warm summer days (which seem to be back again in Brighton this week!)

This is the Named Ansa dress from the Playground collection.When I looked around for other examples of this pattern made up I didn’t find that many examples which I was a bit surprised about – it requires less than 2m of 150cm wide fabric, the pleats make it a bit easier to fit and it has big sleeves – what’s not to like?And talking of sleeves – this is my entry for #sleevefest2017 – you... [read more]

K, am I a fabric designer now??? lol! It sure feels like I put my own stamp on this tunic by hand dyeing the fabric myself before sewing it up.

This is the Skipper Tunic by Papercut Patterns. Last summer I made the crop top version, so I’m getting my money’s worth out of this rather spendy PDF pattern. (But let’s be honest, I can’t resist Papercut patterns. I will pretty much open my wallet up as wide as possible for them any day.)

I modified the tunic ever so slightly by taking it in at the sides from the waist to the armscyes, so it has a slightly more a-line shape (more to do with the fact that I’m a size bigger on the bottom than the the top than anything else).  I also added in-seam pockets. Such a quick modification but it makes a world of difference; I’m really unlikely to reach for a garment that doesn’t have pockets when I’m getting... [read more]

I haven’t been really up on my wardrobe planning previously, but at the beginning of the summer, I decided to try it again. My focus was on pieces that would help me with a transitional wardrobe so that some could be used for summer into fall with a few extra layers.

Top Row:

1. Appleton Dress: Tropical Print Maxi Length 3/4 length sleeves (Made)
2. M5050: View E White gauze with lace; Misty Jeans: Capri length (Made)
3. M7094: View C Navy Blue crepe with orange squigly squares; Jennifer city shorts: twill
4. Lenox Dress: Cotton mint eyelet
5. Oceanside Shorts: green linen rayon (Made); Concord T: Hello Kitty Cotton Lycra (Made)

Middle Row:

1. Barton Shorts: Tropical print linen rayon with lace (Made); Concord T: Lightweight jersey (to buy)
2. Three’s a Charm Jacket: Black Jersey (Made); Springfield top: Red Rayon; Pavlova Skirt: (Made)
3. Simplicity... [read more]

My husband travels a bit for work and has a rather lovely leather passport wallet. I really like it but don’t travel enough justify buying one. I decided to make one. I had made my son a leather laptop cover and that went well.

I bought some red leather at the same time as this brown black leather. Enough for a wallet and a laptop cover for me.

I looked at lots of travel wallets and they were all very large and long. I wanted something a bit more compact. Space for my passport, some cards, notes and a coin section. Possibly a pen too – for the customs forms.

First up were the card slots. They went OK.  Well sorta…

I added a bit at the back for notes. Then I tried to create a coin section, with a zip.  It was wrinkly.

I realised I needed something shorter, that would fit in my hand. I tried one more design which was terrible.

I was travelling soon, time ran out so I bought this instead!

Happy Friday everyone! I’m headed off to Dayton today (after two days in New York this week) to celebrate one of my dear friend’s wedding! Before signing off (and switching into full Matron of Honor duties) I wanted to share three favorites from the week. Menagerie Rifle Paper Co Collection So you all know it […]

The post Friday Favorites | August 18th appeared first on Handmade by Lara Liz.

Give a Sewcialist some lemons, and she will make a gorgeous lemon dress!

Hello! My name is Sara, a sewist from Norway. Normally you can find me on www.saramadethat.com or instagram @saramadethat. But today I am here, to share with you my finished make for Tribute Month!

I love Instagram, and being there makes me feel like being part of a bigger sewing community. And this spring/summer so many amazing lemon dresses has shown up in my instagram feed. That is why I knew that I had to make a lemon dress for tribute month.

Some of the lemondresses I loved are this two from @sleepless_in_bavria and @rhiannonbrum. They are both woven dresses with a highlighted waist.

To be honest, I am a sewing with knits enthusiast. And I was thinking of making a Moneta dress from Colette patterns, for the same kind of style in a knit fabric. But there was this one dress I... [read more]

Herken je dat, dat je sommige kledingstukken maakt omdat je ze wilt maken, en andere omdat je ze wilt dragen? Deze jurkjes vallen voor mij in de laatste categorie. Het kwam de laatste paar weken al een paar keer voor dat ik ’s ochtends dacht ‘als ik toch eens een lekker flutterig viscosetricot jurkje had, dan was dat toch ideaal geweest voor vandaag’. Maar ik had eigenlijk totaal geen zin om er eentje te maken. Ik had wel stoffen in voorraad (uiteraard ) maar wist niet zo goed welk patroon ik wilde gebruiken, had geen zin om die dunne stofjes te knippen enzovoorts.

Tot afgelopen woensdag, de eerste dag van mijn vakantie (hoera!). Toen dacht ik nogmaals aan die jurkjes, en hoe fijn die zouden zijn voor de vakantie. Ik lag nog lekker in bed met een bakje koffie en de laptop, en ik keek op de H&M site of ze daar misschien leuke jurkjes hadden. En opeens was daar de... [read more]

My  desktop needle threader.  I simply cannot thread needles without it any more.  I usually do a dozen or so at once when I’m settling to a task.  This is the second one I’ve had, the first got bent and died.

I also have a different type of threader for my machine, which gets used a gazillion times a day, or so it seems.  The missus buggered one of these up, so this is number three. Indispensable.  It also helps insert machine needles when I’m particularly fumble-fingered.

May 2016: Hajj Flemings, CEO of Rebrand Cities with renowned photographer, Shawn Lee, in a redesigned school bus en route to working with small business owners in Detroit.

Earlier this year, while working in Detroit with small business owners and the Rebrand Cities team, it became clear that entrepreneurs and publishers are looking for a simpler way to accept credit and debit card payments on their sites.

Our Happiness Engineering team — the guardians of our customers — also weighed in, and we knew that we wanted to make an existing process simpler. So we set a design goal of bringing a 15-minute-long process to under a minute — especially for a customer that has never used PayPal before.

So a small team of engineers and designers came together to solve that problem with the intent of releasing a “Version... [read more]

Finally this tutorial is done! For those of you who have been waiting for it, I promise your patience will be rewarded once your … More macrame lawn chair tutorial »

The post macrame lawn chair tutorial appeared first on My French Twist.

Hi friends!

I’m so happy to share this dress with you!  It’s a dress that I not only love immensely, but one that means an awful lot to me as the fabric is not only vintage, but it is a treasure that I recently unearthed.  A couple of months ago, I started going through some old trunks and footlockers of my grandparents that are stored out in our barn.  In one, I found a treasure trove of mid-century fabrics, that were old curtains.  Stored in the box was not only this Robin Hood fabric, but also yards and yards of a beautiful white and purple floral print and a gorgeous set of lace curtains with a butterfly and floral motif.

All of the curtains were made by my grandma and I assumed that the fabrics were from the 1960’s, as the footlocker was stamped “Spain” and as my grandpa was stationed in Madrid in the early 60’s, I thought that the fabrics also dated to that... [read more]