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Sewing Community Project: Meet Julia!

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Celebrate the sewing community! Read our community spotlight on Julia! Megan Nielsen Design Diary Celebrate the sewing community! Read our community spotlight on Julia! Megan Nielsen Design Diary

Hello friends I hope you’ve had a good week and are looking forward to todays Community feature!! I’m so happy to be introducing you to the very lovely Julia today. I was lucky enough to meet Julia last year at my studio grand opening day, and I am so glad I did because she is an absolute joy! Julia made a Banksia blouse with gorgeous Arrow Mountain moon phase buttons and tapered leg Dawn jeans with white Japanese denim from our website as well as our matching hardware kit. I think the thing that really takes these jeans to the next level is the embroidery. She embroidered not only one of the back pockets but also one of the front pockets, and I think she learnt the hard way that if you embroider your back pocket we will take approximately 500 million photos of your bottom. Sorry not sorry hehehe

What I love about Julia is how she has jumped head first into sewing. Do you know she’s only been sewing a little over a year? She is ALL IN, sewing all the things with joy and positivity and having a wonderful time – which is what it’s all about!

I have absolutely loved reading all about Julia’s sewing journey and I really hope you do too!

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Sewing Community Project: Meet Eleanor!

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Celebrate the sewing community! Read our community spotlight on Eleanor! Megan Nielsen Design Diary Celebrate the sewing community! Read our community spotlight on Eleanor! Megan Nielsen Design Diary

Hello friends! I had to take a break from posting our community series last week as I caught a nasty cold (don’t worry, it’s not COVID I had a test ;) ) – but I’m back this week and so excited to introduce you to my lovely friend Eleanor! I met Eleanor a few years ago at the first Perth Frocktails hosted by Nat of Sew For Life and since then have loved getting to know her more. I would describe her as pure joy – you can probably tell from these photos but she is an incredibly funny, witty and entertaining person and I think it would be impossible to spend time in her company without walking away smiling. I love her attitude to sewing – prioritising enjoyment of the make over torturing yourself over details. For our community shoot Eleanor decided to make a pair of Dawn jeans in black ex Levi’s denim from our studio and Sudley cropped blouse in striped linen from our studio. I love a good monochrome outfit and this one is absolutely chic!

We asked Eleanor a million questions about her sewing journey and I really hope you enjoy reading all of her answers!

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How to do Full bust and Small bust adjustments on a French dart

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How to do a Full Bust Adjustment FBA or Small Bust Adjustment SBA on a French dart! Comprehensive and detailed tutorial by Megan Nielsen Patterns

I’ve had a lot of requests for tutorials for how to do a full bust adjustment (FBA) and small bust adjustment (SBA) for french darts like the one in my Dove Pattern, so I wanted to make sure we had a tutorial on how to do them on a french dart specifically!

The steps for doing an FBA or SBA on a French dart are very similar to a side seam bust dart, with a few extra considerations since French darts are constructed a bit differently.

So first things first – Let’s figuring how what a bust adjustment is and whether you even need one!

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Sewing Community Project: Meet Sophie!

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Celebrate the sewing community! Read our community spotlight on Sophie! Megan Nielsen Design Diary Celebrate the sewing community! Read our community spotlight on Sophie! Megan Nielsen Design Diary

I’m so excited to introduce you to lovely Sophie this week for our Sewing Community Project! I am a huge fan of Sophies personal style and if you’re not following her on Instagram i highly recommend you start. I met Sophie last year at my studio grand opening day, and since then have loved getting to know her as a studio regular. I love how she is always pushing and challenging herself, and keen to learn new skills. She is such a truly lovely person and fabulous maker!

For our special photoshoot Sophie sewed a Eucalypt tank in gorgeous silk charmeuse and cotton twill Flint shorts with Arrow Mountain buttons. What I really love about her outfit is how she has created elevated staples. These pieces could be both casual or dressy depending on how you style them, and I always love it when that happens when you are sewing! Seeing her mix and match these pieces into the rest of her handmade wardrobe makes me so happy!

I really hope you enjoy meeting Sophie and reading all about her sewing journey!

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Grid Darling Ranges

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Megan Nielsen Darling Ranges dress sewing pattern made in Grid check cotton flannel Megan Nielsen Darling Ranges dress sewing pattern made in Grid check cotton flannel Megan Nielsen Darling Ranges dress sewing pattern made in Grid check cotton flannel Megan Nielsen Darling Ranges dress sewing pattern made in Grid check cotton flannel

I’m not sure there are enough words to describe how much i love this Darling Ranges dress!

We started working on this dress at the end of last year – I had seen a lot of people making long sleeved Darling Ranges hacks and I thought it looked like an amazing idea! I wanted us to try it out in the studio so we could write a tutorial. I chose a grid check cotton flannel that I was obsessed with and thought would make a really snuggly warm dress for our coming colder months. But once it was sewn up I realised that this was just the wrong fabric to make a long sleeved Darling Ranges. It just looked all wrong – the grid check print felt very heavy and overwhelming with those sleeves. And to add insult to injury the fabric didn’t drape enough to make them look flattering at all.

So I hacked them off and we hemmed it in the standard pattern length with the usual elastic cuff finish, and then we all fell in love with it! And as sometimes happens this sample mysteriously disappeared into my wardrobe ;) Which was perfect timing because the cooler weather is approaching and I was beyond excited to finally be able to wear it today!

This dress was another reminder for me of how much of an impact fabric choice can have on your final make! It can honestly make it or break it! I still think a long sleeved Darling Ranges dress is an amazing idea and I can’t wait for us to try it again, but now I know that I need to be careful not to choose a print that won’t be overwhelm the garment and to choose a fabric with enough drape that the sleeves hang nicely.

Meanwhile in other personal updates, do you recognise my shoes? They’re the Astrid sandals I made at a Shoe Camaraderie workshop last year! I have worn them so much this past year and am just absolutely loving them. I’m just over half way through the I Can Make Shoes online course I signed up for a few weeks ago and am getting super excited about upping my shoe making game! I managed to find some shoe lasts which will hopefully arrive in the mail soon (the post is very slow since Western Australia closed it’s borders to slow the COVID19 spread – we are already the most isolated city in the world and this has made it worse haha) and then i can get cracking! Can’t wait!

How are all of your isolation making projects going my friends?

Megan Nielsen Darling Ranges dress sewing pattern made in Grid check cotton flannel Megan Nielsen Darling Ranges dress sewing pattern made in Grid check cotton flannel Megan Nielsen Darling Ranges dress sewing pattern made in Grid check cotton flannel

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