Contemporary Sewing Patterns for the Modern Maker
I’m so excited to share with you my latest Sashiko project – this adorable AsanoHa Sashiko pincushion! Last year I did an online Sashiko course with Atsushi of UpCycle Stitches and have really been enjoying practicing and learning more about this wonderful craft. The last stage of Atsushi’s course is an online zoom session.
Taekwondo is a really big deal in our house and has been for the last four years ever since Buddy saw a class through a window and was instantly hooked. If you ask me about what Taekwondo means to Buddy I will probably cry. It’s not something I talk about online, but he struggles with severe often crippling anxiety, and out of all the things we have done to help him, Taekwondo has done the most. It’s a combination of the philosophy behind the art as well as amazing mentoring instructors, and I can’t recommend this incredible martial art enough. His strong desire to practice this martial art motivated him to overcome so many personal fears and challenges and I am beyond incredibly proud of him. He loves it so much that after watching him train for two years, his sisters fell in love with Taekwondo too and it’s such a joy (and dare i say adorable?) to watch all three training together! Being able to break boards with your kicks is an integral part of the journey and a skill you need in order to progress to senior belts. With three kids practicing we decided to get a kickboxing bag that all of our kids could use to train and develop strength in their kicks. And guess what you fill kickboxing bags with – FABRIC SCRAPS! And guess what I have coming out of my ears – FABRIC SCRAPS! So today is the story of filling a kickboxing bag with fabric scraps I’ve been hoarding for much too long!
As you have probably noticed if you’ve been following for a while, I love pockets and I love to include ALL the bonus options in my patterns. So of course when it came to the Opal pattern, I had to include a bonus pocket option ;) I have been absolutely obsessed with the idea of making a pair of extended pocket Opal Pants and I am thrilled to tell you the reality of wearing them is as wonderful as my dream. Giant pockets are SO convenient! When I walk to school to pick up my kids in these I don’t need to bring anything else, I just throw my phone and keys in my ridiculous pockets and I’m off!
My friends I think I might need an intervention with regards to light coloured clothing. I have always been one of those people who despite my best intentions ends up spilling things down my shirt – and yet I am constantly drawn to white/cream tops! It’s madness!
But regardless of how careful i have to be whilst eating in this sweater – i honestly adore it. I fabric is called fuzz buster fleece and it’s from KnitWit – the colour is not white though, it’s a cream, so i’m really glad I bought the matching ribbing because as soon as I compared it to white ribbing at home it looked really wrong. I finished the hem on this one with my twin needle, and didn’t bother doing mitred corners, i just turned everything in as I was sewing and kept going.
I find that this Jarrah is the one that I tend to wear with dresses and skirts the most. The colour is so neutral and softening that it tends to be the most common sweater I grab to go with those garments. Unfortunately those times also tend to be times we are going out for dinner… which means the probability of spills down the front increases exponentially hehe.
Shockingly I haven’t managed to stain this sweater irrevocably yet! I spilled chocolate down the front once which sent me into a blind panic, but some great advice from other sewers on IG helped me get that our right away. I swear I am so thankful that we live in a time when we can draw from such a huge pool of knowledge. We really are blessed! Or perhaps this is just enabling me to make more white garments ;)
Here I’m wearing it with my straight leg Dawn jeans which I haven’t had a chance to blog yet! These are my most worn, yet least favourite Dawn jeans. Don’t get me wrong – i really love them, just not as much as my wide leg or tapered pairs. I made them during the testing process from some very cheap very lightweight spotlight denim and this fabric is a bit weird. It has faded in a really odd way and sometimes just looks a bit dirty or a bit off? I think that’s my main problem – the fabric just looks a little off to me.
This pair is made with a zip fly, and I don’t enjoy that as much as my button fly jeans. I think a lot of the enjoyment of rigid jeans is that authentic button fly experience. I can’t quite explain it – but the zip fly just doesn’t feel quite right in a rigid pair to me.
As they were a test pair I couldn’t be bothered hemming, and left the hem raw. It hasn’t frayed as well as my Ash jeans with raw hem – but I’m still enjoying it and I like that it gives a different look than my other jeans. I think i’m on a real light denim kick recently! I couldn’t find light denim for ages, and suddenly found a lot of it and I think I just went nuts make light denim jeans. I think that’s probably a good thing though as the majority of my Ash jeans are dark indigo – so I like the difference.
This was the first sample I made of the straight leg jeans and it’s the pair that taught me the importance of breaking your rigid jeans in. The first time I tried them on I hated them. They felt too tight in the wrong places, and I was upset by tightness combined with the light colour. But as is always my process during testing, I just kept wearing them to see how they felt in practice – and the more I wore them, the more the fabric relaxed and broke in – and the more I liked them! Then I couldn’t stop wearing them allllll the time.
So if you’ve had the same experience with your rigid jeans I definitely recommend giving them a chance to really break in – be they handmade or otherwise!
photography by Bronnie Joel
The beginning of a new year always makes me want to organise things. Having my workspace set up properly really helps me get my head in gear, so I’m really careful to keep it as efficient and organised as possible.
With all three of my kids in full time school this year I’ll be working in the office full time with Anita my Operations Manager. My workroom as it stood last year was fantastic for me on my own, but wasn’t really set up for two people to work in it, and I knew I needed to make some changes so that we could both work comfortably.