I bought my Janome Memory Craft 3500 sewing machine in 2003 and if I remember correctly it was around AU$900. Up until then, I’d used my Mum’s sewing machine and the one thing I didn’t like was the buttonhole. It had 4 parts so you would need to do each Read more
How are your skills navigating curves with an overlocker? Mine are not great, and I seem to have a lot of trouble doing the curve around pants that have a fly extension as part of the pant front. To avoid this issue altogether I have used interfacing to enclose the Read more
The Other Side of the Coin is the second book written by Angela Kelly. that describes her 25 year close working relationship with the Queen.
This is the third part of my journey creating my Chanel Jacket. The first part outlined how I gathered all the supplies and created a well fitting toile (ie. test garment in calico). In the second part I cut out and prepared my fabric for sewing. In this post I’ll Read more
This is the second part of my journey creating a Chanel Jacket. The first part outlined how I gathered all the supplies and created a well fitting toile (ie. test garment in calico). In this post I’ll discuss the cutting out process, which was quite different to any other pattern Read more
The construction of my Chanel Jacket has been quite a journey. I wrote previously in Why I decided to Make a Chanel Jacket for my reasonings of undertaking such a daunting task. SUMMARY: The Australian Sewing Guild were running a sew-along and I thought a Chanel Jacket would look great Read more
It’s 2021 and this is my fourth year of participating in the Make Nine challenge. See my previous years:#MakeNine2018 (Result)#MakeNine2019 (Result)#MakeNine2020 (Result) This year I will be focusing on quality fabrics and pattern drafting. I have had too many years where I have bought the cheapest fabric that I like. Read more
The plans I made in February 2020 for my #MakeNine2020 changed a lot as the year progressed. I went from not wanting to do any sewing, to making a time consuming patchwork quilt for my son. But one of the biggest effects was that one of my Make Nine makes Read more
My son is very much into Minecraft, and lately he especially likes the Creeper character. You know the one that comes close to players and explodes. So for his 9th Birthday I decided to make him a softie, as he loves stuffed toys and the ones in the shops were Read more
There are a few ways you can make bias tape, ie a length of fabric strips cut on the diagonal. This is the pieced method where you cut strips on the bias and then sew them together to make one long strip of bias tape. Sewing Instructions Cut a perfect Read more