SarahLizSewStyle

(This is my second catch up post)... Forget little black dresses, I just don't wear them.  Give me a cardigan jacket to throw on over whatever else I am wearing, and I am happy. Trouble is, I have never owned one, because they are too expensive for me and also don't fit.  So it was about time I turned to needle, thread, fabric and machine and make one to fit me. I was also making this garment for the Make a Garment a Month challenge.  This month, the challenge was to find the oldest piece of fabric in your stash and make something from that. I happened to have a very small piece of wool and mohair mercerized worsted fabric in the stash. only it was  a piece kept by a retired tailor, and it had lots of flaws in it.  Presumably he though he might one day find a use for it, just like we blogging sewers try and rationalize over pieces of really quite questionable pieces of fabric in the stash.  Total, 1.25 of 150 wide, with flaws to avoid. I have had the piece in my sta

I'm starting to write up my back blogs - this is post 1 of 4 . Sometimes when it is a little bit between seasons, I am at a loss what to sew.  And certainly at the moment our weather is still quite warm, so I haven't felt like sewing anything for the coming cooler months. So, pondering what to do, my eyes fell on a piece of stashed fabric that I had never known what to do with ever since I stashed it.  It was the last 1.25 metres of 127 wide stretch cotton sateen that I purchased at Spotlight some years ago.  I loved the roses, but really, there is little you can do with such a large pattern and pattern repeat, especially with a smallish piece. I suddenly remembered a pair of trousers designed by Dries van Noten some years ago - I don't have a picture.  He had large flowers on his trousers, and didn't bother too much about pattern matching or pattern placement. So I decided to make another pair of Vogue 9067, tapered pants version: I have made this

Have you noticed how some sewing bloggers never ever seem to have wadders?  In fact, I may even give that impression myself sometimes. But I do have wadders.  I like to call them learning experiences, because usually a wadder is teaching you something. I don't always blog about them, because I tend to want to just move on.  But today I will share two wadder stories with you.  A few weeks ago I cut out a polyester crepe jacket that looked awful on me. The calico toile looked fine, but when I made it up in a fabric with some drape in it, I looked like a frumpy sack of potatoes.  A little hard to imagine given my angular frame, but believe me, I did.  The offending wadder has left this house in the rubbish bin. Then I attempted the above wadder today.  I found a piece of scuba knit in the remnant bin at Spotlight.  I decided that I would try it to see what it was like to sew.  I was a little dubious, but the sewing was the easy part. When I attached the waistband (which wa

I've been away for the blogosphere for some weeks now.  This was a rather forced break and came about because my computer did a large Phuttting and puffed a lot of smoke into the room.  I stood back watching and wondering if I would need to get the fire extinguisher - I don't panic in these situations - and then it did a long and final Phutttt and died.  I turned the power off and told DH, who I knew would take care of the problem.  In due course a new computer arrived and DH has set it up so I can operate again.  I was starting to grind to a halt, because I work a lot from home as well.  At the same time the computer at the rooms was hijacked in one of those coincidental situations, so we had remedial work to do there as well, and my personal office computer (when I work there) has been given to the receptionist while we sort out the old one. So life has been fun... Before all this happened, I made this little cotton top.  I had a thing about Vogue 9085, in th