This is a blog dedicated to documenting sewing self drafted and indie sewing patterns, consuming less, being better to people and the earth, creative exploration, and my life and times in Rochester, NY.
All in Sewing
Today on the blog we have my first Wiksten Shift dress! Call me a follower but dang I fell hard for the hype around this pattern. I’m still… not 100% sold on the silhouette of this dress in particular but dang if it aint comfy as shit.
I feel like when you become a sewist, you are like: Dope, I’m gonna make a ton of basic woven tees out of all the dope ass fabric in the world. And then you realize that woven tees are kind of a bitch ass to make. It’s hard to find a pattern you like (at least to accommodate a big ol’ chest) and eventually you just kind of give up. Maybe I’m assuming here based on my own journey, but I gave up on the idea of a cool woven tee many many moons ago.
Welcome to summer in Rochester! Sam and I are so ready to wander around the market on sundays and look at… more plants we don’t need.
On to the dress. I made this dress a little more than a month ago and haven’t had time to shoot it until this weekend. it was a great sew, relatively easy pattern construction and straight forward directions.
Ya’ll I can’t wait to tell you all about this dress. When Gabriela of Chalk and Notch reached out to me about testing their new re-release of their Orchid Midi Dress, I was so game. I’ve never sewn a Chalk and Notch pattern but I had been eyeing their best selling Fridge dress from afar for a long time. The Orchid Midi is way more my style. Flutter sleeve? Faux wrap? NO ZIPPER? Sounds made for me.
Welcome to a very late post about my Easter Dress! I’ve been dreaming about making a seersucker fit and flair dress for ages but I didn’t have an excuse until I remembered Easter was a thing. I had also been itching for an excuse to make a Christine Haynes Emery Dress this year. Long story short, I used to be totally obsessed with this pattern when I first started sewing in 2015 and I could only be bothered to make fit and flair party dresses. I remember the pattern being amazing and my pal Hannah has been making a bunch lately so I wanted an excuse to sew one too!
If you follow me on instagram, you’ll know that in transit from my home to my studio at the Yards I unearthed about a yard and a half of 2015 Nani Iro Double Gauze I bought when I worked at Purl Soho. It’s beautiful and when I worked at Purl I just kept buying single yards of fabric. Why? No idea. But I was struggling to figure out what I could make with it when Megan Nielsen emailed me about making their Eucalypt tank I felt like it was fate. I don’t actually believe in fate but it did feel awfully convenient.
When Anita from Megan Nielsen Patterns reached out to me about making a couple of their new patterns I was all the way in. I have never actually made any Megan Nielsen patterns but I have a long list of her patterns I want to make, and I also have been loving watching her increase her size range recently. They sent over a tank (coming later next week) and a swimsuit pattern.
I’ve been putting the Colette Penny on my Make 9 lists for eons- or at least since the pattern came out. I bought this fabric from La Mercerie AGES ago. Probably a little less than a year ago. The fabric is a beautiful lawn that I think La Mercerie is particularly known to stock. I always know when shopping with La Mercerie that the fabric will be not only beautiful but high quality for making garments.
I’ve been meaning to make a gathered York Pinafore by Helen’s Closet ever since Helen released the hack on her blog ages ago. I actually was more interested in sewing the gathered waist York than the regular one, despite making the un-hacked pattern first. I have been really practical with my fabric buying in 2019 and I invested in some charcoal essex linen blend fabric from cottoneer to finally churn out the gathered waist York of my dreams.
Welcome back! Two garments in a row? What is this? A blog with a schedule? Not quite. I just had a little time between Christmas and Valentines Day where I needed to decompress with some good old fashioned garment sewing.
If you’ve been watching me and my sewing lately you might be thinking that it’s been less than exciting lately. Maybe it is! Maybe my style is just changing.
As some of you may know, roughly 2 weeks ago there was a blog post made by a hugely popular knitter, Karen Templer, which offended many in the knitting community with its imperialistic undertones. I found the response to the post within the fiber community to be thrilling and empowering and thought to myself that I hoped if the time came to speak up in the sewing world, that we would be brave enough to do so with grace and dignity. I didn’t realize how quickly it would come.
Hello all!
As some of you know and I’m sure a few of you don’t, I’ve moved my making space out of the studio apartment Sam and I share and into a small but perfect studio space at the Yards in the public market! I’m lucky to have such a convenient spot a walkable distance from home for a great price and with all the amenities I need.
Long time no see. To be honest I’ve been doing a lot of making and sewing but most of it has been for home stuff I don’t have time to photograph or for the banners I’m selling these days. I did manage to squeeze out this York Pinafore by Helen’s Closet as bit of self care this week.
I’ve seen some cute Hinterland dresses popping off on instagram for ages. I wrote it off for a while as too boxy for my body with my big ol’ chest but when Tori of The Doing Things Blog and Sara of The Sara Project posted about their Hinterland Sew off I saw the versatility of the pattern and decided that considering my recent changes in my body I would give the dress a shot.
Hi ya’ll!
Good use of “ya’ll” I think considering the western horses in this dress. You probably do know, but if you don’t, I grew up as a competitive equestrian. I had a white horse and everything. I wasn’t in any way western- I was one of those prissy girls in tall leather boots and fitted jackets. Anyways, I like to think this dress is inspired by a dress I had when I was a teenager which I LOVED but was fast fashion and fell apart pretty quickly. I like to think this is a sort of wild resurrection of that dress, pictured here.
I’m here today to talk about my Named Patterns Ansa Dress! Does anyone else feel like they are constantly resisting the urge to sew a party dress for the sake of “wearable basics” but then when you have a good reason to make a party dress you realize you have no idea what you actually want to make? That was me when I FINALLY got invited to a wedding like situation in Minneapolis
I've been meaning to make a Colette Zinnia for about a year. It's even on my 2018 make nine! I waffled back and forth on a nice neutral fabric for it for months. Lately, I've been really leaning towards wearable neutrals I can mix and match with tee shirts and other more bold pieces. Maybe this is growing up?
If you know me at all in real life or have been following me for a few years, you know I indulge in one unabashed weird thing every single year: The Sterling Rennaisance Festival. Not only do I "attend" the festival, but I go all out. All the fuck out. No stops. I've been making full-blown gowns for 4 years now, and a few haphazard costumes for years before that. I usually attend with my best friend Stephanie (of firedfigments fame) and her partner Adam. This year we lost Adam to the trauma of lots of work, but I finally got to drag Sam.
Hey Ya'll!
Hope you guys are doing well! I am so excited to FINALLY share my finished Roksi Tank which I pattern tested for Amy Nicole!
I've been working lately on making pieces that are work wearable and shift with a changing body. With the new job I have to look nice and wear actual makeup when I go to work! Things are different when you're not rolling around with the pugs in the flowers all day (floristry is not like this, for the record. It's just a really unexpectedly dirty job.)
Hey guys! I'm so excited to finally show off my pink Seamwork Audrey denim jacket! Many of you know that I'm an avid denim jacket wearer. During those awkward spring/fall months where it's too cold for no jacket but too warm for a thick jacket, denim jackets are a lifesaver.
I knew I wanted to get back into quilting but I didn’t have a good excuse to do it until I received this beautiful genuine ikat from Fibers to Fabric. They have lovely hand printed fabric and real ikat for good prices and very quick shipping. The ikat fabric I received was stunning- rich color with a wonderful weave. It was a little gauzy and I was short on yardage to make a top but I really saw the ikat as a print in a homeware piece in our new apartment. So I set off making a quilt.
If you're anything like me, you love a good patch. It's the perfect way to spice up the clothes and accessories you wear every day, and you don't have to worry about it falling off like an enamel pin. However, I've learned from my days with non-DIY folk that a lot of them don't know how to attach a patch to your garment the right way. I figured I'd make a comprehensive post on the best way to attach a patch to your jacket, backpack, or who knows, even your knickers.
