Sewing & Design

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My Pattern Collection is Getting Out of Hand

November 16, 2010

One of the things that inspired me to get back into sewing was my discovery that one didn’t need to be limited by the local fabric chain store for pattern and fabric ideas. I completely missed the huge spawn of sewing blogs and pattern review sites, the craftwoman explosion, online fabric shops and independent pattern [...]

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The Dress Form Mystique

October 11, 2010

{via Coup d’Etat} I’d always wanted a professional-type dress form–the old-school kind with a linen cover, cast-iron base for rolling around and one of those trippy iron cage skirts at the bottom. No, I’m not talking about the 18th century French version, although you can see why they needed the cage skirts in the first [...]

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Adventures in Design Perfection

October 5, 2010

{Or how I learned not to trust patterns and wrestled with a sleeve cap in order to avoid stabbing myself with pins.} I’m still in the throes of fitting my Lady Grey muslin. For about a week, there has been pattern paper and tracing paper thrown all over my office. In my spare time, I’ve [...]

Thumbnail image for Lady Grey and Muslin Tweaking

Lady Grey and Muslin Tweaking

September 28, 2010

The first time I made a “muslin” out of muslin, the project went awry. I was making a coat out of Chinese silk brocade. In muslin, the pattern behaved badly and I kept fitting and re-fitting the sleeves, cutting and re-cutting the muslin, until I realized that in silk the thing would have draped and [...]

Thumbnail image for Lady Grey progress and thoughts on tailoring

Lady Grey progress and thoughts on tailoring

September 16, 2010

Things are moving fast over at Gertie’s Lady Grey Sew-Along. Apparently I should be cutting out my muslin now. The muslin fabric is ironed and laid out on my cutting table, the pattern is half cut out, but time is short and limited. I figured I have a total of 4-5 sewing hours a week. [...]

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