Sources of sewing inspiration

At our monthly London Dressmakers Club meetings we often mention sewing blogs or other sources of sewing inspiration that we like. We all like different ones and haven't all come across the same ones, so it would be lovely to spread the joy and list one source each that other members (and non-members) may enjoy too.

I hope we will do more posts like this one. Let us know in the comments if you read any of the listed blogs - or even better: tell us if you want to write up your favourite in a future sewing blog post (yes please!). We would like lots of people to contribute to this members blog. It is all about the more the merrier!  Please share - one paragraph and the link is all that's needed.

Here goes:

I am being greedy and giving more than my fair share of reccomendations, and I could do many more, but here are 3 of them - Barbara.

i) MOOD SEWCIETY
 It is the blog for the legendary Mood Fabric store in the USA.  They have the most amazing free patterns to download (for women mainly, but also for men and children)  but I am not really sure how to subscribe to this from their site.  I used to have to keep checking for new blogs every so often but I have accidentally managed to subscribe to it today via Bloglovin.
The link should be here.

ii) STITCH SISTERS
This is a vlog rather than a blog.  The lovely Nikki and Rachel run a sewing school in Sodbury, near Bristol, and even though you might not get to their school you can still get loads of advice, reviews, fabric hauls and inspiration from their vlog. They are just as friendly and chatty in the flesh as on the screen- they do come to London sometimes and I have been able to admire the creations they have been wearing IRL.  They sew the sort of garments I would make for myself - if I had a bit more flair and colour sense.
The link should be here

iii) STITCHER'S BREW
And this one is a podcast.  An hour or more each Friday of bubbly chat from Gabby (Gabberdashery) and Megan (Pigeon Wishes) and their guests of the week who are people whose blogs you may well read or whose independent businesses you buy from or otherwise involved in the sewing world.  It is like eavesdropping on a stitcher's tea party and just the thing to listen to while seated at your sewing machine- preferably with a mug of tea and a bit of cake to hand- and hear the behind the scenes stories.
The link should be here


Here is my contribution - Giselle:

I always enjoy reading the Allison C Sewing Gallery blog
She uses quite a few Burda patterns and her garments are often very interesting but entirely wearable. There is one from the July edition of Burda Style that she refers to as #113 Knot Dress. It has a very intriguing round "cut-out" that gets gathered up with a bow.  I am fascinated by pattern details like that!
She makes all kinds of garments: dresses, blouses, coats, trousers, you name it.  I am very jealous about the fit she achieves!

Catherine's Patterns
I also enjoy reading about all kinds of patterns and garments that Catherine sees at exhibitions, and the many fantastic photos she posts. She writes about some of the many vintage patterns she owns. What I love the most is the amount of details of some patterns: sometimes it is the cut of a garment but it can also be a design element like a collar or vent or a neckline, or some intriguing gathering... there is such a lot of interest there. I am very glad that Catherine writes her blog! She is also one of our members.

I guess you can see a bit of theme here!  There are quite a few more that I love reading, I'll save them for the next post like this!


We want to post more like this one. Part II is to follow soon!

Woven or stretch fabric?

I like trying out Lekala patterns because you can get a sewing pattern to your own measurements, and you can use the advanced features (called 'Optional' or 'Adjustments') to further personalise the pattern: arm or leg length relative to torso, neck or upper arm width, short-waisted, narrow-shouldered...  there are all kinds of different options.

This Lekala pattern #5081 is the most standard blouse pattern I found on the site. I thought it would make a good basic pattern that I could then adjust for other versions.

I am not sure though that the required fabric is listed correctly. It says: "Fabrics: Knit" and "Is stretchy: yes". Really?

Can this be right?  This is a blouse with bust darts, a buttoned front opening and placketed cuffs.  I have never seen these kinds of features in a pattern for stretch fabrics.  I feel that this has got to be a pattern for woven fabrics instead.

I decided to try a polycotton fabric to see how it works out.

Unfortunately the sleeve/body seam is very puckered despite gathering the sleevehead in the normal manner before sewing them in.  So there is not a good fit in this area.

On me the blouse shoulders are too wide (I didn't use the "narrow-shouldered" advanced option, I didn't think I was) - I may be able to adjust this by cutting the armholes a touch bigger to narrow the shoulder and sewing the sleeves as they are back in. This should reduce the puckering.

My biggest gripe is that the blouse doesnt overlap enough for buttonholes and buttons - in fact this would be a perfect fit if the front closed with a zip: the centre fronts fit wonderful if they meet flush with each other. I had to add a piece for the 'underlap' and attach loops to the edge of one side to catch the button I sewed onto the seamline with the added piece, i.e. onto the front centre line where they need to be.

I should be able to adjust the pattern at the front centre by adding about 2/3 of an inch (around 2cm). This would also increase the tiny little lapel to a more reasonable size (just look at them in the above photo: they're barely there!). I just feel that the very small lapels look rather ridiculous - as if something had gone wrong to be honest.

I think all round this is not the most successful of Lekala's patterns, but it has potential. I just dread having to make all the adjustments when I had been hoping I could just sew this together and be done. Which is really what you want when you go for a personalised pattern.

I am also not enamoured of my fabric choice: this polycotton is just that bit too stiff and I worry that I won't want to wear this blouse much.  A big reason why I am finding it so hard to finish this - this project has been languishing in my sewing basket for at least the last year.  What a shame.

What kinds of fabrics do you think are suitable for this pattern? Is the website right or should I try some other fabric?  I could really do with some advice and ideas.

Thank you.

Our Sewalongs

Butterick 4790

Every so often we schedule sewalongs as part of the LDC group's events.  This is how they work:

Our sewalongs usually start with some members of the London Dressmakers Club deciding that they would like to make either a specific garment or item, or something with a specific theme. Sewalong aren't "meetings" as such.  We don't meet up in a physical location for this, this is an opportunity to sew the item at home, at your own pace: a sewalong is just like a knitalong, you do your own thing and then you compare notes.

The scheduled event gives you a chance to exchange tips and comments with the others who have signed up. You can post comments on the Sewalong meetup page, or upload photos in the suitable photo album.  If you have a query or get stuck with your project, then ask a question in the comments or bring your work-in-progress along to a monthly meeting to ask the others for advice in person.

Meetup allows us to post meetings that last up to two weeks, but no more. The Sewalongs typically run much longer - we like to put them on for anything from two to three months.  It is up to you whether you might like to get started early and get it done, or if you want to space out your sewing a bit over the entire period. Life is busy and it can be a challenge to find sewing time.  It is important to be able to sew in whichever way works best for you.  The Sewalongs can be great inspiration and motivation to complete a specific item.

Some sewalongs are quite informal: we did put a 'simple item' sewalong on a while ago and dressmakers could make anything they wanted. We set a time of two months and invited comments and photos but didn't suggest any other framework or structure.

Other sewalongs were a bit more structured: we split the two months into several two week slots that we scheduled individually and suggested specific tasks for each part.  We will probably keep doing both kinds of sewalongs, some people prefer one to the other.

Our May/June/July sewalong is to make a Summer Wrap Dress - any kind. This came out of several members wanting to make the Walk Away dress (as seen on the Sewing Bee 2015: Butterick 4790 or the vintage edition Butterick 6015. There was even a 'Walk Away Dress, the Mini Version'! Butterick 6204), some of us have the pattern and want to make it up.  It is up to you whether you want to make the Walk Away dress or another kind of summer dress, it doesn't strictly have to be a wrap dress, this is more by way of suggestion.  Go with whichever pattern and style of dress you feel like!

Butterick 4790



Butterick 6015

Do you have any question about our sewalongs?  Don't be shy asking, just post a comment below or on the relevant sewalong meetup page.

Happy Sewing!


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Using stay tape at the waist

I blogged about bias tape last time.

I've since come across a technique that re-inforces the waistline to keep it from distorting. Using tape at the waist looks very interesting and it isn't complicated at all. In short it's the sort of thing I really like!

Re-inforcing any area with tape (or ribbon) makes use of said tape as something referred to as 'stay tape'.  The area "stays" in shape, so I suppse it's easy to remember.

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Good old Sewaholics put me onto the concept:

A Different Kind of Waist Stay

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Gertie from her Blog for Better Sewing has more about the whole thing:

The Wild World of Stay Tape

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It even turns out that Claire Shaeffer describes it as a couture technique in her book of the same name, I even think I have this book:

Couture Sewing

Sewing the tape onto a foundation layer is a whole different kettle of fish that I want to explore at some future point.


Have you used either bias or stay tape?  How did it go?  Please post some photos of your projects, either as works in progress (yes please!) or completed projects, in the appropriate photo album on the Meetup site.

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Four kinds of finishing seams

This is an interesting blog posts about different kinds of finishing seams.  Four of them to be precise.  There are another few mentioned in the comments.

Do check it out: I want to be a turtle -Notionally Speaking: Finishing 

I don't agree that bias binding is a quick method, but maybe you get quicker with practice?  Love an overlocked or a French seam.  But then again the Hong Kong (bias strip) seams do look very nice!  Just make sure to use tape from a really thin fabric.  I wonder if organza would work?  Might be too slippery to work with though.

What's your favourite kind of seam finishing?

Link to a great invisible zip tutorial

This is a great tutorial on how to insert an invisible zip.

Actually, the whole By Hand London blog is great. Do check it out.

Do make sure you use a zip that's at least 4-5cm (around two inches) longer than the opening you want.  The lower end will dangle on the inside of your skirt but this is much preferable to messing around with pulling the zip pull up while you're in the middle of stitching along the sides. With a dangly end you can stitch each side all the way down in one go.  It makes sense once you try this!

Leave the back centre seam unsewn (if you are going to insert the zip into the back centre seam of course).

You need an invisible zip sewing machine foot.  Inserting an invisible zip without this is the proverbial pain in the backside.  Once you own one you'll be forever grateful that someone had the good sense to invent them.

Try pressing the zipper teeth aside (as per this tutorial), I am told it makes stitching easier and more accurate.

This tutorial also shows very clearly where you need to start closing the back centre seam once the zip is in.  Lots of tutorials don't show this, which is why I was never that clear about what you're supposed to do at this point.

The description says to start the back seam about a half centimetre away from where you stitched before.  That's half a centimetre horizontally away from the stitching line, not vertically as I first thought.  The photo thankfully clears up that potential confusion.

If back-stitching isn't suited to your fabric because it makes the end of the stitching line too bulky: reduce your stitch length to the minimum your machine will give you (around 1mm or otherwise 1.1mm) and use this for up to half an inch, then increase the stitch length back to normal. The resulting tiny stitches will hold your thread.  You can take the thread ends back below the end of the stitching line and back stitch them by hand a couple of times in a suitable place. If this will show through you can try to whipstitch the ends around your stitching line (on the inside)

Some great tips for sewing accuracy

I just came across this collection of tips on how to sew more accurately:

Tips for accurate sewing

This is posted on TheSewingDirectory.co.uk site - this lists lots of classes, courses and workshops and also shows some menu items in the navigation bar that I haven't checked out yet: Events, Fabric Sales, Projects, Reviews, Interviews and the Techniques section that the above link goes to, and a few more.

Well worth checking out.

The blogger who wrote the Sewing Accuracy article is Sarah Flynn from FairyFaceDesigns blog. She does some great quilts, ie patchwork and quilting.  Check out her cushion covers!  They look like excellent stash busters when you have a few scraps that are too nice to throw out and a half meter or so of another fabric for the back.

She also does some sewing, like this excellent tutorial for a pencil case, so cute! Or these baby leggings, even more cute!  All together now: awww......


Back to the article on the sewing directory.  What I particularly liked was her emphasis of using a dry iron (no steam) to just press (not iron) your fabric while you are constructing your project.  She feels that steam distorts seams and makes accurate sewing rather more difficult.  It's an interesting thought.  I tend to spray a bit of water onto hard to tame areas but not so much overall.  That might be a good thing now that I really think about it.

Her point on starting with an accurately cut seam allowance is a very good one. 

I hope you enjoy Sarah's tips.  

What kinds of things have  you come across that make it easier to sew accurately?  Please share any and all tips in the comments!

Sarah Flynn from FairyFace Designs - See more at: http://thesewingdirectory.co.uk/news/2012/03/23/tips-for-accurate-sewing/#sthash.p7qblTS5.dpuf

Sarah Flynn from FairyFace Designs - See more at: http://thesewingdirectory.co.uk/news/2012/03/23/tips-for-accurate-sewing/#sthash.p7qblTS5.dpuf

A big thank you for filling in Sarah's questionnaire

Dear all,

Thank you to all of those who participated in my sewing habits market research questionnaire in the last monthly meeting it was really appreciated. For any of you who weren't there or didn't get a chance to fill in the short question and would like to please send me a message on the group or leave a comment below.

I thought I would explain a little bit more about what I am trying to do to put the questionnaire into context.

To explain why I am doing this is, I think a few facts about the textile industry may help:

●     Conventional cotton farming consumes approximately 25% of global pesticides and fertilizers

●      The textile industry is the number one polluter of water worldwide

●      It is estimated that around 5,00 people die each year due to water contamination

●      The harsh chemicals eventually mean the fields are rendered barren where as organic production replenishes the nutrients naturally and the land can be continually used

●     The methods and materials used in organic fabrics have a very low impact, if any, on the environment

●     Organic methods also create more jobs as they are more labor intensive therefore offering better livelihoods to the locals

So as you may have gathered by now I am in the process of launching an online organic sewing shop. I aim to stock organic fabric including cottons, silks and jerseys alongside organic sewing threads, and trimmings. The trimmings will include rick rack braid, lace, satin and taffeta ribbons and webbing tape. As I hopefully grow I will add more organic products to the store. I am also designing some starter sewing kits which will include the organic sewing products.

Hopefully from the facts above you can see why I am doing this. Obviously my love for sewing has also contributed as well as my desire to set up my own business. It probably also makes more sense now as to why the questionnaire you did for me was so helpful. Once I have put together all the results including any more responses I shall post them up as I think they're quite interesting. This will probably be in he next couple of weeks.

If anyone has any comments or thoughts about what I'm doing feel free to contact me, I always love talking to other people and hearing what they have to say, any comment is helpful.

Thank you again for your help, when the website is launched I shall give you all a discount code as a little thank you.

Sarah R 

An online site for jersey fabrics

Is anyone looking for a jersey/stretch/knit fabric?

I just came across the online website of Tissu Fabrics and really liked their jersey fabrics.

These were my favourites:

They have lots of great colours in plain fabrics, and the patterns are lovely too!

A lot of their subject headers (from Cotton, Dress etc via Lycra to Viscose) contain lots of stretch fabrics.  Their prices seem quite good: from about £3.50 to £4.99 per metre.  There are more expensive fabrics as well, but most are in this range.

I am so tempted to get at least one of these, but my stash has grown beyond the shelves it is meant to live on - I am determined to not buy unless I have a specific project in mind but no suitable fabric.  Ideally I should find a pattern for a stash fabric, but when did that ever stop me?

They also do some lovely velvet and crushed velvet fabrics.

Delivery via Royal Mail.  Shipping for orders over £50 is free in the UK.

Do you know of a great fabric shop, either off or online?  Please add them in the comments, enquiring minds want to know!