This May we saw the opening of a new Japanese sustainability and textiles exhibition, Making Nuno, at Japan House, London. It features innovative fabrics by Sudo Reiko, one of Japan’s foremost textile designers who combines Japanese traditions with new engineering techniques and unusual combinations of materials including silk, handmade paper, nylon tape and thermoplastics. The …
Let’s begin with some general sewing machine maintenance that applies to most machines. There are two equal and opposite errors. One is never to clean, oil or change the needle on your machine. The other is to be too rough or to go too far. There is basic maintenance that we can do at home. …
Gathering the materials When Emily was pregnant with our first grandchild, I decided it was time to try making baby clothes. We knew it would be a girl. This reversible crossover pinafore dress pattern caught my eye. Then I found a wonderful Wizard of Oz fabric line called Dorothy’s Journey by Jill Howarth for Riley …
One of the best things about the Great British Sewing Bee is that, even after the series ends, the contestants keep on giving. Jen from GBSB series 5, put together a selection of Hogg Hacks that she used while sewing these blue pinstripe wool trousers. We’re posting them on our Instagram, and we thought it …
Mercedes has a knack for Nickers! With the NEW series of the Great British Sewing Bee just around the corner, we thought it would be fun to repost this from our archives because, TBH you can never have enough knickers! Making knickers with Mercedes is a technical post with detailed tips and tricks showing how …
Inspired by Baskets A repost from our archives, because we still love the book! And it continues to inspire new makes. Emily @brickdustandglitter shares her rope bag. For this post I used a wonderful new book from Tabara N’Diaye called Baskets. I must say, it was weird using a book for instructions. I’m so used …
We’ve been stitching bunny baskets. It all started with Jen’s super cute bunnies for mini stitchers. I made a bunch of bunnies and thought that they needed a little basket to keep them from hopping away. Then I thought that the basket could be a hidden-in-plain-sight surprise on the back of a child’s quilt. These …
Here’s a fast and fun Easter Egg Bunting project that let’s you showcase your favourite fabrics. The great thing about fabric bunting is that you get to use it year after year. Even better, you can rearrange this kind of bunting or add more to it later. The challenge was figuring out how to sew …
We’re re-posting Jen Hogg’s wee Bunnies for Mini Stitchers. It’s a fun Spring project for sewing with the kids. Jen’s bunny recipe calls for felt and hand stitching. Further down the post, Martha offers a mostly machine stitched version using fleece. Using felt This bunny is made from scraps of felt, and is hand-stitched with …
Claudia @retroclaude has some suggestions about pinning. Use the right kind of pins Glass or flower headed pins are easier to pick up and see. They come in a variety of lengths and thicknesses. Samantha @purplesewingcloud likes these Prym Easy Grasp Pins. Taylor Seville do something similar called Magic Pins. Ball point pins When pinning stretch …
