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I finally used that yarn that I bought in Singapore ten thousand years ago and knitted the Rizzo blouse designed by Poison Grrls.

The construction of this was new to me, and I’ll be honest, a bit of a mind-bender at times. First you knit the back shoulders separately, and then join them; then you pick up stitches to knit each front shoulder separately, and then join them. Meanwhile, you’re also keeping track of increases for sleeves and an eyelet pattern on different counters. I actually ended up creating a spreadsheet to keep track of things at various points! I’ve been knitting for 11 years now and I’m only just starting to realise that I prefer charts to written instructions.

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As an experiment, I set myself the target of taking a garment idea from concept to actualisation in 3 days. And I did it! Well - actually it took me 4 days. But that’s far better than not doing it at all, which is what happens to all my other ideas!

Behold, my self-drafted A-line princess seam dress:

I ended up deviating quite a bit from the original design. Below are my original sketch, and a technical drawing of what I ended up sewing. The princess seams and the flared skirt stayed, but I ditched the side panels, the racer back shoulders, and the keyhole opening. I added a centre back zipper and a boatneck.

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Recently I pattern tested the Esti co-ord for Tilly and the Buttons. As I was sewing from a pre-release copy, it wouldn’t really be fair for me to review the pattern until I make a copy from the final version. But I can say that this is a solid, simple pattern, excellent for beginners! There are no closures; the top just slips over your head, and the trousers are elasticated.

I tested the cropped length view - I can’t remember for the life of me why I chose the cropped length, when crop tops aren’t really my style! But at time of writing, it’s super sunny and warm in York, so a breezy belly is comfortable. Come autumn though, I will use my leftover fabric to extend the top, so I can tuck it in for that faux jumpsuit vibe.

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Recently I was lucky to be sent an advanced copy of the Auri jacket pattern from TAUKO Magazine Issue 7. They let me choose which pattern I wanted from the issue, and I couldn’t resist the Auri with its wavy lines and colour blocking opportunities!

What fabric and size did I choose?

I used Sevenberry cotton twill. I actually bought a little extra twill in yellow to add the optional ruffles, but in the end I decided to keep it simple and focus on the green and blue.

This is a size 2. I chose the cropped length, full sleeve view, with no ruffles. I lengthened the sleeve by 1.5", which is a standard adjustment for me.

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I made the Sylvie top from Forget-Me-Not patterns!

NB. I am a part of the Forget-Me-Not patterns Insider program, which means I get access to all their patterns in exchange for some social media posts showing off my makes. Forget-Me-Not haven’t asked to write this review though, and I get nothing for this. I just want to share the details of this lovely pattern!

What fabric and size did I choose?

I made a straight size 34, no mods at all.

This is a cotton jersey fabric from Selfmade.com. I picked it up on holiday in Oslo last year. I spent like an hour in the store touching all the fabrics and the haberdashery and generally being very excited. It’s suuuuch a lovely fabric.

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I originally wrote this blog post as a guest feature for Dovetailed London, as I’m one of their brand ambassadors. I received the fabric in exchange for the blog post.

It’s my first Dovetailed London Ambassador make! To sew this dress, I used the Megan pattern from the book Love at First Stitch by Tilly and the Buttons.

I chose this dress pattern because it has clean, simple style lines, which let the fabric be the star of the show. It also has a lot of straight seams which makes pattern matching much easier! The pattern also recommends fabrics with a little bit of structure to their drape, and even suggests quilting cotton - so I knew it would work nicely in wax print, which has a little bit of sturdiness to it.

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Inspiration finally struck for this meter of gold foil fabric! I made a top from it a few years ago, but this leftover length has been sitting in my stash just waiting for me to do something with it. So I sewed up this Bibi skirt from the Tilly and the Buttons book Stretch!.

The skirt is so simple, folks. It’s two pattern pieces (a skirt panel and a waist band). The construction is straight forward, and fitting is easy as you can just baste the panel seams before you sew them up properly. A super quick make. Which is really what I needed - a quick win to break up the ongoing saga of my self-drafted bodice block.

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After many, many (many) iterations of trying to retrofit a bodice block from an existing pattern, I’ve decided to step up my game and do the damn thing properly. So I’m drafting one myself.

I bought myself a copy of Winifred Aldrich’s famous book Metric Pattern Cutting. This is a classic - and it isn’t cheap. It’s very much a text book, that teaches you the formulas for drafting patterns. It explains how to draft basic blocks, and then it shows you a whole bunch of different modifications you can make to those blocks - all mathematically. And I love it. I’ve fallen in love with the book. The technical angle works wonderfully for my brain. I’m a software engineer by trade, so I’m very much a precise/logical thinker. This makes so much more sense than guesswork.

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