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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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I tried out a great technique to speed up sewing.

Recently, I had to make a dress on a deadline. By which I mean, I left it til the last minute to make it! I had so little time that it barely seemed possible to finish the dress. But rather than give up, I used the pressure to try out a technique that would make my sewing more efficient: task batching. And it worked so well!

Batching your sewing tasks is such a time saver - and it doesn’t even involve cutting any corners. (Insert joke about trimming seam allowances here.) You’re not skipping any of the important steps - you’re just rearranging them.

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I’d planned to make this Shelby dress for a 90s themed birthday party I was going to. I bought the fabric and the pattern well in advance - but thanks to some other sewing deadlines I had, I ended up with only two days to make it! Spoiler: I managed it in time.

This time pressure gave me the impetus to try out a technique I’ve been meaning to do for a long time - task batching. I mean. It’s not exactly revolutionary. I do the same thing in the kitchen when I’m cooking.

I’ve got a blog post coming up on how to batch tasks, so look out for that!

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It’s time to admit that we’re entering Autumn sewing season. Thankfully, I’ve got sewing plans that I never got around to last Autumn, which I’m still excited to get into this year. Assuming I get around to them this time.

First of all, I need to interrupt this broadcast to give a huge thank you to TipStitched for the How I Create Digital Sketches video, which explains how to make images like the one above. Game changer.

Let’s dig into it!

First up, I’d like to make myself another pair of Ginger Jeans. This will be my second pair of Gingers. I took a jeans making workshop at Bobbins and Bolts a couple of years ago and made a pair in indigo denim, but I needed a lot of handholding at the time and so far I’ve been too nervous to attempt them again by myself.

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I tend to prefer sewing clothes, but every now and then I’ll make something for the house. This week I made a cushion cover, and also made the cushion itself out of upcycled materials.

I have some old cushions from Habitat that are well over 10 years old and completely flattened and stained. They came round the world and back when we did our stint in Singapore. The last time I unzipped them to wash the covers, I discovered that the fabric of the cushions had completely disintegrated - and I mean completely. There was just dust left. Which is… kind of freaky?

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This week I’ve been working on a bodice block.

A bodice block has been on my list for such a long time, and my recent experience trying to fit the Etta dress bodice to my asymmetrical body made me so disillusioned with the idea of fitting a pattern that I finally decided it was time to start on a block. If I can get a block right, then I can compare it to patterns I make in the future and get a clear idea of what adjustments I need to make. Plus, I’m very excited about the idea of drafting my own patterns using the block as a starting point.

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I’m back on the sewing train!

I have an event to attend this weekend and I fancied making a nice dress for it, as my wardrobe is lacking in the “nice day dress” department. I have a couple of workhorse dresses that I always turn to, but I want more choices.

I’ve got a bit of post-viral fatigue going on, so I chose a familiar project to keep the effort level relatively low. I’ve made the Lyra dress by Tilly and the Buttons a couple of times before, and I had plenty of appropriate fabric in my stash. (Full disclosure - I was actually a pattern tester so I got my copy of the pattern for free.)

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I mentioned last week that I was planning to take a couple weeks off sewing, because life is super busy right now. Well. I didn’t expect to get ill and be forced to do absolutely nothing all week! At least I’ve watched Heartstopper 3 times through and read through half of Alice Oseman’s body of work. (I may have gone on one of my obsessive deep dives on the Heartstopper/Solitaire universe. It may also not be over.)

Although sewing’s been on pause, I have started to pick up the pace on my knitting over the last couple of days. But I’m definitely not going to finish this Ankestrick Birthday jumper before my knit club starts a new project at the weekend:

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