I’m keeping me pledges plain this year. I’m still making clothes. I’m still wearing clothes. Layers and layers of the things – you never know when to expect the next extreme personal weather event. Any. Road. When it’s a me-made or a vintage thing I’ll be sharing it with you guys. I’m aiming to wear… Continue reading #VintagePledge #MMMay17
Not as late as the Great Prophet Zarquon – but a little close to the wire for my liking. Here we have not one but two makes to round off my Vintage Pledge year. The first is a pattern re-visit: In something indestructible in the way that only a mystery-man-made can be. I look at these photos… Continue reading Wait! Wait! I have one or two last things to show you!
A little self-knowledge is a valuable thing and I have come to the conclusion that I am not one of life’s natural knitters. Would that I were. Oh to effortlessly slip from my needles exquisite lace shawls, historically accurate river ganseys and drawers and drawers of colourful, fine-gauged socks. I have tried to improve my… Continue reading Not a natural knitter
Posting this, I’m as nervous as a Bake Off contestant approaching the Gingham Altar after a particularly gruelling technical challenge. What will everyone think? Will it be good enough for The Handshake. You know, The Hollywood Handshake. Sure, I start every make hoping to be worthy of such an accolade. However, as things progress, you… Continue reading Goth Gingham
One could argue that gnome-one else would want trousers like these. But in counter-argument I would say I care not a jot because I like them a lot! A lot a lot. I was sooo pleased to see them after the delayed-baggage-debacle. If only the little garden gnomes could talk they could tell me where they spent… Continue reading gnome-one has trousers like these
I love the idea of a hat in hot weather. Something to shade one’s face. Something to look elegant and sophisticated beneath. The reality of a hot weather hat is that I can’t get one to stay put. The merest whisper of the most gentle of on-shore breezes and pooft, my hat is cartwheeling its… Continue reading Hot Weather Hat – Simplicity 5631 #VintagePledge16
I sometimes wonder if I know myself at all. There’s a rhythm to my sewing productivity and I’m astounded that I have, until now, been so blissfully unaware of this that at the beginning of the year I made a pledge that involved a monthly sewing target. A monthly sewing target! I’m putting in a… Continue reading annual rhythms – sewing, not in circles, but in cycles
Dear Sewsan, What’s a ‘weird crush’? I get the crush thing, several years as a teenage Duranie taught me that, but what makes a crush weird? I mean, surely all crushes are a little bit weird? I’m not asking for me. It’s for a friend. She’s got this pattern and ever since she made her… Continue reading Weird Crush
Would you intervene if you thought that my obsession with all things orange was out of control? I’ve banged on before about my passion for pumpkin, my craze for carrot, my tangerine tomfoolery. It’s ongoing. Orange with everything! That’s me shamelessly using something botanical to legitimise my colour choice. Perhaps I need to add another reason to pick… Continue reading Operation Orange #VintagePledge
Tick, tock, another equinox and in the needlepoint of the native British hedgerow spring has started with the bright white stars of the blackthorn blossom. Misleadingly there’s still a fair nip in the air so I’ve been working on a long-sleeved thing. A long-sleeved, vintage thing. How much work in a long-sleeved shirt? A lot. A… Continue reading Advance American Pattern A106 #VintagePledge
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