Not all fabrics shrink and require prewashing, in fact doing so may make your fabric harder to handle during the cutting and sewing process. I recommend prewashing a test swatch and calculating shrinkage before throwing fabric in the machine willy-nilly. All the details about how to do this are in this previous blog post. When cutting […]
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Last winter I made a pair of black wool cropped flares and I wore them so often that I decided I could do with another pair. But what colour? That question was answered one day in The Fabric Store where I discovered some burnt orange stretch wool of the most amazing quality. It was a […]
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Last month Kristen inquired about correct sleeve grain. This picture (my coat mock-up from the Ready To Wear Tailoring Sewalong) shows the sleeve grain marked in pen. This is a one-piece sleeve with a back sleeve dart, ie a slightly shaped tube. You can see the lengthwise grain following the curve of the arm, […]
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At the beginning of this year I delved into bramaking for the first time, and even though I’ve been sewing since I was young, and actually design and make clothes for a living, that experience counted for little when it came to making a bra! Let’s just say that the quick-unpick remains my best investment […]
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Now that I have nailed the fit of the Boylston Bra, I thought it was time to play around with some style lines. Due to the relatively limited range of jade trims out there, I decided to use contrasting black trims, and while rummaging through my stash I found some stretch grosgrain and matching fold-over […]
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