SEWRENDIPITY

COWL-NECK OPEN-BACK COCKTAIL DRESS | Vogue 1531
HANDMADE WARDROBE

COWL-NECK OPEN-BACK COCKTAIL DRESS | Vogue 1531

I almost called this the killer dress, but I realised I have said this before very recently! What is it with me choosing maddening projects when I really don’t have the time to faff around, when I have about one hundred other deadlines and I honestly rather be sewing something else? Because I’m a sewing masochist, that’s why!! I have read the reviews on Pattern Review about this one, so I knew people said it was hard. It’s Vogue Designer, right, so what else can it be, it comes with the territory, of course it does. But we all get…

8 February 2018
22 Comments
Think #Smyly thoughts | Sewing Makes You Love Yourself Challenge 2018
ACCORDING TO ALEX

Think #Smyly thoughts | Sewing Makes You Love Yourself Challenge 2018

January is such a navel-gazing month, isn’t it? All that goal setting, planning, resolution-ing just makes us analyse our feelings, habits, relationships, you name it. Well, this January, three brave ladies (Athina, Lisa and Hattie) have decided to put their stories out there and challenged the rest of us in the sewing community to do the same. Together they created the #smyly2018 challenge, which stands for Sewing Makes You Love Yourself. I think the clue is in the name, but in a nutshell, they are asking the sewing community to share their sewing stories, especially around how it helped us…

24 January 2018
10 Comments
FAUX FUR CROP TOP | Wearologie Nivis
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FAUX FUR CROP TOP | Wearologie Nivis

My dad told me that when I was a child, I used to walk up to ladies on the street and pet their fury coats. It was the 80s, so there were a lot of those going around, and I was 5, so it was cute, not creepy, but the point of the story is that pretty much all my life I have been attracted to soft, pettable materials. And that is still the case, many many years later. I love soft fake fur, fleece, minky, that thing that fluffy dressing gowns are made of,  you name it, I want…

12 January 2018
11 Comments
2018! Here we go! | 3 year bloggoversary
ACCORDING TO ALEX

2018! Here we go! | 3 year bloggoversary

Hello, hello, darlings! Freshly returned from the virtually internet-less Cuba, where I enjoyed the most wonderful 3 weeks of relaxation, you will pardon the delay in presenting you with the customary year review + goals and resolutions New Year post. In fact, please pardon the lack of customary reviews and goals (though I will put down a few reflections, just for records’ sake). On the plus side, I have just about celebrated my 3-year bloggoversary, on the 31st Dec, but I was too deep in the clutches of jet lag to be coherent enough to write about it.

5 January 2018
25 Comments
VINTAGE INSPIRED WIGGLE DRESS| Burda Vintage Special Sofia Dress
HANDMADE WARDROBE

VINTAGE INSPIRED WIGGLE DRESS| Burda Vintage Special Sofia Dress

This does sound a bit overdramatic, doesn’t it? Well, maybe a tad. But no other dress I ever sewed, except my wedding dress, put me through the wringer quite as much as this Sofia dress from Burda Style Magazine Vintage Special. It took a long time, a lot of head scratching and a lot of swearing to turn from pattern+fabric into a dress I can slip into. And all for just one wear… Was it worth it? Well, read on and tell me what do you think…

10 December 2017
24 Comments
Fabric shopping in Cluj, Romania | Local guide
MY FABRIC SHOPS GUIDES

Fabric shopping in Cluj, Romania | Local guide

Hi everyone! My name is Irina, I live in Cluj, a lovely city from Transylvania and I am thrilled to take you along on a virtual tour of the best fabric shops the city has to offer. I’ve started sewing about a year ago, and I’ve soon become obsessed with all things fabric and notions. The fabric shops in my city have quickly become one of my happy places and I love to pop in to see what new stuff they have. Also, whenever I’m travelling somewhere I always check out the local fabric shops, I think we can all…

7 December 2017
5 Comments
INTRODUCING: Fabric Shops Directory| Local guides for travelling sewists
MY FABRIC SHOPS GUIDES

INTRODUCING: Fabric Shops Directory| Local guides for travelling sewists

I for one stopped bringing souvenirs back from holidays ages ago, but I do love a bit of a foreign addition to my fabric stash. How lovely to make a project that will not only add a great new garment to your wardrobe but also bring back memories of fantastic far away holidays! But where are the best places to go fabric shopping when you are in a foreign city? You have Lonely Planet for travelling, but what’s our sewing equivalent? It brings me great joy to introduce to you all an idea that has been running through my head…

1 December 2017
12 Comments
10 things that make sewists feel guilty
SEWING

10 things that make sewists feel guilty

Clearly, there are many positive effects of sewing on our lives. We create, we unwind, we connect, we escape reality. We surround ourselves with beautiful fabric, we create beautiful clothes that fit the bodies that we have, not that the ones that the fashion industry says we should have.

But is this all there is to it?

22 November 2017
41 Comments
Sewing Patterns Organising App | Review
SEWING

Sewing Patterns Organising App | Review

A few weeks ago, I saw a random post on a Facebook in a group about a new pattern organising app. It’s called quite intuitively, Sewing Patterns. It’s been developed by a lovely Danish gentleman, Claus Pedersen who can coincidentally code, to help out his sewing-loving wife, Lise.  And they made it available for the rest of the sewing world on the App store.

10 November 2017
24 Comments
COLOUR BLOCK BOXY TOP | Burda 08-2017 #112
HANDMADE WARDROBE

COLOUR BLOCK BOXY TOP | Burda 08-2017 #112

A few years ago, in a moment of insanity, I ordered a big lot of scuba remnants off eBay. Now, all seasoned sewists know that a remnant lot will most likely be random pieces of fabric, that most of the time cannot actually be used for anything useful. Well, somehow, I forgot this little details. And I clicked ‘Buy now’ without thinking anything of it. And, surprise, surprise, when my order arrived, there were indeed random pieces of scuba, in various colours, none bigger than about 40×30 cm and some even smaller. I am definitely of the ‘waste not, want…

6 November 2017
13 Comments