Unveiling the new sewing room

Hello boys and girls, a very exciting post tonight! I’m finally unveiling my new sewing room!!

WHY PEOPLE WEAR SECOND-HAND CLOTHES | SURVEY RESULTS

I ran a survey among my blog readers to try to understand more about what are their opinions and behaviours related to second-hand (or preloved) clothes. Of course, acquiring second-hand textiles can span a wide array of items, from vintage to swapping, from charity shops refashions to fabric scavenging. Motivations can also differ from saving money to saving the planet. It was a very interesting exercise for me, as I certainly started with a series of personal misgivings, but the answers quite surprised me. So, let’s dive into the analysis, shall we?

Let’s talk sewing gadgets

Hello sewing gang, I’ve missed you! Hopefully the feeling was mutual, so here I am back in blogging business… Though I must confess, May has not started very well on the sewing front. This was the first weekend in ages when, although I was not travelling or otherwise engaged, I haven’t done any anything sewing related. And I feel very guilty. Plus I have forlorn you guys for almost 2 weeks, which is not top of my proud achievements list either. Excuses I have, loads. Mostly work, but also more exciting stuff like teaching my first class last Tuesday, and…

First hand natter on second hand clothes | A personal view

When I moved to London for 5 years now, I was really surprised at how many charity shops there are in the UK high streets and always wondered how do they survive, who actually buys from them? It is clear that it is the norm here, and it seems to me to be accepted without questioning that the charity shop is a perfectly reasonable place to buy new (to you) clothes. But this has not been my experience at all growing up in Romania. I’m not going to bore you with a sob story about growing up in communism (I was…

DIY BODYCON SCUBA DRESS | SELF DRAFTED

Hey gang, please allow me to introduce the first garment I’ve ever made which was copied after an RTW item I already own. Plus, it’s my first ever scuba project (yes, quite late to join the bandwagon, I know).

Panelled body-con dress | Burda Style Magazine

Spring is here, hurray, hurray! I’m sat in the courtyard of a wonderful decrepit historic mansion in Bucharest, now a cool bar, looking at hip young things rummaging through endless rails in a now famous yard sale. A friend of mine has been organising it since two years now. Let me tell you, retail fast is so hard to maintain when there are lovely bargains to be had. More about this in a future post. But I digress… What I actually wanted to tell you about in this post is another March make that I only got a chance to photograph…

Colourful drapey dress | Fashion with Fabric GBSB 3 book

March was so productive I’m struggling to keep up photographing and blogging all the garments I’ve made. So here I am in April already posting about the first project I completed in March, the drapey dress from the now famous Fashion with Fabric GBSB book, by the wonderful CL Hardie. When I first saw the book being reviewed all over the blogsphere, this was the one pattern I got the most excited about. See here CL’s own version and a fab stripy one from Karen at Did You Make That? This dress is so unusual and versatile, plus a very…

Back-zipper wool jumper | Refashion from button-down cardigan

You might have seen this already on the Love Your Clothes blog, as they have asked me to be a guest blogger this month, but in case you haven’t, here is the story. We all have items in our wardrobe that we have literally loved to death and are now ready for the charity shop or for recycling. But somehow, you just can’t part with them, because of sentimental reasons or maybe you just feel there is still something that can be done with them.

Chelsea collar button-down blouse | Mimi Tilly and the Buttons

Dearest Mimi has been misbehaving… Or maybe I have? In any case, I feel I ended up with a below par creation and in this post, I’m naming and shaming (mostly myself). Any advice to help Mimi get back into my good graces is very welcome. We are of course talking about the Mimi blouse from Love at First Stitch by Tilly Walness.

DIY TAFFETA SLEEVELESS TOP WITH COLLAR | SELF DRAFTED

Dear all, the sewjo is back! I just had the most productive weekend of this year and I love it! I’m so happy to be back in sew-love! And now I have the pleasure of introducing you to the newest addition to my 2015 wardrobe: the sleeveless silky blue top.