Revisiting the puce floral

Built by Wendy dress revisited

Almost exactly a year ago I made a raglan sleeve dress from the book Built by Wendy. The original post with the finished dress is here. (Here’s where I started the project, and here’s progress part-way through after excessive dithering and indecision.) I wore it last summer and liked it, but every time I put…

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Imagining the Magi – a trousers cutting challenge

Magi trousers 1

Next month my children will be in a Christmas musical play, which means line-learning in front of the bathroom mirror, Christmas tunes in everyone’s heads, and, naturally, costume making. One of my girls is part of the Magi, and requires loose drapey trousers for her costume. I was given a piece of maroon polyester from…

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Happy Corduroy Day 2019

Corduroy Day 2019 trousers

In this rural antipodean outpost, it appears that I alone am still flying the flag for Corduroy Appreciation Day, long after the world has moved on to denim, drill and gabardine. Corduroy Day is today, the 11th of November, the date which most closely resembles the wales of corduroy (11/11). You may remember previous corduroy…

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My journaling journey

My journaling journey

Way back in 2002, an artist friend recommended keeping a design journal. I did, and it turned out to be excellent advice. I now keep 5 types of journals, which sounds obsessive but each serves a purpose and they’re not all used daily. None of them are the beautifully presented, artistic books one sees on…

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