Posts by lizhaywood
Shortening a metal zip
Shortening a metal zip is a little tutorial for you to file away until you need it. Use it for shortening separating zips for jackets. How did I learn to do this? One season, the designer I worked for used a lot of zips in her range. Zips were IN. She did zip fronted jackets,…
Read MoreFree pattern: dress-ups cape
Every dress-ups box needs at least one cape, preferably several, for any fancy dress situation. A cape can outlast those fairy dresses, cowboy vests and Buzz Lightyear suits and still be going strong at fancy dress parties a decade or two later. This adult or child-sized cape is a semi circle of fabric with a…
Read More…still knitting BIG
Last week’s chunky shawl knitted in 72ply Nundle Mills wool has been unraveled and re-knitted as a scarf. Last week after blogging about the shawl, I happened to see a woman in the town wearing a skinny scarf knitted in similar-sized chunky wool. Hers was cream chenille (to co-ordinate with her…
Read MoreYarn magazine issue 42: Makin’ it BIG
Yarn magazine issue 42 has just come out with my article on Knitting Big. It was a very enjoyable and interesting one to write. As part of the article, I arm knitted a scarf using 72ply wool from Nundle Mills. I confess I never wore the scarf -it lay draped over the back…
Read MoreOne’s own style: lessons from Grace Kelly
Part of every woman’s journey in life is finding her own style of dress, and accepting and becoming comfortable in the body God gave her. Have you taken notice of people who are always considered well dressed? They’ve found their own style and stuck to it, even though their field of good “looks” might actually…
Read MoreWinter shorts finished
Last week’s winter shorts are finished and ready to go. In fact, I wore them this morning. It took four fittings and a lot of unpicking to transform them from Danny DeVito sized trousers to Liz Haywood sized shorts. The drawback to cutting down a large garment into a smaller one is that, in terms…
Read MoreWinter shorts – trousers transformation
I dug up an old UFO to finish this week -some trousers I thought I’d turn into winter shorts. Actually, it isn’t so much an UnFinished Object, more like a project I planned and never started. About four years ago I bought two pairs of men’s suit trousers from the op shop, because the fabric…
Read MoreMy Father’s shirt
During my 1970’s childhood, my Dad had a body shirt in an orangey/yellowy/ browny floral Liberty print. It was originally a special shirt but became a gardening shirt at the end of its life. It had worn out by the time I was a teenager, and Mum gave it to me and I unpicked it. …
Read MoreMay 4th: Star Wars Day
As I idly flipped the calendar over for May, my eyes wandered to May 4th: Star Wars Day. I’d never heard of it. Was it a day to remember Ronnie Reagan’s “Star Wars” strategic defense initiative, that had me designing nuclear fallout shelters in the covers of my school books back in the 1980’s? Or…
Read MoreFree pattern: wraparound skirt
Hello All, Here’s a pattern for a 6-gore wraparound skirt. It has a generous wrap and is very suitable for one-way prints. It would also look good in a plain fabric with topstitched seams. If you’ve never drafted a pattern before, this is a good one to start with because it’s straight forward and easy-fitting. …
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