Posts by lizhaywood
I went to visit a farm one day
Yesterday my family visited the shearing shed of some friends. Sheep shearing was in full swing with three shearers, two roustabouts and two wool classers. Everyone was working very hard but there was a friendly ambience. Sheep shearing is extremely hard work, and is said to be the same as running two marathons -one in…
Read MoreConsidering zero waste fashion
Last week’s Wearing a square jacket has caused me to think about the concept of sustainable and zero waste fashion. I’m reading A Practical Guide to Sustainable Fashion by Alison Gwilt (library), and Shaping Sustainable Fashion edited by Alison Gwilt and Timo Rissanen (lent by my fashion designer friend Chiggy Schiller). I’ve just ordered Zero…
Read MorePattern Magic 2: wearing a square
Pattern Magic 2 by Tomoko Nakamichi has been in our bookshelf for some time, but I’ve just made my first garment from it. Wearing a square is a top made from, not a square, but a rectangle of fabric, with some clever cutting. If you like sculptural clothes, and quirky, interesting patternmaking, you’ll…
Read MoreShortening 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…
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