Patternmaking
On Designing a Zero Waste Hat
The Making Zen Online Retreat is coming up at the end of this month (it’s free – register here and read more). I’m presenting a sew-a-long for a low waste sunhat. The idea of a zero waste hat has been rolling around in my mind for the past year+, and I’d planned to talk about…
Read MoreSleeves, Triangles, and the Arc T-Shirt
Last week’s post had (I thought) satisfied the head-scratching on using triangles as sleeves. But was it “correct”? Here’s a quick re-cap: This is how I thought the sleeves might be formed: Here it is tried in fabric, full-scale. It works OK, although I’m not sure how to control the width of the sleeve for…
Read MoreThoughts on zero waste bias cutting
The bias cut slip dress/pinafore I started last week is practically finished. To re-cap, I’m exploring bias cut & zero waste for the September instalment of A Year of Zero Waste Sewing, a book I’m publishing as zines. I tried out some ideas I had using the slip dress pattern from Birgitta Helmersson’s new book,…
Read MoreChanging a Silhouette with Unexpected Armholes
I came across this little drawing in my sketchbook, while I was looking for something else. It’s a drawing of a top I saw on Pinterest ages ago: The neckline is on one side and the sleeves are in asymmetrical positions. I imagine it’s in knit fabric with ribbing arms and waist. There’s no picture…
Read MoreTrying to fix the world’s problems, one pajama at a time
My children, who aren’t particularly “tidy” sleepers in bed, have been complaining that their pajama shorts cut them in half. You know what I mean by this – a kind of naturally-occurring pajama wedgie. Their pajamas are loose enough, but I told them that if you change position in bed, you often need to move…
Read MoreZero Waste Oven Mitts, Episode III
Like a dog after a bone, I just can’t seem to let this challenge go! Episode I: The quest for the perfect oven mitt Episode II: The oven mitt report The story so far… Faced with the prospect of no usable oven mitts in the Haywood kitchen, our hero Liz Haywood embarks on a perilous…
Read MoreThe Oven Mitt Report
Things haven’t been going all that well in Oven Mitt Land. To recap last week, after the oven mitt situation was declared “dire”, I resolved to make some new ones using fabric we had at home. I came up with some low/zero waste ideas, and this week I tried them out. I had two ideas,…
Read MoreThe Quest for the Perfect Oven Mitt
Kitchen harmony took a dive on the weekend, when it was declared that the two (mis-matched) oven mitts currently in service were “unfit for purpose”. Maybe yours are in the same sad state as ours? I’ve been meaning to make some new ones for ages. Sure, I could buy some, but I could make some…
Read MoreA bra-making odyssey…but can I do it zero waste?
Folks, these are dire times: since Target Country closed their doors in April, there isn’t a bra shop within a 2-hour drive radius of here. As daughters have growth-spurt after growth-spurt, something must be done – but alas, the options are few. With these distances, it’s quicker to sew a bra than drive to the…
Read MoreMaking a zero waste pattern
We have passed the 100 day mark and now there’s only 96 days to go until Zero Waste Sewing is published. I thought I would talk about how I make a zero waste pattern and show you an example from the book. A zero waste pattern uses 100% of the fabric, with no scraps or…
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