8 Glorious Years of Blogging

The Craft of Clothes blog has just clicked over 8 years. 375 posts, 666,379 views, 316,690 visitors and 2300 comments. My very first blog post had 6 visitors! I knew them all. They were: my mum, brother, best friend from high school, her mother, the website man and a family friend who I mentioned it…

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It’s back! Making Zen FREE online retreat

It’s been a quiet past 6 days here at Haywood Homestead, after we lost all Internet and phone services – it’s just been restored today. However, it’s been a very creative time without the distraction of Instagram and emails, and a little part of me is sorry to let that go! On the subject of…

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Wrapping up 2022

Hi Everyone, this is the last blog post for 2022. The blog is now on “annual leave” until late January-ish. Many thanks indeed for reading, commenting, and suggesting useful stuff. I send each post off into the digital realm each week with little idea of who actually reads it (other than my mum) so it…

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30 Years on from Jem

Exactly 30 years ago, as a fresh-faced 19 year old, I got a job at Jem Leotards as a junior cutter/patternmaker. We happened to be in Adelaide during the past week, so I arranged to go there, as kind of a “commemorative visit”. Jem Leotards is now called Jem Designs and is a shop with…

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Celebrating 23 years!

It’s that time of the year again, where champagne is chilled, heartfelt love notes are written and the wedding gown is given an airing. Yes, it’s wedding anniversary time. Here we were on the big day… My wedding dress, me-made 23 years ago, has been getting alarmingly smaller over the past several years. I’d like…

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The top 6 at 6

This week this blog turns six, which as all maths nerds know is a Perfect Number (the sum of its multiples apart from itself). It’s taken some years to get to the point where I feel comfortable including blogger as part of my “Hi, what do you do?” resume. I’m Liz Haywood, I write a…

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3 places to get design ideas

Sometimes I get asked where I get ideas from. I get great ideas from all sorts of places, but primarily these three… Professional library I’ve been slowly building an at-home professional library for some decades now, and I now that I work at home I find it extremely helpful. Some of the places I’ve worked…

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Internet down

Hi Friends, since Tuesday there’s been an Internet outage here. I’m hurriedly writing this in the library before they close. It’s now Friday afternoon with no news on when things will be back up. If you’ve sent an email, left a comment or a DM, please know I’ll reply when we have the Internet back.…

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Two for Twenty-two

Two for Twenty Two

It’s our 22nd wedding anniversary this week, so I thought I’d try on my me-made wedding dress. I last tried it on in 2017, 2019 and 2020 (take a look at these if you like looking at wedding photos). To be honest, I was doubtful whether the dress would fit this year, but I managed…

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I’m 5, I’m 5, I’m a big girl now I’m 5!

Last week the 5th birthday of the Craft of Clothes blog slipped by (with title apologies to Barbara Streisand). It’s been 5 years, 240 posts, over 1000 comments, 17 free patterns and 35 reviews. I wondered when I started if I’d be stuck for things to write about, but that never happened. I’ve written every…

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