The zero waste Hooded Blouson…and the surprise cape

zero waste hooded blouson yellow version 1

The Hooded Blouson from Zero Waste Sewing is another garment created using an exact square of fabric. Here it is in the book: I sort of imagined if I had a dog and lived by the beach, I would wear this top to walk my dog early each morning. Reality: I live inland with chickens.…

Read More

Book recommendation: Modern Mending

Modern mending book cover

Mending is trending, but there are better reasons to mend your clothes… Erin Lewis-Fitzgerald’s new book Modern Mending is a comprehensive guide to mending your clothes that combines practical know-how with whimsical creativity. There is a light-hearted, creative vibe flowing through this book; mending can be artistic, stylish, maybe quirky, and add to a garment’s…

Read More

The zero waste Boho Dress

Boho dress

The boho dress from Zero Waste Sewing is a summer holiday sort of dress, for wearing at the beach or pool, sipping white wine at a BBQ, holiday shopping or just wearing on a hot day. It’s fairly quick to sew and pulls on over the head. Easy to wear – just add sandals. Here’s…

Read More

The zero waste Yo-yo Top

Zero Waste Yoyo top in satin closeup

Here’s a project from Zero Waste Sewing which I never thought I’d make for myself. It’s a halter neck top made from a single square of fabric. I included it in Zero Waste Sewing thinking I might have worn this when I was a teenager but probably I wouldn’t now. Here’s what it looks like…

Read More

The zero waste geometric top

Geometric top with zero waste jeans

It’s less than 7 weeks until Zero Waste Sewing is set free in the world! Or unleashed, as my husband is fond of saying. Leading up, I’ll be making some of the projects from the book on this blog, and today here’s one of them. The Geometric Top is composed of 2 squares, 2 rectangles…

Read More

Sewing a perfect bias binding facing (a tutorial)

bias facings tessellated dress from zero waste sewing

One of the techniques I used in Zero Waste Sewing was facing an edge using bias binding. Specifically, I used it for necklines, but it also works well for other edges such as armholes and pocket openings. The edge can be straight or curved. The finished edge looks clean with a single line of visible…

Read More

Hitting the virtual road: the Zero Waste Sewing blog tour

Blog tour dates

Happy New Year All! Here’s to a year of creativity, fun and fulfillment. Coming up in March, Zero Waste Sewing will be available in shops and there’ll be a one-week blog tour leading up to Publishing Day, for your reading pleasure. Each day, Zero Waste Sewing will be reviewed on a different blog. I thought…

Read More

Last post for 2019

Hi Everyone, Well, here we are at the last post for the year and we’re counting down til Christmas. Many thanks indeed for reading, writing lovely comments, and getting excited about my book. Zero Waste Sewing will be published in just under 3 months, and before then I’ll be show-and-telling more projects in the book,…

Read More

Making a zero waste pattern

Making 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…

Read More

The beards are back!

Knitted beards Hans and Lars funny

This week we dug out the knitted beard collection for some shepherds to wear in a Christmas play (I’m on the costume committee). You may remember these from a few years back (here and then here). We had a lot of fun trying them on. They look best with hats. The two loopy beards tie…

Read More