New Pattern: Cotton Time Jacket

Hello All, I have a new zero waste pattern to introduce. It’s a short sleeved jacket, published in the Japanese magazine Cotton Time. Here’s a preview of this lovely magazine, and a little flip through: This opportunity fell into my lap via Mirai Pattern, who license and translate my zero waste patterns into Japanese. Last…

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Making Birgitta Helmersson’s Slip Dress (again)

I’m back on the quest for the perfect nightie pattern for my teen, and I think I’ve found it with Birgitta Helmersson’s slip dress from her book Zero Waste Patterns. My teen has long covid but worse than me, and spends a lot of time resting in bed. Previously I tried making a nightie using…

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The Louvre Beret, Behind the Scenes

How does a pattern end up in a magazine? The Louvre Beret is a pattern of mine in the newest issue of Tauko magazine, with the theme of architecture. I gave a show and tell on this blog last week. I thought you might be interested in the process leading up to publication, which covered…

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New Pattern: Louvre Beret

Hello All, I’m thrilled to introduce a new pattern: a zero waste beret. It’s in Tauko magazine, which came out last week. I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am about this pattern – this is the pattern I’ve been most happy to nail, ever. There are seven sizes, to fit a 52-54-56-58-60-62-64cm…

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Making Nicole Akong’s Beach Kaftan

Last year I did a collaboration with Nicole Akong for a kaftan cut from beach towels (read about it here, order the pattern here, and here are three ways to style it). Nicole had gone on holidays and whipped up a kaftan to take. When she got home, people asked for the pattern and she…

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Making Zen 2025 – FREE Online Retreat

Registrations for Making Zen are now open! Making Zen is a FREE five-day online event for hand stitchers and crafters. 30+ textile artists will guide you through workshops on a range of stitching techniques and creative processes. Making Zen runs from 26th-30th May. Each day, there will be new workshops available for 24 hours which…

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Making SKFK’s Zero Waste Habene Dress

SkunkFunk (SKFK) is an ethical clothing label in Basque country, Spain, and were early on the scene with using zero waste patterncutting for some of their garments. Their zero waste garments come with the pattern printed on the label as proof of authenticity. All of their zero waste patterns have been compiled into a booklet…

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Tutorial: Tessellating Pattern Pieces

Tessellating is a concept I use sometimes when making zero waste patterns. It’s one way to add curves to a pattern. In this post I’m going to show you how I do this, and some examples of tessellated sewing patterns. This is a fairly long post, so settle in 🙂 Tessellations are shapes that fit…

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Free Pattern: Zero Waste Eye Mask, and how to sew one.

The zero waste eye mask quest is now complete. I’m very happy with how the mask turned out, and my teen and I have been wearing the samples for the past week. If you’d like to embark on your own quest, I’m here with the pattern, instructions and handy hints 🙂 Read about this pattern…

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Testing out the new zero waste eyemask

Following last week’s eye mask quest post, I’ve sewn a proper sample to trial. Actually, I sewed two (and was going to make a joke about a double-blind trial, reducing bias, but it all sounded funnier in my head). The reason I sewed two was to try out the suggestions in last week’s comments for…

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