The Scout Shirt by Danielle Elsener

The Scout shirt is a new zero waste pattern in Sewing Without Scraps. Last week I cut out a long sleeved version and over the weekend sewed it up. The pattern pieces are cut in a zero waste arrangement, and apart from the front/back/yoke, the pieces are in a modular arrangement that can be moved…

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Making Danielle Elsener’s Scout Shirt

The Scout Shirt is a pattern in the new book Sewing Without Scraps. Just a shameless plug: Aussies, 50 more copies of the book arrived last week and are in my shop now. US readers, Danielle has just received more copies too. Neither of us have more on order, so please take this opportunity to…

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Making Birgitta Helmersson’s Pleat Pants

Some easy weekend sewing has been had, making Birgitta’s pleat pants from the Sewing Without Scraps book. These are culottes-style pants, with an elastic waist, side pockets and a cropped length. The fabric is a bit special. It’s some superfine premium merino wool suiting which is quite fluid and has a subtle charcoal stripe. It…

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The Scout Pants and my sewing blunders

On the weekend, I finished sewing Danielle Elsener’s Scout Pants from Sewing Without Scraps. I cut these out last week. The instructions are in Japanese, so I ran them through a translator, skim-read them, then went my own way. I’ve made plenty of trousers in the past and I’m fairly stuck in my favourite ways…

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Making Danielle Elsener’s ZW Scout Pants (part 1)

The Scout Pants by Danielle Elsener of DECODE are in the new Sewing Without Scraps book, and I’ve been planning to make them since the book came out. There are two versions of these pants: elastic waist and fly front/regular waistband. I’m doing the fly front version, in denim. The trousers have two back pockets,…

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New (ish) pattern: ROO pocket

ROO is a pocket pattern published back in January in TAUKO magazine, issue 18. The copyright has now reverted to me, and it’s in my shop now; please enjoy 25% off for the next month. The ROO pocket is a modern take on the historical tie‐on pocket. This roomy cargo‐style version has a gusset on…

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5 Ways to Wear a Beret

The Louvre Beret is a low or zero waste pattern, first published in TAUKO magazine last year. The copyright has now reverted to me, and the pattern is now in my shop. Please enjoy 25% off for the next month. Louvre has a YouTube sewalong – in the first few minutes I give a little…

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New Pattern: Cotton Time Coatigan

Hello All, I have a new zero waste pattern, published in Japan’s Cotton Time magazine. It’s a coatigan – a kind of relaxed coat, combining the structure a coat with the softness of a cardigan. This opportunity arose via Mirai Pattern, who license and translate my zero waste patterns into Japanese. Cotton Time has featured…

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A Pocket Story

Since last week’s post about the ROO pocket in TAUKO magazine’s Pockets issue, some really fab examples have popped up on Instagram. As part of TAUKO magazine’s celebration of pockets, I thought it would be fun to share a pocket story. Here’s mine: When I was a child, my Dad who was a life-long pocket…

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New Pattern: ROO pocket

New year, new pattern. I’m excited to introduce a new pattern in TAUKO magazine, which has just come out. The theme for this issue is Pockets, celebrating pockets as a statement of style, function, and freedom. There are some really interesting and clever patterns in this issue, all of which can be viewed here. My…

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