» Listings for 2015

1. It's Christmas Jumper Day!!

   Posted on 10:23pm Thursday 17th Dec 2015

   Are you all set for wearing your Christmas Jumper today, Friday 18th December? 

   We teamed up with ITV's charity event Text Santa to raise money for Save The Children, make some fantastic DIY christmas jumpers, and have an absolute blast last weekend - and here are the results. Participants brought a jumper or sweatshirt to customise, and we brought the tinsel, bobbles, ribbons, rosettes, felt, fabrics, and last but not least - inspiration! 

   Our students said that our teacher Jo Bunner was "very helpful and positive" and had "great ideas". We think they came up with some really fantastic jumpers to wear for Christmas Jumper Day!

      

    

   Jo Bunner, of www.jogoodeimage.co.uk

2. Tips for choosing Tailored Jacket fabrics - an interview with Dragonfly Fabrics and our Jacket course tutor Jo Bunner

   Posted on 11:08am Wednesday 16th Dec 2015

   With our upcoming Jacket making course in mind, here we interview Katie and Dorte at Dragonfly Fabrics in Sussex and our jacket course tutor Jo Bunner about the best choice for jacket fabrics 

   
   What's the easiest fabric for a novice jacket maker to use? 
   The easiest fabric to use would be a wool fabric, like an 100% Italian wool as these are firm. We are have a new range of herringbone tweed that would be suitable also. These fabrics are not too thick so they drape well and they are easy to sew with. Although pure wool fabric is more expensive, we think you will get more from your finished garment. The quality is important to think about, especially when taking the time to make something tailored, quality fabrics will make sewing easier and the jacket durable. 

    

3. Why you need a favourite stretchy dress!

   Posted on 11:10am Wednesday 21st Oct 2015

   Everyone needs a fab pull on dress - I wear mine over jeans (which I also make btw, with minimal waistband bulk for just this purpose!). 

   We've run our stretch dress course quite a few times now and it's always gratifying to see my students enjoying creating multiple dresses after the course! Plus people have used the pattern to make tops too, and we can help adapt it into different styles if they want.

   See images below of regular student (who started as absolute beginner not long ago!) Rebecca in her various incarnations of the dress. 

      

   I've a fab beige/black spot jersey I can't wait to get started with - and the butterfly one below is one I made for the original course but for some reason never quite got round to hemming, so thats a job for this week! The blue one is the original sample you may have seen on our wall at the Sewing Lounge. The fabric is from Fabric Land - most unusal, always worth a look to see what they have in store - otherwise Ditto fabrics on Kensington Gardens in Brighton (or online) usually have some great upmarket plain and printed jerseys you could use.

        

   
   Make Your Own Stretch Dress in our weekly Stitch Classes
   More info and booking here
   

   Also check out my Pinterest board for inspiration on how to wear and which styles to make

   Follow Sew's board Simple stretch dress on Pinterest.