Yay! You decided to start sewing. You bought a sewing machine, did a few practice projects and now you are ready to sew your own handmade wardrobe. You want to create your own handmade wardrobe because fast fashion turns you off, you can't find what you are looking for or you simply don't fit the standard RTW (ready-to-wear) sizes.

You pick your first pattern put your blood, sweat, and tears into that first garment, only to find out it's too baggy or too tight and you start second guessing the whole plan of sewing your own wardrobe.

Or

You never start because you lack confidence and question everything...Which pattern size should I choose? What should I do if I don’t fit into any of the listed sizes? What if I fall into different sizes? How do I take my measurements?

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Ease / wearing ease / design ease / negative ease

What is ease and why should you care about it? Well...have you ever sewn a (pdf) sewing pattern after following directions, carefully measuring yourself and selecting the size only to have it come out way to large or tighter than you wanted? That's because you haven't factored in ease.

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This glossary of sewing terms for the beginner is an A-Z guide that explains many terms, but also includes some tips and tricks that I think you might find handy. The list is a work in progress and I'll add links to tutorials, images and videos when I create them. Let me know in the comments if I missed a crucial sewing term you would like to know about. Continue reading

Sew along as we walk trhough all the steps to construct the Tsuno Tie bag. I'm showing all the steps so even a beginner can follow along. If you are a more experienced sewer, speed up the video by using the gear icon to find the speed options or skip ahead. I'll cover the French seams, mitered corners and the double fold hem.

 

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Mitered corners on double fold hems two methods for garments or accessories...Maybe you've never sewn mitered corners because they look complicated, but there are two great reasons you should add this technique to your sewing skills.

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This sewn mitered corner technique is great for wider double fold hems 1cm / 3/8" and up. You can use it on napkins and garments, basically anywhere you have a corner on a double fold hem.

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I've owned a serger (or overlocker) from when I started sewing, so I've mostly been able to use a serger instead of a sewing machine. That being said, I have used a sewing machine on knits (hemming, attaching elastic, sewing underwear, topstitching, etc.) So below are a few tips and tricks from my experiences working with knits. Continue reading

I’ve just added a new embroidery class to Skillshare My class is on hand embroidery and, you’ll learn how to embroider a small ginkgo leaf using the chain stitch and turn it into a small brooch with a leather or corkleather backing. It's an intermediate level class, but if you are a confident beginner you can give it a try. The class includes a free ginkgo leaf embroidery pattern in different shapes and sizes.

What we'll cover in this online embroidery class:

- Materials & tools

- How to transfer the embroidery design onto fabric light and dark fabrics

- Threading your embroidery needle & invisible ways to start your thread

- Chain stitch & reverse chain stitch

- Double Running Stitch or Holbein Stitch to outline the leaf

- How to turn your embroidered leaf into a brooch with textile glue and (cork)leather

If you’re not familiar, Skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of classes on everything from business to graphic design to sashiko embroidery and sewing – it’s the Netflix of learning.

By using this link to my class to sign up for a Skillshare Premium Membership, not only will you be able to enroll in my class, but you’ll also gain access to all other classes on Skillshare starting with a 30-day free trial.

If you know of anyone else that’d be interested to learn ho to embroider a ginkgo leaf brooch  I’d appreciate if you’d share the link with them too.

Thanks and enjoy your weekend!

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For the last few weeks, I’ve been working on my first class for Skillshare and today it’s officially live!

My class is on hand embroidery, where you’ll learn how to embroider blossom using only a few embroidery stitches. It's great for a total newb, but if you are a seasoned embroiderer there might be some new techniques and ideas for you too and the class includes the cherry blossom pdf pattern and a branch sampler pattern.

And it's no april's fool joke! Because for the last 1,5 years I've been teaching many creative workshops on sewing and embroidery in The New Habderdashery. I loved it wanted to keep teaching and thought it would be fun to continue teaching workshops not only offline but online too.

If you’re not familiar, Skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of classes on everything from business to graphic design to sashiko embroidery and sewing – it’s the Netflix of learning.

By using this link to my class to sign up for a Skillshare Premium Membership, not only will you be able to enroll in my class, but you’ll also gain access to all other classes on Skillshare starting with a two-month free trial.

If you know of anyone else that’d be interested to learn Blossom Embroidery Class, I’d appreciate if you’d share the link with them too.

Thanks and enjoy your weekend!

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