Last week I was lucky enough to be able to travel to Los Angeles for a bit of a break from winter. (Although I seemed to have brought the winter along with me from Toronto — the LA newscasts were full of handwringing about how damn COLD it was there. Alas.) Anyway, one of the reasons for my trip was to hang out with Helena, … Continue reading Meeting an old friend for the first time!
Have you ever sewn something and thought, ugh, kind of a disaster, I’ll probably never wear that? Well yes, of course you have, you’re a sewist, and that’s part of the deal, right? But have you ever then changed your mind and realized it’s not a disaster at all and it’s actually not only wearable but even pretty awesome? That’s what happened with me and … Continue reading Danish Cranes, or How I Learned “How to do Fashion”
A couple of weeks ago I took a Shibori dyeing workshop at one of my local sewing studios, The Make Den. Three hours of folding, wrapping, twisting and dunking into this mess… …turned into this: yards of cool fabric plus a couple of scarves and tea towels. Here are the scarves, made from white cotton gauze. The diamond pattern on the left was my favourite … Continue reading Happy as a Clam in a Vat of Indigo
I bought a ton of fabric when I took a trip to Berlin a couple of months ago. I purposely only packed my suitcase about half full *just in case* I *might* buy some fabric. Hahahahaha. I visited Stoff & Stil where I purchased that Squamingo fabric I turned into a too-small tee, as well as the awesome tiger jacquard pictured below that I hope … Continue reading Berlin Fabric Haul = Wanted Tee and Blackwood Cardigan (and some Squamingos), so far
Have you tried Sprout Patterns? I have no affiliation but recently ordered a custom-printed pattern from them and wanted to share with you how that experience went. (Yes, Sprout, you’re welcome for the full-length infomercial.) Sprout is an offshoot of the custom fabric printing service Spoonflower, which allows you to upload your own fabric design — or choose from thousands of designs already uploaded by … Continue reading Thinking About a Custom-Printed Sprout Pattern? Here’s What You Need to Know
Help! What do I do with this flamingo fabric? I’m in love with it but I’m afraid I’m going to sew something that will make me look seven years old. It’s one meter of mid-weight cotton jersey. I’ve photographed it with some leftover modal jersey I used for my Plantain Tee that seems to be a good match…because maybe all-over flamingo would be too much? Maybe … Continue reading Help Me Get Flamingos Into My Life
My city has a pretty amazing recycling program, accepting just about anything for recycling…compost, styrofoam, glass, plastic bags; you name it…except textiles. Now I know you all share the secret shame of home sewists: producing extraordinary amounts of little scraps of fabric that can’t be used for much of anything except landfill. Why this is a problem is summed up well by Craig and Marc … Continue reading Take These Scraps And…
While I was on vacation in Italy last month I got a little obsessed about finding fabric stores wherever I went. Yelp was being cheeky and sending me to anything from card & gift shops to a grungy little hole-in-the-wall where a couple who should’ve long since been retired were presiding over some dusty old packages of sheet sets and were NOT happy when I … Continue reading Fabric Porn: Fabric Shopping in Rome (with some Shoes, Cats, Ancient Ruins, and Cheesecake thrown in for good measure)
I picked up a few new fabrics! Let me take you on a tour and maybe you can help me decide what to make. I found them all at Designer Fabrics on Queen Street West here in Toronto while on a BLIND FABRIC DATE with someone from Vancouver! I’ll keep you in suspense about that until the end of the post. 😛 Also, hello and … Continue reading A Tour of my New Fabric Stash, in Which There Are No Fewer than Two References to Farts
Notice anything unusual about this fabric? Look carefully. Or maybe not even that carefully. Yeah, that. I think it’s supposed to look like a knot in the wood grain. Alas, it calls to mind something else entirely. I didn’t notice this when I bought the fabric…I was just excited about the ombré effect and the wood grain pattern. It wasn’t until I got it home … Continue reading Excuse me ma’am, there’s a little sumthn sumthn on your shirt
Frivolous At Last 