A few sewing tutorials

I was taught the basics of sewing by my mother when I was a little girl (think a LOT of scrunchies), then more skills at secondary school.  I think we spent a lot of time on cushions before moving onto clothes.  My final projects were an ankle length skirt with four thigh high splits (an interesting look), and an oil cloth piece for storing baby items on a pram.  My abiding memory is of having bleeding fingers due to opting to sew four layers of oil cloth!

Since those important lessons, I’ve been relatively self taught and that means I’m always searching for easy to follow, well written tutorials to develop my sewing skills.  In the spirit of sharing, I thought I would list some of the best ones I’ve found recently:

Making your own continuous bias tape

Length suggestions for children’s skirts

Nice tutorial on French seams

Ladder / slip stitch for closing bag interiors / broken seams etc by hand

More sizes for girls clothes

 

On a slightly different vein, if you’re starting up a new business and want to check whether the name is available across all the blogging and social sites, take a look at namechk.com. I guarantee it will save you a good few hours of searching all the sites individually!

I’ll be adding to this list as I come across more tutorials and useful pages, not least because it was a perfect bookmarking exercise for me!

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Taking Chances

Much of 2014 has reminded me that if you want something to happen, you have to try; as the quote says its trying that takes us to wonderful places.  I feel like I have made more decisions this year than in the last few put together.  Not all of them have been easy, but they all feel like they are taking me on a very positive path, a path I am thoroughly enjoying.  Amongst other things, I’ve decided to spend more time in Melbourne, to go back to university and to continue to pursue my sewing and craft interests.

Lizzie’s ‘Ebalent’ Top

It’s been a busy few days for me and my sewing machine.  This is the first output of the week; Lizzie’s ‘Ebalent’ Top.  A top for my niece who at two years old hasn’t yet mastered saying ‘elephant’ but ‘ebalent’ is far cuter so we’ll definitely let her off.  I am still madly in love with this material.  I’ve got meters left so will be running off more of these off over the next few days and then launching my Etsy shop.  Exciting times – details to follow.

London Crafting

My 3 week trip to London has been extended a little so whilst I’m here I thought I could use the time to dig out my old sewing machine.  A few extra project supplies were needed so a trip to the shops was the order of the day. I always used to head to John Lewis on Oxford Street to buy my fabric; out of habit more than anything else; but had I done a little more research I would have found Rolls and Rems on Seven Sisters Road.  Its well worth the visit as its crammed full of beautiful fabric suitable for every project you could imagine.  I used to run past it a couple of times a week so I have no idea why I’ve never noticed it before.