My daughter Anna, French tour guide extraordinaire, became engaged last winter. Everyone was so excited. When she visited the states in May, we set out to plan a lovely ensemble for the small city hall wedding the couple were planning. She wanted a lace top and pants that could be…
In 2020, while confined to my house during the pandemic isolation, I decided to enter the Threads Challenge for members of Association of Sewing and Design Professionals. The theme was to design and make a garment or ensemble that reflected one of the Four Elements: Earth, Wind, Water and Fire. …
As we were preparing for the Fredericksburg Original Sewing & Quilt Expo, Carrie took on the task of creating a sample top with the fabric from one of our new knit bundles featuring a bright floral print on black with solid black or green. Because I was using pieces left…
Chasing a fashion trend, I decided to make myself a pair of wide leg, high waisted jeans. One of my pandemic obsessions has been scrolling through the Vogue Daily E-zine. This summer, every day, there was a feature with a model or actress sporting wide leg – high waist jeans.…
The uninterrupted hemline of the Carpe Diem opens up some fun hemline design opportunities. A new linen top, designed and made as spring became summer, is an excellent example of creative energy moving a Carpe Diem hemline to the next level. Plan the Project It started with a stash search…
This year Threads Magazine is featuring Riffs on a Trusted Pattern by Becky Fulgoni as an online insider series. Becky chose the Tabula Rasa Jacket pattern as her trusted pattern for the series, so every month we’ve been enjoying Becky’s creative makes with the TRJ pattern. You may recall that…
In the search for creative inspiration, it occasionally happens that a technique or idea propels you in a variety of different productive directions. Such is the case with the quilting technique sashing. I came across it in a quilting book called Maverick Quilts by Alethea Ballard. The subtitle is why…
On our trip to New York in May, I spotted this lovely peach knit with a classic Italian print, only understated. It is a very light cotton jersey and while it is rare that I make a Tabula Rasa Knit top in only one fabric, this one seemed like a…
Thanks to our friends at Classic Sewing Magazine, our wardrobes for summer have been replenished with some of the jacket/tops featured in the current issue. When I began planning the article, I ordered several pieces of cotton lawn from Farmhouse Fabrics and there was one remaining piece. The one remaining…
The Carpe Diem Dress & Tunic is the perfect garment design for featuring fun trim. If you watched the Artistic Artifacts Facebook Live on Saturday morning, you saw a number of trimmed Carpe Diems that have become wardrobe favorites. We are going to look at the Indian Cotton Batik from…
