I love to wear vests! I like them because they are comfortable and easy to move in, provide warmth, and add a lot of color, design, and pizzazz to an outfit. Of course the Tabula Rasa Jacket pattern makes a terrific vest. You may have seen several of my Tabula Rasa…
Category: How to
Geisha Jacket – The Appliqués
The foundation pieced Tabula Rasa Jacket I started on Labor Day features four appliqués cut from a Japanese scarf. Today we will look at the creation of these appliquéd sections as a follow up to the Sewing Play on Labor Day post about the jacket’s design and fabric placement. …
Underlining Pants
Underlining is a couture technique that offers a number of benefits to careful garment sewers. When you underline, a second layer of fabric is hand basted to your fashion fabric to provide support or to change the fabric’s nature. Today we will consider underlining pants. I mentioned this briefly…
A New Face for the Tabula Rasa Jacket
We are pleased to announce that we are giving the Tabula Rasa Jacket a bright new face! It was time to print more TRJ Instruction books, so we decided to put new art on the cover that is more consistent with the TRJ Variation covers. Many thanks to our excellent…
Scrap Happy Knit Tee
In the spring, after we had finished cutting and assembling our knit bundles, there were a few small pieces left over. We could not throw them away, so they went into the bucket for small knits. Usually these scraps become contrasting neck bindings, pockets or yokes. One colorful floral piece…
White Pants
In the heat of the summer, nothing makes you look cooler than white pants. I save my ankle length white Eureka! Pants that Fit for the hottest days. Even though they are lined, they look and feel cool. But beware, white fabric requires special attention in the planning and sewing…
White Shirt – With A Twist, Part 2
Last week’s post outlined the creative process I used to plan my new white shirt and prepare to stencil the shirt using Paint Sticks. Here is the rest of the story and the finished Tabula Rasa Jacket with the Shirt Variations! To get started, I cleaned off my dining room table,…
Pants with Summer Pockets
Light weight unlined pants are perfect for hot summer weather in Baltimore. This “cool” pair is made from a cotton sateen border print I bought on clearance at a JoAnn’s a few summers ago. They are easy to wear with flip flops and a white t-shirt but their design was…
Industrial Sewing Tips
Last weekend I took two classes on industrial sewing techniques from Robin Bolton, a certified Islander Sewing System instructor. The workshop was sponsored by our local chapter of the Association of Sewing and Design Professionals. The first day, we learned several industry tricks for improving the speed and accuracy of…
Outfits by Lugene
This June we are delighted to have several teaching opportunities. We sure do love to teach classes that revolve around our patterns! This weekend I presented a trunk show at Sew Right Sewing Machines in Queens, New York followed by teaching a two-day Tabula Rasa Jacket Workshop. It was great…