While in Minneapolis last fall for the ASDP conference, I purchased a lovely piece of peacock blue boiled wool from a local fabric store, Treadle Yard Goods. I’m guessing it is a boiled wool jersey because it is softer and drapier than the boiled wool that I associate with…
Category: Technique
Sweater Quandry – Redesign or Recycle
With good intentions, I often visit my closets and drawers each January for a little cleaning out. some things are easy to part with because they are worn or ill-fitting. Other items, that should be disposed of, prove more challenging. I seem to have an irrational attachment to them. One…
Pants with a Shaped Waistband
I love the clean lines of the back zipper Eureka! Pants with a faced waist, but I have struggled to get them to stay put on me, especially since I like to wear them a little below my waist. Finally I’ve settled on a waistband that satisfies my style and fitting…
Inspired Knits for Fall
So, let’s get dressed with some comfortable Tabula Rasa Knits (TRK) for fall! This seems to be my direction lately and Carrie and I found some lovely knits when we shopped in NYC in August. Luckily, we bought enough to share with you; there are a limited number of…
Geisha’s Part 3 – Foundation Piecing
The Tabula Rasa Jacket that I started on Labor Day is designed and appliqued. Now the front and back crepe de chine foundations are ready to be stitched and flipped to create the pieced front and back. We will look look closely at the soft drapey construction of the back to explain…
Tabula Rasa Vests
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…
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 White Shirt – With A Twist
Last winter, when I was making note of the 2015 spring and summer fashion trends, the omnipresence of the white shirt on the pages of the fashion magazine caught my eye. While I am not a slave to fashion, I realized that a new white shirt would be an excellent…
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…