Girl Can Sew

Yet another New Craft House fabric drop and another statement look. I’m a sucker for unique fabrics and textures and this orange pvc is definitely that! It has a cream open weave backing with this orange plastic adhered to it which reminds me of the high vis jackets workmen wear when they’re repairing pipes in the road – always an aspirational look ha! Now while this could make a fantastic jacket (and I do have quite a bit left so I might well do that) I thought it would be a cute 1960s style mini skirt and I had envisioned a contrasting chunky black zip. I already had a pattern which would fit the bill, the Sister Mini from Vanessa Pouzet which I had previously made in corduroy. The pattern calls for a lining which gives it a very neat finish hiding all the raw edges so I just used some black cotton I had left from a previous project. One of the great thing about this pattern is it only uses a meter of fabric, if that! There’s two pattern pieces, a front and a back and that’s i...

  I’ve actually made something not from fabric bought from New Craft House ! This is the same wiggle skirt pattern I used in my last post but this time made up in a William Morris cotton curtain which I bought from Oxfam Online . The print is called ‘Blackthorn’. For this version it was essential that I considered the placement of the pattern and pattern matched across seams where possible. This particular WM fabric has quite a distinct pattern repeat with a clear line where the centre is so I took this to be my centre front and back. I didn’t worry about pattern matching the side seams because they are curved and won’t match anyway and also I knew I’d probably have to make some fitting adjustments.   I did the same adjustments on this version as the previous one, bringing in the side seams at the hip and tapering down to give a wiggle shape. The only difference with this version being how I inserted this zip. I was concerned this fabric could look a little frumpy so I want...

Another bold fabric choice for this fitted pencil skirt, this fabric is from New Craft House (Again! Love them for their unique, one of kind pieces). It’s black velvet with a foiled croc effect, when have you ever seen anything like this?! As soon as I saw this I knew I’d be kicking myself if I didn’t get it and once it arrived there really was only one thing I could imagine it becoming – a party skirt! Not that there are any parties to attend right now but a girl can dream! I wanted to keep the style simple to make the most of the fabric and also because the foiled pieces would make it difficult to sew any small details. I already had the My Capsule Wardrobe book but hadn’t made anything from it yet, looking through I forgot how great this book is! It has really clear diagrams and explanations for every little step and gives you ideas and guidance on how to hack the basic blocks provided to get more use out of them.The Fold Line did a thorough review of the book here . First of al...

My original plan after making The Raincoat was to do a simple make but apparently, my creativity had other plans! I saw New CraftHouse were launching some new fabrics, so I always like to see what they’ve got and when I saw this magenta foiled denim, I had to get it! It’s so unique and special I couldn’t let it go. Then I just had to figure out what to make with it so I started brainstorming what garments do we typically make with denim? Jeans, skirts, and jackets! This fabric is quite a heavyweight with no stretch, so I knew it had to be a jacket and I already had the Steve Jean Jacket pattern which I’d made up in corduroy previously . Now I thought, with a funky fabric such as this it’s important that the shape is equally as cool so to update it a bit I decided to make it a cropped length. To do this I put on my corduroy version and decided where I wanted the jacket to finish then measured and remove this section from the pattern. An issue I didn’t initially anticipate was that...