All posts filed under: Make

Scroop Patterns Fantail Skirt, scrooppatterns.com

Meet the Scroop Fantail Skirt!

Say hello to the newest Scroop Pattern: the Fantail Skirt, a gorgeous skirt with a flirty fan of back pleats inspired by New Zealand’s beloved fantail, or pÄ«wakawaka, and late Victorian and Edwardian skirts styles. The Fantail is a particularly exciting pattern for me: not only is it the first historical Scroop Pattern, it’s also a two-parter, with a full-length historical version, accurate to 1890-1910, and a just-below-the knee modern version (and I love them both!). The Historical version is based on my personal 5-gored late-Victorian/Edwardian skirt pattern, with a fan of back pleats that always make people say “Oooh!” and “How do you do that!” When I launched Scroop Patterns I knew it was one of the patterns I wanted to make available, but I wanted to be sure you got the most accurate version possible. So I’ve been collection skirt patterns from 1890-1910, and studying every skirt from that period that I can access. I’ve combined all of these into one pattern with all the best features. It’s the perfect basis for so …

How to sew knits with a straight stitch thedreamstress & scrooppatterns.com

Sewing knit fabrics with a straight stitch: ‘stretch-as-you-sew’ stitching

Published by The Dreamstress

Following on from last week’s post breaking down the benefits and drawbacks of 4 ways to sew knit fabrics for the Scroop Miramar dress & top, here is a quick little video tutorial* on how to do ‘stretch as you sew’ sewing, where you build the stretch into a straight stitch by stretching the fabric as you sew it: It’s a great technique, and does work well if done right – the fabric stretches beautifully, and the seam is lovely and smooth from the outside, and can be pressed completely flat and open if needed. The drawbacks are that the stitches are really small and hard to unpick, and it can be hard to control the fabric and to stretch it evenly. You can mitigate the first by lengthening your stitch slightly, but this tends to make the control issues even more of a problem. The stress of stretching the fabric as it is sewn can also cause ripples in the fabric, but these can almost always be fixed with a bit of steam ironing. …

Question time: Me-Made, Wardrobe Percentages, and Wardrobe Philosophies

Published by The Dreamstress

Since I sew all.the.time, and teach sewing, and blog about sewing, people often ask me how much of my wardrobe is me-made, or how much of the clothes I wear are me-made. And where do I get the stuff that isn’t me-made? It’s a really interesting question, because it makes people think about how much of their own wardrobe they could aim to sew, and how much of your own wardrobe you can realistically sew. It also has a bearing on my overall philosophy of sewing and clothing. It’s also interesting, because being me, I over-think this question. How exactly do I calculate it? Percentage of items in my overall wardrobe? Meters of fabric sewn by me vs. not? Days of the week I wear me-made stuff? Percentage of garments that I wear on a daily basis that are made by me? Percentage of the fabric that I am wearing on a daily basis that has been sewn by me? And how do I count vintage or commercially made items that I have mended …