All posts filed under: Tutorial

The Panier-Along: Materials List

With the Under-it-All challenge coming up on the Historical Sew Fortnightly  I offered to write a tutorial on how to make paniers, and the idea was met with much enthusiasm.  So, from Jan 30th to Feb 8th I’ll be leading a Panier-Along, providing a simple pattern and walking you through the steps of making your own set of paniers. My panier pattern is based on information in Norah Waugh’s Corsets & Crinolines, and on the panier pattern at Tidens Tøj.  It creates a set of separate basket hoops that give a modestly wide silhouette, suitable for informal dress (e.g. not court wear) in the 1760s and 70s. The tutorial will focus on being easy and simple (I’ll probably be sewing by machine), with an accurate silhouette, rather than strictly historical accurate, but it shouldn’t be too hard to adapt to be perfectly accurate if you would prefer. The challenge doesn’t start until the 29th, but we need time to assemble our materials.  If you want to participate you will need: 1 yard/95cm  of mid to …

Tutorial: a simple, sweet little drawstring gift bag

Last week I shared the tutorial for making the simple zippered cushion cover that I use to teach zip insertion in my Absolute Beginners class.  This week I thought I’d share an even easier tutorial – one for the simple drawstring bag that is the very first thing that I teach my Absolute Beginner students to sew. I love these bags, and have been making them for almost as long as I could sew.  My mother doesn’t like wrapping presents, so I made her dozens of them in lovely festive fabric, and she just pops her presents in them – easy-peasy, looks gorgeous, and totally green and recyclable, because she’s still using the ones I made her 10 years ago! These days I make little ones to keep my pearl necklaces in, middle sized ones to hold the accessories to each of my historical outfits, and bigger ones for sorting socks and undies when I travel. This tutorial makes a  a 15cm (6″) wide x  22cm (8 3/4″) long bag – perfect for a chunky …

Tutorial: how to make a simple zip-back cushion-cover

In my Absolute Beginners sewing class I teach students to set zippers using a simple zipper cushion-cover tutorial.  The cushions are fun and easy  to make and the students love them.  I thought you might enjoy a tutorial, so you can make them yourself. This method of setting a zip is a bit longer and more involved than some, but it yields a fool-proof result, which is important when you are first learning to sew.  And even now, I’d rather use a technique that is always going to work perfectly than one that can go wrong! For this tutorial you will need: One 35cm/14 ” zip 1/2 metre of mid/heavy weight fabric cut into 3 pieces: one square that is 49cm x 49cm (19.25″ x 19 1/4″”) (for your cushion front), and two rectangles (for your cushion back) that are each 49cm x 26cm ( 19 1/4″ x 10 1/4″”) One 18″ square cushion inner Step 1: Sewing the zipper seam First, finish the two long inside edges of your rectangular back pieces with zig …