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Sewing Tidbits is the sewing blog written since 2013 by Delphine, the co-founder of Just Patterns.
Filtering by Tag: sewing
Dear readers,
The Tatjana Trousers have stayed seriously on trend since their launch in December 2020, and since I know that many of you plan to sew a pair with the newly released Veronica Vest, I thought it would be a good time to finally publish a long-delayed tutorial for the slant pockets.
Read MoreWelcome to the fourth and last tutorial (for now 😅) of the Helena Wrap Dress. Today, I’m showing you how to attach the skirt to the waistband and finish the waistband. It corresponds to steps 20 to 24 in the instructions. My hope with these tutorials is to make the sewing of Helena more accessible, but I also took the opportunity to re-work the instructions based on the feedback I received. To celebrate, I have a surprise discount for you at the end of this post
Read MoreI’m back with the third tutorial for the Helena wrap dress: the optional in-seam pockets. The pattern includes both the option of patch or in-seam pockets, and while researching the finishings of this dress, I came upon a construction more suitable for french seams.
Read MoreI’m back with the second and most requested tutorial for the Helena wrap dress : the waistband construction. In the previous one we covered the neckband construction, and this time we are going to go over step 13 to 16. First, it’s helpful to understand the structure of waistband.
Read MoreI have a big surprise for you today! In May, I was contacted and commissioned by the team at Peppermint Magazine to help develop a pattern for their free pattern initiative. Let me introduce you to the Peppermint Milton Pinafore!
Read MoreI’m happy to be back today with a tutorial for the zipper fly of the Tatjana Trousers. I adapted it from one of my favorite construction books: Sewing Techniques from The Fashion Industry by Laurel Hoffman (I highly recommend this book if you are serious about sewing and interested in RTW construction). Some customers have told me it’s their new favorite way of sewing a fly but I also know that others were confused so I hope that the pictures can help!
Read MoreAs mentioned in my last post, I had an unusual amount of sewing time last year. So when I saw the call for testers issued by Pauline Alice patterns, I thought it would be a fun and valuable experience. I manage the tester group for Just Patterns, and I thought I could learn from being on the other side. Pauline Alice is also a brand I was interested in trying out.
Read MoreYou are so close to having completed your Stephanie Skirt, only a little bit of hand sewing left. So put on your favorite TV show or podcast, grab a warm drink and let’s get started!
Read MoreWe are approaching the end of our Stephanie Skirt sewalong and I’m so glad that you found those posts useful! In case you are new to this serie, you can check out previous posts here and get the sewing pattern in our shop.
Today, I’ll be showing you how to finish the center back seam of your skirt and attach the waistband.
Read MoreWelcome back for the third part of the Stephanie Sewalong! In my previous posts, I covered inspiration and fabric choices and cutting the fabric, so it’s time to start sewing!
The updated version of the Stephanie Skirt pattern now includes fully illustrated step-by-step instructions. I decided to use alternative construction options so that it’s less redundant. If you follow the pattern instructions, the seams are simple and seam allowances are either serged (or zig-zagged) or bound. In this post, I’ll be showing you how to sew the side seams and the in-seam pockets with french seams.
Read MoreI thought I might interrupt the Stephanie Skirt programming around here to show you the latest garment I made: a gatherless version of the Burnside Bibs by Sew House 7 and to share my changes in case you want to try it out for yourself. I usually have 2 ways of planning my sewing projects: 1/ I find an inspiration garment in RTW and look for a suitable pattern (or draft it if I have to) or 2/ I like a pattern and decide to make it as is or with minimal changes. This time was different…
Read MoreThis is a long overdue Tidbits post! If you are new to this blog, Tidbits is a random list of sewing related things that I’ve been thinking about, reading or listening to. You can read past Tidbits editions to get a better idea of what it is!
Read MoreThe question we most often get regarding our Kate Bias Top and the Christy Slip Dress patterns, is how to create those barely-there spaghetti straps. We have good news! They are easy to make and we will be showing you how in this post.
Read MoreI'm slowly climbing out of the overwhelmed single working mom hole although I have to acknowledge that I may fall right back into it at any time. Life has a thing for intently proving me wrong every time I start feeling like things are under control. But before that happens, I'm trying to get as much sewing and photographing done! The skirt I am showing you today has been on my mind since November.
Read MoreDear readers,
After a period of involuntary hiatus and regrouping we are gearing up to our next pattern releases! It's been great to interact with our customers on Instagram and by email the mean time. We also received great feedback from our development group and other members of the sewing community so you can expect to see some changes around here in the coming months.But before we go more into all of that, we thought we would share some of the visuals that drive our aesthetics these days and the direction we are taking!
We hope that some of those inspire your sewing as much as does for us! If you want more Ready-to-Wear inspiration for each our patterns, you can follow us on Pinterest where we keep a board for each of them!
The Yasmeen skirt was born from our desire to have in our closets a statement skirt with the over the top feel of the 90's runway shows. Its design lines celebrates women's curves in a way that we hope is reminiscent of the King of Cling, late Azzedine Alaïa. In this post, we will be sharing some ready-to-wear inspiration to help you select your fabric and style your finished skirt!
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Dear readers,
I have tendency of making radical statements, about the smallest things, even when I'm not that convinced myself. It's a French thing and it's embarrassing. As a result, I often end up in the awkwardly looking at my shoes because I just did what I said I would never ever do. A few weeks ago I heard myself proclaiming that I was officially sick of seeing exposed metal zippers. And here we are with this pencil skirt, which most interesting feature is an exposed gold metal double zipper…
I had initially no plan to participate in this year Sewing Bee contest organized by Pattern Review, but when the pencil skirt theme was announced, I knew I had to. I wear a lot of pencil skirts, I have my own pattern and I can make one relatively quickly. But the twist is that the skirt has to be inspired by music or a musician... I've more of an analytical mind than a creative one. So asking me to think of skirt when I listen to song or look at a bridge leaves me completely blank.
I decided to look at celebrities wearing pencil skirts, and Victoria Beckham is a big proponent of them. I know it's a stretch to call her a musician, since she publicly acknowledged that she actually never sang while part of the Spice Girls. But I was a HUGE Spice Girls fan in my early teens (walls covered in posters type of fan!) so it's actually a pretty good match for me. I also very much like the way she handles her fashion labels. Pencil skirts are a basic piece of Victoria Beckham's main label and she has at least one per season. Since I live a few blocks away from Saks Fifth Avenue, I decided to have a quick look at her skirts. Just like Roland Mouret, she uses a type of thick knit material, something between scuba and Herve Leger Bandage dresses, and leaves the garments unlined. I'm not a fan of the knits, and that exact material is quite hard to come by, so I decided to do a classic lined wool skirt with that distinctive metal double zipper at the center back.
Pattern Link – My own free pencil skirt pattern
Size – 00
I removed the waistband and did a faced high waist instead. I extended the waist line straight up by 1"1/4, including the darts, and I drafted a facing.I used my lining pieces (unfortunately I haven't been able to make it available as part of the download yet) and remove the CB seam allowance on both the self and the lining to allow for the exposed zipper. In effect, that eliminates the back vent too.
Fabric – Wool suiting from Mood Fabric, I believe it was The Row, lining is a lightweight silk twill from my stash.
Notions – Custom made double zip from Botani in the NY Garment District.
The wool, the silk I used for lining and the interfacing were all from my stash so it was basically a "free" project. Until I decided to splurge big time on the zipper. I know you can get a double zip shortened at Pacific Trimming in NYC, but the day I went their technician was not there. I couldn't come back any other day and I was on a deadline for the PR challenge, so I went to Botani instead. Their service is great, you can customize any element of a zipper, the tape, the metal color, the size of the teeth, the pull, separating, etc. 20 minutes (and 20 dollars) later you have your perfectly matched zipper!I've made quite a few pencil skirts by now so the construction was very straightforward. I bagged the lining, enclosed the zip between the self layer and the lining and left an opening in one of the lining side seams to turn the skirt over. It's quick and it looks very clean.
The hardest element of this project was managing to take pictures of it before the deadline of the contest. I only managed to get a few decent ones and a little person decided that she needed to be part of the photoshoot. I really like my final skirt, and I'm super happy that it was part of the pieces I had on my #2017MakeNine plan! I hope to do a post soon on how I'm doing with that plan, let's see if I carve out the time.
What about you? Are you following up on your sewing resolutions for 2017?
First, let me thank you for your reactions to my last post. I received lovely messages in the comments, on Instagram, and by email. In addition to people volunteering to become part of the Just Patterns Development Group, I had some great discussions about sewing, patterns, and fashion!
Read MoreIt's Me Made May! I wish I was able to write some clever opening about it but really I can't... I didn't make any "commitment" to MMM but I'm trying to make conscious decisions about wearing my handmade garments more often. So I'm loosely participating, and I broke my personal pathetic record by wearing at least one me made garment per day around 10 days of the the month so far.
Read MoreWelcome back for a new edition of Tidbits, where I gather links of what I enjoyed reading, watching and listening lately. This week is all about inner conflict and my naturally french contradictory spirit. You can blame it on my on-going binge watching of In Treatment. That show is seriously addictive!
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