One Thimble Is Back!

Issue 21 – Spring 2019

Our favourite sewing e-zine is back from a little hiatus! The buzz has been so positive and it’s been lovely to see everyone was as excited as I was about its return. I am thrilled to have brought together some of my blogging friends to share their favourite patterns from the new Issue! It’s the first time I have coordinated the One Thimble Blog Tour and we are excited to share everything we have made.

One Thimble is back with a new format and a broader appeal. A new more affordable version with so many great features. The new patterns list has changed from 10 for a sale price of $25, to 4 new patterns & 4 hacks for the new low price of $12. It’s great value and also gives confidence to sewists out there that are not quite sure about tweaking the fabulous patterns they already own.

New patterns included in Issue 21

#131 Drop Crotch Trackpants by Thread Faction (2-14)

Cinnamon Tote by Salt & Pepper Patterns

Camden Dress by Jilly Atlanta (2-14)

Elliot Romper by Tadah Patterns (0000-4)

Pattern Hacks based on existing

One Thimble patterns

Miss Olivia Dress Dolman sleeve and knee length hem hack

Piccolo beach mat with new carrier added

Archie shirt pocket hack

Monster Mash Pinny hacked to childs apron

I was excited to be asked to be a stylist for this issue, showing my take on some of the patterns and talking about how I approach sewing as a busy Mum. I made my girls the new Camden dress by Jilly Atlanta, myself the Miss Olivia by 1 Puddle Lane and the new Cinnamon Tote by Peppa n Salt Patterns!

The Miss Olivia was originally in Issue 16 of One Thimble, but it features in the current issue as a dolman sleeve and knee-length hem hack. I love a good pattern hack and am a big fan of flying by the seat of my pants (let’s call it a mix of experience, mathematics and no fear), but it was nice to follow instructions to get the perfect result.

So next on my list I think I will make the #131 Drop Crotch Trackpants by Thread Faction and the Archie Shirt by Ainslee Fox with the pocket hack… What’s on your list?

For your chance to win a copy of the new One Thimble Issue 21 – Spring 2019 please enter the rafflecopter prize draw here – Open until 12am Friday September 6th AEST

a Rafflecopter giveaway

We have some amazing bloggers joining in to share their makes this week. We were excited to celebrate the release and relaunch of One Thimble. Be sure to check each one out on the tour and show them some love.

August 30

Idle Sunshine

Rebel & Malice

Marvelous Auntie M

August 31

Sprouting JubeJube

{Spools+Oodles} of Fun

September 1

Needles to Say

September 2

Max California

Lily Shine Creates

September 3

Candice Ayala

Stitched by Jennie

September 4

GAAFMachine

September 5

Beri Bee Designs

Idle Sunshine Tour Wrap Up!

Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will add value to my readers.

Coffee & Thread Lana Pattern Tour

Hi Everyone!

I joined the Coffee & Thread Lana Pattern Tour! When I joined I was planning to make my girls some cute tops, as I haven’t been making myself much lately. I put on a stack of weight and really didn’t want to make myself anything, nor did I want to look at myself in pictures! I’ve turned that around over the past 3 weeks and rewarded myself with a gorgeous new top!

It’s amazing what a bit of self esteem, a cute pattern and some gorgeous fabric will do for you!

I hacked my pattern by making it a peplum. I basically cut the top length by about 9.5 inches (because I am high waisted) and added it back as a gathered skirt. I cut the width of the skirt about 1.5 times the width of the top, and the length about 9 inches long.

When attaching the peplum skirt I gathered it using a piece of elastic the exact width of the bodice. I overlapped the elastic and sewed it into a loop and stretched it to meet the quarter points of the peplum skirt, then attached the gathered skirt, matching the quarter points to the bodice.

I used a beautiful bamboo spandex from Orinoco Designs that I’ve been hoarding for myself. I was going to crack out my new coverstitch but this fabric actually sits really nicely without a hem. You might notice I’ve left both the hem and the sleeves raw! I’m quite comfortable doing that! Just note that if you’d like to hem yours, you might like to cut the skirt an inch longer!

I love the combination of the gathered sleeves and the gathered peplum! I was really tempted just to hem the extended shoulders without adding the sleeves, but I love this version. It’s definitely something I will try for next time though!  There is also a dress version and long sleeves included in this pattern.

I love this organic grid design! The rough grid fabric print made it difficult to match up my stripes though, so I had to do my best and just give my stripe-matching OCD a rest.

In other news, I can fit my wedding rings back on again!! Yay!!

BUT jeez those elbows are ugly! Why are elbows so weird? I really need to learn to bend them for back shots… 😉 It might not look even in this shot because I am not straight on to the camera, but I dipped the back bodice lower than the front, for a bit of bottom coverage and I find it a flattering cut! 

If you’d like some help hacking your Lana Pattern or making adjustments, drop me a line! I am always happy to help ❤

Thanks for joining me on my stop today.  Make sure to head over to Instagram to see all the other beautiful Lana’s.  Use the hashtag #lanatopanddresstour to be blown away!

My Favourite Things

So the theme this month on the Sewing With Ti Blog Tour is “My Favourite Things”! This category is so hard for someone like me that just loves EVERYTHING! So I decided to make myself one of my favourite patterns and get my bum moving on my kids favourites, for their summer sewing too!

This is the Little Kiwis Closet Women’s Cuffed Dolman! It is a great relaxed dolman tee in a longer tunic length with a curved hem. It also comes in a dress length option which I chose to make here. I was sent this gorgeous Pink Aztec Rayon Spandex by Orinoco Designs to showcase for a current fabric pre-order and I knew it would be a perfect match!

The drape is perfect for this pattern and it is a great print for young and old. My girls loved it, but I had to (very unselfishly) show you all how great it was made up as a grown up piece!

I wasn’t a complete monster though… I saved the girls a few scraps and I used some straight away to run up this cute top! It’s the Little Kiwis Closet Choose Your Adventure Tee & Dress. I created this cute cap sleeve and pocket and added it to this royal blue cotton lycra I had in my stash. I think this is perfect for the theme – as one of my favourite things to do is mash and tweak patterns!

I used the flutter sleeve pattern piece from the Poppet Peplum pattern and added an inch or 2 to the centre so that it would fit the armscye perfectly. I lined the “flutter/cap” with some white cotton lycra to give it some body before attaching it. I absolutely love how this turned out and it just covers the shoulders nicely to protect them from our harsh summer sun!

Then we of course had to have some pics together, because – matching!

It was so cold! You have to remember it’s winter here at the moment and it was 7:30am before school! We are so lucky to have such mild winters, but boy was it fresh and frosty this morning!

I have a few more scraps left, so I used a tiny bit to jazz up this plain tank as well, but I will not waste a bit – it’s too cute!

Next up I want to show you a sneak peek of the girls version of the Cuffed Dolman! It’s in testing right now and is looking just as awesome as the women’s version!!!

This one I upcycled from a women’s large tshirt we found (stripes are her favourite) and I made the regular cuffed sleeves.

There is a long sleeve version too that I’ll share with you soon and you can also opt to leave the cuffs off altogether and just hem!

You can see from my upcycle that the back of the shirt has a centre seam. I hope this means that the manufacturer is being frugal with fabric! I love to upcycle as a way to reduce landfill and to get awesome cheap fabric.

This length is perfect with tights and I will make her some dolman dresses for summer as well. I know I live in them, so I am betting my girls will too!

Here’s an essential shot of my stripe matching – I’m sorry but if you are sewing stripes, they just have to match 😉 ! It also shows the cool curved hem.

Next up are some more great basics! I love to make pretty dresses, but my girls just want to wear shorts and tees! So while I never thought I’d make basics when you can get them cheap from Kmart, I love that they get something amazing and unique from me, with great quality fabrics and no exploited labour. Except for me of course… They fully exploit me!

This is the Pearlie Peplum and Scuttle Shorts from One Thimble Issue 16! This issue has only recently released and I am sewing my way through it! These patterns will be on high rotation! I used another Orinoco Designs print from a previous round for the bodice and the front panel of a tshirt I upcycled did the peplum skirt front and back.

The Pearlie Dress & Peplum is by Peach Patterns and I have lengthened the bodice here by 2 inches to bring the peplum down closer to her natural waist. This is just a personal preference. When I made the dress previously I used the size 7 length skirt, but because I added length to the bodice here, I used the size 5 peplum skirt length.

I teamed it with the Scuttle Shorts by Ainslee Fox Boutique Patterns. I made the basic version here without any pockets or colour blocking and they were soooo fast! This girl looooves her knit shorts so I am going to make a full rainbow of these! This was a knit my Mum grabbed from Spotlight for me. As a bonus, they don’t take very much fabric at all!

Check ’em out – they’re adorable!

 

Ok so let’s recap a few of my favourite things…

• The LKC Cuffed Dolman
• Awesome custom print fabric
• Pattern hacking
• Matching my minis
• Upcycling
• Stripe matching
• Little Kiwis Closet
• One Thimble
• Sewing things my kids will actually wear

Did I miss anything? I’m sure my girls have their own list to add!

 

If you’d like to see what everyone else on board has chosen to share this month, you can view their posts here! Each post will go live on it’s date in August.

 

Tuesday, August 1st: Intro ***You are here. 😀, Tenille’s Thread

2nd: Stitching At Night

3rd: Sewing By Ti

4th: Needles To Say

5th: Very Blissful

Sunday, August 6th: The Fairy Dust Bin

7th: Anne-Mari Sews

8th: Sewing With Sarah

9th: Thats Sew Lily

10th: Stitching at Night

11th: EYMM

12th: Sew Sew Ilse

Sunday, August 13th: Lulu & Celeste

14th: Seams Sew Lo

15th: Tales From a Southern Stitching Mom

16th: Stitching and Making

17th: Creative Counselor

18th: Ma Moose

19th: Kainara Stitches

Sunday, August 20th: Embrace Everyday

21st: She Who Sews

22nd: Idle Sunshine

23rd: My Heart Will Sew On

24th: Lovely For Life

25th: Margarita On the Ross

26th: Anne-Mari Sews

Sunday, August 27th: Made By Melli

28th: Adventures with Bubba and Bug

29th: Auschick Sews

30th: Me Made

31st: Living in Twinado Alley

 

Warmest Wishes,

Brooke x

Idlesunshine

 

Laela Jeyne Patterns Summer Collection Tour

Welcome to the last day on the Laela Jeyne Patterns Summer Collection Tour! I’m so happy to be joining my lovely sewing friends to promote their Summer Collection Release! There are 6 new patterns now available and I was lucky enough to test the Lily Blouse.

It is winter here currently, and as much as I wish I was in my swimmers, I love that this pattern included a long sleeve version! This pattern is exactly my style, I had been on the look out for a while for something just like it!

Laela Jeyne Lily Blouse – Idlesunshine

You’ll have to excuse my windy photoshoot, my hair and blouse were blowing around everywhere! I used a polyester that I purchased to make a Laela Jeyne Tula! So it was funny it got used for another LJ pattern instead!

Laela Jeyne Lily Blouse – Idlesunshine

 

I love the simple shape, the relaxed fit and the exposed zipper! With sizes 0-26 and bust sizes A-E you are set! Silly me was on my way to work – so I styled as I normally would and went on my way, without considering that my necklace might be hiding those neckline darts, so I’ll pop in a line drawing too. That will show you the short sleeve version, the sleeveless with a collar version and the gathered front option! I love a pattern with options!

Laela Jeyne Lily Blouse – Idlesunshine

The fit is great and I can’t wait to make some more! I ordered some gorgeous red floral rayon to run up a second one with a modified hem for the tour, but it took 2.5 weeks to get here, which was way too late for me to be able to use it! Also in that package was some dance fabrics I needed for a costume for an eisteddfod on Monday! Needless to say, we are now borrowing a costume, but that’s another story! I will get onto that second Lily blouse and post those pics soon, but that fabric company wont be getting a plug here! 😉

Thank you for dropping by today! Here are all the posts included in the tour this week!

Also be sure to head to the Laela Jeyne Blog for a RAFFLECOPTER GIVEAWAY!!!

Monday

Anna’s Heirloom Boutique – Swimming in a Sea of Estrogen – Olive Ashby

Tuesday

Mahlica Designs – Pear Berry Lane – Sewing with Sarah

Wednesday

Sewn at Seams – Nini and Ash – The Crafting Fiend – Sew a Piece of Joy

Thursday

I am Mami de Sofiona – Sew and Tell Project – My Heart Will Sew On

Friday

LoveThings – Idle Sunshine – Lovely for Life – Neva Couture

Simple Life Pattern Co – Sew Caroline Collaboration

Sew Caroline and Simple Life Pattern Company are thrilled to be announcing an amazing new collaboration of Mommy and Me sewing patterns!
They teamed up to bring you six awesome new patterns! SLPCo took the Sugar Pop Top, Magnolia Shorts and Waterfall Tank and downsized them to fit the little girls in your life. In return, Sew Caroline took the Ayda Top + Dress, Molly Top, Dress + Maxi and Tammy’s Tulip Shorts and upsized them to fit women. It’s a match made in heaven!

I’ve always loved the simple design of the girls Ayda so I jumped at the chance to try out the women’s version! I love an interesting back design, it is my favourite feature.

I decided to make the sleeveless version from this awesome green floral rayon woven. I bought a truck load of it because I just loved it! It is super slippery and floaty and and amazing! You can also make a cap sleeve or flutter sleeve version.

You can see this fabric drapes a little in the back (especially with my posture in this shot) because of the nature of the rayon and it being cut on the bias. It was quite a cowl when I first pinned it, so instead of sewing the back pieces dead flat across the bottom, I angled the corners downward slightly to flatten the fit of the back V before attaching it to the skirt.

I took a tiny bit of length off the bodice which is an adjustment I always make for my super high waist (but it didn’t need much at all) and otherwise I made up the size M without any changes.

I made the circle skirt  rather than the gathered skirt because

a) I had plenty of fabric

b) I love the twirl and silouette AND…

c) I really dislike gathering skirts to attach to bodices haha!

What sewing technique is your least favourite? I love the look of gathers, but I put them in the same category as button holes… Not my favourite things to do, probably because they take time and patience – 2 things I am kinda short on 😉

I hemmed the skirt with yellow bias tape which you can see peeking out here. It is my favourite way to hem a circle skirt and it gave me a little extra length because I raised the waist and I am fairly tall. The fabric width wouldnt allow me to make it any longer than the exact pattern piece and the fabric is directional.

There are so many other awesome bloggers on tour this week highlighting these great new patterns so go and visit them all!

May 15

Pattern Revolution

Call Ajaire

May 16

Blue Wren Handmade

Stitches by Laura

May 17

Rebel & Malice

All Things Katy!

Sewn at Seams 

May 18

Adventures With Bubba and Bug 

Idlesunshine

Tina Sew Tiny

May 19

That’s-Sew-Kari

Pear Berry Lane

Pattern Revolution

Ruby Rue Creations

 

Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, we will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, we only recommend products or services we believe will add value to our readers.

Sisboom Angie Pattern Hack-A-Thon

Hi everyone! Welcome to the first stop on the Sis Boom Patterns Angie Hack-A-Thon Tour! I am so excited to show you my version of the Angie, it’s definitely my new favourite dress.

You might remember in my recent post from the Just For Me January Tour that I am an Angie fan and that I planned to make one in knit fabric!

With most things in life, I like to do a bit of research and then just give it a go. Usually that works out fine… In this case I think I pretty much nailed it!

Let’s take a look at a picture from the original pattern to get a feel for the bones of the dress.

Sis Boom Patterns Angie Dress Pattern

Here’s where the “Hack” comes into it. I decided to make a knit version instead of woven for my hack, partly because I love the drape and most definitely for the comfort and fit. I also decided to reverse the height of the necklines and make the front a high neckline and the back low. I used a quarter circle skirt instead of a gathered one and I added cap sleeves!

I cut out all my pieces for the bodice and basted them together with my sleeves to make sure they worked and I was shocked, {cough!} I mean not suprised at all that they did! I unpicked the bodice and remade it with my serger/overlocker (because unpicking overlocking stitching is not fun, so we like to avoid that).

I made the same size I made last time as the knit was fairly stable and not super stretchy. I used the full width of the front darts, but not the back as that made the front & back width match, which made matching the skirt easier.

Here’s how I reversed the necklines. Cutting out my front piece above, will you just look at those fancy schmancy pattern weights! I laid the back piece on top, matching the shoulders, just to use the neckline. I folded the rest of the pattern out of the way. I did the same process for the back bodice piece, but next time I may make it even more of a dramatic plunge!

I bound the neckline by using a strip of the knit about 2cm wide or 3/4″ and applied it like bias tape. I sewed it on the outside of the neckline right sides together, flipped it up and over to the inside of the garment so that could not be seen and sewed it down. I stretched the binding like you do when you are doing neck bands etc on knit, but I think next time I might not stretch it much at all.

For the sleeve I used a cap sleeve pattern I had from a t-shirt dress I had made recently. I hemmed them before attaching. The head of the sleeve ended up a little big but with a little pleat at the top, it fit perfectly.

To match my sleeves and side seams nicely, I always tack them together first using the sewing machine and check they line up perfectly before I overlock all the way from the sleeve hem to the bottom of the bodice (see below).

I cut out a quarter circle skirt from a woven dress pattern I had made before and sewed up the side seams. Then I just trimmed a few cm from the top of the skirt until the circumference of the skirt matched the circumference of the bodice. I added the elastic to the back waist per the pattern which gives it these sweet gathers and a slimmer silhouette overall. I didn’t hem the dress as the knit does not fray. If you cut it nice and straight it’s absolutely not necessary (yay)!!

This was quite a fast project! The next time around will be even faster now that I have tested it all. I’d love if you’d leave me a comment and let me know what you think or what you would do to “Hack” your Angie!

Play along all week with my sewing friends and be prepared to be inspired by their incredible ideas! You wont believe how different each dress looks all made from the one base pattern. Keep up to date by following the Sis Boom Patterns Blog!

Warmest wishes,

Brooke x

 

SisBoom Pattern CO – Just For Me January

Did you hear it’s “Just For Me January”? I have been sewing for me much more this past few months, so I was very happy to join in the fun with SisBoom Patterns!

Not long after I set up my instagram account to share my sewing projects, I was contacted by the amazing Jennifer Paganelli. She very generously gave me a copy of the Angie dress pattern to sew up, but I wanted to wait till closer to summer to make it. When I heard about Just For Me January I knew I had no excuse! (Now I just realised that would make more sense if you knew I was in Australia and we are in the middle of summer here right now)!

This is exactly my ideal style of dress, it is so comfortable and is the perfect mix of style and comfort. The brief for this tour was to add a different style spin, so instead of simply reviewing this pattern (which is A+ by the way), I will tell you my inspiration and what I did to tweak it to have a half circle skirt.

I adore the gorgeous eclectic Sisboom fabric designs and this one was always destined for my first Angie! It’s from the Circa collection and it came from Utopian Threads some time ago here in Australia.

Normally I’d fit into a US 4-6 (6-12 months ago haha) so I pretended that I didn’t put on any kgs this year and cut out the small bodice. I omitted the back darts because my waist is where the extra weight sits and it fits nicely. I used the cut line for the lowest front neckline  (there are 3 cut lines) which still gives good coverage and I constructed the bodice per the pattern.

Sisboom patterns are great simple silhouettes that really let the fabric shine. When your fabric is this awesome you don’t need to complicate the garment at all right? I decided to hack a half circle skirt and at first I was a bit scared that I had stuffed it up… I used the skirt from a dress that had a zipper as a template and the Angie has no buttons or zips! I had cut the skirt long enough that I could trim the top of the skirt down to the point where the waists from the skirt and the bodice would match up just fine though.

I still added pockets because pockets are the bomb! I love a bit of a peekaboo contrast, so I used this cute yellow gingham.

I hemmed the skirt with hot pink pre made bias. That is my favourite way to hem a circle skirt. You’ll have to excuse the sun flare here, it looks like I’ve lost an eye, but it was the only picture I had to show the back! The breeze was a welcome relief to our current heat and it blew my skirt just enough to show the bias 😉

I added the elastic to the back of the waist per the pattern to bring it in a bit and I am really happy with the finished product. I will try the gathered skirt next time and will also give it a try all in knit! It’s a great basic shape that you can personalise with your fabric choice.

This is my standard “uniform”! I wear dresses a lot because they don’t require finding 2 matching wardrobe pieces and they look like you have made a big effort (when you haven’t at all)!

My standard styling is sandals or heels and a statement necklace. My shoe and costume jewellery collections are pretty extensive (sshhhh)! A funky necklace and shoes dresses up any outfit.

I’d love to hear what you think of my Angie! I am lucky enough to have a copy of the awesome Angie pattern to give away to one of you! Just leave me a comment here on this blog post, follow me on instagram and I’ll choose a random winner on Friday!

Knickers With a Twist – Day 5 – The Hack

Well if we are being completely honest, every day of this challenge (apart from Day 1) has been a hack for me haha! I have tweaked and tweaked and come full circle and the pattern looks a little more like the original again! You’ll be pleased to know I have worked it out finally… 🙈 The main issues that arose on Day 1 came from the width of the crotch at the front being too wide and the width of the scrundies overall was a bit too wide ( I made the large and I was in between the medium and the large).

I of course tweaked too many things at once and found myself having to take a deep breath and start back at the beginning. I worked out (by trying on my first pair and my fave store bought undies) that the width at the back of the crotch was not wide enough and I hadn’t really considered that in all my tracing and snipping! So I got to this point and decided to make swimmer bottoms, but after discovering this there is to be a “final” version again next!

As you can see from my notes I added 1cm in width for a seam allowance around the leg holes when using elastic for undies or swimmers, but leave the pattern as is when adding bands.

I made these the full height of the pattern (which is equivalent to where they would end with bands), then added a 3″ waist band (which adds 1.5″ to the height).

I didn’t have any swimwear lining but I had gold spandex that I’d picked up in a remnant bin a long time ago so I used that to line them and as the crotch lining. The spandex I used is sooooo gorgeous! I have a box of awesome spandex I picked up super cheap from a dance wear supplier and I didn’t realise it at the time but I think they were in the process of clearing out to shut their business down. I got close to 50 metres and I planned on making loads of Boo pins and skater dresses for my girls, but I have not made a thing with it yet until these!

This print goes with so many of my swimmer tops so I am set now. I am not sure how the metallic fabric will fare with a lot of swimming and washing but I will look pretty schmancy on the sand for now…

So this was meant to be my final post, but in the interests of perfecting the pattern, I will come back soon with my final pair! Then I will be able to cut into my Orinoco fabric 😍

Make sure you join in with the #knickerswithatwist hashtag on instagram and enter the rafflecopter giveaway from Orinoco Designs Custom Fabric!

Now as with all good Blog Tours, we have a giveaway for you!

You really have to enter. Who doesn’t love free fabric, especially beautiful Orinoco Custom Knit Fabric!!!

Look at the new Summer Vibes range ❤

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Also make sure you check in all week and go see what Jess at Tea Dust & Stitches and Katie at Katie Makes a Dress have made!

Knickers With a Twist – Day 4 – Woven

So todays post had to include woven fabric! Well that’s a bit tricky when we are working with a form fitting knit underwear pattern. I decided to add a woven front panel to ensure the pattern would still work well enough with just a little tweak and not a whole rewrite. I hope that won’t be considered cheating!

I chose a cotton sateen which has some stretch in it to make my job even easier. It is only in one direction so I added a little extra height in the front to compensate as well as a little bit extra in width to account for the reduced stretch.

I used black cotton lycra for the rest of these, which is super comfortable.

I love this snake skin sateen, I plan on making some shorts for my daughter from this fabric, it’s very cool!

If I wasn’t chasing my tail this week (funny turn of phrase given our current knickers challenge), I might have been a little more adventurous here… I’m squeezing in a tiny bit of sewing every day to keep up to date, but every time I think I am catching up I feel my sanity just slip from my grasp!

I’ve been wearing my knickers every day and have decided after thorough testing they need another tweak 😘 So stay tuned for tomorrow! Which in the spirit of the week I’ve had might yet be posted after midnight again {hangs head in shame} 🙈

Make sure you join in with the #knickerswithatwist hashtag on instagram and enter the rafflecopter giveaway from Orinoco Designs Custom Fabric!

Now as with all good Blog Tours, we have a giveaway for you!

You really have to enter. Who doesn’t love free fabric, especially beautiful Orinoco Custom Knit Fabric!!!

Look at the new Summer Vibes range ❤

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Also make sure you check in all week and go see what Jess at Tea Dust & Stitches and Katie at Katie Makes a Dress have made!