Monthly Archives: October 2015

The Holiday Shirt, Part 1

I’ve had to come to grips with the fact that I am a slow sewist.

It’s not worth delving deeply into the reasons why: I have a busy professional life, I spend a lot of time researching sewing techniques, I go out of my way to make projects complicated….

But the fact is that by the time I finish a project, it’s usually out of season. And sometimes projects can be delayed by more than a year because I’m tied up with some other project and cannot start a new one at the right time.

But right now I have the opportunity to make a holiday shirt, one I can wear to parties and occasions during the month of December.  Starting now, I have a hope of making my goal.

But first, let’s make matters complicated. Continue reading

The Road to Pants, Part 6

Originally this article was going to be the conclusion in the Pants series – the wearable muslin is completed and I’ve actually worn it out into the real world.  But there’s so much to talk about in terms of construction and evaluation, that I’m going to split it into two parts.

Today’s article will cover the construction aspects; tomorrow we’ll look at the finished result and talk about how it went.  I pretty much followed the construction techniques detailed by David Coffin in his book Making Trousers, and his Craftsy class Pant Construction Techniques, in the Details.  Any construction issues are my fault, not his! Continue reading