Tips For Sewing a Winter Dress From a Summer Pattern

November 9, 2018 · 1 Comment

Tips For Sewing a Winter Dress From a Summer Pattern

When you find a pattern you like, do you make lots of versions of it in different fabrics?

It’s taken me a while to find my comfy spot clothes wise, but now I’ve found it, I have lots of vintage style things in my wardrobe that I love to wear!

The Cherry Blossom Dress that I used for the sewalong in the summer is the pattern I’ve used as a starting point. I currently have 4 versions of that dress in my wardrobe (admittedly 3 of them don’t fit any more!), plus one that’s very similar but has a different neckline, a sundress and a halter neck version. I also have a couple of circle skirts and a circle tutu.

It might be my imagination, but it seems to me that there are more patterns (and more tutorials) for sewing summery things than for winter clothes.

It’s an odd thing. I love making things from pretty cotton fabric, but that doesn’t mean I want to be mooching about in shop bought things in boring colours when the weather’s cold.

There’s plenty of choice when it comes to warmer fabrics, so why the lack of choice when it comes to patterns?

One answer to this is to take one of your favourite summer patterns and adapt it a bit so you can make something wintery from the same pattern.

To do this, there are a few things you’ll need to take into consideration. So here are some tips for sewing a winter dress from a summer pattern.

Using a Summer Pattern to Make a Winter Dress

Fabric

When sewing a winter dress from a summer pattern, the first, most obvious thing to consider is fabric. You don’t want to be shivering in a little cotton dress when there’s snow on the ground!

Cotton prints are an obvious choice for dress making. There’s a huge choice of colours and prints, it’s easy to sew and it washes well.

Yet there’s plenty of choice when it comes to warmer things too! Flannel is nice for wintery things (not just pyjamas!), velvet, tartan and suiting, especially a wool blend suiting are all options. There isn’t as much choice but there’s still a good range of colours.

So if you’re sewing a winter dress from a summer pattern, leave the cottons to one side and have a look at warmer fabrics!

Colours

So many wintery clothes seem to be in drab colours, but there’s nothing like wearing something bright and cheerful for scaring off the winter blues!

There’s also no law that says you can’t wear pastel colours either if you really want to! They’re perfectly good wintery colours, especially if you combine them with a grey cardi or something sparkly.

Tartan comes in a variety of colours and size of check. If you’re not feeling brave enough for powder blue or a bright purple and orange combo, a mild tartan might be a good place to start until you’re feeling braver.

Style

With a little bit of imagination, you’ll be able to work out which of your favourite summer patterns will lend themselves well to colder weather.

A halter neck dress might not seem like the best of ideas, but made from something shiny with a foofy bit underneath, and a sparkly cardi or a shawl, you could wear it for a Christmas party.

A sleeveless cotton dress could be made instead from wool suiting and worn over a long sleeved top.

Other things might be less suitable though, so you’ll need to consider how you’re going to wear it and decide whether you need to adapt the pattern.

How Would You Wear It?

Some outfits can be adapted easily to suit the seasons.

Just because a dress doesn’t have sleeves doesn’t mean that you can’t wear it in winter! So when sewing a winter dress from a summer pattern, think about how you’d wear it.

Things to consider:

Will you wear something under it?
Will you wear a cardi/jumper/shawl?
Would it work with boots or would it be better with shoes? I prefer brown boots with pretty things.
Would you wear it with tights? Or leggings? Or both?!

Length

If you’re worried about having cold legs, you could make the skirt a bit longer. If you’re going to wear it with leggings over tights, you could even make it a bit shorter!

It Might Need Lining

Some warmer fabrics might be itchy, especially if it is wool or a wool blend. Being warm on a cold day is a good thing but being driven by an itchy outfit isn’t!

Adding a lining can make everything much more comfortable.

Even if your pattern doesn’t have instructions for making a lining, it’s easy enough to do. Just make a second version of your dress out of lining fabric with a slightly shorter skirt.

Then join the lining to the dress at the neckline and at the armholes. You might want to add some stitches at the waist too. I added a lining to this sundress, not because it was itchy but so that I could get a neat neckline without having to use facings.

You could also add a lining to make your dress warmer. This is especially good if you’ve got your heart set on some beautiful fabric but it’s totally unsuitable for winter because it’s just not warm enough!

Adapting the Pattern

I’ve already mentioned the length, but there are other ways in which you could adapt the pattern to make it more suitable for colder weather.

If it has short sleeves, you could either leave the sleeves off so that you could wear a long sleeved top underneath, or make them longer.

You could also change the shape of the neckline or the back of the dress if you’re worried about being cold!

Allow a Bit More For Seams and Ease

Another thing to consider when sewing a winter dress from a summer pattern is that you might have to allow a bit more for seams and ease.

Using heavier fabric will probably result in bulkier seams. Although some fabrics won’t fray any more than cotton does, so might fray quite a bit, so cutting the seams right down might not be an option.

Also if you’re planning on wearing your dress over something, you’ll need to allow a bit more for that too.

The best thing to do is to try it on while your making it (always good advice!), and make sure you’re wearing whatever you’re planning on wearing underneath it when it’s finished. Don’t trim the seams until you’re sure it fits!

If you fancy having a go at different kinds of seams (lapped seams are good for heavier fabric), you might like to read this post here.

Other Easy Ways to Change the Dress

You could:
Add a bow or a sash.
Sew broderie anglaise to the bottom of the skirt (I did this here).
Add different coloured sections to the skirt.
Sew different bits in different coloured fabric
Add some embroidery.
Make a foofy underskirt.

So what do you think? Do you have a favourite pattern that you’ve reused? Would you consider sewing a winter dress from a summer pattern? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

8 Crochet Hacks to Make Crocheting Easier

March 15, 2018 · Leave a Comment

8 Crochet Hacks to Make Crocheting Easier

Who doesn’t love a hack or 8?

Here are some crochet hacks. If you’re a beginner, these will help you to improve your crocheting and even give you more time to do the hobby you love!

If you are more experienced, you might still find one or two crochet hacks that you haven’t thought of!

Learn How to Make a Magic Circle

When you’re crocheting in the round, sometimes starting off with 4 chains is fine. But sometimes, you don’t want a hole in the middle. I discovered this when I tried to crochet a bag!

A magic circle means that the hole in the centre is much smaller. This is a video tutorial showing how to make one. It’s also a useful thing to know how to do if you like to crochet soft toys as you won’t lose the stuffing through the hole!

Join As You Go

Making the granny squares for the blanket is fun. Sewing them all together is not so much.

If you learn how to join as you go, you can make a few squares, join them together, then make a few more until your blanket is completed. I’m doing this with a blanket I’m making, and I’m sure this is the main reason why I haven’t given up yet!

It also means that if you don’t actually know how many squares you need to make, you can just stop once the blanket is big enough.

Making a blanket in this way has the added benefit that you can keep the blanket on your lap while you’re making it, keeping your knees nice and warm!

Use Pencil Grips If You Don’t Have Ergonomic Hooks

Hooks with ergonomic handles cost more than the sort that don’t, but if you do a lot of crocheting, it can get uncomfortable and you might develop pain in your hands.

Ashlea from Heart, Hook, Home suggests using pencil grips instead.

If you’re not sure what pencil grips are, they’re those rubber or foam things teachers put on pencils sometimes to encourage children to hold a pencil properly.

They are very cheap (they’re here on Amazon. This is as affiliate link.), and you can just pop one on a crochet hook.

Store Your Hooks in a Pen Holder or a Crayon Roll

Once you start to acquire a collection of crochet hooks, you’ll need somewhere to keep them. I like to keep mine handy, safe and all together. It would be no good throwing them all in the box thing by the sewing machine as it’s a mess in there and they’d get lost!

My crochet hooks live in a Lego pen pot on the bookshelf above the sewing machine.

A plastic box would be another option, or you could make a crochet hook roll, similar to a crayon roll. There’s a tutorial here for a crayon roll that could be adapted for storing crochet hooks.

Use a Bowl For Yarn, Especially If You Have Toddlers or Cats

You can buy yarn bowls, which are bowls that have a notch in them and prevent the yarn from rolling all over the floor and being tangled up by your cat or your toddler! There are some lovely ones here on Etsy.

You don’t have to buy a special bowl though, unless you want to!

Just pop the yarn in a mixing bowl on the floor. I’ve seen pictures of bowls with bulldog clips on them to guide the yarn, colanders and shoe boxes with holes in them.

Learn to Read Visual Patterns

Sometimes it’s easier to figure out how to crochet bigger stitches from a diagram than it is from written instructions. If your having difficulties figuring out a particular stitch or pattern from a written pattern, a visual pattern might be more helpful.

Some of us are visual learners anyway, which means that we find it easier to absorb information if it’s presented to us in a visual form.

If you decide that you want to develop your own crochet patterns, sometimes drawing them out in diagram form first makes things easier, before writing that patterns out. And if you include the diagrams in the finished pattern, your readers will thank you for it!

Download Digital Patterns To Your Phone

Although you can still buy crochet patterns the old fashioned way in printed form, there are also lots of patterns out there that are digital.

You might still want to print these out, especially if you want to write on them.

But you can also download them to your phone and there are advantages to doing this too.

It means that you always have your crochet pattern with you! If you have a few minutes you don’t have to hunt for your pattern (as long as you can remember where your phone is!) and you don’t have to remember the pattern when you go out if you want to take your crochet with you.

It also means that broken printers, children who’ve used up all the paper, wind and rain won’t be able to stop you from crocheting wherever you are!

Keep Your Crochet in a Bag With Handles

Keeping your crochet in a bag with handles means that when you go out, you can grab the bag, hang it off your arm and crochet wherever you are.

The bag thing has meant that I have crocheted at the bus stop, while waiting for my boys to go into school and during days out that have involved tedious things like car museums.

Bonus Tips From the Facebook Page

Here are 2 more crochet hacks!

There’s a tip for making crocheted baskets firmer using sugar and water, and another for starting off a project with foundation single/ double crochet instead of a chain (there’s a tutorial here on One Dog Woof).

Do you have any other crochet hacks? Add them below in the comments!

Craft Hoarding: 8 Tips to Stop the Stuff From Taking Over

October 3, 2017 · 1 Comment

Craft Hoarding: 8 Tips to Stop the Stuff From Taking Over

Whether you have a whole room devoted to sewing, or whether your stuff is stashed behind the bedroom door, lots of us often find ourselves with same problem.

We find ourselves craft hoarding and It takes over.

The fabric pile becomes a mountain. The mountain expands and spawns more mountains. Drawers become full of stuff and boxes overflow. Chairs and tables become buried under half finished projects. Cupboards become so full we dare not open the door in case we release a vicious monster made from Amy Butler fabric squares, stray bits of elastic and selvedges we kept because somebody told us we shouldn’t throw them out.

Some people need tidiness to be creative, but some of us find that our creativity flourishes in a mess. However this is no good if you can’t get near your sewing machine because your craft hoarding tendencies mean your overflowing yarn basket is blocking the way!

So what can we can do to control the craft hoarding and stop the mess from taking over?

8 Tips For Keeping Your Craft Stuff Under Control

I have included some affiliate links.

1. Invest in some storage. It doesn’t need to be fancy or expensive! My fabric hoard lives in these boxes. They’re not pretty and it does make my bedroom feel a little bit like a storage facility, but it’s better than having a pile and at least it’s contained.

I also have some small plastic boxes that I use to store ribbon and other bits and pieces.

If you don’t have much of a budget for this kind of thing, there are plenty of things you can use for free. I use a large cardboard box covered in wrapping paper. Jam jars and shoe boxes are also good for storing things.

2. If it’s really bad, you might have to take some time to have a major sort out. If you’ve been craft hoarding for a while, a mess has probably been building up over time.

It can be intimidating to tackle a messy room, but even a messy corner can be off putting, especially if organising stuff is really not your thing.

So here’s a tip from the FlyLady: Take 15 minutes every day to have a go at it until it’s done. Keeping things tidyish is much easier than getting the stuff under control in the first place, so once things are sorted it will be easier to keep it that way.

3. Get rid of stuff you’re not going to use. This might be difficult, especially if you tend to be a bit of a hoarder generally. Be strict with yourself and answer honestly. Am I going to use this? If the answer is no, then get rid of it.

This doesn’t necessarily mean throwing it away! Maybe you have a friend or family member who would like it. Old people’s homes and community centres can often use craft supplies too.

4. Try not to buy more stuff until you’ve used up at least some of what you have. If you have a sort out, you might find that you have things that you’ve forgotten about. I found some magnetic snaps the other day after I’d bought some more because I thought I’d run out! If you’re able to keep things organised, you’ll know what you have.

If you have lots of fabric, plan some scrap projects and decide what you are going to make with any larger pieces you might have.

I know sometimes it’s difficult to cut into something that’s especially beautiful, but if you make something with it, at least it will be used and you’ll probably see it more. You’re not going to see it if it’s buried in a box or in a fabric mountain behind the bedroom door.

5. Avoid your favourite fabric shops. If you have issues with walking out of a fabric shop empty handed, maybe it’s best to avoid them for a bit until you get things under control.

6. Don’t buy anything on a whim. Have a project in mind for it first! This isn’t foolproof. You actually have to make the thing. But at least you won’t be adding to a pile of fabric that you like but don’t know what to do with.

7. Make some gifts for people. Now is a good time of year to be doing this with Christmas coming up. Alternatively, you could make some stuff as birthday presents or as gifts for your child’s teachers.

Also there are various charities that you can make things for. Dress a Girl Around the World is a charity that distributes dresses to girls and shorts to little boys in the developing world.

8. Open a shop on Etsy or get a stall at a craft fair. This way you’ll be able to recoup the cost of some of the stuff that you’ve bought! Just a word of warning: selling on Etsy takes some research if you want it to be a success. You’ll also find that some craft fairs are better than others, and you will need to pay a fee to sell at them.

Do you have any more suggestions for keeping the craft mess at bay? Add them in the comments!

And if you want to make a start on getting organised, I have a couple of free printables. One is for keeping track of your fabric, the other is for making a list of haberdashery bits and pieces you have. You can have them for free in exchange for an email address, just fill in the form below.

10 Ways to Use Sewing to Beat the Winter Blues

January 31, 2017 · 10 Comments

10 Ways to Use Sewing to Beat the Winter Blues

Christmas is over, but it is definitely still winter and spring seems a long way off. It’s dark and cold, the weather is mostly horrible and it might seem like there’s not much to look forward to. It’s easy for a bad case of the winter gloomies to set in, when all you want to do is wear your pyjamas and eat chocolate.

Sewing and other crafts are believed to help if you are feeling fed up, to such an extent that it is even being used as part of ongoing treatment for depression and PTSD. I wrote a post about this which you can read here.

So one of the best things you can do to beat the winter blues is to get making stuff!

I actually quite like winter. One of my favourite things is being tucked up at home and feeling cosy while it’s cold and nasty outside. The Danish have a word, hygge, which as far as I can make out means cosy times at home with friends and family. If you’re interested in finding out more about this, this is an excellent book which I read and thoroughly enjoyed. Plus the guy’s name is Mike Viking! This is an affiliate link.

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To beat the winter blues, I like to combine my favourite being cosy at home things with sewing!

So if winter is getting to you a little bit, here are some (mostly) sewing related tips to help you beat the winter blues.

Please note that if you are suffering from actual depression, you should probably visit your doctor as I am not qualified to give medical advice 🙂

1. Make something that will make going outside more bearable. Fresh air and exercise can make you feel better but you will not feel better if you are not wrapped up properly against the weather.

If you knit or crochet, you could make socks, a scarf or a hat. If you prefer sewing, you could sew a scarf or hat from snuggly fabric, or even a coat!

When we were in Norway in October it was cold. I didn’t see a single person in silly shoes, thin tights and a skimpy jacket more for decoration than for actual warmth. People dressed for the weather. Duvet coats, hats, scarves and warm boots. Cold weather is not so bad if you are dressed for it!

2. Make something to make being at home cosier. You could make some cushions. I just make covers and pop them over the existing cushions, then change them when I get bored or I want something summery instead. I made these reindeer cushions for Christmas but they’re fine for the rest of winter.

Another option is to make a cosy throw or blanket. Try fleece or another warm, woolly fabric if you are not a knitter.

One of my favourite things about winter is coming home, putting the lamps on, lighting the fire and snuggling up on the sofa with a blanket and a cup of tea. You can’t do that in the summer!

3. Make something for the kitchen. Another nice thing about winter is coming home to a casserole bubbling away in the slow cooker. A nice new pair of oven gloves, some pot holders or some embroidered tea towels could be just the thing to make spending time in the kitchen even better.

4. Make something for yourself to wear around the house. I’m not talking onsies here (although you could try if you wanted to!). Having cold feet is not fun, so you could make yourself some slippers. Or you could sew a jacket or cardigan to wear if you feel chilly at home.

5. Have a project to work on in the evenings or when you have a minute. Knitting and crochet are great for this. A patchwork quilt would be another option. Or if a quilt is too much, you could try some scrap projects. Preparing your scraps and planning how you are going to use them is a nice, calm thing that you can do in the evening.

6. Plan a big project. Having something to work towards can help to take your mind off things if you’re feeling a bit gloomy. You could make a fancy outfit or a jacket, or a big scrap or patchwork project. If you don’t feel up to making anything that’s going to take a long time, you could make something smaller, like a bag or a cushion. Make a big thing of it. Plan the colours (Design Seeds is great for colour schemes), choose the fabric and plan it all out. Long dark evenings and horrible weather provides the perfect excuse for staying at home and working on your project!

7. Dig out any unfinished projects from last year and resolve to finish them. Making decisions often makes us feel better. If you really don’t want to finish something, or know that you won’t, unpick it and put the pieces in your fabric collection.

8. Learn a new craft. Crochet is fun and easy. Wet felting is good too (there are kits here. This is an affiliate link) or you could try needle felting (also an affiliate link. I haven’t tried it but it’s on my list!). If you’ve tried knitting but didn’t got on with it, Norwegian knitting is much easier, especially when you’re knitting with 2 colours. There’s a video on YouTube here. The actual knitting starts at around 11-12 minutes. I have discovered that I am actually a knitter, I just had to find a way of doing it that worked for me 🙂 .

9. Have a sort out. There’s nothing like having a good rummage and finding things that you’d forgotten you had. And there’s nothing like the sense of satisfaction you gain when what was once an out of control mountain of mess that was spawning mini mountains of mess everywhere, is all neat and tidy and packed into boxes.

10. By a daffodil or another spring plant in a pot and make it a cosy. Early spring flowers are a great way to beat the winter blues! This crocheted cosy and this quilted one are actually for mugs, but they could be adapted to fit a plant pot.

With lots to keep you busy, the longer days and warmer weather will be back before you know it!

Linking up here.

Finding Space to Sew in a Small House

January 10, 2017 · 20 Comments

Finding Space to Sew in a Small House

Finding space to sew in a small house can be tricky, but it’s not impossible!

As someone who sews a lot, I know how much of a difference it makes when you can leave your sewing machine out.

Suddenly sewing for 10 minutes is an option. If you have to allow 10 minutes to get it out before you can start sewing, then clear up your sewing stuff and pack your machine away again at the end, you need to have a good chunk of time to make it worth it. And there’s no point if you know that people are going to need to sit down for dinner at the table you want to use in half an hour’s time!

With all the beautiful sewing rooms on Pinterest, it’s easy to feel that having a permanent space to sew not an option for you if you live in a small house or flat and if you don’t have the spare cash to splurge beautiful storage that all matches.

Well, I’m going to tell you a secret. You don’t need a whole room!

It’s true!

I sew all the time. We live in a fairly small house. There are 6 of us, plus the cat. There’s Lego everywhere, and usually piles of laundry. I can’t justify taking a whole room when the kids are already sharing.

So I don’t! Instead, I have a corner in the living room. I leave my sewing machine up and I have some space for sewing related stuff.

If you’re wondering where on earth my fabric is, it’s behind the bedroom door. I’ve shared my fabric mountain before and I’ve resolved to do something about it this year, as it’s started to spawn mini mountains elsewhere in the bedroom. That’s another blog post!

So what do you do if you need a space to sew but you don’t have the space, the furniture or the money? Here are some tips for you if you are struggling with finding space to sew in a small house.

Finding a Space

Like I said, your space to sew doesn’t need to be a whole room. You just need enough space to wedge yourself in with your sewing machine.

1. Do you have any space that you are not currently using that would be big enough for yourself and your sewing machine? Think hallway, landing, under the stairs, empty corner of bedroom/ living room.

2. Could you rearrange things a bit to make some space? My sewing area became free when we got new sofas and changed the layout in the living room.

If moving the furniture around won’t give you more space in that room, could you move some of it to a different room?

3. If you’re lucky enough to have a room or an area that doesn’t get used very often, you could use it for your sewing machine. Even if you have to pack it away every couple of weeks, that will still give you more sewing time than if you have to put things away before every meal time.

Furniture For Your Sewing Space

Lovely as it would be to spend a fortune on purpose built craft furniture, for lots of us it just isn’t an option. But like with whole sewing room myth, you don’t need bits of expensive furniture either!

My sewing desk thing is actually a computer table bought from Ikea 15 years ago. It became redundant when we swapped the enormous desktop computer for a laptop. At the time, I took it apart and stashed it down the side of a wardrobe.

When I need a table for my sewing machine, I remembered that I had this, so I got it out and put it back together! It had turned an unattractive shade of orange, but mercifully a couple of coats of Annie Sloan paint improved things quite a lot! There’s room for my sewing machine (and my legs!) and there are cubbies for storing sewing stuff. I do have to share it with the printer though.

The computer desk had a fold away section for the keyboard. I removed this and covered both sides in sticky backed plastic. One side looks like wood, the other side looks like wood painted white. I use it for photos for Instagram and it lives under the sofa when it’s not being used.

So here’s what you can do to find furniture for your sewing space.

1. Look at what you have already. You might be surprised to find that you already have something you can use. It doesn’t need to be fancy or perfect, it just needs to be big enough for your sewing machine and your legs.

2. If you really don’t have anything, try charity shops or junk shops. You might even find that somebody is throwing out something you could use! If it’s a horrible colour you can always paint it.

Storage

The sewing rooms on Pinterest all have beautiful storage. Every kind of caddy, box and container and beautiful co-ordinating colours, with sewing supplies tastefully and carefully organised. And if you don’t want to spend a fortune, well, you could take 2 months out of your life to make it all yourself!

Of course, most normal people probably don’t have the money or the time. Although you could make some stuff yourself (these little fabric boxes come together quite quickly), you’ll never use your sewing space if you take several months making stuff for it!

Instead, you could try these.

1. See what you have already. A bit of a sort out or some reorganisation might free up a basket or box or two. The basket where my wool lives was previously home to toiletries I was never going to use and other junk that I threw out or rehomed.

2. Cover cardboard boxes in pretty paper, fabric or sticky back plastic. My drawer is a cardboard box covered in wrapping paper. I reinforced the edges with sellotape.

3. Buy cheap plastic or cardboard boxes. I got some little plastic boxes from Wilko. They were £5 for 4. Or Tesco have Chinese takeaway sized plastic boxes at £2 for 8. These cardboard boxes from Amazon are £15 for 10. The sides are not very strong but the lids help them to keep their shape.

4. Be super thrifty and keep all your jars and tins! These will work for keeping buttons and ribbon safe.

If you’re trying to find space to sew at home, I hope you found this useful. If you have tips to add, please leave them in the comments! I’ll do my best to reply to all of them!