The Dress Developer

Before midsummer finally breaks out here, I took quick photos of my new bathrobe. Ok, new is a bit relative, because it has been in use for a few weeks, even when the seam allowances were not all covered with bias tape. : D

I sewed them on by hand little by little, and that took a couple of TV evenings. I put the pattern together with the construction kit. If you want to sew it up, you can use this configuration and change it according to your wishes.

I've been thinking a lot lately about which direction this website should take. When developing patterns, there are things that I enjoy more and things that I enjoy less. Not surprising.

Nonetheless, I run this website primarily as a hobby, so I think it is adequate to think if I can get rid of some of the less fun things.

I love knitwear. Unfortunately, what I don't love is knitting. I can knit and purl, it looks pretty neat, but it always takes sooooo long for me that bigger projects are out of the question. Hats and scarves - doable. Sweaters or cardigans? Help no!

Sometimes you can also find beautiful knitted fabrics by the meter in fabric shops. Far too seldom, in my humble opinion, but they do exist. So I built a suitable pattern and sewed two sweaters as test objects.

It's October again now. Madness. I have a few new patterns as good as finished, but to be honest I am a little lacking the motivation for the time-consuming "odds and ends" such as markings, special cases, photos, graphics and not to forget the instructions.

Somehow I thought for the last few days that it would be really great to hear something from you, the users of this site. I mean, I can see in my statistics that you create patterns. I also see the numbers rise. But I don't really know: Do you like what I'm doing here? Does everything work with the patterns? Id there an error i never noticed? Do any of you have a really good idea for the site?

So I put together a very small survey. You would really help me a lot if you took a few minutes to do it. As a small incentive, I will raffle one of my paid patterns among the participants. ;) The survey will remain active until the end of October.

And here is the survey

Let's see, when did I announce my project "medieval outfit"? Oh, April! Well that took a while until I could show the first results. I have to admit that I kept putting the whole thing aside. The first part of my outfit is now finally finished, and I even sewed completely by hand. It's an amazingly relaxing evening activity after a day at the computer. At least I think so.

Historical sewing patterns are still something completely new to me. I try to be authentic, but with the best will I am not an expert. So if I misrepresent something here, please correct me. ;)

I'm working on some pretty complex patterns and kind of needed a break. So I thought: what is the simplest sewing pattern? Okay, I can think of several things. A skirt with an elastic waistband, for example. Ultimately, it became a blouse with kimono or bat sleeves. No closure, no dividing seams, no attached sleeves. The neckline is finished with a facing, but a bias tape is also possible, then you only have to cut out a single pattern piece.

Poppy is a nice cut for patterned fabrics, I think. You don't have to cut motifs apart.

Last year I fell in love with historical sewing videos on YouTube. The channels of Bernadette Banner and Morgan Donner are particularly noteworthy. Even though I will probably never have such endless patience when sewing by hand, I would like to try something like this. It's definitely miles beyond my comfort zone, but I want to see how far I can get. What are the differences to modern styles? Maybe I can also learn something.

Bad weather, right? One storm chases the next. I need cozy clothes. For example a new hoodie. I don't really want to take off my new "Dandelion" hoodie anymore.

What is a "tailor’s ham" please? Never heard?

Correct pressing is very important when sewing, and such a pressing pillow be of great help, for example to iron darts softly. By pressing over the pillow, the fabric can be brought more into shape.

You can easily sew such a tailor’s ham yourself, a few scraps of fabric are enough for that.

The year is coming to an end, and before we all retire on our well-deserved Christmas holiday, I have prepared a little present for you: the skirt pattern "Amana".