Scattered Links

Because there’s way more awesomeness on the t’internets than footnotes can handle.

I had to start with this.

The thousand word version of awesome.

SophieB is a self taught eco-sewist. She refashions pure awesomeness out of second-hand and thrifted gear and she does it in (bilingual) style. Words don’t do this justice so I’ll let the images speak for themselves. Sophie has thoughtfully put together a free refashioning mag chock full of garment and styling inspiration that I highly recommend you check out (the apron dress and nautical tee are my favourites).

Audrey Hepburn elegance with a touch of masculine tailored style.

Speaking of mags, Thea of Neu4Bauer fame has just released the second issue of Sister Magazine.

Look at all the (softly lit) fun you can have in an apron!

Sister is an eclectic mix of art/ craft/ design/ recipes/ diy/ fitness/ recipes and some good old-fashioned entrepreneurship coverage for a thoroughly satisfying (non-bedtime) read. It also has a lot of free patterns. Issue one had a pattern+ how to for a basic pencil skirt, issue two features a bomber jacket, an apron and lots of recipes + diys like paper/ plastic flowers and embellishments.

This issue also features interviews with Rachel Ball of elephantine and Ari Seth Cohen of Advanced Style (the guy has a book out, wishlist it for a Mother’s day/birthday gift). Take a moment to check it out!

More style inspiration this week from Laetitia of Une fille, des fils et de envies, Laetitia has sewn up a handmade wardrobe to cover every day of the year. And the best part? All the fabric she uses is thrifted or consists of remnants from op shops and second hand stores.

The handmade perfection of it all..

Laetitia also sews for her little ones, read all about it at her blog (in French so you might want to go here for the Google Translate version).

Found some cool and easy makes for small gifts this week: a really cute Boys Scout-style sewing kit (it’s basically a rectangle with another rectangle sewn down for pockets and straps with buckles on the outside) that would be a quick make from remnants and a really cool gift for that special person in your life (the one that keeps begging you to spend your precious sewing-time making repairs on stuff they could get done at the mall).

The perfect gift for a wedding photographer.

This ostentatious (Carl’s words not mine) camera strap is also a fairly do-able make (probably better for smaller cameras rather than heavy-weight DSLRs) – a strip of soft leather and a strip of lace trim (with interfacing sandwiched in between) and buckled straps at the ends.

And finally, because you asked, instructions for using a narrow hemmer (aka rolled hem foot). These are for the Brother narrow hem foot (I use it to seal all inside seams, it rocks!) and I’ve uploaded them under fair use guidelines (the original was in three languages, I found a mono-language version, scanned that in and replaced the Polish text with English).

If you’re still confused here’s my short and easy version-

Cut off the seam allowance to the level the foot can roll (usually 3-5 mm)
If you’re sewing something circular like a hem/ arm scye, stuff a bit of fabric into the curl of the foot, enough to overlap the edge of the fabric over the bump on the left of the foot
Set your needle to centre or 2-3 mm right of the centre
Sew while carefully keeping the overlap of fabric over the left bump
If you’re sewing straight seams (I use this foot to finish all inner seams) cut off excess seam allowance as in 1, make 3 little stitches from one end, backstitch then lift the needle, remove the fabric, grab both bobbin thread and spool thread, hook through foot curl and tug till fabric enters the curl. Proceed as in 3.

Oh, and I’m hosting two giveaways this month so you might want to give those a try..

All images used with permission or under fair use guidelines. All images remain copyright of their original owners.