Self Assembly Required

DIY dressmaking + crafts with Emily

Monthly Roundup #3

April has come and gone so here’s another monthly round up!

In the news…

– April has been wedding month for me and I’m not even getting married! I totalled it up at 7 outfits that I made for events throughout the month – all for a variety of different people and events. It’s really tested my sewing skills to the limit! It was definitely worth all the stress when everyone left happy!

– I went to a sewing blogger event at Fashion Capital, a clothing factory in North London (they make stuff for ASOS). They run a technical academy alongside the factory where you can learn professional sewing and pattern cutting skills and they also have an online fabric store too!

It was really interesting to see how the factory worked – they have the capabilities to do everything from design and pattern cutting up to production on small and large scales. It was really quite impressive to see! There’s also the fact that this was a great example of fast fashion not coming at the cost of the workers which is always great to see.

– It was party time at The New Craft House launch party! On an evening where London hit 28 degrees Celsius, it was the perfect evening for some G+Ts with sewing friends!

Rosie and Hannah recently upgraded their studio space in East London to a gorgeous place under the arches in London Fields. They run lots of workshops here from lingerie and swimwear to jeans and bodice fitting. (I’ll be attending a Jeans masterclass here soon with none other than Heather from Closet Case Patterns!).

– You’ve probably seen that we had a little baby shower for Megan AKA Pigeon Wishes a couple of weeks ago at Gabby’s (crazy/amazing) house and I returned there a couple of weeks later to record an episode of The Stitchers Brew podcast! I was paired up with the lovely Jen AKA Ginger Thread Girl and we had a lovely time drinking tea, eating cake and nattering on about all things sewing!

I’m not sure when that’s going to air but I think I’m going to be cringing through the entire thing when I get round to hearing it!

I’ve managed to get my Martine jumpsuit hack video tutorial up on YouTube this month! This 2 part tutorial will guide you through pattern alterations and sewing the mashup of the Tilly and the Buttons Marigold and Bettine patterns. You can click here and subscribe if you want to be in the loop when new videos go up!

What I’ve been listening to/ reading/ watching…

Famous in Love on Amazon Prime, America’s Next Top Model on Sky- it’s been a month of guilty pleasures… But sometimes I think you need that mindless TV on in the background!

I’ve been listening to the new Elton John Revamp album where some awesome artists cover the classics. Florence + the Machine’s Tiny Dancer and P!nk’s Bennie and the Jets are firm favourites!

What I’ve been learning…

Part of the tour at Fashion Capital included a short masterclass with pattern cutter Claudette Joseph who specialises in something called TR (transformational reconstruction) pattern cutting. This is a Japanese technique developed by Shingo Sato (check it out on YouTube) which creates some astounding garments. We had a play around with a bodice technique.

Which went from this…

To this…

It’s definitely something that’s piqued my interest so you might be seeing some of this on the blog in future!

If you want to give it a go yourself, Claudette runs weekend classes which you can check out here.

What have you been up to this month? I feel like I’ve been really rather busy!!!

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3 Comments

  1. I felt like I’d run a marathon reading your post and all that you’ve been up to this month! I don’t know how I missed your youtube upload – I’m subscribed and even have that little bell alert on! I’ve been making summer dresses – which may not sound like all that much but it is for me ๐Ÿ™‚ I only had one summer dress (I tend to wear skirts and tunics with shorts in the summer) so I made up the Eucalypt pattern by Megan Nielsen and really fiddled with it adding darts etc. I ended up making this up in a tunic too and love both of them – my second one has been a Farrow by Grainline which has turned into an adjustment extraordinaire! I’m just ready to cut it in a gorgeous blue linen ๐Ÿ™‚ I’ve also been taking classes with Alexandra Morgan (she has some wonderful youtube videos as well) here in Victoria on pattern making essentials which has been so much fun ๐Ÿ™‚

    1. Lol. I had a very busy April! Sounds like youโ€™ve got lots going on as well! โ˜บ๏ธ

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