In a rather roundabout way, I made a new pincushion. I wanted to fill it with something that might sharpen my disappointingly dull new glass-head pins. I happened to have some fine sand, so I thought I’d give that a…
Blog Archives
Zig-zag Treadle Sewing Machine
I learned to sew on my mother’s treadle sewing machine when I was about seven years old. I thought our neighbor’s electric zig-zag sewing machine was super cool, so as a teenager I saved up my babysitting earnings and bought…
Easy half scale dress form
The dress form cover pattern I have on Craftsy can also be stuffed to make a dress form. Use firm non-stretch fabric to make the cover. Sew the pattern as in the instructions, but with one modification: Instead of leaving…
Sewing Jeans
I’m now voluntarily and gratefully unemployed, my kids are growing out of their clothes, we moved to a smaller house, and I don’t have room for my huge fabric stash. What is this a recipe for? Sewing kids’ clothes! And…
Posted in Sewing
Home-made serger thread spools
A year or two ago I came across a tutorial for dividing serger thread onto empty spools to avoid having to buy so many cones of thread for small projects, and I thought – “What a great idea! Why didn’t…
Posted in Sewing
Another half-scale dress form
So, I guess I got a little obsessed with the half scale dress forms. I made another version that you print out on card stock and glue together, then cover with paper mache or kraft paper tape. The paper dress…
Printable French Curves
I was playing around with Inkscape and I ended up making a set of printable French curves. I really like how the curve turned out. I made full size, half scale, 3/8 scale, 0.39 scale (1 cm = 1 inch),…
My take on custom dress forms
My first custom dress forms were made with duct tape many years ago. They weren’t that great and eventually stretched out of shape. Later I learned about paper tape dress forms. I had a couple of those made for me…
Posted in Patternmaking, Sewing
Pants form tutorial
I added a tutorial for a 3/8 scale pants form, similar to the half-scale dress form instructions.
My first try at retting flax
It looks like the weather should be fairly sunny for the next few days, so I think I’ll try water retting some of the flax that I grew last summer. There is way too much mildew around here, so I…
Posted in Growing and processing flax
GrowYourOwnClothes Etsy Shop
Grow Your Own Clothes 