• About Me

    I’ve been sewing for about 7 or so years now. I mostly spend my time making dresses, evening gowns, coats & jackets. Lately I’ve really been enjoying learning about vintage techniques & couture techniques, & applying them in what I make. When I'm not sewing, I love to be baking & cooking for my friends & family. For years I loved baking cakes & making fancy desserts, but recently I’ve become more & more interested in savoury dishes. Who am I kidding – if looks tasty, I want to make it & eat it! I keep this blog to keep a record of what I’ve made, how I made it, what worked, what didn’t. I hope that others gain some value from the information I post here.

Laurel Top

A few weekends ago I felt like making some new tops. Colette Patterns had just released their new Laurel pattern. So I thought I’d try it out. I used a vintage cotton for this top, it has a nice weight to it making it perfect for an Autumn top. The pattern came together quite easily … Read more

Instructions for Vivienne Westwood Inspired Skirt - Orchids In May

DIY Vivienne Westwood Inspired Skirt

Yesterday I said, I’d post some more information about how I made my Vivienne Westwood inspired skirt, so here it is; I started by folding the tartan in half, selvedge to selvedge, I had a piece of tartan that was 1.5m wide & 0.8m long. The diagram below helps explain the basics of what I … Read more

Vivienne Westwood Inspired Skirt - Orchids In May

Vivienne Westwood Inspired Skirt

Recently I’d been oogling Vivienne Westwood tartan skirts online. I had small section of wool tartan – about1-1.5m of it, so I thought why not give it a go & try to make one. This is what I ended up making. The wool tartan came from my husband’s grandmother’s collection. I’m not sure where she got it … Read more

Little Black Dress - Orchids in May

Into the Archive: My Little Black Dress

I guess I’ve been sewing for quite a while now, (since mid-2005). Every now & then one of my friends will ask me how I made something & then after I’ve explained it to them, they follow up with, ‘I could never do that’. To be fair, if you’ve never sewn before it would be … Read more

Red & Navy Silk Brocade Dress - Orchids in May

This dress was the fabric’s fault

I made this dress to wear to a friend’s wedding in March. The red & navy silk brocade was a new purchase, but everything else was made with scraps & remnants already in my stash. The side drape is made with the rayon wool blend that I used for my navy strapless dress, the silk … Read more

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A Fabric Obsession

Have you ever walked past a fabric store & seen the most amazing fabric OF ALL TIME? Have you walked in to take a closer look, spent a good 5 mins looking at it, before walking around the store pretending to look at other things while really all your thinking is, ‘I don’t need that … Read more

Grey, Brown and Cream Silky Dress - Orchids in May

A new dress just for the sake of it.

So I wrote this post 13 months ago. For a dress I made about 14-16 months ago. I don’t know when exactly I made it, but it was sometime during the summer of 2011-2012. But I never got around to taking photos of the dress to go with the post. This probably gives you some … Read more

LoungeDress1

Side Projects

When working on something like my Valentino copy dress, I often end up completing quite a few smaller side projects at the same time. This is just because sometimes I want to sew something that can be finished quickly & isn’t too much of a challenge. Some times it works out quite well, for a … Read more

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Blue Chiffon Dress: Draping & Drafting the Overlay

The pattern for the chiffon overlay for this dress was simple & complicated at the same time. To be honest it was beyond my basic flat pattern making skills, so I decided to use a combination of drafting & draping to create the top section. First I cut out a piece of fabric (that based … Read more

Gown-Almost Done02

Blue Chiffon Dress: Yes, there’s actually been some progress

The last month has been a bit manic, but in between all of the festive fun I’ve managed to squeeze in some work on my Valentino Copy Dress, in fact so much that it’s almost finished! OK so the photo was taken at night & the lighting isn’t that great, AND the overlay is in … Read more

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