December 2024
The Craft of Clothes staff Christmas party, a new pattern, and some links you'll enjoy
Hi Everyone!
Welcome to the December newsletter, and a special hello to new subscribers.
December means the annual Craft of Clothes staff Christmas party, which consists of only one person (me) as I’m just a one-woman business. Sometimes a chicken comes too. But my family joined me for a drink this year as they have all helped me in different ways.
The official drink was orange electrolyte or water, and the dress code was “festive”. Mr H and I wore sewing themed t-shirts.
2024 has been a really hard year as I’ve tried to keep my little business afloat while living with long covid. I thank you all for ordering patterns and books, reading the things I write, and staying in touch.
New Pattern
I have a new zero waste pattern. It’s a belt bag that slips onto a belt, and is a great little pattern for offcuts of denim.
It’s in my shop now. Please enjoy 25% off for the next month.
Read more about this pattern and how it came about in this blog post.
15% off holiday sewing patterns
To help you with holiday sewing, I’ve picked six patterns from my shop which would make good pressies. Please enjoy 15% off until December 31st. The code is ZWGIFTS and this is the link.
Feel free to pass the code onto your friends - it’s not just for newsletter subscribers. You can share this newsletter with this button:
A reminder that there are also free patterns on my website and most are fairly quick to make.
Holiday reading
After a dry spell of “nothing to read in the house”, some beauties have arrived from the library. I’ve only had a flip through them, but look forward to some in-depth reading.
Top row:
Bojangi - Design and techniques in Korean textile art by Sara Cook. Bojangi is a traditional Korean wrapping cloth made from patchworked fabric scraps. This book looks like a good mix of how-to and inspo.
Patchwork - A world tour by Catherine Legrand. Beautiful photographs with plenty of close-ups, describing patchwork traditions in many countries.
Bottom row:
Life Meets Art - Inside the homes of the world’s most creative people by Sam Lubell. An interior design book showing a single interior photo from the home of an artist, author, fashion designer, musician, architect, homewares designer, or painter.
Handywoman by Kate Davies. Kate was an academic, had a stroke at the age of 36, then became a knitwear designer, author and business woman. Part-memoir, part-celebration of the power of making.
The Art of Zero Waste by SKFK. This isn’t from the library - a kind friend sent me a copy. It’s a booklet published by SkunkFunk, a clothing brand in Spain who were early adopters of zero waste patterncutting. This book describes their ethos and has the cutting layout for every zero waste garment they’ve made over the years. I look forward to trying some and will report back on my blog in the new year. (The booklet is available in English, French, Spanish and Basque, but unfortunately Aussie and British addresses aren’t accepted on their shopping cart.)
In zero waste news…
Podcast listeners: tune in to The Seamless Leadership podcast to hear Australian industry leaders and changemakers tell the story of what it takes to build a new circular system for clothing. (Thank you Sara for the link)
Zero waste textile practices are addressed in Muriel Chamberlain's (highly readable) Submission to the Australian Productivity Commission Circular Economy Inquiry.
Queensland-based tech firm BlockTexx has won the InnovationAus 2024 Awards for Excellence, with a solution to significantly improve the ability to recycle polyester. BlockTexx has designed, built and commissioned the world’s first commercial-scale chemical recycling facility which can feed in hard-to-recycle polyester and cotton blends and deconstruct it, separating the cotton from the polyester.
Some things you might enjoy
An interview with shoe designer Jimmy Choo, with some great advice for new designers starting out.
Two wheelchair users give design advice for what to wear in a wheelchair. @the.annegirl shares a bunch of very practical ideas, and @mason_branstrator talks about the clothing details that make life easier.
Grandma with chunky sunglasses becomes unlikely fashion icon.
Creating art from jeans. (Thank you songliz for this one)
A quick easy tip for posing for photos.
The movie Empire Waist is about an overweight, insecure teen with a talent for fashion. Watch the trailer here. It looks really fun.
Fashion plates from the 1950s to 1960s come alive with AI.
Franklin Habit's improvement plan for his bedtime attire: a sewing quest. This made me smile :)
I would love to visit The Couture Pattern Museum in California. It houses a collection of rare couture patterns, original designs, and costume pieces.
Aussies: Specialty Pleaters in Melbourne is hosting a pleat workshop on 8th December.
On the blog lately
A roundup of the past month’s blog posts from my website, lizhaywood.com.au.
Feel free to subscribe to my blog for weekly posts direct to your inbox, however, if you don’t need more emails in your life, I always do a roundup here.
Three Random Tips for Colour Choices, with more thoughtfully added by people in the comments section.
Making Cris Wood’s Cinch Belt, to go with a zero waste dress. Actually, I ended up making two.
How to Cut a Jacket Lining When You Don’t Have a Pattern - a tutorial to bookmark for this situation.
Introducing the New Belt Bag Pattern.
The blog (ie me) is now on holidays until the end of January.
From the blog archives
Creating the cover for A Year of Zero Waste Sewing. A lot of fun!
As this is the last newsletter for the year, I thank you for reading and send warm wishes for your Christmas, holiday and New Year celebrations.
Cheers!
Liz x
I wonder if Skunkfunk would let you buy a box of the books, and you could resell/distribute them in Australia? At a little over $10 AUD, I'm sure they'd fly off the shelves - to your subscribers, libraries, and educational institutions.