Hi Everyone,
Welcome to the first newsletter of the New Year, and I hope that whatever your situation, 2022 will be happy, creative and kind.
Here’s a photo of the Craft of Clothes staff Christmas break-up party. We partied hard all afternoon!
Ah, the realities of being a one-woman business.
I don’t always make New Year’s resolutions, but I’ve resolved to go through my wardrobe. For Christmas I received Paris Street Style - A guide to effortless chic by Thomas/Veysset, which is full of young slim women wearing high heels and designer/vintage clothes. While Paris street style is waaaay far and away from my life here, the book has motivated me to alter things I no longer wear so that I’ll wear them again.
After being kept out for nearly two years, Covid finally arrived in our relatively isolated (Australian) country area, just in time for Christmas. At the same time, the weather got really hot, too hot to be outdoors long, so either way we’ve spent a lot of time over New Year indoors playing games, doing craft and watching TV. Quite a lot of TV, actually.
New zero waste pattern
I have a new zero waste pattern, a cloth doll with a low/zero waste wardrobe of clothes. Read more about this pattern here; it’s currently 25% off in my shop.
It could be a good holiday sewing project to make for a small person in your life :)
Some things you might enjoy
How to transform a pair of sweatpants into a windcheater (Instagram).
Is zero waste making inroads into other areas of pattern cutting? A zero waste quilt book came out in November.
A beautiful soothing video of sewing a zero waste doll (not mine) entirely by hand. 10.45mins. (Thank you for this link, Heather.)
Some ideas for natural dyeing from The Barefoot Dyer.
The Pantone colour of the year for 2022 has been announced - it’s Very Peri, sort of a periwinkle blue/violet, and Pantone gives some suggestions on how to combine it with other colours.
A comparison of natural fibre fillings for toys.
Have you seen temperature blankets? A long-term project, where you design according to the daily weather. Here’s an example, with a temperature embroidery too.
Hortense Mitchell Acton’s Callot Soeurs gowns, packed away in trunks for years, are shown here alongside paintings and photos of them being worn by her.
Behind the scenes of Cinderella's transforming costumes. (13mins) Magical!
After reading this post on making buttons from milk plastic, Karen-in-the-comments thoughtfully alerted me to milk plastic buttons that are now being made in England.
On the blog lately
Free pattern: water bottle holder, which you can quickly make from a jeans leg.
A short post of thoughts on toys.
Introducing my new zero waste pattern, a cloth doll with a wardrobe of low/zero waste clothes.
The blog is on annual holidays until the end of January.
From the blog archives
How I do the drawings for sewing pattern instructions.
Overlocking: a perfect beginning and end (a tutorial).
Cheers and very best wishes for 2022!