January 2024
The Holiday Edition
Hi Everyone!
Welcome to the January newsletter, and a special hello to new subscribers. I wish you a Happy New Year and hope 2024 brings peace and good health.
Undeniably, 2023 has been a difficult year business and health-wise. I’m now 19mths in with Long Covid, but have been virtually housebound for the past 3 with some sort of re-infection (Covid? or another virus?). However, I’m grateful I can still do some work most days, at my own pace, and my one-woman business has stayed afloat. I’m grateful that I live in a quiet house in the country and can rest when needed, and I’m hopeful of recovery.
Onto pleasant topics: at Christmas I received a very special present from my brother. It was a USB with 14,000 scanned slides of Dad’s, almost all of which I’d never seen before. They dated from the 1960s to the early 2000s, with photos of our parents before we were born, birthdays, us with our late grandparents and great-grandma, annual photos of our family home and garden, and more. Dad always used Kodak film and the colours are as fresh as if they’d been taken yesterday. He also labelled photos (so important!).
As you can imagine, I’ve been swimming in childhood nostalgia.
Here’s one of me, very grown up at 8mths, sitting on the sofa with Dad, clearly enamoured with his corduroy suit which was sewn by Mum. It had red lining, which you can just see a flash of. It’s not many men who can rock a corduroy suit!
I knew my brother had bought a slide scanner and started on this project, but our other siblings and I had no idea he’d finished scanning them all. He’d given us the impression he was only around the 3,000 mark, the sly dog.
His gift has prompted me to take more photos of The Everyday, of my family around the house and garden, and doing ordinary things.
Holiday Reading
Some great reading has come my way as Christmas gifts or library books. I’ve been spending quite a lot of days since Christmas lying on the bed (sometimes) reading, which sounds luxurious but isn’t really when you have to.
Top row: A biography of Mrs Beeton which I could scarcely put down as the writing style is so engaging; Ametora is book about how American clothes influenced Japan that I bought on the strength of this review but haven’t started reading yet; The Secret Life of Tartan also haven’t started reading yet but the photos look delicious!; the second edition of Zero Waste Fashion Design, the book that got me started on zero waste pattern cutting 8 years ago - have had a flip through and look forward to a thorough read.
Bottom row: beautifully photographed collection of Edwardian clothes worn by Miss Heather Firbank, from the V&A; Writings on Style by Clare Press (have flipped through but not started reading yet); stunning photos of design and craftsmanship in Paris Haute Couture; a DK book on design of all sorts of things including textiles.
A Year of Zero Waste Sewing
A Year of Zero Waste Sewing is now complete - it’s a book experimentally published in instalments as e-zines. It’s an eclectic mix of zero waste patternmaking, ideas for garment longevity, sewing patterns, FAQs and stories from zero waste designers. Its intention is to give practical ways of making zero waste patterns and reducing waste within a bigger picture of responsible fashion. The whole series will be formatted into an actual book (like you would buy in a bookshop) early in 2024, if you’re interested but prefer to wait until then.
"January" is complimentary - read more and download it here. [Note that this zine was updated on the 6th December 2023.]
As a holiday project, I got a fresh set of zines printed out and my teen is helping me bind them together to make a hand bound book. We used this YouTube tutorial. If you’re doing this too, I know you’ll be great at the sewing part!
If you ordered the December zine to make the top, I highly recommend viewing the sew-a-long (the YouTube link is on page 136), and the pleating template I show in the video is in with the neckline + armhole templates as a separate file (A4 or US Letter). Please note, if you plan to make a size 34 top, I’ve made a tiny change to the neckline as of 1st January 2024 (the 34 neckline is now the same width as the 36; the depth remains unchanged). Please drop me a message and I’ll happily send you the revised file.
I’m putting my prices up
Sad but true. At the end of this month, The Dressmaker’s Companion will be going up to AU$80 and Zero Waste Sewing AU$55. Every year the printer has been increasing their printing costs by 2%-3% (the books have been in print 7 and 3 years respectively), with an additional jump by a third in 2019 followed by increases during the pandemic. Alas, I can no longer absorb the costs.
I’ll also be increasing the prices of pdf patterns in my shop to AU$25. The Year of Zero Waste Sewing zines will stay the same.
If you live in Australia and want a bargain, I’m clearing out some first editions of The Dressmaker’s Companion for only $30. There are only 11. The information inside is the same as the current edition; just the layout is a little different. This is the edition the judges saw when awarding it best craft book at the 30th Benjamin Franklin book awards in the US.
Some things you might enjoy
Ultra-fast fashion retailer Shein has confidentially filed to go public in the US. Will they face resistance over forced labour allegations?
Older women star in fashion campaigns. About time!
Make a sock monkey with this free pattern - every household needs one.
A YouTube tutorial for making a very cute thread holder/sewing kit. (13min)
An advanced AI can now look at photographs and create a sewing pattern. Following with great interest. I would love to try this out! (I picture myself pitted against the machine, like Garry Kasparov and Deep Blue, vying to produce the best pattern.) I wonder if manual patternmaking and grading will disappear in our lifetime? Will patternmakers become obsolete and go the way of typewriter salesmen, milkmen, switchboard operators, lamplighters and dispatch riders? AI is already being developed to help generate zero waste cutting layouts, which could be a game-changer.
Enjoy Everyday Ethics, 2 zines by artist and writer Lois Klassen on textile waste.
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.
Getting closure on the denim jacket cut from old jeans.
A free bookplate for the sewing books in your home library.
Finished! November and December of A Year of Zero Waste Sewing.
The blog (ie me) is currently on holidays until the end of January-ish.
From the blog archives
I have a page dedicated to zero waste resources - blog posts, pattern directories, courses and more.
Haywood’s Hierarchy of Mending and Clothes use.
Cheers!
Liz x
I found the article about AI being able to take a photo and generate a pattern super interesting. Perhaps this is a subconscious fear giving me too much reassurance, but I don't think AI will be able to take over that job completely. Patternmaking is just as much art as science. I've been learning lately how even moving a pattern line half a centimetre can change the way a garment hangs or looks dramatically, so I think there will always be room for human taste and finesse. Especially since each body is so different! What I could see happening is AI removing the need for mid-level pattern makers, so the bulk of the work is done via technology, and then somebody comes in and polishes it. Fast fashion companies wouldn't care about the extra polish, but couture and art- and craft-focused brands would.
Hi Liz, I just found out something exciting!
We're featured by the Craft Industry Alliance! 🎉
Isn't that great? They've recommended newsletters from all sorts of talented crafters.
https://craftindustryalliance.org/10-crafty-newsletters-to-subscribe-to-on-substack/