July 2025
Zero waste news, long covid 3 years in, TAUKO magazine pattern, and some links you'll enjoy
Hi Everyone!
Welcome to the July newsletter, and a warm hello to new subscribers.
I was thinking about paper sewing patterns, as I dug through my (not insignificant) collection. Last week my younger teen used 35 of them for a sewing-themed shop window display.
They are all stored in a chest used as a piano stool. I never use them but adore the cover art, and, well, I just like having them. The oldest is nearly 100, but most are from the 1960s and 70s. Almost all were given to me and most have never been used (did the previous owners have sewing plans they never got around to?).
Paper patterns are quite an amazing fashion legacy. They made fashion accessible for any person with sewing skills and some creativity.
I would have loved to offer printed patterns when I first started publishing sewing patterns, but it was economically impossible. Here in country Australia, printing and postage are too expensive to do it. It’s not even easy if you live elsewhere, as Folkwear and Paper Theory attest.
You may have heard some weeks ago that the legacy sewing pattern brands Simplicity, Butterick, McCalls, and Vogue have been sold to a liquidator.
So will tissue paper patterns be a thing of the past? Maybe, maybe not. There are other ways to get patterns and certainly we will all keep on sewing.
In zero waste news…
Goldfinch Textile Studio has a new pattern, a bias cut top. It’s a beaut easy-wearing everyday top. Read about it here, and see many versions from her pattern testers here.
Zero Waste Fashion Spain shares the links for the online European Zero Waste Fashion Training project, now available for free.
Long covid, 3 years in
Last month my older teen and I marked three years of long covid. I guess we are now Long Haulers. I can’t say I look forward to these anniversaries - leading up to them I find myself feeling flat and fragile, although I feel we’ve moved into acceptance of the situation.
Are we getting better? It’s hard to say. I wonder if we are just getting better at managing it. We are both housebound and she is mostly bed bound. I’ve left the property twice in the past year (for boring stuff: tax and dentist) and she none. It’s a little like living in lockdown, but without the energy to renovate or learn piano. Our lives are not unhappy but they are very slow and our world is much smaller.
I wrote briefly about our lives for Long Covid Awareness Day.
I must explain this “emblematic of our lives” photo, which was taken a year ago. Teen asked to be the model the zw warm hat, so we found a space in the backyard and I set up a chair for her in front of the camera tripod. She was wearing night attire (it’s too much energy to get dressed, so she doesn’t bother anymore) which looked odd with the hat. So I swapped my scarf and coat for her red dressing gown. We whipped through the photography quickly, but before walking back indoors she announced that she had to lie down, so she did. In my coat. I took the chair. A few cars slowed as they passed while we were resting and we wondered what they thought of us.
Friends, I know I’ve said it before: the way to get long covid is to get covid. Please do everything to avoid it at all costs. Middle aged women make up the biggest demographic of long covid sufferers. There’s no cure and no approved treatment, just a bunch of things that sometimes work for some people. If you have a friend with long covid or ME/CFS, Emerge has an excellent article on how to support them.
And now, onto more pleasant topics…
Imminent new pattern: zero waste beret
I’ve been sitting on this news for almost a year and I can hardly contain my excitement. The beret is one of the patterns in TAUKO magazine, issue 16: Architecture which comes out on the 15th of July. It has some beautiful photography and patterns. You can pre-order a copy here, or wait a bit and order any pattern as a stand alone pdf.
I’m so thrilled with this beret, and don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to nail a pattern. I spent 18 months on and off trying everything I could think of for a beret shape, and in the end the answer was breathtakingly simple.
Some things you might enjoy
Some photography tips for standing poses and sitting poses.
How to fold a pair of jeans in less than one second! Fortunately there’s a slow-mo at the end.
Attention hat makers: a hat making competition in Japan, open to international entries.
The Alexander McQueen Scanners jacket is a highly technical, advanced sewing experience. The pattern is available for free here, along with other designer patterns. Mira Musank of FaFaFoom Studio shares her tips. Catherine Daze has also made this pattern.
Oh how I laughed. Valentino's Resort collection 2026 has all the models lying in bed. So relatable! Clearly the stylists took inspo from the long covid community.
Would you/should you buy second hand fast fashion? A discussion with @cicely.rae, @thatwendyward and @the_elephant_in_my_wardrobe.
A 10min podcast listen: for Ocean Talks 2025, Mover Plastic Free Sportswear CEO talks about the problems with synthetic apparel.
France’s Senate passed legislation that would regulate ultra-fast fashion by taxing each item €5 (increasing to €10 by 2030) and bans the advertising of ultra-fashion fashion, including by influencers. The bill heads to another vote by a joint committee in September.
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.
Wrapping up Me Made May 2025. I tried a new approach and this time was the most fun yet.
Two Crowns of Splendour. Finishing two hats as part of my Me Made May pledge, with a pleasantly surprising ending.
Lessons learnt from designing toy faces. The line between cute and creepy is very easy to cross!
Making Nicole Akong’s Beach Kaftan, as an easy low-waste dress.
A sewing-themed shop window at our local bookshop, featuring my books.
From the blog archives
Discovering Halston’s bias cuts. I vaguely knew that Halston cut on the bias, but I just didn’t fully realise how innovative his cutting was.
Cheers,
Liz x
Thanks for the shout out Liz! I still have that jacket although I’ve not worn it in a while. I went back and reread your Halston post. Fascinating stuff.
Thank you, Liz. This is an especially juicy newsletter.