June 2025
Falling in love with sewing, Making Zen, zero waste news, and some links you'll enjoy
Hi Everyone!
Welcome to the June newsletter, and a warm hello to new subscribers.
I’ve just finished reading An Everlasting Meal - Cooking with Economy and Grace by Tamar Adler, who used to cook at Alice Water’s Chez Panisse.
It’s a warmly written book about cooking intuitively and with thrift. In it, she discusses what happens when you fall out of love with cooking, which interested me as sometimes this happens with sewing too. Don’t we all lose our passion once in a while? She asks: How do you fall in love with it again, or if it’s never truly made you happy, fall in love with it for the first time?
Her answer is to let yourself love what you love, and see if it doesn’t lead you back to what you ate (or for us, sewed) when you loved it. In her case, she remembers aromas, feelings, the ambience of a meal, the memories of moments with food. She also found it helped to read about food, but not recipe books. Rather, evocative descriptions of food in literature where the food is part of the pleasure of living.
I reflected on this (I was going to write: I chewed over this), and thought about what I really love about sewing and making things.
I like feeling beautiful fabrics…planning, thinking and drawing shapes on paper, to become a pattern…the sccrrrr sound of sharp scissors cutting through cloth…the sound thread makes as it’s pulled through fabric by hand…watching the number of cut pieces gradually become fewer as they’re stitched to make a whole. Most of all, what I really love is the transformation of fabric, by skilled hands, into a garment. Then the part I don’t usually see, which is the garment becoming part of someone’s life.
Making Zen starts tomorrow
Making Zen starts tomorrow, and I reckon it’s going to be the best one yet!
Making Zen is a FREE five-day online event for hand stitchers and crafters. From 26th-30th May, 30+ textile artists will guide you through workshops on a range of stitching techniques and creative processes.
It’s not too late to register! Register here for FREE.
I’m presenting a workshop on Friday 30th. It’s a Humpty Dumpty toy using a zero waste pattern, and it has sort of a vintage toy vibe. It’s suitable for a young child and can be sewn by machine or by hand.
In zero waste news…
Redress has free circular fashion design courses, including zero waste design.
A zero waste pattern features in a forthcoming Japanese sewing book.
Some things you might enjoy
Undatech are developing underwear for women frontline workers which meets health and safety requirements.
A 1950s book on adaptive clothing. Some great ideas but clothing sure has changed since then!
An easy way to mark darts.
Star Wars lovers: May 4th has been and gone, but take a look at this interview with a maker of tiny costumes for Star Wars prototypes. (YouTube; the action starts at the 12:40 mark.)
Behind the scenes photos of how Cashmerette designed a strapless bra for large busts.
Liberty is turning 150 this year. A list of festivities, exhibitions and special collections is here.
An instagram account devoted to outfits matching Australian birdlife. I just love this!
Tauko magazine’s Make and Share call for Issue 16 is open now, and closes on June 1st, with 4-5 weeks to sew your piece.
Alas, The Pattern Pages magazine will wind up on 28th May 2025. If you have a subscription and still need to download the current magazine or sewing pattern, you can sign in at any time until 27th May 2025, which is only a couple of days away.
UNESCO has put the quilting stitch on the Intangible Cultural Heritage List, specifically quilting in a flat frame with a rocking stitch.
Geletin’s giant pink knitted bunny in the Italian alps was biodegradable (made from wool and hay) and expected to last until this year, but it’s gone now. Google Images show how much it’s decomposed over the past 20 years.
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.
Humpty Dumpty gets BIGGER. If you’re doing Making Zen this week, the pattern for Humpty comes with my workshop for free. In this blog post, I made a bigger version using the same pattern.
Book recommendation: Mountain Style. A fab book on the history and heritage of British outdoor clothes.
Cataloguing my UnFinished Objects, with a view to actually finishing them.
From the blog archives
The only sure-fire way I know of to match checks and stripes.
Cheers,
Liz x
Having made two dresses from your book, I would love to send you photos so you can see your work. Where may I send them?
Where can I find a listing of the Making Zen classes being offered, their times and dates. I can’t find that info anywhere and the classes start tomorrow! Thank you!