Simply Sewing issue 24

E TERN E R AT P F Y O +OFT T

PLUS NEW WAYS TO UPCYCLE CLOTHES me!

Make

S

FRESH IDEAS WITH FABRIC

quick-fix fashi o n seW IN 1 HOUR!

+ FUN WINTER HAT

ISSUE TWENTY FOUR

NEW! THE AUDREY DRESS

SIGNATURE

1950INsSIZES STYLE 6-20

SATIN TUNIC DRESS CAMERA STRAP

in the bag!

DRESSES FOR EVERY OCCASION

Learn how to make a pleated shopper

ISSUE 24

HOW TO: Turn a jumper into mittens Sew with linen Make slippers

PRINTED IN THE UK • £6.99

Fresh linen updates for your dining room

Insert an invisible zip

Pinboard MOUSE TALE Meet Cindermouse, ▼

INSPIRATION

EVENTS

STUFF

Photo: www.colettepatterns.com

IDEAS

Mouse Charming and, of course, Fairy Godmouse – three charming heirloom ornament kits ACCESSORIES WEBSITES designed by Sophie Simpson of What Delilah Did (www. whatdelilahdid.com).

Each limited edition Cindermice kit features everything you’ll need to sew your chosen mouse, including patterns and full instructions, 100% wool felt and DMC threads.

Cindermouse, you shall go to the ball! £17.75 each or £45 for all three kits, www. cloudcraft.co.uk

MELLOW YELLOW

Y

ellow is one of our favourite shades for cheering up our homes and wardrobes, especially when grey skies make us yearn for sunny days. This Moneta by Colette Patterns is the dress our winter style dreams are made of!

Read the fashion history of this happy hue at www.simplysewingmag.com

Photo: Fanni Williams; Models: Lora Hristova; Hair and makeup: Lynn for Natalie Guest

SWEET DREAMS 3. Loungewear doesn’t get more luxurious than this slinky handmade Habutai silk kimono in a pretty cornflower design. Approx £159,

wly iannd the

a Til Buttons Cleo k!it worth £40 ESAPPLY *UKONLY-RUL

CLEVER CLEO

Tilly and the Buttons’ new pattern, the Cleo dungaree dress, is perfect for indulging our love of layering at this time of year – just add a snuggly jumper and woollen tights! It’s the first Tilly and the Buttons design to be launched as a kit as well as a printed pattern, with all you need to make a Cleo – and we’ve got one to give away!

Enter at www.simplysewingmag.com, and find the kit (£40) and pattern (£12) at shop.tillyandthebuttons.com

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Pinboard Tape measures Measure up with our pick of the tape measures. You can never have too many!

KARRI ON

Panels, pockets and princess seams – Megan Nielsen’s new sewing pattern, the Karri dress, has too many swoon-worthy design details to count! Raid your stash for scraps to get creative with colour-blocked panels, add piping to accentuate those flattering curved seams, or keep it sleek and simple in a plain fabric. Printed pattern approx £14, pdf pattern £11, www.megannielsen.com

Devine home

We love accessorising our handmade frocks with Tatty Devine jewellery, and now we can add a little Tatty Devine sparkle to our home thanks to its new collection of accessories. Motifs include record players, tapes, lollipops and gin bottles, which feature on fairy lights, zip purses and washbags. We’ll take one of each! www.tattydevine.com

PUG LIFE Keep this little sewist’s best friend by your side for accurate measuring. £4.99, www.totally-funky.co.uk MAKE IT Add this slogan tape measure to your kit to inspire you to get making. £6.99, www.oak roomshop.co.uk

out & about

SKILLS, SHOWS & EVENTS 1-3 DECEMBER 2016 Selvedge Artisan Christmas. Chelsea Old Town Hall, London. Browse vintage haberdashery and antique and hand-crafted textiles from over 100 stalls. www.selvedge.org

PERFECT PAISLEY Indulge in your nostalgic side with this chunky retro Bakelite tape. £8.95, www.dotcom giftshop.com

10-11 DECEMBER 2016 Wonderworks Contemporary Craft Fair.

Jubilee Hall, Newton Abbot. Pick up unique Christmas gifts from some of the South West’s most talented craftspeople. www.wonderworkscraft.com

ON HAND This stylish leather bracelet features accurate inches and centimeters. £20, www.shopbeyond measure.co.uk

11 DECEMBER 2016

These quirky accessories make great gifts (if you can bear to give them away, of course!)

The Magical Christmas Vintage and Antiques Fair. Belfast Castle. Get your vintage fix at 50 stalls of vintage, upcycled and handmade fashion. www.frockfairsni.com

UNTIL 19 FEBRUARY 2017 What I Like. NOW Gallery, London. Designer Molly Goddard’s interactive exhibition invites sewists to stitch their own designs onto tulle dresses. www.nowgallery.co.uk

BEE MINE A perfect stocking filler gift for your favourite busy sewing bee. £7, www.tch.net

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laid-back dining

gather round

Get everyone together for relaxed dining around a cosy table decked out in natural linen fabrics.

Designer: REBECCA REID Styling: LISA JONES Photography: PHILIP SOWELS

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TABLE RUNNER

A beautifully laid table starts with the table runner. Decorative and practical, it’ll protect your table and provide an attractive focal point. Our simple runner features a main fabric and a neat contrasting border, but you could use favourite fabrics from your stash for a patchwork effect.

NAPKINS Napkins are a dinner party essential, but don’t settle for the boring plain varieties in the shops.

Instead, sew up your own to complement your scheme for a coordinated look – we made ours with a contrast border to match the table runner.

the audrey dress

We’re taking style tips from screen icon Audrey Hepburn with her namesake pattern, a classic frock with a cinched-in waist, swishy pleated skirt and hem band detail. We think Audrey would approve!

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COVER STAR

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o page ration, and t n r u i T le insp hare your y t s d s an get to ress with r o f t ’ D don udrey wingmag A d e h e fnis mplys i s # g n us usi

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A GOOD READ Hussein Chalayan’s false-nailadorned dress is proof new embellishments can be found in the most unusual of places!

X Factor judge Cheryl wore this show-stopping feathered creation for the show’s 2015 final.

Y Delicate stitches can totally transform a project into a truly covetable item. We talk to the Royal School of Needlework to look at the history of embroidery in fashion and current cultural trends.

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ou may have admired embroidery from afar or even dabbled in it yourself, but have you ever thought about how much it can add to the perceived worth of a garment? In the past, embroidery was used to rev up the luxe qualities of an otherwise simple piece of clothing, and even today it’s a technique high-end designers often turn to when they want to create something with real wow factor. It’s no wonder the fashion industry has been awash with it recently!

Designers who’ve made use of embroidery in their collections include Tony Ward, Alberta Ferretti, Alexandre Vauthier and Elie Saab, while celebrity fans of embroidery include Vogue editor Anna Wintour, model Kate Moss, singer Cher and actress Chloë Sevigny. At the Met Gala in 2015, Rihanna wore a show-stopping bright yolk-yellow fur-trimmed cape dress, which was heavily embroidered (literally – it weighed 25kg!).

The dress stunned fashionistas everywhere and shot Chinese designer Guo Pei into the

A GOOD READ international arena, changing her life forever and making the two years of intense designing and sewing it took to make it well worth while. Dolce & Gabbana’s foray into embroidery, meanwhile, was with their fairytale-themed collection, which included a series of Snow White dresses, including one embroidered with the evil queen, and a white crepe shift dress embroidered with Cinderella’s mice and spools of thread.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF EMBROIDERY Of course, embroidery is far from a new trend. In private homes and convents embroidery was used to enhance plainer fabrics from as early as the 8th or 9th Century, and the designs had specific meanings tied to superstitions and religion.

“Embroidery for fashion has always been used to enhance a garment and often to personalise it, too,” says Dr Susan KayWilliams, Chief Executive of the Royal School of Needlework (RSN). “Until the second half of the 19th Century, all embroidery would have been done by hand so this would add to the luxury of the garment, whether it was a dress for court or an 18th-Century gentleman’s three-piece suit. Only with modern production methods has embroidery appeared more regularly in high street fashions.” She adds: “The two most enduring techniques have probably been silk shading, worked in silks or cotton, and metal thread embroidery, which is particularly lavish and would have looked magnificent in candlelight.”

The RSN has been working with fashion designers for decades, with both the tutors and students completing embroidery commissions for high-end designers with clients ranging from A-list film stars to royalty. This teamwork is nothing new – the RSN was responsible for making The Robe of State for Her Majesty The Queen in 1953.

For autumn/winter 2016, embroidery is just as popular as ever. “We have seen a real resurgence of embroidery in fashion,” says Susan. “Learning hand embroidery can be fun and fashionable. The RSN has been teaching hand embroidery since 1872 and today it is used for everything from millinery to jewellery as well as on beautiful lingerie and one-off gowns.”

More recently, the school worked with designer Nicholas Oakwell to create the one-off dress worn by Cheryl FernandezVersini at the 2015 UK X Factor final. The team of specialist embroiderers handembellished around 200,000 ostrich feathers onto the gown. Separated into individual fronds, the feathers from

ostriches bred on a British farm had been dyed in 18 shades of crimson, burgundy, scarlet and red to create a subtle ombre effect that goes from the rich, deep hue at the bodice to the flaming skirt. “The team stitched between three and 12 groups of feather fronds at a time onto 25 dress panels over a period of six weeks,” Susan adds. The completed dress is a work of art!

FAIRYTALE DRESSES Matching designer’s expectations can, however, often be a challenge, Susan says.

“Most designers have no idea how long it will take to embroider the stitches they’ve marked out on a design.” This means part of the RSN’s job is to reign in extravagant ideas and make them more achievable!

A glamorous example of this is the Red Carpet Green Dress (www.redcarpetgreen dress.com) design worn by Skyfall’s Naomie Harris for the 2013 Annual Academy Awards.

“WE’VE BEEN teaching since 1872 - wE’VE SEEN A REAL RESURGeNCE OF EMBROIDERY IN FASHION.” “Red Carpet Green Dress is an international dress design contest founded by Suzy Amis Cameron, environmental advocate and wife of Director James Cameron,” explains Susan. “In its fourth year, the contest set designers across the world with the challenge of creating an Oscar® worthy dress made sustainably.”

The winning design, by Ghanaian fashion

This golden red-carpet gown by Michael Badger took the RSN team over 600 hours to embroider.

student Michael Badger, was constructed

by Vivienne Westwood couturiers and embroidered by an RSN team who spent more than 680 hours using traditional stitching skills to interpret the designer’s concept in a contemporary way. To capture the essence of Badger’s design, which was based on volcanic lava, the team of 22 RSN embroiderers used a selection of vintage gold threads, recycled beads, sequins and, at Vivienne Westwood’s request, crumpledwrappers from Ferrero Rocher chocolates “to make it edger, give texture and depth, and to catch the light.”

Designer Michael Badger wanted the entire dress to be encrusted in embroidery, but, with the date of the Oscars set in stone, the RSN had an immovable deadline. “Even with two stitchers working on each frame – one embroidering from the top and one from the bottom – that wasn’t going to be possible,” says Susan, “We got Michael to try doing some embroidery so he could see the work involved, and then he was happy to simply have the bodice, peplum and the top of the skirt so heavily embellished!”

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golden touch

Go for gold this party season with Portia Lawrie’s drapey tunic in luxurious satin, made using just two rectangles of fabric.

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MY SEWING WORLD

by Tilly Walnes

Tilly Walnes is rewarding herself with a hygge-style approach to sewing this winter after a busy year – and encourages us to do the same.

S ee my patt erns and on line worksh at shop.tilly ops andthebutto ns.com

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“It’s about spending time doing the things

ave you heard of hygge? I hadn’t until a friend mentioned it recently, and since then I’m hearing the word everywhere. Pronounced “heurgha”, hygge is a Danish term that stands for the concept of living cosily, being kind to yourself and enjoying the simple pleasures in life. Think snuggling on the sofa in your hand-knitted socks and warming your hands on a mug of steaming chai while you enjoy quality time with your copy of Simply Sewing magazine, enjoying a candlelit dinner with loved ones, or spending an hour in a bubbly bath with a glass of malbec.

A LIFESTYLE REVOLUTION The hygge concept is fast becoming a revolution – expect to spot the word everywhere if you haven’t already. It’s being seen by many as a reaction against the recent online trend of abstinence and orthorexia, where a plate of spiralized courgettes with a sprinkling of cashews was considered a meal. It’s back to the pleasures of cheese on toast, the joy of cream cakes, and with it an appetite for life – hooray! The Danish regularly top the United Nation’s World Happiness listings, so they’re clearly to be trusted when it comes to lifestyle philosophies.

And, of course, sewing is totally hygge-ly – it’s about spending time doing the things you love.

So, the next time you settle down with some stitching, be mindful of enjoying making for making’s sake. Consider this permission to spend the whole day in your slippers, sipping sherry as you lovingly stroke your favourite fabrics and catalogue your pattern stash. Make each snip and stitch with

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you love.”

Cosy garments like my Coco top and dress pattern are on my tosew list this winter.

K nitting + w a blissfull arm woolly tights y hygge af ternoon! =

this “Be kind to yourself festive season – slow down, sew mindfully.” intention, cherishing the pleasure of the sewing process itself rather than feeling in a rush to finish or the pressure of perfection.

HYGGE HANDMADE I’ve noticed that my sewing projects themselves are becoming hygge-ly, too. I’ve moved away from structured dresses and cinched-in waists, towards cosy funnel necks, snuggly tops and easy-fitting dungaree dresses. “Comfort” has become my mantra for getting dressed. After a busy year chasing goals and deadlines, it’s essential to take the time to recharge your batteries – and to make time for making. Be kind to yourself this festive season – slow down, sew mindfully and enjoy those mince pies with intention. Have a hygge Christmas, one and all!

rocess Savour the sewing p , too!

- and delicious treats

Sew the hygge way with slow, mindful making.

Make your own version of my button-up skirt with our sew along on page 60.

Keeping me inspired...

I loved hosting a charity cr night with Tatty Devine. aft Subscribe at www.simplysewingmag.com

Like most of the sewng wold, I’m lusting after Rife Paper Co’s fabric collectio fo Cotto + Steel. So hard t chose just oe favorite! I also love these rainbow melamine cups from Rice DK (right)– they’re brightening up or wokshop!

Speaking of which, I recently ran a craft night at Tatty Devine in aid of Macmillan Cancer Supot (left). Tey do such fantastic wok t ensure cancer patients do’t feel aloe.

Why not host yor own crafty fundraiser?

I’ve been brightening up Tilly and the Buttons HQ with colourful accessories!

white as snow Whether frolicking in the snow or snuggling under the duvet, Jo Carter’s polar bear softie will warm the coldest winter days.

Psosletf: amily of

h Make a w s using this bear different it up in g n i w e s y pattern b plush fabrics. of a variety

S Waterfall jacket Simple wrap skirt Patchwork cushion Embroidered jumper Russian doll toys Quick-sew poncho City shopper bag Denim elephant And more...

+3 BONUS GIFTS!

bag, skIrT and coat patterns Collect and keep patterns to make a shopper bag, wrap skirt and easy-sew waterfall jacket.

THE GRANVILLE S KIRT WRAP SK IRT

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STENING FLAP FA

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Great beginner’s SIZES 6-20 project!

FASTEN ING

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* CONTENTS SUBJECT TO CHANGE. PAPER AND FABRIC GIFTS NOT AVAILABLE WITH DIGITAL EDITIONS.

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