I’ve done a lot of sewing in the past couple of years. By far the easiest thing to sew are bags. I always need another bag for groceries or for my latest big knitting project. The yellow is simple and similar to the one I teach students in my bag class. The bag on the right is huge and a little more complicated. The fabric is sewn at a 45 degree angle, creating an interesting design and a nice square bottom.
I also sew a lot of clothes for myself. I adjust how patterns fit with a sloper, which is a flat paper pattern that exactly matches my proportions, and a dress form, which is made from wrapping my body in duct tape, placing the duct tape form over a dress dummy and filling the gap with stuffing. Here I am wrapped in duct tape. In the center my dress form is helping me adjust a dress, and I’m testing out a pants pattern on the right.
My favorite thing to sew are dresses. The first two are sewn from the bodice of my sloper with a skirt I borrowed from a commercial dress pattern. It’s pretty easy to turn a blouse into a dress. The brown blouse has the same bodice as the dress with the green waistband, and I added that same skirt to turn it into a dress. The trapeze dress was an original design, and the gray dress is the wrap dress from Gertie Sews Vintage Casual book of patterns by Gretchen Hirsch.
A few last examples from recent years. I made the skirt on the left from a light weight upholstery fabric. This orange shirt was cut on the bias from light chambray cotton. I choose to sew it by hand so it wouldn’t distort. On the bottom I have a basic pants pattern that I copied from a favorite pair, as well as two variations of the Arenite pants pattern by Sew Liberated.
