REALLY AWESOME wool pants are flying through my little studio. Why are they so great? I’m glad you asked. First, shaped knees. Until you’ve had pants with this feature you don’t know how comfortable they are. Plus I like the look as well! Secondly, they are fully lined – no seams on the inside whatsoever, and a nice smooth inner surface for maximum comfort. For kids’ garments I generally like to use a cotton sateen or, in this case, a 100% silk twill. The waistband is a cotton and trimmed and graded as to be smooth against the tummy. Have you worn pants lined with silk? Yeah. It’s super-fun times. They...

I was heading out to my porch to take some natural light pictures of this little garment before shipping; my son had left me some wildflowers. I thought they could come along in the photos of this warm and fuzzy and sleepy little scrap of creature-gear. Made for a client for a gift going to California, I truly hope the intended recipients enjoy the piece. I certainly had fun working on it – all construction was completed on a “new” (to me) 1967 New Home sewing machine. The body is striped with couched cashmerino freehand “stripes” and four cutely-sinister little horns adorn the hood. And let’s not...

I love listening to my mp3 player (these days, usually my phone streaming Spotify), but I hate how tangled up my cord gets and how wont my earbuds are to getting yanked out of my ears. The idea here was to create a hood that would hold the earbuds, so if you pop them in or out they’ll hang out all handy at neck-level. As you can see, this feature works whether the hood is up or hood is down. >” width=”500″ height=”375″ /> And of course the mp3 player needs an inside pocket to stay out of the elements. All iPod/mp3 players should fit, although larger ones like the Classic might feel a bit bulky. You...

OK look. I’m pretty proud of this garment. Not so much for the design lines (I used a vintage McCall’s a-line with a drop-waist and added some pockets because, geez, kids need pockets) but for something new I’m experimenting with: thread-drawing. See, my daughter selected the pocket fabric (Alexander Henry’s Tattoo) and then based on a design element of this fabric I handsketched then created – using no computer  - the motif on the center-left breast: And of course there were the little things, like a vintage button and thread-chain closure in the back: The client was pretty happy about the dress: You can...

Yes indeedy, this is a lovely fabric – an organic cotton/hemp blend. The garment is also made from a very versatile pattern I’ve used often (and yes, those two kids featured on the front of the pattern envelope emerged from my body some years back). I can make a version of this up from a size 12 months to 7 years; check the pattern for other sleeve, length, and style options. You can see more detail shots and read about how I made this in the Flickr tagset. Materials & materials cost (not including overhead of sewing machine and equipment maintenance, renting and heating sewing room): 1 to 2 yards of organic cotton/hemp in...

I was asked by a woman in Chicago to create her a bunting. She told me a little about what she’d liked in my previous work, and told me the garment had to stand up to a Chicagoan winter as her baby is due in November. I thought for a few days on what I wanted to make. I’ve always loved babies in white, and I developed the idea to create tiger-inspired stripes on bone velour when my eyes spied the Echino cotton/linen Japanese fabric, gifted to me by another stitcher. The poison-green fleece; well, green is my favorite color and it seems to work itself into an awful lot of my pieces. This little creature is lined in fleece and...

Another bunting… this time exploring the sea. Considering I made the entire thing up, I think I captured Squiddiness quite well. This little creature is both lined and underlined in fleece. Features: seamless and non-bulky construction inside and let’s face it, babies will likely love mouthing at the arms and tentacles (because squid have both) of this wee beastie. Lots of hand-finishing and scrappy detail to boot! You can see more detail shots and read about how I made this in the Flickr tagset. Materials & materials cost (not including overhead of sewing machine and equipment maintenance, renting and heating sewing...