Now not to blow my own Trumpet or anything but I seem to be on a roll these past couple of months regarding myself appearing in Sewing Magazines!!

September was my 1st ever article in print offering my advice on Sewing your own lingerie.

Good morning! It’s a Happy Friday indeed today my 1st ever Sewing Article about Sewing your own Lingerie is in print today in @sewingworldmag!!! I’ve written a blog post with more info – link in my profile ?#theyorkshiresewist #sewingworldmagazine #blogger #sewistofinstagram #article #lingerie #sewyourown #handmade #nice #1sttime #inprint #makeitsew #exciting #dailyseam

A post shared by Sally Kendall (@theyorkshiresewist) on Sep 15, 2017 at 12:14am PDT

October, I was the Back Page Blogger and my Wrap Dress in Reader’s Makes in Sew Now.

Just having a lazy saturday morning reading through my Subscriber copy of @sewnowmag enjoying my cuppa in bed and guess who’s the Back Page Blogger of this Issue? Don’t wanna give ought away till it’s out in the shops ? #sewnowmag #sewing #sewingblogger #bloggerofinstagram #sewist #theyorkshiresewist #backpageblogger #inprint #2monthsinarow #dailyseam #maker #makeitsew #lazysaturday #peaceandquiet #kidsdownstairs

A post shared by Sally Kendall (@theyorkshiresewist) on Oct 14, 2017 at 3:18am PDT

Now this!! My Tutorial to make your cute Cookie Cutter Heart Pin Cushions!

It was great fun playing around to get the Project right and of course getting to use some lovely Liberty Cotton Tana Lawn from the Exclusive Collection 360 which is avai

lable here.  Also the fab Sammy who owns Sew Crafty and which I’m on her Design Team for also have a lovely Wreath Project to make in this issue too! You can buy Simply Sewing Magazine directly here.

Think I’m done this year….. well no…. I tell a lie! I’ve got a Guest Post for the Minerva Crafts Blogger Network, coming soon!

Now I’ve got a extra copy of the current issue of Simply Sewing Magazine which comes with a awesome jumpsuit pattern that i giving away to one lucky reader!

All you have to do is a leave comment here and for extra chances leave a comment on this Giveaway Post but you can also comment on my Instagram, Twitter or Facebook Page for extra chances to win!

Giveaway open to the UK residents only due to postage and  ends Sunday 3rd December 2017 at 5pm.

Let me know if you do make any of my Pin Cushions!

Sal x

The post My 1st Project Tutorial for Simply Sewing Magazine and a Giveaway!!! appeared first on The Yorkshire Sewist.

Hello!

I can finally share with you my Project using the new ever so gorgeous Tilda Circus Collection!

When Nadine from Sew and So asked for Bloggers to have a play with the new Collection, well you can’t say no….. Tilda make the ever so cute and whimsical fabric collections which I have stalked on the Internet for years and you know what, i’m embarrassed to say….. I was a ‘Tilda Virgin’ till now! Hahaha!

The Tilda Circus range is so much fun. Inspired by a trip to the circus it’s full of elephants balancing on trees while serving tea to from a teapot to a monkey, of course it’s natural! LOL! There are also dancers holding umbrellas with owls perched on their hands… it’s a Circus for Christ’s sake, It ain’t normal! Also a little girl on a swing and bright bold floral prints.

It is the perfect mix of kitsch and vintage with a touch of girly to it.

It’s fresh blue, red, turquoise and green series with flowers and motives reminiscent of the old circus life. They have a great summer feel that instantly makes you want to be outside. I really love the greens and the reds in this range. They do pop!

This fabulous collection has all your Tilda favourites in. Not only does it have the beautiful fabric, it also has buttons, new Tilda friends and clothing patterns for them and of course, a quilt pattern which are available from sewandso. So if you haven’t dabbled into Tilda well you best start now to see what the fuss is!!

I was sent this lovely fat quarter bundle which showcase’s the Green in the Collection but i must say they are gorgeous and to say I wouldn’t normally buy ‘green’ but I’m really impressed with the colour, print and quality too!

So i got my thinking cap on…..as you do! I thought just for a change from dressmaking, I’d make an accessory, a Crafty Apron!!

This will be ideal! As my job as an Activity Coordinator as i am always on the go making things with my Residents and I’m always misplacing my pens, pencils, brushes…. you name it, i lose it!! Hahahaha! So this will hopefully keep my tools at the hand ready!

I’ve seen some aprons via Pinterest but wasn’t keen on using Bias Binding as the apron ties so I’d thought I’ll give Cotton Webbing Tape a go!

So if you guys are interested in making yourself a Crafty Apron then read on! With just 10 simple Steps… “Say what?!” I hear you say! Yeah It’s just that easy!! No Pattern needed!!

Supplies:

2 Fat Quarters of your Choice

2m of Cotton Webbing Tape

Tailors Chalk

Thread and Bobbin

Scissors

Rotary cutter and Mat

Ruler to get those straight edges or go ‘freehand’ and to live dangerously!

Optional Extra – Clear Quilter’s Foot, I use mine all the time to get spot on Top Stitching!

Step 1:

A 1cm Seam Allowance is used throughout unless stated

First of all, we’ll be making the Pockets! So grab the Fat quarter of your choosing to make the Pockets

Cut one piece 18 x 45cm and another piece 13 x 45cm

Step 2:

On the Long sides of each Pocket, turn over by 1cm to the Wrong Side and Press. Once you’ve done that for both Pockets then Top Stitch in place, I used 0.6cm/ 1/4′ Inch Seam Allowance

Step 3:

Place the shorter Pocket on top of the taller one like this;

Now to figure out where you want to Pockets to go! Me personally, i quite like a mixture of big and small Pockets so i decided to make 4 pockets (2 on each side)

I did this by marking the middle of the Apron itself and then folding the side to the middle and then marking the fold point with a pin. For ease of a straight line i used Tailor’s chalk to mark my pocket, don’t know about you guys but even after nearly 3 years of sewing i still struggle to a precise straight line hahaha!

To Stitch the Lines for the Pockets, Sew a straight line from the Bottom to the Top. For the Centre Line of Stitching, don’t worry about this now as we’ll do that nearer to the end to get a nice straight line through all 4 Layers of the Apron.

Step 4:

Now to cut you other Fat Quarter in Half Length ways.

Place one of the Half of the Fat Quarter Right Side up with the Pocket Pieces Right Side up too like this;

Then place the other half of the Fat Quarter Right Side Down on top of that, so it looks like a Sandwich!

Step 5:

Stitch through all Layers down both sides and the bottom.

Clip the bottom edges near to the stitching line and then whilst turning the Apron Right Side out, find your most pointed tool available….mine was a wooden skewer (Yeah…. I like to improvise!) and gently poke the corner out.

Step 6:

Find the centre of the Back Piece and the centre of the length of Cotton Tape so with mine its at 1m mark on the Tape for ease of reference. Pin into place to match up with the middle of the Fabric. The Fabric needs to overlap the the Cotton Tape by 1cm. I found it easier to place the Tape by marking with my Tailor’s Chalk where 1cm fell on the Apron.

Step 7:

Start at one end of the Apron, sew the Tape to the Fabric along the length of the Cotton Tape, Finish where the Apron finishes. The line of Stitching needs to be as close to the edge of the Tape as possible, like this;

Step 8:

Fold the Cotton Tape down, over the Front on the Apron. Pin and Stitch, close to the the bottom of the tape as you can, then Top Stitch along the Top Edge in the same way using 0.6cm/ 1/4′ Inch Seam Allowance like I show you below;

Step 9:

To finish off the ends of the Cotton Tape, I double folded the ends and then stitched in place for a nice clean finish

Step 10:

Stitch from the Bottom of the Pockets, through all 4 Layers and finish where the top of the taller Pocket Finishes. Again i used the Tailor’s Chalk and Ruler to get a nice Straight Line

There you go! One Craft Apron ready to get your Creative Groove on!

I can see my residents wanting one of these for themselves! Hahaha! As you can see it’s all encased nice and neatly so no raw edges on show

Here is the Crafty Apron modelled on ‘Dorris’ with some Sewing Supplies

I hope you’ve enjoyed my quick and easy Tutorial on making your own Crafty Apron!

Just in case you missed the Schedule of my fellow Bloggers taking part in the Tilda Circus Blog Hop, here you go;

Saturday 8th April – SewandSo

Sunday 9th April – Bakes, Books & My Boys

Monday 10th April – Littlest Sweet Shop

Tuesday 11th April – The Yorkshire Sewist – That’s me of course!

Wednesday 12th April – Starting Stitch

Thursday 13th April – Just Sew Sue

Friday 14th April – Just Jude Designs

Enjoy the Hop!

Also not forgetting one last thing!!

Since I’m the nice and sharing type, I’ve got 2 Fat Quarters from the same collection I’ve been working with together with some Cotton Tape so you can make your own Crafty Apron!

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post here, my Facebook Page, Twitter or Instagram. If you’re feeling lucky you can leave a comment on all four to quadruple your chances to win!!

The Giveaway is open to Worldwide as it wouldn’t cost too much to post internationally

The winner will be announced on Saturday 29th April 2017!

Sal xx

The post Tilda Circus Blog Hop, Crafty Apron Tutorial and Giveaway! appeared first on The Yorkshire Sewist.

Hope your ready for a nice quick easy sew for this drab weather we are having in the UK! It’s windy, rainy and dark and its depressing!

So to cheer myself up I made myself a new Jersey Infinity Scarf with added Pom Poms to make it Cheery!

Its great stash buster as it only requires just 20″ of 60″ wide Fabric! Win Win in my eyes!

Here is what needed:

20″ of 60″ Wide Jersey or Cotton Fabric

1.5m of Pom Pom Trim

Thread & Bobbin

Zipper Foot – This is needed instead of Normal Foot as this allow to sew the Trim in

Plenty of Pins!

Take your piece of Fabric and fold it in Half Length ways with Right Sides Together.

Insert the Pom Pom Trim in between the folds with the Straight edge of the Trim matching the raw edge of the Fabric, so that the Actual Pom Pom’s are on the inside.

Pin all the way along the Long edge leaving the Short Sides open.

Now remember to use your Zipper foot as this will get as close as you can to stitch in the trim as if you try to sew with the normal foot it wouldn’t get anywhere near to secure the pom poms. I also set my Machine to a small Zig Zag Stitch.

I used the otherside of the Foot as my guide to keep it nice and straight whilst sewing.

Now to turn the scarf to the right side by sliding your arm into the ‘tube’ and pull the end through so that it turns itself to the Right Side out.

Take both of the open ends of the Fabric and start pinning where the Seams meet and try and pin about 3 quarters of the way round. Sew in place using 1cm Seam Allowance.

Now to sew the Gap! Lightly press the remaining Seam Allowance and then hand stitch the closing using a Slip stitch.

And Voila! One quick and easy Infinity Scarf with a Twist! See it’s that Easy!!

You can easily swap the Jersey for Cotton if you wanted a ‘Summer’ version

As you can see it’s a fab selfish sew or if you are feeling generous why don’t you knock some these for Family or Friends?

Have a fab weekend!

Sal xx

The post Infinity Scarf with a Pom Pom Twist Tutorial appeared first on The Yorkshire Sewist.

Wow, why I haven’t posted this Tutorial till now, I’m not sure why as this is one popular pattern and on my previous blog one of most popular tutorials!! Also my 1st ever Tutorial!! OMG!!

Today I’ll be showing you have to make The Skater Dress which was a freebie from Issue 8 of Love Sewing Magazine, but the pattern is now available by itself here in Paper format.

Now first things, make sure you launder your fabric prior to you starting to cut your pattern pieces out as this allows for shrinkage as it would be a complete shame not to do this before hand and to make a beauty of dress, wear it and love it then to put in the wash where it’ll shrink and the dress would be too small to wear!

First open up the envelope and make yourself a brew and read the instructions and make a list of materials/equipment you need if you don’t have them already so no last minute dash to the local haberdashery store or waiting days for online orders lol.

Here is what I’ve used:

2.5m of 60″ Notting Hill Birds Lilac by Gutermann from Sew Scrumptious

0.5m Iron on medium-weight interfacing

Guterman Thread – There’s no other thread like it in my opinion, you do need good quality thread as it does show in your creations.

16″ Concealed Zip or if you dont have that size available by a bigger one and you can easily alter it to 16″ by heating up a knife to get hot and gently press on the teeth of the zip of where 16″ is from top of the zip and hey presto!

Paper Scissors – For cutting Pattern Pieces out as these will blunt and make cutting fabric out quite uneven!

Fabric Scissors

Pins

Tailor’s Chalk – For marking on fabric that soon rubs away

Greaseproof Paper – Tracing the Pattern onto as for some reason i don’t want to chop up my paper patterns just in-case i need to make for a gift. Also a great alternative to expensive to Dress Making Paper.

French Curve – handy for getting those straight lines whilst tracing or to grade in between sizes if your measurements are in between sizes but i’m lucky enough that with Simple Sew i can use a straight size 10.

Pencil

Weights – for holding down pattern pieces in place without pin marks. I picked my up for 30p each from Boyes.

Iron and Ironing Board

And last but not least the Trusty Sewing Machine, Normal sewing foot and Concealed Zip Foot as using a normal zip foot will not have the same neat effect. I picked mine up from Amazon for £4.99.

Now then, you can go ahead and cut straight into the paper pattern to the size you require but if your like me and like to keep my paper pattern intact then trace your pattern onto the paper and to make sure you add any nothces/darts/markings onto the paper then cut out like shown below:

Fold fabric Right Sides Together selvedge to selvedge and places the pattern pieces on the top. Align the straight grain line on the pattern piece to grain of the fabric and either pin down the pieces or use pattern weights like i have its up to you! Then of course cut away!

Then iron on interfacing to the wrong sides of the fabric, there are only 3 small pieces to do and just a tip put a tea towel over the fabric and interfacing when ironing just incase you put it the wrong side as it makes a right mess of the iron and also a nice heat that itsnt too hot that would scrunch up the fabric.

Once you have cut out the pieces, transfer the markings onto your fabric using the tailors chalk, A handy tip for the darts i put a pin through the paper and fabric then gently pull away the paper to leave the pin in then match up the lines to the bottom of the dart…simples

Also i like to overlock (if you don’t have an overlock stitch on your machine just use a small zig zag stitch that works a treat too) the raw edges which are bottom edge of the facings, sides and bottom edge of the pleat panel – sides of the front bodice and bottom of the front and back bodice, skirt top, side seams and bottom edge of the skirt pieces that will in contact of me wearing the dress i.e. the seams so they have a lovely soft edge to them so you don’t have to fiddle around doing them whilst constructing the dress together.

Now finally onto the construction!!

Make sure you have plenty of thread in your bobbin as there isnt anything worse than getting halfway through sewing a long stretch of garment and to find you have only sewn half of it, trust me this has happened many times LOL

Make sure you have sewn all your darts in place before hand on your bodice pieces – to sew a dart always start at the bottom and back stitch to secure then stitch along to the centre front then dont back stitch here just tie the ends together as this prevents the dart looking bulky not a good look to have madonna style points LOL! Then press them so that they are facing the centre.

With the Right Sides Together pin the front and back bodices at the shoulders then press the seams opens. It is a good tip to keep pressing as prompted as you go as it keeps the garment nice and crisp and easier to sew.

Now join the Front and Back Neck Facings Right Sides Together and again press the seams open.

With the Right Sides Together pin the neck facing to the Bodice neckline then stitch into place. Clip notches into the inside edge of the neckline facing down to the stitch line just don’t cut into you stitching as this will make it lay flat and not have bulky bits when turning the facing out. So turn it back so it inside of the dress so now you have a lovely neat neckline and of course press flat!

Now onto the sleeves….a must admit I’m not a fan of sleeves as i have only made 2 sets of sleeves in all of sewing experience so far!! But these went in lovely as long as you take your time and not rush

Sew a Running Stitch (basically a stitch that isnt back stitched its just there to hold the fabric together until you have the permanent stitch in place – its stop the fabric from moving around) on the sleeve curve and pull on the threads slightly so it will fit into the curve of the armhole on the Bodice.

With the Right Sides Together stitch the sleeve into the armhole curve on the Bodice

Once you have sewn in both sleeves it should look like this:

Now we are getting somewhere! Now to join the front Skirt to the Front Bodice with the Right Sides Together, then sew the Left Back Bodice to the Left Back Skirt and then repeat with the Right Back Bodice to the Right Back Skirt.

No in the instructions it doesn’t tell how to join the sleeves together so here we go:

Pin with the Right Sides Together of the Sleeve and Left Hand Side of the dress and Sew all the way along from the sleeve end to the hem and then repeat for the otherside and voile you have a dress now just onto the zip and hem the sleeves and bottom of the dress! Nearly there peeps!

Now onto the tricky part, Pin one side of the zip Right Sides Together to the Back Bodice and then tack to secure as this will make it stay in place easier than pins when sewing. Remember to change your foot to the invisible zip foot and to stitch as close as possible to the Zip teeth and when sewing try to get as near to the bottom of the zip as you can. Then repeat onto the other side but remember to check that the zip is aligned at both sides as you don’t want a mismatched length zip lol!

Now turn the dress inside out and change back to your regular foot and sew from the last stitch on the zip to continue all the way down to the bottom of the dress.

Now to finish the zip at the top, as you will see ive stitched the zip onto the facing, hang on it will disappear! Turn the facing to the inside and pin it so it meets with the zip in the inside and hand stitched to secure and then iron the facing so it laid flat inside

and it should look like this:

Boom! Lovely neat Zip ends!!

Now all you need to do now is sew the sleeve hems and bottom of the dress I’ve used 2.5cm hem for my sleeves and 1cm for my bottom hem and hey presto you have a lovely Skater Dress as modeled by moi!!

The Front:

The back:

Please excuse the tannage line at the back LOL But this is a real gem to sew!

A big thank you to Laura at Sew Scrumptious who provided the Lovely fabric for me to make this dress it’s called Notting Hill Birds Lilac by Gutermann It’s 100% Organic Cotton and 145cm wide which is perfect width to make this dress. She has a lovely wide range of fabrics so please go and have a nosey and treat yourselves! Plus she has speedy delivery times too a total bonus when you need your fabric fix!

Now i hope you have found my tutorial helpful and if you have any questions please get in touch!!

Happy Sewing

Sal x

The post Simple Sew The Skater Dress Tutorial appeared first on The Yorkshire Sewist.