Sew Chinelo: How to transform your wardrobe with sustainable style

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Freehand cutting is all about marking your measurements directly onto fabric, using simple tools, and developing an understanding of how clothes come together and sit on the contours of the body. It allows you to tailor clothes precisely to your own shape and size – no more fiddling around, adjusting commercial patterns to fit! Join these marks with a smooth curve and using your tape measure make sure that the curve is a quarter of the waist measurement+(0.25″ to 3/8″). if the quarter circle is too big or to small, shorten or lengthen the reference length and repeat until you get a close enough match to the waist measurement. I have added only 5 dates for this workshop so spaces are very limited; get booking guys!!! Here’s the link https://www.kazoova.com/activity/454/

The show’s youngest ever contestant keeps up her sewing by presenting at Great British Sewing Bee workshops across the country. She is also a columnist for Love Sewing magazine. My sewing bee freehand antics seems to have a few of you interested in learning to do this also, so due to popular demand I have decided to set up a workshop to teach just this. Unfold the piece and use your iron to invert the right side facing crease. these are your dart lines (the centre of your darts), use your tape to measure a dart that is 1″ deep and 5.5″ long, draw this with chalk: Ann had been sewing for 75 years when she won The Great British Sewing Bee. She describes sewing as a private passion and said she entered the show to help raise the profile of home sewing, which is has certainly done. Now well into her 80s hopefully Ann is still enjoying sewing. Tilly has been one of the big success stories from the show. Several years after her appearance she now has her own sewing studio in London where she runs regular workshops, a successful range of sewing patterns plus she has written two sewing books.

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Now that Jenny is not with us anymore, I am the least experienced sewer of the group, winning would prove to me that experience isn’t always what counts, but dedication and real passion can excel a person. Flip the centre front panel so that it mirrors the cut you just made, pull it one inch towards the edge you just cut and cut around the cut edge again, I must admit I was really pleased with myself while I was cleaning up the workspace. I had achieved everything that I had set out to. The ladies had enjoyed themselves. All had finished items and enthusiasm to create more. Learned how to design and create their own items from recycled material and think outside the box! Job done, it was a rewarding pint for me and a curry! Step 16: working directly on the fabric, repeat the pivot action, only this time make it the skirt length measurement. them place your template in the top corner and cut around the 2 quarter circles

Step 3; along the line of your first reference point (the 7″ down mark) mark a quarter of your bust measurement+2″. Along the last reference point (shoulder to hips, this should actually be the bottom edge of the paper), mark a quarter of your bust measurement+3.5″. Step 2; place the top of your tape on the top edge of the paper measure down 7″ and mark. then mark your vertical measurements+0.5″ (shoulder to waist and shoulder to hips) I have also had loads of interest from readers and viewers outside the UK and I am working on ways to get you free-handing so once things have been confirmed I will put up a post to update everyone, but there are loads of exciting things happening so expect some good stuff 😉 These are all vertical measurements (our vertical measurements are used as reference marks along which we mark our horizontal measurements)This workshop does require you to have a bit of sewing machine experience and the ability to sew a straight line, I am offering a 30min sewing machine refresher, just before the workshop begins, because I know that some of us have had our machines gathering dust for a looooooooong time and have become a bit rusty with operating it. This is at no extra cost, so if you feel you need this just show up at the venue half an hour before the workshop is due to start. To be honest I did really think your mum would be a finalist also. I felt really proud of myself for having made it to the finals with such accomplished sewist. Obviously I wanted to win; I’m sure we all did, but Heather was a great sewist and she really deserved her win.

For me, sewing isn’t just about craftsmanship, it’s also about design; the silhouettes of the garments in Freehand Fashion are timeless, beautiful shapes that have lasted throughout the history of fashion. There are beautifully fitted gowns for ultra-glamorous events like a posh party or a prom, flattering tops that ooze femininity, and many more garments that will give your wardrobe a facelift. It’s been a while since my last post, but all for good reasons. I have been hard at work setting up my studio!!!! It has been quite difficult working from home; as a devout sewist you will identify with my plight; fabric everywhere, pins all over the house and the sewing equipment’s over spilling their allocated boundaries, oh and not forgetting a patient husband smiling his encouragement through gritted teeth lol. The move out of home was due and very welcomed. As always I would really love to see your attempt at this. Please send me any questions you may have and I will endeavour to reply as soon as I canplace the top corner point of the 0″ mark of your tape on the top corner of your piece of paper, measure down to the length of the mark you made (this is now your reference length), now pivot your tape (keeping the top corner in the same position) and mark the reference length in intervals: You will now mark your horizontal measurements along these vertical marks you just made, always remember that you are measuring from the centre folds. Quarter your, underbust and waist measurements, add 2 inches to each of these and mark this along the corresponding reference mark, join these marks with straight lines and from the waist mark slant your line to the corner of the hem. Cut around your lines through all layer (but when cutting along the sweetheart line, only cut the front layer) The first commercial pattern I ever used was on the show for the pattern challenge, and first and only one I have ever bought was for the pyjama challenge (ep 2). The pattern I used for my trouser legs (ep 5) I drafted myself because I’m not perfect at doing trousers freehand and didn’t want to spend time figuring it out on the show considering the timed conditions. I am quite a spontaneous person and my mind is always working in overdrive mode, I sometimes set out to make one design and then change it as I go along, this is why I love the free hand method, I am not restricted at all.