I took a poll over on Instagram and asked what my first make of the New Year should be and the Talvikki Sweater from Named Patterns was the winner. I used this lovely goldenrod wool knit from Mood fabrics that I picked up last August on my fabric buying trip into New York, but was never able to get to it last fall! My wool only has 20% stretch and the pattern calls for 30% stretch. The only potential problem with this is making sure you can get the sweater over your head! I d

The weather is turning cooler here and to help make that transition into Fall I finally took my own advice and made myself a Shirt Dress! On my recent trip to New York for fabric shopping, I found this wonderful cotton tribal print. I didn't know what I was going to do with it, but it came home with me. I spent a lot of time analyzing all the shirt dress patterns out there - when you really get into the details there are quite a few differences - and I finally decided on Simp

Last week my good friend Julie was on the blog to share her tips and tricks for stitching the gathered version of July Flowers. Today she is back to show you her smocked version and offer some additional tips and tricks for making the skirt including adding ric rac! So here is Julie... Once I had the bodice made, the next step is to make the back placket, which I did following the directions, but using a technique I have learned, which is as you stitch the ‘V’ on the main fab