Sew the Look: Ready to Wear Heirloom Garments you can Sew
- Lisa Hawkes
- Jun 26
- 2 min read
Right now, In ready to wear we are seeing heirloom blouses everywhere, and it's been a while since we've seen that. My background is in smocking and heirloom sewing, so I am so excited to see this. In the video below, I give you some patterns and sewing ideas for how you could very easily recreate these ready to wear looks for yourself. (This is our Summer Challenge in the Sewing Circle!) First, let me give you a definition of what I mean by heirloom sewing techniques. According to Wikipedia, heirloom sewing is a collection of needlework techniques that arose in the last quarter of the 20th century that imitates French hand sewing of the period 1890 to 1920, using a sewing machine and manufactured trims. Heirloom sewing is characterized by fine, often sheer, usually white cotton or linen fabrics, trimmed with an assortment of lace, insertions, tucks, narrow ribbon, and smocking.
For some more inspiration along these lines, I've put together an entire Pinterest board of ready to wear garments to help get your design ideas flowing, Finally, if you would like some more help on actually making a blouse like this for yourself, the doors of this Sewing Circle are going to be opening on June 27th, 2025. And we will kick off our next sewing challenge on July 1st. The sewing challenge that we are going to be doing over the next three months will be sewing an heirloom garment. So if you would like some help in sewing a blouse for yourself or a little dress for a child that uses some of these techniques, please join us! I will let you know that the first technique video that the sewing circle members will be receiving on July 1st is how add a lace insertion. I hope that you will consider joining us by July 1st, 2025, and over the next three months while we sew an heirloom garment together. Thank you and Happy Sewing!
Patterns & Resources mentioned in the video include the following:
Links for the ready to wear clothes mentioned in the video can be found in the description of the YouTube video and on the Pinterest Board.
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