7 Reasons to buy our Sewing Patterns

We love our Sewing Patterns, and we're simperingly proud of them.  Shall I tells you for why?  Shall I?  Hm?

We've been doing lots of nice PR things lately, and people often ask what it is about our Sewing Patterns that makes them different, or special or easy or unique; and being a little slow on the uptake, it only occurred to me after the fifth person asked this, that I ought really to have answered this question already.

Like, duh...

Both Amanda and I have followed many, many sewing patterns in our time.  Some difficult, some head-bangingly impossible to follow, some wonderfully simple, some kinda in the middle, ish, somewhere.  Some nearly made me cry.  Some were joyous.  So it was from our experience as beginner users that our Patterns were born, and for this reason we have always fiercely defended the 'beginner' nature of them, in that easy patterns are nice for everyone, not just beginners.  My mother is an extremely experienced dressmaker (she made both me and my sisters' wedding dresses) but I can remember her frustration at the pattern she was using - it was tortuously written and omitted enormous chunks of information.  She found herself groping her way blind through vast tranches of tulle, netting, interlinings, stiffenings and other masses of froo in order to figure things out.  It wasn't pretty.  And the swearing was a little colourful.  And I nearly always came out the worse for it because I then had pins stuck in me during fittings.

Anyhoo, armed with all this history, here are the things we love about our patterns, and which we guarantee you'll get in each and every one.

1) No Wordy Cutting Lists!
Don't know about you, but honestly I find written lists tricky - I'm a very visual person, so I mean no offence at all to patterns which use them, but I likes pictures.  So we always use cutting list images - you can see literally every single piece you're going to need.

2) Consistently Named Pieces
When you sew from a pattern, you start off with lots of pieces, and halfway through you have half-constructed bits....I often got confused in patterns because there didn't seem to be the halfway house names; patterns often stated "Now take this piece" or worse, omitted the noun entirely - "Turn over and stitch along sides"  Turn which bit over? The bit I've just done or the thing I had to do before that?!!
We always make sure that once a construction is completed, we tell you what it will now be called, and when it comes up again in the pattern, that's how we refer to it.  Sounds basic - helps in the long run!

3) Integrated Seam Allowances
When you cut out our patterns, you won't be expected to add seam allowances.  I know this can in some cases be necessary, expecially in the world of dressmaking, but we tell you every step of the way what seam allowance you'll need.  It's almost always the same throughout the pattern, but even so, you will always be told what it is.

4) A Besquillion Diagrams

It's one of my very favourite jobs here at OriginalStitch, so maybe that's why we have so many of them, but we use looooooads of diagrams in our sewing patterns.  Don't know about you, but it is just so very much easier.  I draw them myself, when I have designed the product myself or stood over Amanda while she makes it, so they are straight from the very horse's mouth - I have drawn them from the exact construction at that very point, so if there's still pins there, I draw them; if there's loose threads hanging down, I draw them.  We then have our lovely designer Jon colour 'em in all pretty so they're even easier to understand, and have shading where there would be some, and right and wrong sides of the fabric properly coloured.  Lovely.  If you're terribly clever, you can probably almost make something without even reading, which is what my mother does.

"What seam allowance am I using?" she said once.
"It says it right there look Mum - quarter of an inch, see?"
"Oh I haven't read the pattern, I'm just using the pictures." she said.

5) No Template Enlargement

When you cut out our templates, you won't have to enlarge them.  I'm quite happy to admit this may be a matter of preference, but I try to think of the person sewing from their abode up the top of a Welsh mountain, with no access to a photocopier shop, and as temperamental an all-in-one printer as we have (shh, don't tell it I said that, it's easily upset...).  So our templates are designed to fit on an A4 sheet, so that when you print it out, it is real-size.  You may have to join pieces together to make the whole template before applying to the fabric, yes - but we make this as easy as possible by including full written instructions and using nice little symbols.

6) They're available immediately!
Our patterns are currently PDF downloads, which you can access right there in your purchase email, once you've been to the website and bought one.  We have chosen this method because of our eco ethics - we felt it was a little cheeky to go printing out reams of paper for our sewing patterns when we bang on about environmental concerns.
Having said that, we'd be interested to know if you would like them as a paper version, because we would seek to work with some lovely bonkers paper made from rhino poo, or beer dregs, or old Barbie packaging or something.   (We ain't joking, our tags ARE made from old beer dregs!

7) Online Support
You can get support when making your pattern from our OriginalStitch Cafe- it's where all the manuals and manufacturing information is housed for our stitchers to access, so it's where we put information relating to the sewing patterns.  Come and join, and any help shouts you put out we'll pick up - either myself, or Amanda, or even one of our lovely stitchers will soon come to your aid!

So, if you haven't taken a peek at our sewing patterns yet, have a little look - we're working on a whole raft of our Piece & Jam Collection items next, so we'd love to know - what would you most like to see next in our range of Sewing Patterns?

Life's Just Better With Jam

Of course, it's taken me so long, their feet no longer fit.  Ahem.

We discover, Dormouse Moneybags and me, that all of a sudden a half-term or an Easter or a Christmas holidays is slap bang sitting right on top of us.  Wham!  Just like that.  We're all, what the, how the, where the heck did the time go?  Are our children ever in school?

I like how it looks as if they've signed their feet...

And in those weeks of course there's little point trying to do anything involving the following high falutin' thinky activities - planning, strategy, website editing, product design, image editing.
You know, just the stuff in our jobs.  No way.  Forget it.  And certainly not making products for our lovely (we're curtsying right now, curtsying) customers, who deserve only the highest quality products we can muster.

Add one gorgeous bright red giant bathmat!

But we're addicted to sewing, so we do both attack little projects for our own home, since it doesn't remotely matter if we cock those up.  Yes, I like to make a right old scruffbag of a thing for my gaff.  I don't care about loose threads, scruffy edges, double-stitching, linings, neat hems, market trends, on-trend colourways or nuffink.  No, I just grab some scraps, cut 'em up, hoop up, throw a sausage at the kids, stitch something to something else, lob some squash at the kids, stitch some more bits to some other bits, cut, snip, stitch, say "Yeeees!" to whatever thing they've just asked for (crisps was it? Tequila? Tree-climbing? Fire-starting? No idea, just can't stop in the middle of machine-embroidery), stitch a bit more, pinking shear some edges, bob's your uncle and here's a bowl of ice-cream with chocolate sauce and yes, of course, help yourself to too much telly.

Enter me for Mother of the Year Award, you say?  Oh yes please, do, do.

Machine-embroidered scraps for a picnic blanket

Anyway, so here are the things I'd been meaning to make for donkeys' years, and scruffy though they are, I'm glad I've done them.  They are the very things I love - they inject creativity into the fabric of this house.  They are there to please no-one but me (and if they please other people, hooorah!); they are spontaneous; vintage; sustainable; re-used; and best of all, being used, so I get to have a little cock-eyed smile at them each time I see them.  Slightly smug.  You know that smile.
I must tell you that the bathmat idea is not mine, no - I saw it in passing at a nice blog once, and always meant to do it.  You can find a smashing tute for it here if you're not confident about tackling it freestyleeee....

The picnic blanket idea has been germinating for a while in my bonce.

 

These are all machine-embroidered squares with daft phrases on them, like our Piece & Jam Collection.  Ok, it's going to take me a while, but once I've done 12 or so, I'll throw them together with some other squares to make a picnic blanket - whack an old shower curtain on the back and hey presto, all ready for an English picnic, for which waterproofing is always advisable. A load of foody phrases, coz life is just better with Jam.

Whose voice can you hear now?  Yep.  That's right.  Homer Simpson.

Yes, that is Eddie Izzard, most beloved of this Isle.  There'll be a few more of his by the time this picnic has finished.  Cake or death?

So, now then - I'd like to know any of the following in your comments please...either here or on our Facebook page....

a) What did you make in the holidays, and on a scale of 1-10, how scruffy was it?
b) What were your most shameful hands-off childcare tactics?  Share.  Seriously - I need some tips!
c) More Eddie Izzard phrases for the picnic blanket please.  And by the way, these are for everyone - please make a picnic blanket using them!  Could you pass me the idioms please.  Thank you.

Book Review and Giveaway! The Book of Rubbish Ideas...

Tracey, communing with her rubbish bin

Well, you can't go wrong with a title like that can you?!

Now, I'm pretty hardcore about eco already (I never buy shampoo for example - wait for a good post on that one coming up soon!) and we never buy cards in this house, we always make them, saving, I have calculated, well over £100 a year.  We have a log-maker to turn old newspapers into logs for the fire, and obviously, I run OriginalStitch, a company that is dedicated to using recycled fabrics to make beautiful new things - upcycling.  But I still found a bonkersly huge number of tips in this book - it's a right treasure trove.

I'm delighted to have been given a signed copy by the lovely author, broadcaster and econnoisseur Tracey Smith, of her book, The Book of Rubbish Ideas.  Tracey featured one of our OriginalStitch iPad Slipcases in her recent radio broadcast on BBC Radio Somerset, and was kind enough to send me a copy of The Book of Rubbish Ideas to give to one of my lucky punters.  Signed, no less, which always makes a book feel special.

Now, I have a bit of a problem with my eco outlook sometimes, which is this. Someone (let's say for the sake of argument, which is frequently the result, The Husb) throws something in the wrong bin.  Woe betide he who does this because I immediately launch into a witty, erudite, factually accurate and incisive diatribe on how much rubbish goes into landfill every year, how long it takes a piece of bananskin to break down (which is what he's about to do by this point) and with one last final terrifying fact, I cut him right down to size.

Do what it says by the tins, that's my motto.

Yeah right. In my dreams. Here's the actual scenario.

"Oi. Scuze me. Wrong bin"
"Oh bloody hell woman, it's just a banana-skin/tin-can/piece of paper."
"Ah yes, but you know, it doesn't go in that bin, coz, you know, like, landfill's bad, and it should be in the other one, yeh?"

Well that told him didn't it!  Full of remorse and a keen desire to rethink his binning strategies, he never again puts a bananaskin or a tin-can or a piece of paper in the Bin of Doom again.  Yeah right.

Steps in Tracey to the rescue!  Hoooorah to Tracey for her witty book. Full of facts written in a non-preachy, non-apocalyptic way, with appealing, funny little doodles and sketches to break it up, she presents us with some fascinating facts on how we deal with rubbish, and encourages us to get it right.  Quite how she manages to tell us all off without sounding at all humourless, or accusatory, I don't know - but she does; it's a great read, and it's an easy read, backed up online by her Book of Rubbish Ideas Blog. You can learn a few facts to reel off at naughty Husbands, or whoever the Accused are in your life who don't toe the line.  Facts such as (grabs book, p22....and...."Did you know that plastic 6-pack holders will take 100 years to break down?" or, let's see, grab book, p30...and..."Did you know that 7 out of the 15 most carcinogenic chemicals known to man are used to grow cotton?".  Well blow me down. I didn't, and that is one topic I even claim to know about.)

Going Round the Houses

But I'm beating about the bush, because these are just the opening chapters; the real fun starts when she goes round your house, room by room, poking her nose into your intimate corners, so to speak, giving you tips on how you can take a new approach to your lives, bit by bit, one tip at a time, to help you reduce excess and recycle better.  Without totally re-hashing the book, here's a few snippets:

• How to register so you don't receive junk mail
• Popcorn packing: when sending delicate Christmas presents, don't pack with a load of un-recyclable packaging - pack with popcorn! Easy to make by just bunging some popping corn in a pan [but maybe not coated in sugar, so much, even though that really would be a FAB present to receive, would it not?!]
• Window-cleaner - don't ever buy it again.  Keep an old spray-bottle and use 50:50 vinegar to water and give 'em a wipe with that
• Stop putting veg and fruit in millions of plastic bags at the supermarket - just put them all in a bag at the checkout together - apples, carrots, broccoli and so on - they aren't going to get harmed, and you end up with a lovely bag that looks like you've stepped straight out of a Harvest Festival
• Pot pourri - make your own, from flowers, leaves, twigs, cones, essential oils and rock salt, instead of using air freshener sprays full of petrochemicals (you're unlikely to read the list of ingredients in that spray, then look each one up and assess its toxicity, let's be honest, even though there is always a hazard warning on there; but suffice it to say they're a bit ridiculous for something that just needs to add a bit of aroma to the air)
• Ban the disposable napkins and tissues - use fabric napkins, and hankies (ooh, hey, I know a nice company who make gifts and homewares from recycled fabrics! Have you heard of them? Yes, OriginalStitch, that's right.  Oooh they're gorgeous they are, those ladies. Although, ahem, napkins not on the website yet. *Caught-out look on face*  Be right with you on that one....!)

I can't tell you how many brilliant ideas there are in this book, and just don't even get me started on the fun Tracey has in your bathroom. If you liked my last post on Bath Bombs and it inspired you to make more toiletries for yourselves then you will LOVE this section.


I urge you to buy it, and start making a difference to your pocket, and your planet, right now.
You can grab your copy at a great big 35% discount here at Sawdays, the publisher.  Cheap as chips at under a fiver.

And one lucky reader will get the signed copy! 

All you have to do to enter is add yourself as a follower (just click on Follow This Blog on the left sidebar, up there), and then leave me a comment below, making sure you leave contact information in the little contact form.  You don't have to say anything exciting, you can just say ooh yes please, but I'd love to hear your favourite eco tip if you have one?  You never know, it might make its way into Tracey's next book.
And as for The Husb?  Well, I've dumped it on him, let's see if he trashes it or treasures it.

The Husb - is he seeing the light, we wonder?

Pattern 1: Let's Rock'n'Roll for the Pencil Roll!

I think it is no great generalisation to say that all members of the species homo sapiens fall into one of Two Camps.

Camp 1: People who would laugh their heads off, if not give themselves a mirth induced hernia if you ever suggested they might like to try and sew something.  Yes, you know some of these homo sapiens?  I have lots of friends like this.  Literally guffaw if I ask them if they sew.  Snort, maybe even dribble a little with hilarity.  And thank goodness for them, the lovely gorgeous lovelies, for they are my customers!  Hello you all!  Hello!  Come and buy something?  Yes?  I'll see you in a mo, at the till.

Camp 2: People who see lovely fabricky things in the shops and say, oh isn't that lovely, oh I really like it, ooh I'd love to buy that, oh darn it and [insert expletive] I could make that myself!  Oh for heaven's sake.  Oooh, expletive and curse, I can't buy that, can I, seriously.  I really could probably make it myself for far less.

Well and hello to you too!  You are my loyal bloggy audience, and we are very excited to announce that we are going to be selling our 'recipes' as we like to call 'em, over at the OriginalStitch shop.

We take enormous pride in our recipes - they take up a huge amount of brain space in our bonces, and are developed with the utmost of pernicketty, pedantic, detail-seeking, maddeningly accurate obsessiveness, with the pure aim that they are easy peasy lemon squeezy to follow.   Each one has been dreamed up, researched, and tested - for each pattern several prototypes are made until it is just right.  Then they are painstakingly written up, and lovely little diagrams drawn, by me, with a great amount of concentration (you should see my drawing frown - it is quite awesome.  Sometimes I even poke my tongue out).


So we ask for a little for them, because without wishing to sound like a shampoo advertisement, they are worth it!  They're nice and reasonable - the Pencil Roll, as one of our more straightforward designs, is a mere £2.95, and it's downloadable, right there and then in your confirmation email.

We will also shortly be launching The OriginalStitch Cafe, at the moment an online social network for our Stitchers - but it will soon be open to anyone who wants to make one of our recipes.  As well as all the information our Stitchers need to make our products, it will feature video tutorials for any tricky techniques in our recipes, as well as some light-hearted bits of advice on how to avoid revolting fabrics, or combine colours - stuff that might be helpful to any beginner sewing folk out there.  In time, it will become a repository for lots of lovely sewing hints and tips.  We would love to invite guest article writers in too - people who know what they're talking about!  Once we've got some friendly faces in there we'll see what people would like.

So don't delay - hop on over to the shop and buy the Pencil Roll Pattern; it makes a fab gift for kids and friends' kids - I must have made about 12 last year! 

We will be launching the recipe for each product in our collection, but need to go through the checking processes with all of them first - next up will be the Backpacks, which are just gorgeous to make, with some lovely neat techniques for fab finishing.  We'll make sure we send a newsletter out to announce each launch - so if there is one in particular you're looking out for, just sign up for the newsletter at the shop and you'll be the first to find out.

Oh, and we're on Twitter too - oh it's such fun - come and follow me!  Look there's my Twitter button just up there on the left.  Lovely.

But never mind that - there is a small person bellowing at me from a toilet, I believe, so I dread to think what that might involve.  At this point shall I stop sharing?!