Josephine Sews

Right now I am having a love affair with denim fabric and I believe it started when I decided to take on the challenge of making a pair of jeans.  I have about 4 or 5 other projects that I plan to make with denim.  Today's feature is the Empire Waist Apron from Sew4Home and I am in love with this apron. I won't do my normal post - Sew4Home always have excellent instructions, but will mention a few notables and show some pictures. I loosely followed the instructions which caused a few mistakes (design features).  All the fabric came from my stash.  The denim is left over fabric from a previous jeans make and it is a little stiff but I love it as a apron.  The lining and applique is from my quilt/scrap stash.  I had some store bought piping so I used it instead of making my own. I used Sulky's 12wt Cotton Thread (red) for the decorative stitching and Sulky's Rayon Embroidery thread for the applique. Btw Peggy from Silhouette Patterns said to put a 12oz can o...

Wow - what a year.  I quickly went through and believe I counted 43 makes for 2020 and those are the ones I posted.  I had some failures that didn't get posted.  I have the pandemic to thank for a banner sewing year. This year I started using Indy patterns and most of my makes came from patterns made by StyleArc.  Before I was using Lekala custom fit patterns because I hate making alteration.  The problem with Lekala was you never knew when you would get a "bad" pattern. Finally, pattern designers received pressure from Instagram influencers and started expanding their size range - now I have a lot more pattern designers to choose from. I completed my sewing goal from 2019 - I am happy that I now have the perfect fitting pair of jeans for me.  It was a process to get there, but I made it and will have more jeans makes coming this year. My only sewing goal for 2021 will be to make a coat .  I have learned that if I make more than one sewing goal I will ...

I put myself on punishment because my house look like a tornado hit it - I had sewing items in every room in the house.  My punishment was I could not sew until I got things cleaned up.  I still need to mop one floor, but I wanted something quick and easy to sew. Whitney Sews Newsboy Hat How I Did It I think I saw someone on Instagram with a pageboy hat and figured that would be a simple and quick project to sew.  I found a free pattern with video, but also added features from another site's pattern. The free pattern came from Whitney Sews and it has a video showing you how to put it together.  I used this video to help with instructions and I used some of the features of EasyToSew's hat. Fabric Everything came from my stash - yay.  I used a 11.5 oz denim and a quilting cotton for the lining. Pattern Alterations I used a double band rather than a single band - I think the finish is much nicer with a double band.   On the next one I will add piece of...

My 2019 sewing goal was to make a good fitting pair of jeans.  It has been a two year journey and I have found at least one pattern that works for me. StyleArc Sandra Narrow Leg Jean When I made the goal I started buying tools that I would need to put on the rivets, bought denim fabric and even bought a pattern (Cashmerette Ames Jeans ) but then fear set in.  I knew pants in general take work to fit, but I also knew jeans would be even harder so I put it off again and again until the year was gone. 2020 came and I refused to allow fear to stand in the way of me making a good fitting pair of jeans.  This was not easy and the hardest part was getting the yoke and waist band to fit.  It was hard because I did not know how to do it.  Thru trial and error and finally finding the one Craftsy class  The Perfect Jeans by Jennifer Stern-Hasemann that made it clear for me I was able to get it done. I won't do my normal post because I detailed it here - I will only ...