Gudrun Sjödén's Patchwork Perfection

The stand-out piece from Gudrun Sjödén's Spring 2016 collection is her Murano knitted cardigan coat. The Murano is a sensation in all colourways but the lupine with its tones of blue and turquoise makes me want to jump for joy.

The coat is made up of different patterned patches of knitted linen/cotton fabric cut into diagonals and squares and is expertly crafted and assembled. As with all Gudrun Sjödén clothes the colours have been carefully matched with her previous collections and it goes with everything in my wardrobe.

Gudrun's Spring collection is full of strong colours and prints so it was an unusual choice for me to choose a pair of Myller leggings in black. Black is not a colour I normally wear but the graphic surface print of flowers, dots and dashes in shades of grey and cream looks stunning. Of course I then had to buy the same leggings in cyclamen and china blue colours. They all work well with the Murano coat and give a lift to my old familiar handmade clothes too, refreshing my wardrobe in tune with spring.

In the Spring/Summer catalogue you can also see the results of the Gudrun Sjödén stripes photo shoot I took part in last July in Stockholm. It's a thrill to see these pictures published, a great reminder of a wonderful day spent with lovely people and an experience I'll never forget.

By the way, if you haven't already, you must see my friend Myf Tristram's ace sketch diary of our Stockholm trip, and I can't resist sharing Gudrun's video of the shoot below. Happy days for colourful women!

A Dress for Midwinter

My final dress make of the year is a Cinema Dress trimmed with embroidered ribbons and braid. It's the second dress I've made from this Liesl + Co sewing pattern and this time I used a soft floral corduroy – my favourite choice of fabric for winter dressmaking.

Inspired by Gudrun Sjödén's beautiful Midvinter collection, I decided to sew a heavily brocaded panel on the bodice using different braids and embroidered ribbon collected over the years. It took some time to get the placement right!

The finished frock has a festive folksy feel and will see me through this season's celebrations.

Gudrun's Friends' Diary

I was invited to document my week in photographs for a new feature on Gudrun Sjödén's website, Gudrun's Friends Diary. I regularly photograph my world for Instagram so jumped at the chance to be involved in this project. However I must admit that my photo-diary week saw me paying extra attention to what I was wearing every day, and in a routine where many hours at the computer or sewing machine are my reality I was eager to capture the more sociable and varied aspects of my week.

The biggest thrill is seeing it all published online and translated into many languages for Gudrun's international sites.

My photo diary forms part of a series which started with author and graphic designer Maren El Gammal and I look forward to seeing the diaries of Gudrun's friends in the weeks and months to come!

You can read my photo diary in Swedish here.

24 Hours in Stockholm

A flying visit to Stockholm gave me the chance to sample the textures and colours of this stunning Scandinavian city. The motive for my trip was an invitation to take part in a photo shoot for Gudrun Sjödén's spring 2016 catalogue – a day's work in the best possible circumstances, with the most wonderful people. Photos from the shoot will be released in January 2016, but for the canny there's a sneak preview @gudrunsworld. I'm keen to find out which photos from the day are chosen for the spring catalogue but have to wait until January along with everyone else! So for now, here's a sample smörgåsbord of Sweden's beautiful capital instead.

Decorating the BugCycle Garden with Gudrun Sjödén

Worthing's BugCycle community garden has just become even more colourful thanks to a generous donation from Gudrun Sjödén, Swedish designer of sustainable fashion and champion of environmentally conscious design. Gudrun kindly sent us a bundle of eco-cotton fabrics and home furnishings to use in our burgeoning wildlife garden.

BugCycle was set up by community arts producers Creative Waves in partnership with Worthing Wildlife to regenerate an area in one of the town's central parks. Since February this year, we and a team of volunteers have transformed a disused part of Beach House Park using largely found, recycled and donated materials into a living, educational, sensory garden for all to enjoy.

Gudrun Sjödén sent us a selection of Långrand striped organic cottons in delicious shades of guava/turquoise, lavendula/sky, asparagus/pineapple and peony. I decided to make gardening hats and aprons for our volunteers to wear, as well as some cushions and bright bunting to decorate and furnish the garden. I used these fabulous fabrics together with some Gudrun Sjödén material left over from previous projects.

The aprons are based on Gudrun's perfectly practical Nyttan gardening apron with one large divided wrap around pocket and long fastening ties (I'm wearing a ruby red Nyttan apron in these photos). The hats are made using Etsy shop WorthyGoods super Over The Top sun hat sewing pattern. I sewed simple envelope back cushion covers from the Långrand cotton to complement two of Gudrun's Melissa and Flox print cushions. All left over pieces of fabric were cut into triangles of different sizes and sewn into colourful bunting. Not a scrap of material was wasted!

These photos were taken at a Creative Waves BugCycle Art in the Park workshop, but on another day you could see the Worthing Wildlife Team at work here, one of the town's community groups or up to 120 local school children using the garden as an outdoor learning space.

We'd like to thank Gudrun Sjödén for bringing her Swedish design with a green soul to our own very green and thriving community garden!

Gudrun's eco-cotton fabrics and home furnishings are available from her web shop.

A second year of sewing my own clothes

It's time I documented my second year of making my own clothes. This year there was no outright self-imposed ban on buying new or second hand clothes, so I have been lucky to acquire a few more beautiful Gudrun Sjödén pieces, as well as purchasing some needed socks and knickers.

The original year-long-experiment which began in May 2013 has remained habit changing and sewing my own is a regular part of my weekly routine. Between 17th May 2014 and 31st May 2015 I sewed a lot of dresses, a few tops, had a summertime flurry of trouser making, and made three beautiful coats.

The Wiksten Tova was my 'discovery' staple sewing pattern this year, and the one I've made most of (current Tova count is six). My second favourite repeatedly sewn pattern is the Lisette Portfolio dress Kerry Green most generously sent me in January (I made three). I must also mention its sister-pattern the lovely Liesl & Co Cappuccino dress (four more of these now hanging in my wardrobe). The 'outsider lovely surprise pattern' was Scarlet et Marguerite's Baba Yaga dress.

Garment Of The Sewing Year: Burda 7072 Quilted Coat

My favourite garment of the year is the one that took the most work, a quilted Burda 7072 coat. Worth every frustrating second of fiddling to get the under-arm seams right!

The round-up photo above doesn't include everything I made, and not all of it was blogged – there are at least three more holiday dresses and six pairs of baggy trousers not included here. I may try to slow down production in the coming year, but can't see myself stopping as I love the act of sewing and the self expression of wearing handmade clothes. I wear something I've made myself every day of the year.

I am however, a little less keen to continue photographing and blogging my makes (and my gurning face) so am not sure if there'll be a third year with a round-up like this. In part I think joining Instagram has removed some of the urge to blog. So much social media, so little time.

For now though, it is a pleasure to present the line up of clothes sewn in my second sew-my-own year.

Trouserathon, July 2014

Scarlett et Marguerite Baba Yaga dress

Introducing my first Scarlett et Marguerite Baba Yaga dress! Scarlett et Marguerite is a boutique and fabric store based in Nancy, France, which also designs and sells its own patterns for easy-to-sew clothes. Their aesthetic reminds me of 1970s Clothkits, far-out Gudrun Sjödén and 1980s Camden Market bohemian chic. Theirs is a world of unashamedly colourful homemade clothes in easy-fit shapes, embellished with all manner of brocades, ribbons and pom poms, sewn together with love.

The Baba Yaga is one of their most sewn (and blogged) sewing patterns. I've craved making one myself all year long but put off buying it mainly due to the high cost of postage from France (almost as much as the price of the pattern itself). Eventually, a timely year-end discount code persuaded me to take the plunge and order it online. Once ordered, the pattern was delivered quickly and arrived in a delightful package - a joy to receive! It even included a Scarlett et Marguerite sew-in label to add to the newly created dress. The written instructions are only in French but the illustrated diagrams were clear and when in doubt I used Google Translate to decipher anything I wasn't sure about. 

Extra special fabric was required for this folkloric design and Carolyn Gavin's gorgeous Petite Fleur collection of organic cottons was just the thing. I used three different prints in a navy/red colourway; Swallow Garden for the main dress and sleeve panels; Poppies for the dress border; and Floral Impressions (a navy/white stem print) for the front and back panels. I spent even longer deliberating on which ribbons to use for the centre back trim before settling on a red gingham (for the time being).

Baba Yaga is an easy pattern to sew and rewardingly quick to put together. I love the puff sleeve cuffs which have four darts to give them shape. There's room for personal interpretation here too – embellishment is encouraged! I closed the front neckline on mine to make the front sit flat and added (essential) side pockets. I'm wearing it here with my Gudrun Sjödén Cirkus print leggings and red shoes – a combination as flamboyant as the myth of Baba Yaga herself.

Stashbuster Patchwork Cushions

Patchwork is ideal for using up scraps of fabric left over from other projects. I can just about bear binning the overlocking offcuts and fraying cracklings snipped away while dressmaking, but feel uneasy throwing any other pieces of material away when there is the possibility they could be used for something else one day. At the end of each project all my fabric scraps get chucked into clear plastic sandwich bags and are stored in a big box along with the hundreds of other small bagged up remnants I've collected.

I decided to start putting those leftovers to use and make some new cushion covers. I whiled away two evenings selecting fabrics from my remnant stash and carefully cutting out three score and four squares. For backing I used the remaining pieces of Gudrun Sjödén's organic eco cotton (which had been patiently waiting for their moment since I made these ukulele gig bags) and some beige polka dot cotton left over from making my daughter's Hello Tokyo quilt. I made simple envelope backs so that the covers can be easily removed for washing.

Measuring and cutting out the squares is a meditative process but for me the great pleasure of machining patchwork is seeing how quickly the finished pieces come together when you do start sewing. The colourful finished cushions are designed to bring cheer to even the coldest, greyest November day.

Colour, texture and taste in Cologne

Two days in Cologne was not enough. Excited to be back in a city, the bustling buzz of the place hits you as soon as you step out of the station, as does the magnificence of Kölner Dom.

My heart quickened at the sight of a Gudrun Sjödén rickshaw just opposite the cathedral! We set off to explore cobbled streets taking in the sights and sounds, first stop the Gudrun Sjödén shop. 
 

We stayed in Friesenplatz, a twenty minute walk from the city centre past dozens of art galleries, cafés and beautiful buildings both ancient and modern.

On Sunday we spent hours in the Schokoladen Museum where there is much to see and read, even if it presents a rather sanitised history of the production of chocolate. Worth a visit for the super collection of packaging and paraphernalia, you can also taste chocolate from the fountain on the factory floor. An intoxicating experience, we eventually stumbled out and made rash purchases in the Lindt gift shop.

Special mention for the best meal of our holiday goes to La Tagliatella, an Italian restaurant nestled in between the vast tourist eateries on Heumarkt. Here I ate the most delicious homemade pasta triangles stuffed with pear and gorgonzola. Also recommend ordering the enormous garlic bread - you will not be disappointed!