Jessica Norris

Teddy Clothes

This year Evie asked me to make her teddy some clothing, as a present for her birthday. This material just begged to be made into something sweet for Evie, as it has all her favourite things: pink colours, gold sparkle and some busy geometric shapes. I can’t even begin to describe the squeeee moment I had whenContinue reading “Teddy Clothes”

Pixie in the Garden

With all of these posts lately about sewing and handcrafts, have you been wondering how things are going in our garden? All of the summer veggies are finished up, so we’ve pulled out the zucchini plants and the straggly tomatoes. In their place we have some self-sown Zinnias, plus seedlings of tomatoes and some cucumbers.Continue reading “Pixie in the Garden”

T-tunic Seam Reviews

Hello all! I have a photo fiesta for you today, showing the various types of seam treatments I have used inside the humble SCA T-tunic. This is a basic medieval garment that is worn as underwear or layered for warmth. The T-tunic is made up of various rectangles and triangles that fit together in complicated ways.Continue reading “T-tunic Seam Reviews”

Teeny Tiny French Seams

I made another pair of City Gym Shorts as a birthday present for my eldest. Happy Birthday Izzy! This time I decided to try finishing the seams with the teeniest tiniest French seams you can imagine. And it worked! I am a big fan of French seams because they are very quick to sew (providedContinue reading “Teeny Tiny French Seams”

Weaving with a Temple

My husband laughs at the terms I use in weaving. “You’re sleying the reed?? How is that even a thing?” Well, now I’ve started using a “temple”! 😀 This is a device that forces the width of the woven piece to match up correctly with the “dents” in the reed (haha, there I go again). This stops theContinue reading “Weaving with a Temple”

City Gym Shorts

Last year my kids picked out a couple of fabrics to make up into pyjamas. These fabrics sat for ages in my stash, waiting for the right inspiration to come knocking. Then I saw this great set of instruction from Purl Soho, to make up their City Gym Shorts. I figured — why not pyjamaContinue reading “City Gym Shorts”

Clean the kettle with vinegar

I’m an avid tea drinker, so every now and then I notice that my kettle has a build up of scale: This is my cue to pull out the household white vinegar (ordinary cheap stuff I use for all sorts of things). I pour some into the bottom of the kettle, hopefully above the dirty mark line,Continue reading “Clean the kettle with vinegar”

Birka tablet woven belt

A long, long time ago, in a suburb far, far away … … I wound a very looong warp for tablet weaving a belt. A 292 cm long belt! I used 20 tablets (in reality, playing cards cut into a square shape, with four holes punched at the corners). Each tablet was threaded according toContinue reading “Birka tablet woven belt”

Isobel’s Triangle Quilt

This Christmas I made Isobel a twin-size equilateral triangle quilt. This is the biggest quilt I’ve completed since I was in High School! It overlaps her single bed with enough to tuck in at the sides. This was the project that I hinted about last year, when I posted about using starch for the first timeContinue reading “Isobel’s Triangle Quilt”

Fabric Christmas Crackers

My family loves pulling crackers at Christmas time. In recent years I have had a bit of a love/hate relationship with them, though, as they are filled with ridiculous plastic disposable “toys” that everybody hates, and just fill up the garbage bin. This year I made a special effort to replace the junk disposable crackersContinue reading “Fabric Christmas Crackers”