Hi! My name’s Jenny and since about 2010 I’ve been blogging over at Cashmerette. Of course, if you started following me back then you’d have seen a bunch of wonkily sewn pillowcases and baby clothes… These days it’s all knit dresses and Simplicity 2343s!
I’m 33 and I’m lucky enough to live in lovely Boston, Massachusetts – but I’m originally from the UK, and have lived all over the place (France, Switzerland, Greece, Malawi, Brunei…). During the day, I work in corporate sustainability and pretend that I’m not actually writing blog posts or reading IdleFancy, because really, what professional woman would do that?!
I started the Curvy Sewing Collective with Mary because I’m passionate about getting more plus size women sewing and blogging about it. Lots of sewists start out because they’re frustrated with stores that don’t carry their size (I struggle, and I’m a US average size 14!), but it can be hard to get the courage to take lots of photos of yourself, start a blog and put yourself out there. Plus size women are under-represented in sewing blogs, pattern testing, pattern company photoshoots and sewing competitions- that’s something we want to change! We’re hoping that the CSC not only can help you get all the resources you need to make fabulous, well-fitted clothes, but to also encourage more women to be confident about their bodies and join the sewing blogosphere.
I first got into sewing when a co-worker came to work in an amazing striped skirt – and when I asked her where it was from she said “IKEA!”. I was confused. Until she explained that she’d sewed it, and it was like a beam of light came down from above and magical harps started playing and I thought…. now THAT is something I’d like to do.
It’s taken me quite a while to get to the point of being able to make clothes that (I think) could pass for RTW, with my crowning glory so far being a tailor made coat this winter. But there’s so much still to do! Boning! Bras! Proper tailoring! And…. scariest of all…. trousers!
In the meantime, I stick with my good old TNTs. My top ones are Simplicity 2343 (perfect straight skirt with excellent pockets), Christine Jonson’s perfect wrap dress (which I’ve hacked to make it only 3 pattern pieces), and the Colette Sorbetto which is my go-to staple top for summer.
I’m hourglass-ish (tending towards the apple), at around 46″ – 38″ – 46″, but being a 36HH (!), I pretty much have to make full bust adjustments (FBAs) on practically all my garments. I also fall between sizes based on my waist/hip ratio, so I often find myself doing waist adjustments, too.
As for my sewing expertise? Well the combination of my figure and my love of comfort means sewing with knits and wrap dresses of all shapes and sizes are one area; I also LOVE pattern and print, so I’m your lady for sources of amazing printed fabric, and tips on pattern matching.
I’m so excited to launch the Curvy Sewing Collective, and I can’t wait to get all the curvy sewists across the world involved!
Kia Ora Koutou (hello/all be well) and Haere Mai (welcome)! My name is Sophie-Lee and I blog over at tworandomwords.
I’m 25 and live in arguably the most beautiful country in the world, New Zealand (although I may be biased). During the day I’m a doctor, currently working out my time in the hospital system before I can start training in my passion, rural general practice. I’m married to a wonderful man (known as Mr. Guy) and have a cat Travis and dog Jessie, who pretend otherwise but secretly love each other.
I first started sewing at “prep school” (intermediate). I made a polyester windsock, and had my first altercation with an overlocker when I cut a hole in it. I also made a navy cotton “gypsy skirt” that I wore quite often, and a most hideous straight skirt from shiny, stretch teal fabric with beaded trim. My mother must had thought I was crazy. For the next few years I made a couple of outfits (including a beautiful pair or tartan shorts for my brother, which shredded as soon as he put them on because the wool was such terrible quality. I think I cried) which, despite their terrible quality (never a hem in sight), I wore a LOT. I dabbled in sewing while in my first few years of medical school.
After I graduated in late 2012 and moved to Wellington (our capital city), I needed something to help de-stress from work. I turned to sewing and became obsessed. It was talking to Mrs. C and her dangling the prize of being part of the Wellington Sewing Bloggers Network that prompted me to get serious about blogging – now I love being able to show off my garments, get advice, and make friends throughout the “blogosphere” (Mr. Guy hates that word)
As soon as I saw the posts come up about the CSC, I emailed Mary asking if I could take part. I’m quite big on body-positivity and am very conscious of the part the media has to play in this. Being a big girl ever since puberty, I know the kind of judgment thrown at people purely because of their weight. I know how difficult it can be to dress well for your size, given that others generally choose what we’re “allowed” to wear (by not selling certain clothes in a full size range). Sewing allows us to somewhat get around that, but I think there needs to be visible role models so people don’t feel as alienated in the sewing world as they do in the fashion world.
Through sewing my own clothes I’ve really learned what looks good on me, as I’m not so much at the mercy of “fashion” (previously I would have bought whatever polka dot clothes fit me, regardless of actual fit or whether they looked good) If you’ve seen my blog you know the kind of styles I favour – they tend to be fitted in the bodice and flared over the hips, and I ALWAYS need to have waist definition. My favourite pattern to date is Gertie’s pencil skirt (from her first book – when is the next one going to be released already??) and I like altering existing patterns (or my sloper) to create my own designs.
The most common alterations I have to make are grading between sizes – I’m often three different sizes in a pattern, as I have narrow shoulders, small bust and waist, and very wide hips (I’m a super pear shape). For reference my measurements are: 40” bust (38” high bust), 32” waist, and 48” hips/bum. I probably should learn to make full butt adjustments!
I tend to sew predominantly with wovens but am reasonably comfortable with knits. I’m trying to make myself take more time (I’m not a very patient person) with techniques and finishes, to make my clothes as good a quality as I can. I have been making all of my own clothes recently and have been “RTW free” since June 2013.
I’m 23 and I live just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina. I’m a student, in school at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte to become a history teacher. It’s funny, I get asked what my major is a lot when people learn that I sew, and then they’re always very surprised when they learn that I’m in school for something that has nothing to do with sewing or fashion. As it is, I didn’t really develop and interest in fashion until I was a senior in high school and I didn’t learn how to sew until I was a junior in college. Then I had a bit of a quarter-life crisis, took a couple of years off from school, and then returned this past year to continue doing what I was doing before. Go figure.
Anyway, how exactly did I start blogging? Well, back in the summer of 2012, I learned how to sew. I was at the rock bottom of suffering from depression. I was supposed to have graduated college that year, but I hadn’t. Instead I ended up taking time off to try and get healthy and nothing was working out and I was so very depressed. One of the highlights of my year every year is Heroes Con, the annual comic book convention in Charlotte. That year, I decided that it was finally time that I started to cosplay (which basically means dressing up in costume for conventions), and that decision lead me to decide that it was finally time for me to learn how to sew. My interest in fashion had grown considerably over the past few years and every summer since like 2010 I had told myself that I was going to learn how to sew.
Well 2012 was finally that year. One day in June I dragged out my mom’s old sewing machine and nagged her until she broke down and showed me how to thread it. Well I never got around to making myself a costume for Heroes Con, but from first stitch I was enchanted. I dug up tutorials online and absorbed the information like a sponge. My first project was the ugliest bag I have ever created, but I was damn proud of that thing because I had basically figured out how to make it all on my own.
A couple of weeks, that bag, and an ugly skirt later, I decided that I wanted to make a dress. After all, making dresses was my intended endgame with sewing, so why not start early? I downloaded and taped together a free pattern from BurdaStyle and conned my grandma, who had sewn a lot when she was younger, to show me how to read and lay out a sewing pattern. That first dress was probably the most difficult one I ever made and I was sooooo not ever wear it now, but the fact that i was able to make it three weeks into learning how to sew meant the world to me.
In the last year, I’ve talked a lot about my struggle with depression and bipolar disorder. In those discussions, my two big hobbies, swing dancing (as pictured above) and sewing, come up a lot. I fully believe, with all my heart, that dance and sewing saved my life. After sewing that first dress, I became voracious. I couldn’t learn enough or sew enough to satisfy the passion that had emerged inside of me. Being the millennial that I am, I turned to the internet and almost instantly became addicted to sewing blogs. I just had to make one for myself to document my own sewing journey. Now here I am, almost two years later, still alive and kicking, and still sewing and dancing.
I was thrilled when the concept of the Curvy Sewing Collective was presented to me. From my blog’s conception, I’ve always had a focus on body positivity and dressing the body that I have, rather than the body that I may wish I have or the body that society thinks I should have. I’m so pleased to be in a position now where I can help other plus-size seamstresses with that.
For reference, my body type is basically a classic hourglass. My current measurements are 42″-33″-46″ and my bra size is 36DDD/F. I typically fall either at the largest end of the “straight size” spectrum or at the smaller end of the plus-size spectrum. Part of why I was inspired to sew was because in RTW clothing I tend to fall into a gap between the two size ranges and then nothing fits quite right. Most of my sewing adjustments are to accommodate my large bust and hips in proportion to my relatively small (or at least “average sized”) waist.
You would probably think that I do FBAs a lot, but I actually rarely have to do them, though I probably should more often. I sometimes (a lot of times… ) get lazy with fitting. Most of the time I’m either adding to a shirt dress’s overlap (aka my cheater FBA for button-ups), taking things in at the waist, shortening bodices and hemlines, and adding to the seam allowance at the hip.
The three TNT patterns that I seem to come back to the most are Colette’s Macaron dress, Kitschy Coo’s Lady Skater Dress, and Sewaholic’s Hollyburn skirt. I’ve made the Macaron like four times, the Lady Skater probably about six, and the Hollyburn probably like four or fives times. I’ve actually made the Hollyburn as a skirt only once, but it’s my favorite skirt to attach to different dress bodices because I love the pockets and it works well with both knits and wovens.
This dress has the Hollyburn skirt attached to the bodice of Christine Hayne’s Emery dress.
As for the type of sewing that I typically do, I’ve discovered that if I can’t dance in something that I make, then it’s probably not going to get worn. There’s basically three categories of clothing that I sew: stuff to dance in (the bulk of my casual clothing falls into this, as well as some of my dressier makes), stuff to teach in, and costuming. Really, that “stuff to dance in” category overlaps with the other two. I never know when I might end up dancing, so I might as well be prepared!
Curvy Sewing Collective 
