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How to Copy a Garment You Love

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Yifen modeling her joyful new dress
Yifen’s joyful new dress

Yifen recently took part in one of the most popular short courses we offer – the two day course: How to Copy a Garment You Love.  

Over a total of 12 hours; students learn how to assess their original garment to draft a pattern off it – without having to pull the original garment apart! The second component of the course is having students make a toile of their pattern so that we can test the pattern that has been created and make any adjustments or corrections to pattern.  This short course is a great introduction to pattern drafting.

Original dress

In the August 2019 course, Yifen copied a fun party dress that featured angled seams, ruffles and gathering (no easy feat for the copying process) and we are so proud of her results!  Yifen only learnt to sew this year in our Sewing Basics for Beginners 3 Week Course. She has achieved an amazing result with her copied dress – we love it more than the original! Plus she now has a pattern for her favourite dress and can create many different versions. We hope they all bring her as much joy as the fabulous zig zag version.

#MakeYourStash

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If you have one, you probably lie about how big it is…#MakeYourStash

Your fabric stash.

I heard about a sewing enthusiast recently who only buys fabric for a project. She makes that project and only then buys fabric when she has the next project planned and ready to start. I was seriously impressed – that is incredible will power! I am obviously not like that…

So, as soon as I saw this campaign I loved it. I am just as guilty as the next Fabricophile of having a huge fabric stash.

#MakeYourStash 

In its 2nd year the challenge is: to make garment(s) that we will love and wear, using fabric that has been in the stash for more than 6 months.

[Read more…] about #MakeYourStash

Changing the way we think about consuming fashion, wearing fashion, making fashion and wasting fashion.

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Who made my clothesWe’ve come to the close of the annual #whomademyclothes campaign, it starts each year on the anniversary of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh collapsing. 

On 24 April 2013, 1,138 people died and another 2,500 were injured, making it the fourth largest industrial disaster in history… Thats when Fashion Revolution started. The #whomademyclothes campaign in April every year works to highlight transparency in the fashion industry.

[Read more…] about Changing the way we think about consuming fashion, wearing fashion, making fashion and wasting fashion.

#MeMadeMay

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2019 is the TENTH year of the #MeMadeMay challenge. It is all about building your relationship with your handmade wardrobe. To take part, make a pledge to wear the garments you made yourself more and/or in different ways.  Then you showcase it throughout May. By the end of May, you will have learnt a whole load about yourself, your style, how you feel about your wardrobe, and how best to spend your clothes-making time going forwards.
To officially set your pledge, click the logo and visit So,Zo the creator of #MeMadeMay.
To Celebrate Thread Den is discounting selected classes in May to get you sewing more!

A local friend’s goal to buy nothing new this year.

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Make Mend Swap is a Melbournite trying to dress in style while not buying any new clothes for a year. The blog is an inspiration for the rest of us to do what we can and maybe give it a go ourselves.  

I am scared of doing this for a whole year though. No new clothes for a whole year. I did make some concessions though. I can buy second hand, within reason, but mostly swap, sew, mend or modify what I already have.

Check out the challenge and how it is succeeding – click here.