Continuing our series on fabric, in this post we’ll be focusing on cotton. Cotton is by far the most common material used in home sewing. It’s usually inexpensive and comes in a wide array of colors and prints. Chances are good that you’ve already sewn with several types of cotton fabrics. Even if you feel …

Both of my grandmothers sewed, and I was lucky to have my grandmother Ida (that’s Nonna, pictured above in Brazil) to teach me to sew. She is a very classic dresser who always manages to look put together and lovely, even dressed in her most casual clothing. My other grandmother, Ruth (aka Nana), adored clothing …

Elizabeth Hawes (1903 – 1971) American Elizabeth Hawes was born in New Jersey and started sewing as a teenager. In 1932, Dorothy Shaver promoted Elizabeth Hawes and a few other female designers to the media as leading American designers. Like Claire McCardell, her fashion contemporary, Hawes created simple bias-cut comfortable garments with deep armholes and natural …

We’re starting a little fabric series! There are so many kinds of fabric available it’s overwhelming to try to understand them all at once. So these posts will cover a little bit about some commonly used fabrics. This first post is about a fabric we use a lot here at Colette Patterns: silk! We often …

Image Sources 1 2 For more about cotton, check out our fabric series post!

Claire McCardell (1905- 1958) American Claire McCardell was a well known fashion designer who revolutionized women’s fashion in America. She was the cover subject of an article on the emergence of American fashion in the May 2, 1955 issue of Time magazine. McCardell was inspired by Vionnet and Chanel when studying in Paris in 1926. She designed …

Wow, we’re heading into week six of the Spring Palette Challenge. I have to admit, I haven’t done much sewing this week. I’ve had some major things going on… good things! Kenn and I are in the process of buying our first home! We’ve had a lot of bad luck in searching for a house, …

Irene Lentz-Gibbons (1900-1962) American Irene Lentz-Gibbons designed for many Hollywood stars off-screen, such as Claudette Colbert, while also freelancing for many of the film studios. Her reputation was made when actress Dolores Del Rio requested all of her film costumes in 1933’s Flying Down to Rio be designed by the unknown Lentz-Gibbons. Her designs developed …

I’m excited to introduce you to Carina, the designer behind the Swedish brand Malinka. When I first saw her creations I was most impressed with her use of patterns and love the way she describes her brand, “You are as beautiful in your Malinka digging in your garden as you are in your Malinka going …

How are you doing on the Spring Palette Challenge? This is my second garment, which I made in a white eyelet I’ve had for ages, lined in a light cream cotton, and finished with bias tape at the neckline. I was originally going to make it sleeveless, but decided short little sleeves would showcase the …

Adrian (1903-1959) American Born Adolph Adrian Greenburg, the designer would eventually change his name to just Adrian. In 1922 a meeting with Natacha Rambova, the wife of Rudolph Valentino, resulted in him designing costumes for the silent film star. In 1928 he was hired by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer as chief costume designer. During his time at …

{sophia loren} Hot on the heels of Valentine’s Day, let’s talk about sex appeal in our clothing! Recently, Caitlin has been digging deep into your responses to the survey we ran a while back. One of the themes she noticed when we asked about your motivation and goals for sewing your clothing was that some …

Can you believe we’re already heading into week four of the Spring Palette Challenge? Yeesh. No need to feel you’re behind, though. After all, we’ve only had one week of sewing so far. So here’s my blouse! It’s juuuust about done. After my button conundrum last week, I finally found what I think will be …

We’ve had so much fun putting pretty touches on our lingerie patterns and sharing the tutorials lately that we thought we’d do a roundup with these and a few more ideas! We drew inspiration from the lovely lingerie of past decades and changed them a bit for a more modern sensibility. If you decide to …

Edith Head (1897-1981) American Edith Head taught art at the Hollywood School for Girls before applying for a job as a sketch artist at Paramount Pictures under Travis Banton. After years working as assistant to Banton at Paramount, she eventually succeeded him as head designer. She eventually moved to Universal Pictures where she stayed until …

Hello, my name’s Toria and I blog over at Welsh Pixie. When Sarai mentioned her spring colour palette challenge it sounded like a great idea and I immediately started daydreaming about pastels, barely there shades and neutrals all ready for Spring. I’d recently discovered Lola’s Room on Etsy and it was the photographs available in …

For those of you following along with the Spring Palette Challenge, it’s time to get sewing! I hope you’ve had a chance to brainstorm your palette and pick your sewing projects. The only thing left is to get cracking. Admittedly, I haven’t done any sewing yet. But this is the fabric for my first project! …

This week I was able to pick the brain of Gabrielle Adamidis of Melbourne, Australia about herself and how she comes up with the lovely designs behind her lingerie line, Hopeless. The inspiration for Hopeless, which was founded in 2008, comes mainly from film, but I was surprised to find that they aren’t the sort …

Travis Banton (1894-1958) American Travis Banton worked briefly in New York before arriving in Hollywood in 1924. Once in the city, he made his name by designing the wedding gown that actress Mary Pickford wore to marry Douglas Fairbanks Jr.  He was promoted to head designer in 1927 after working as an assistant designer to …

I was doing some research on shorts for my Spring Palette Challenge when I came across these shorts on J.Crew. Let’s leave aside the fact that they are a love-it-or-hate-it chartreuse green (personally, I love chartreuse, but it’s a divisive color). Let’s also leave aside the fact that they are shiny silk shorts. And that …

So here’s my rough plan for what I want to sew. Shorts: I’d like to do some cuffed shorts. Not too short, not too long, not too tight, not too loose. I anticipate I’ll do a fair bit of fitting on this one. I have a lovely coral twill I bought last week. I’m planning …