Hi! I’m Christine Haynes. I run my little eponymous company in Los Angeles where I teach sewing at Sew LA and The Urban Craft Center, write for various magazines about sewing, and sew clothing and accessories from my studio. You might know me from my book, Chic & Simple Sewing, which is sewing book for …

{image from The Mode in Costume} Ok guys, we’re now starting the second week of the Spring Palette Challenge. This week is all about planning out your projects. By the way, feel free to play fast and loose with this schedule. I know some of you have already started sewing. I just wanted to set …

From Diandra of ohwsweetie: Living on the west coast of Vancouver Island often means months of grey and rain between our mild winter and the sweltering summer. The days are best suited to layering, or at very least a thin jersey layer under your wool coat, knitted sweater, or hoodie. Year round I’m inspired by …

1. Vintage Wallpaper 2. ‘Cherry Pie’ Dress 3. Fall Sunset 4. Pink Balloons 5. Cupcake Hello possums! Nancy here popping by from Wolf and Willow with a little inspiration for your Spring sewing projects. In Australia, where I live, Spring means gorgeous colors like indigo and lilac, streaking the skies at dusk, and pretty pink …

Hello friends of Colette Patterns! My name is Anja (from Clever Nettle) and I’m happy to be sharing my spring palette with you. I’m very new to sewing and am not quite ready for the challenge, but that doesn’t mean that my dream wardrobe doesn’t exist in my head! Lately I have been very drawn …

{image via imprint} For those of you participating in the Spring Palette Challenge, I have some fun stuff to bring you. For the next couple days, I’ll be posting palettes from some wonderful guest bloggers you may or may not know: Spring palette from Anja of Clever Nettle Spring palette from Wolf and Willow Spring …

Jeanne Lanvin (1867-1946) French Anne Gunning in Lanvin, 1954. At age 23, Jeanne Lanvin began working as a milliner, having apprenticed in the trade since age thirteen. In 1909, she joined the Syndicat de la Couture*, the union authorized to determine the requirements of haute couture. With this move, she was now officially considered a …

One of the proudest moments for any sewist is finally flaunting the creation that so much time, energy, and love went into making. Who doesn’t cherish that cheerful moment when a compliment is tossed your way, giving you the opportunity to boast that you (yes, you!) created a gorgeous, expensive looking garment completely from scratch?! …

{photo of the lovely Carlie in Eclair by the talented Lisa Warninger} Welcome to the Spring Palette Challenge, a 10 week challenge for creating a mini seasonal wardrobe based around your favorite color palette for Sring 2011! The idea is very simple. You choose an inspiring palette for Spring, then you sew a tiny wardrobe …

Hubert de Givenchy (1927-  ) Hepburn in Tunic and Skirt, 1964. Hubert de Givenchy was born to a prestigious family. Though he thought of studying law, he became a fashion designer instead. He is now known for clothing of superb cut and workmanship made up in beautiful fabrics. His clothes were pure, classical, and sometimes severe …

Another gem for sewists in Vancouver is the wonderful fabric store and sewing studio, Spool of Thread. The lovely co-owner Lili and I had exchanged some friendly messages on twitter, and she invited me to visit while I was in town. Lili was every bit as warm and friendly in person, and her shop reflects …

I recently took a little trip up to Vancouver, British Columbia, and managed to stop by Button Button, a lovely little button shop in Gastown. I thought I’d share a few photos of the wonderful collection of buttons for sale. As a lover of buttons, I highly recommend the stopping by if you’re ever in …

The Perfect Fit begins with a basic yet essential premise in sewing: patterns are designed to suit a set of industry-defined “average” figures, ones that very few of us actually match. This has been a problem for me ever since I first learned to sew. I loved working through a pretty new Vogue or Butterick …

Christian Dior (1905-1957) French Dovima by Avedon Christian Dior originally wanted to become an architect, but was instead directed by his parents to pursue a diplomatic career. Even when he finally became a fashion designer, he did not leave those architectural desires and instincts behind. He used solid, rigid construction to achieve his delicate-looking “femme-fleur” …

Cristobal Balenciaga (1895-1972)  Spanish Dovima by Richard Avedon The style of Cristobal Balenciaga was a mixture of simplicity, minimalism, and drama in powerful colors and dynamic shapes. He used fabrics that could form and support his structured clothing such as taffeta, silk gazar, faille, upholstery weight wools, and mohair. However, his clothes differed from his contemporary Christian Dior, …

Charles James (1905-1978) American   Charles James is known for creating three-dimensional, structured dresses made of flowing, luxurious materials. The clothes were heavily manufactured with pads, horsehair canvas, interfacing, boning, and wired cloth to create an inner structure despite the outside illusion of lightness and grace.  Comfort was something that James held second to the construction in …

Marie Antoinette often seems to be portrayed in one of two ways: she is either an immature bubbleheaded too obsessed with material pleasures to notice that her subjects were starving, or she is a doomed martyr, a scapegoat in the hands of murderous misogynists. Through her detailed examination of what the ill-fated queen chose to …

This would be a really cool detail to add to a simple skirt or dress, for someone with lots of patience. This beautiful vintage inspiration comes to us courtesy of one of my favorite online vintage dealers, Lauren of Dear Golden.

Madame (Alix) Grès (1903 -1994) French   Born Germaine Emilie Krebs in Paris, she worked under the name Alix Barton for years, later changing to Madame Grès. She studied sculpture and this showed in her draping, which many times resembled the marble togas on classic Grecian and Roman sculptures. Her work skimmed and flowed around the female …

I really love the star-shaped studs on this vintage navy dress from Mill Street Vintage. I wonder where one could find such lovely trimmings today? I bet they’d look fantastic on a blouse collar.

Mariano Fortuny  (1871-1949)   Italian Though not a true couturier, by developing a hand-made dress that would never go out of style or impede a woman’s natural figure, Mariano Fortuny made a memorable name in fashion. A renaissance man of sorts, Fortuny was a painter, inventor, sculptor, architect, and theater technician. It was this last talent that …