Sarai recently posted about the wonderful book, Stitching for Style. We thought it would be fun to share a couple of tutorials using the techniques from the book. Today’s tutorial is perfect for adding a pretty edge to hems, necklines, and sleeves. For this project I used a slightly sheer fabric for the edging. I …

Harts Fabric is having a fun sewalong this month using our lovely Macaron. Once you submit a photo of your final creation, you’re entered to win three of our patterns! the details Order your fabric, pattern and notions from Harts Fabric. For a 10% discount write “for macaron sew along challenge” in the comments section …

At this time of year, my thoughts inevitably turn to picnics. There’s just nothing quite like eating outdoors, and it’s a wonderfully cheap date to boot. It’s easy to find baskets of all sizes at thrift stores, like this handled one. But they’re made even cuter with a liner. A drawstring closure helps protect your …

Blind hems are fantastic. Using an ingenious method of folding and stitching, you can create a machine stitched hem that is nearly invisible from the outside. It’s a fantastic way to create a deep hem on a skirt, unlined jacket, or pants. I used to find them to be a bit of a pain, but …

Feeling inspired by some of my favorite vintage napkins, I decided to make these fringed ones with leftover peach linen from the hemstitched tea towels This project is pretty quick, but I’ll warn you that it’s very messy. You’ll have quite a few threads piling up as you fringe the edges. The end result is …

I learned a few things while making my embroidered Hazel dress last week, mostly through experimentation. I like problem-solving projects like this one. There was a fair bit of head scratching and chin stroking involved in the dress’s construction, so I’ll pass on the results of my little experiments to you. My main questions going …

We are so lucky to have our own sink and tiny kitchen area in our new studio. We have a white mini fridge, a microwave and a bookshelf with a few utensils and dishes. Until recently, we were missing an essential: dishtowels! While we have a few rag type towels, we needed something pretty (and …

{above image: taking photos of the new upcoming patterns last week! Photo by Caitlin with her phone} I’ve been getting some questions here and there lately about taking nicer photos of the garments you make, be they for your blog, Flickr, or just to share with family and friends. I think my photography skills have …

It’s winter and quite chilly outside. I’ve definitely felt that need to burrow under a warm blanket, how about you? Since we’ve moved into a new space and are getting to do so much fun decorating, Sarai and I decided to add a Pendelton wool throw to the mix. Now that we have a break …

You may have seen this lovely type of appliqué on vintage garments. It’s simply a pretty piece of floral fabric cut out in the shape of a flower and sewn to a garment. While there are a couple of ways you could attach the flower, this method tucks the seam allowances inside for a clean …

If you’ve signed up for our Snippets newsletter, you receive a sewing-related tip or technique every week. We’ve chosen five favorite Snippets from 2011 to share with you. There were just so many, it was hard to choose only five! Working with Elastic Elastic often twists when being pulled through a fabric tunnel. Marking one …

Phew! 2011 has been a busy year for us at Colette Patterns! Just take a look at all these tutorials we’ve concocted for you lovely readers. I know I’ve learned a lot of sewing techniques this year and I hope you have too. We’d also like to thank the wonderfully creative Rachel who wrote many …

I’m going to show you how to make a waist facing using the Pastille dress from the Colette Sewing Handbook. This is such a pretty dress with those perfect pleats. If you find you wear separates more often than dresses, this tutorial is for you! Using just the skirt portion of the dress we’ll draft …

In the Colette Patterns Handbook, you’ll find the lovely Licorice dress pattern. It comes with a long tie belt. For this tutorial, I’ll show you how to make a fabric covered belt with a buckle to replace the tie belt. Casey wrote an excellent post on making fabric covered belts. This tutorial is showing you …

At the book launch party, there was a table devoted to crafting with felt. I made several flower pins and some templates for others to use. I thought it would be fun to show you how to make a couple of those flowers. I drew inspiration from two Japanese crafting books: this book and this …

Yesterday, we showed you how to draft your own waistband for the Meringue skirt, since the original design has a simple facing at the waist. Today, we’ll just go through the steps for attaching it.

Remember this version of Meringue Sarai made for the Fall Palette Challenge? Some of you noticed that this version had a waistband, while the original pattern from the book is simply faced at the waist. Today, we’ve got a tutorial for you on adding a waistband to a skirt like the Meringue.

We’re going to be highlighting a few tips and tricks from the Colette Sewing Handbook this month! To kick it off, let’s start with gathering stitches. Take a look below to see the difference between two and three row basting. Gathering is usually done with a basting stitch sewn on your machine. It can be …

Have you ever used a pattern with a lining instead of a facing, and wished it had a facing instead? Or perhaps a pattern that called for binding an edge, but you think a facing would work just as well? It’s very easy to just draft your own facing pieces. We’re going to show you …

Fitting pants is a bit tricky, let’s face it. There are a lot of differences among women in the areas between waist and ankles. You’ve got hips and waists of different sizes, butts of various shapes, legs of all different lengths, thighs that bulge in different ways, calves that may or may not be muscular. …

With the release of our three new patterns, we wanted to show you a few ways to add some great details. For the Clover pants pattern, you can add some piping to the waistband for a really polished look. You can use any type of piping you like, contrasting, patterned, you name it. If you’ve …