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Felixstowe Sewing School Mrs Bowden’s top tip – piping part two. Following on from last week’s top tip I thought I would delve into piping insertion.  I found this splendid photograph of mega pipes – thankfully the scale we are working with is much, much smaller! Onwards to insertion.  With the right side of the…
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Mrs Bowden’s top tip – an introduction to piping As a small child I would often visit a Tobacconist, not too different in looks to the one in the photograph, to purchase my Father’s Christmas and Birthday presents.  A new packet of soft but wirey pipe cleaners, wrapped in a greasproof like paper with a…
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Mrs Bowden’s top tip – hem preparation If you have been to my classroom recently you may have noticed a rather nice triple pure wool crepe 1950’s coat on the stand.  It has been there for some time……. Here are a few close ups of the coat showing the underlay in the hall before carpeting…
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First of all Happy New Year to you and thank you for subscribing to my blog/tip/sewingnatter thing….. Let’s face it – life can sometimes get in the way of our sewing time. We are all pretty busy and occasionally our hobbies are pushed to the back burner.  Here are a few tips I use to…
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December is knocking at our door and, if we are lucky, we will be celebrating at various festive events.  This week’s top tip encourages a bit of vintage glamour by looking at beading and sequin techniques. I don’t know about you but I am a big fan of 1950s style beaded cardigans.  Here are some…
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I recently attended a very good flea market in Ipswich and came back with a bundle of goodies including; 6 vintage tins for making Chritmas presents, a hat pin, a 1930’s clutch bag (green), a splendid feather for a hat, 2 dress buckles, 3 buttons, a Dressmaking book and what I call a ‘naughty cup’…
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Following last week’s top tip about keeping your chalk in tip top order I thought it would be beneficial to look at different ways of using chalk when dressmaking. Use chalk to mark the wrong side of a piece of fabric.  This is particularly useful when the ‘right’ side and ‘wrong’ side are very similar. …
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Tailor’s chalk is a hard chalk used to make temporary markings on cloth or a garment.  It’s traditionally made in a triangular shape so you have 3 sides of equal length and it fits into the hand nicely. After much use the sharp edges wear down meaning that less accurate marks can be made and…
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Mrs Bowden’s top tip – safe removals! This marvellous van lives in Felixstowe and belongs to a local firm that occasionally give it a drive out for shows.  I am including it in this week’s top tip as this week it is a quick one about safe removals……. I have been working on this dress…
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So  many buttons types of buttons! Thank you so much to one and all for supporting the Festival of Fabric on Saturday.  It was very busy day with a heaving trading hall, particularly in the morning, piles of fabric, threads, patterns and yarns not to mention the buttons – my oh my, the buttons. It’s…
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