Bows bows and more bows - a January 2025 design recap
January has come to an end (as always, felt three months long) and if there’s one thing I love to do it is to reflect. I, like many other creatives have the wonderful ability to only see the pieces I have not made yet, rather than be proud of what I have done. So this a good exercise for me to gain a bit more perspective on what I’m actually doing and try think a little less about what is missing from my life.
I also love talking everything fashion, sewing and creative. This is a phrase I stole from my friend but there are two things I love to talk about and that is fashion and myself. Every month I will share with you what I have made the previous month. The ideas behind them, the struggles I found and details on how they’re made. I’ll also share the pieces I’m planning on making. Hopefully it helps you gain a little more insight into what goes on inside my brain and it’ll also help me complete the “I would make this if I had time” ideas.
I used to film a lot of “Everything I Sewed Today” videos but I would put a lot of pressure on myself to get a lot done in a day to have an interesting video. I’ve now switched to “Everything I Made This Week” video for a little weekly round up and a “Monthly Catch Up” carousel for a quicker round up. This is said monthly round up, but with more text and detail - for those whose attention span isn’t completely ruined and who have maintained their ability to read. (I am not one of you but kudos to you)
Without further ado, here is my January recap!
January 2025.
I started January in Joshua Tree California, and only got back to the UK on the 14th of January. I say this because I don’t feel as though I have *a lot* to show. This is a silly statement because “a lot” is subjective and I’m also trying really hard to untie my self worth from my productivity. My therapist would be proud I shared this with you.
Anyways, the best piece I made by FAR was this bow dress! Before I show you this dress, I hope you know the stress I went through before allowing myself to even begin cutting into the fabric. This dress was actually a reward to myself. Like many self employed people in the UK, I was doing my self assessment in January so I went to the British library almost everyday to work on it. I don’t have photos of myself there but what I do have are photos of my locker that I take so I don’t forget where my belongings are. (Nothing more embarrassing than having to call a security guard to ask them to open every locker in a section to find your bags) Feel free to decipher a pattern.
If you’re lucky enough not to need to file a self assessment, then you may not know the deadline is on the 31st of January. I was very luckily invited to the & Juliet UK Tour press night at New Wimbledon Theatre on the 27th of January. In order to motivate myself to finish my self assessment well before the deadline, I told myself I could start working on the bow dress as soon as my self assessment was in. And I did!
The bow dress
I’ll be honest, I really wanted the base of the dress to be pink and the bows to be red. I however had 0 budget for this and I am a freelancer in January after all (if you know, you know) so I used this polka dot fabric that you’ve most definitely seen from me before. This fabric was gifted by a company called Rainbow fabrics and fun little story about it, I posted a story tagging Tasha Ghouri from love island when she just got out of the villa saying she would love a dress I made from this fabric. She actually replied saying she agreed! I frantically emailed her manager but alas, no response. At this point I had already asked Rainbow Fabrics for more of the same fabric so I could make Tasha and I matching dresses have a lot of it laying around.
Construction notes:
I interlined the pink and red fabric with curtain batting I got from second hand curtains and lined the dress with a white poly cotton blend. The arm holes are finished with a white bias binding! The shape of the dress comes from horsehair braid at the hem of the dress! I love horsehair braid and would recommend it to anyone who wants their hem to stand out like this. The bows are hand sewn, all around the top, as well at the corner where the “tail” of the bows meet the hem.
I got a lot of questions about the bows - I actually got them from my manager from a pop up I was freelancing at back in December. They were sitting in a plastic bag collecting dust because they were bought for store decorations and never used. The idea and sketch came to me right away. After some begging, I was told I could bring a few home!
Absolutely love this dress and I’m SO glad she was my first creative piece of the year. She’s almost too out there for me to wear outside comfortably, and that’s the level of out there-ness I’m aiming for.
2. January ruffle skirt
January Drop: The Western Skirt was made in December for my monthly drop on my website. Shot at a cute little airbnb in Joshua Tree California, she is the skirt of my dream. Available to shop here xo
Construction notes:
The fabric was bought at the Parisian fabric district (Marché Saint Pierre) . It is 100% cotton! Honestly a super straightforward skirt to make, just very time consuming because of the layers and layers of ruffles. The first layer of ruffle is the width of the fabric, the second is double the width and the third, quadruple. This is generally a good formula for tiered skirts - it’s easy to do the math when matching seams. Pro tip: seams down the centre are ugly (just speaking my truth here) so rotate the bottom tier by 45 degrees so that seams are not at the two side seams plus centre back and centre front, but in between those points.
3. Tissue cover
I don’t believe in voodoo magic or anything like that but a week after I made this tissue box cover I got sick. Then a month later I got a chest infection. Some will say it’s the winter flu season, I will say it’s magic. Make at your own risk.
I am currently working on making patterns to share with you all, and this will probably be the first that I release. Get excited!
Construction notes: the gingham is a polyester but it’s interlined with a cotton canvas for structure. The bows are entirely decorative.
4. Laptop cover
This is originally inspired by the laptop cover I saw in Sostrene Grene. I have been hunting for theirs all over their European stores for about a year. I once witnessed a woman take the last one off the shelf and put it into her basket. It was heart breaking. They do have it online but shipping is £6 and so it made so much more sense to use 4 hours of my precious time and three different fabrics to make it myself. This is the laptop case in question in case you were curious: https://sostrenegrene.com/en-gb/products/accessories/laptop-cover-p-46625a59?variant=519665-002
Construction notes:
The pink gingham is a polyester I believe, from Ultimate Craft in Stoke Newington. They stopped selling gingham in this color and I have been mourning the loss of it ever since. The batting is the same batting from the second hand curtains and you can’t see it but the inside is a cherry print canvas that I got in Boston in 2019. No I do not remember the name of the store. The binding is *shocker* the same bias binding that I used on the arm hole of the bow dress. Through these monthly catch ups, I’m excited for you guys to get to know my notions better and start seeing them in various projects. Like I spy, really.
A note on finding time for creative projects: The Side Quest Method
Pieces such as the January drop I will make during the day because it’s directly linked to work I do for my website but the laptop case and tissue box covers aren’t entirely essential to my business. I do enjoy making what I feel like making in the moment a lot more than I do making something that I NEED to. The solution I have come up with is sewing just for fun everyday from 9 to 10am. This helps start projects I put off and if I have some spare time in the evening or on the weekend, I’m more likely to spend that time working on said creative projects than scroll on my phone. This has significantly boosted my creative output and also morale. I try to get my work done more quickly so I can go back to working on my silly little side quests. I would highly recommend this method if you also struggle with finding time for your fun ideas.
Things I want to make in February
The January Skirt in green
I originally bought this green and blue plaid fabric in Paris’s fabric district (Marché Saint Pierre) to make the Christmas dress that Alice wears to her office Christmas party in How To Be Single. It’s now been years and I no longer want to make the dress (all creative projects have a 6 month shelf life, alas I left it collecting dust too long) so I held onto the fabric for a while waiting for the perfect *new* idea. Although I love wearing pink all year round, it does feel out of place in the middle of a miserable London day to be wearing such a bright skirt, so I want to make the exact same skirt but in green.
The best film ever to be made aka How To Be Single featuring my favorite actress Dakota Johnson
2. ??????
One evening at 11pm I could’t sleep so I got out of bed and started pinning some things to my dress form. I’m using the same fabric from the jan skirt in green above so I know I can’t use that but I basically want to make a Helena Bonham Carter inspired mash up dress from all of the green and black scrap fabrics I have laying around. I have satin, cotton, jersey, all sorts of funky fabrics that will be eventually donated if I don’t use them up. I have a vision and some scraps but just you wait and see, it’ll be a really fun piece.
I hope you enjoyed this little breakdown of pieces, see you in at the beginning of March when I’ve hopefully made these pieces and many more! Let me know what you want to see more of :)