Heyyyy looves!!

I cant believe its already been 4 months since I started my journey! Time flies! Im happy with the size and this time I am not combing them out. LOL I have about 85 locs, opposed to the 52 I had last time. My hair is in a weird stage right now. I was just getting over this stage with my last set of locs when I combed them out. Its like a love hate type of relationship with my hair right now.. The stage of trying to embrace the frizz. Its so weird, but I kinda like it. Im not in a rush for them to fully form and be full locs yet lol so I kinda like the frizzy stage, I just dont like it for when I want to wear slicker styles like buns.

I do have a few baby locs. Nobody believes me when I say my hairline is weird because I have hair there but it is! Its always been these 2 areas around my hairline on the left and the right where the hair is shorter  and more fragile. I have no idea why but it just is, so right inthose 2 spots is where my baby locs are! They are very short compared to the rest of my locs but you probably cant tell because they still blend in with my hair. Im just curious to see if those locs will actually grow.

Another thing I learned about myself with locs is I’m just a tender headed person now and I’ve NEVER been tender headed in my life. But now omggg every little style after 1 day, Im like, “its tight, it hurt, I have a headache, I wanna take the bobbi pins out!” LMAO

So Im also curious to see if I will grow out of the tenderness because its annoying to me to be so tender headed. Especially because I used to be a stylist and adults that were tender headed didn’t annoy me but I just felt like “omg grow up” lls now Im one of those tender headed people. smh So Im Soorrryyyy If I ever told you “it does not hurt that bad.” Becasue apparently it can… LMAO

Anyways other than that Im loving my locs, I cant wait for them to growww!

Check my insta story today I will be posting pictures of my journey!

Switching lanes from hair to sewing Im working on a printed ankara button up I cant wait to share with you! I used 2 different prints and kind of did a mismatched type of thing. Its so cute! Stay tuned babes.

Hey Loves!! I hope you all are having an amazing week!

I dont even know where to start with this skirt. lol I just feel like its a whole story.. Ok so lets start with the fabric. It is actually one fabric here is a picture of it before I cut it. I also bought one more fabric which I didn’t take a picture of (sorry) so I could have 7 layers. I bought juust enough fabric so I was glad about that.

Now onto the inspiration… I’ve had this picture saved in my phone for a while. It took me so long to make it because Im soo indecisive! How was I going to choose 7 different fabrics to go in one skirt??? LOL I know the skirt is like mismatched fabrics but I at least wanted it to be in the same color family. So when I saw this fabric I was like yes perfect all different fabrics in one. It looks like this skirt may have been pleated and not gathered but I knew pleats would take a little more time and fabric so I just went with the gathers. The designer of this skirt is Stella Jean. Now onto the construction.

Now my original plan was to do an invisible zipper in the back. So I  made a basic pencil skirt to go underneath it out of plain black cotton. It had 2 darts in the front and the opening was in the back.

So I measured (or thought I measured) it out perfectly where the ruffles would end right at the top and I could just attach the waistband and be done. However things didnt go as planned and when I was done attaching all the ruffles I had alot of skirt left at the top. I needed that skirt portion that was at the top because thats where the darts were and thats what gave the skirt some shape. The base skirt fit like a glove by the way. So I ended up having to cut alot of the top of the skirt off and at that point the skirt was a little too big. In order for me to really really fix it I would have had to take apart all the ruffles and start over attaching them from the top and I just didnt want to do that. So I ended up cutting some off of the top, taking it in a little at bottom, and just doing an elastic waist.

Soo if you make this skirt and want to do a zipper instead of elastic, start with a basic skirt as the base. Measure and mark where you want the ruffles to go and start attaching ruffles from the top not the bottom That way if there is skirt leftover it will be at the bottom and you can just hem it.

After I was done with this skirt I was so mad I just stuffed it in the back of my closet. I had to let my frustrations wear off before I could look at this again! lol

I paired this skirt with a DIY shirt I made. I felt it was already alot of prints going on so why not add more!

Hey Loves!

Welcome back and thanks for stopping by! This post is one I’ve wanted to do for a while. If you follow me on IG you know I’m participating in the #sewphotohop sewing challenge. The theme for today is Knowledge Hub and for it I wanted to put all the resources I use as it pertains to sewing in one post. So I’m sharing with you my favorite websites, books, blogs, magazines, patterns, podcasts, people I follow on IG, and my favorite sewing youtubers! LOL It’s a lot I know, so to keep things simple I tried to only list 5 in each category. So 5 blogs, 5 websites, etc. If you’ve never sewn before there are some great resources on this list and you may want to print it out or pass it along to a friend. As self-taught sewist I want you to know there is A LOT OF FREE CONTENT OUT THERE! I also want to thank the people who put out these videos and teach us online for free. People, bloggers, and teachers, making videos and putting out free content has been a major part of my sewing and learning journey.

Unfortunately I didn’t link to every resource because there are so many but like I said feel free to print this or write some of the resources down!

So lets get started!

PATTERNS: Were all familiar with commercial patterns but what about indie patterns? Indie pattern is short for an independently produced pattern. Although indie patterns have been around for ages, I think they really have gained popularity in the last few years and are changing the sewing pattern game. Commercial patterns like McCalls and Vogue are AMAZING don’t get me wrong, but I think us home sewers forget they aren’t the only ones making sewing patterns.

Pros of buying indie patterns: You can log onto the internet and see exactly who created your pattern, even shoot them a dm or email.  You know exactly where your money is going. I think independent pattern designers are also gaining popularity because they can design whatever they want! Often times they design the items or garments we normally can’t find with commercial patterns, like stylish men’s patterns, plus size patterns, or cute patterns for boys. The fit is much better and directions are easier to understand than on commercial patterns also. If you sew you know the measurements on a commercial pattern are trash. lol If fit is something you struggle with using commercial patterns, try an indie pattern! Mybluprint.com compiled a great list of indie pattern designers, click here to check it out!

A few other indie patterns to check out are:

http://ckcpatterns.com/– sewing patterns for kids

https://www.colettepatterns.com/

https://closetcasepatterns.com/

Stylesewmepatterns.com – indie pattern designer, and blogger @stylesewme on IG

WEBSITES– Threads.com Crafsty.com Pinterest.com

Seamwork.com  (paid membership site but still great)

Mybluprint.com (the new Craftsy Unlimited, paid membership site where you can stream online classes)

BLOGS- Now this was the hardest category for sure. Because there are soo many sewing blogs I love and frequently visit. They are all so different too! Just know there are tons of other blogs you can check out and I’m happy you stopped past this one!

Sewcanshe.com Free beginner friendly patterns and projects.

Colette is a group of creative people who want to share their love for sewing. They have different brands under them, like Seamwork and Colette patterns. The blog is no longer active but you can still browse their 9 year archive. Seamwork also had a podcast you can check out.

Malepatternboldness.blogspot.com– The worlds most popular men’s sewing blog. This blog is ran by Peter Lappin who is the Threads Magazine Digital Ambassador. Check this blog out for some sewing inspo if you are a man or woman. Peter makes some beautiful clothing.

Thelaststitch.com – ran by Johanna Lou (@itchtostitch on ig) she is a sewing vlogger, she’s currently working on a book, and she makes a lot of activewear if you’re into that.

Weallsew.com– Bernina’s official blog

BeauteJadore.com-The Art of D.I.Y

Moodfabrics.com/blog– Mood Fabrics Official Blog

blog.mccalls.com– McCalls pattern company official blog

PODCASTS- Sewing with Threads, Mimi G- Business Shet, Love To Sew Podcast,  Modern Sewciety, podcast, The Suuchi Podcast, and The Accidental Creative (has nothing to do with sewing but it great if you are a creative). I’ve listened to all of these podcasts and it was soo hard not to go into detail about each of them.

MAGAZINES– I haven’t bought any sewing magazines in a while but don’t sleep on them! I have a stash I’ll prob never get rid of. The tips, tricks, and patterns in those magazines are so helpful. Sew News Magazine, Threads, Burdastyle, and Sewn Magazine ran by @thatblackchic are all great.

BOOKS– Couture Sewing Techniques by Claire Schaeffer, Complete Guide to Perfect Fitting by Sarah Veblen, The Sewing Book by Allison Smith, If you want to start a blog the book Blog Inc. by Joy Cho was good, any book by Jan Minnot, Sewing Shirts with a Perfect Fit by David Page Coffin. I could go on and on in this category, books have been instrumental.

ON YOUTUBE– My first and fave two sewing teachers on Youtube will always be Mimi G. and Professor Pincushion. The amount of free, quality content these ladies have put out is unbelievable. They are a must subscribe.  Some other great channels to subscribe on youtube are

Coolirpa– D.I.Y and thrifted transformations

Madetosew– Sewing tutorials, plenty of beginner tutorials this channel

Stylesewme– D.I.Y sewing and fashion tutorials, pattern drafting and sewalongs

Tabitha Sewer– D.I.Y sewing tutorials

Sara Lawson of Sew Sweetness– If you’re into bag making, she is great.

ON INSTAGRAM– A lot of the people/blogs/companies I’ve mentioned above I also follow on social media and I like searching hashtags. But @sewing_and_design_school is a must follow on the gram and so is @fashionbombdailymag. I also follow alot of other fashionistas like @missenocha, @scoutthecity, @rihanna, @freddieharrel @aureta and @khalanabarfield. 

CLASSES! And finally if you’re local (in the DMV area) and you want to take a sewing class, I teach classes at Stitched With Style and we have several classes coming up this fall! I’ve added a classes tab here on the blog so you can see the flyers for upcoming classes. Upcoming events and classes include sewing for charity, mommy and me workshops, sip and sews, and kids classes.

Sooo there you have it!!

If I missed anything or you have a resource you would like to share please tell us about it in the comment section! I hope this post was helpful.

Thanks again for stopping by.