New Autumn 2018 Pattern Drafting Courses at The Sewing Cafe

Its that time of year again!

The Sewing Cafe and I are happy to announce the Pattern Drafting courses for Autumn 2018, including a brand new course, Pattern Drafting-Jacket or Coat.

To attend this course, you will need to have completed the skirt and bodice classes, and please bring your custom made bodice pattern with you to work from. 

To join us on any of the courses below, click on the links under the picture or go to my courses page to book your place. 

Hope to see you there!

Pattern Alterations: Bust Adjustments: 

http://www.thesewingcafe.co.uk/pattern-alterations-bust-adjustments/

Pattern Alterations: Sway back, Lengthening and Shortening:

http://www.thesewingcafe.co.uk/pattern-alterations-sway-back-lengthening-and-shortening/ 

Pattern Drafting-Starting with a Skirt: 
http://www.thesewingcafe.co.uk/pattern-drafting-starting-with-the-skirt/

NEW COURSE: Pattern Drafting-Jacket or Coat: 
http://www.thesewingcafe.co.uk/new-pattern-drafting-jacket-or-coat/ 

For more information about the courses and what they involve, head over to the workshops page on The Sewing Cafe's website.

Young Designers Sewing Course at MAC Birmingham

It was once again time for my annual Young Designers Sewing School course at MAC Birmingham. This year, the workshop was over 2 days and focuses on project based makes. We covered setting up and using sewing machines, basic stitch samplers in cotton and jersey, customised t-shirts, elasticated skirts and a variety of accessories.

Everyone created some great pieces. Take a look at what we got up to below:

Sewing Junior at MAC Birmingham

Its been a busy day today at MAC Birmingham teaching another sold out Introduction to Sewing juniors class. This morning we developed our hand sewing and drawing skills by creating doodle pillows before moving on to mini-makes this afternoon.

Everyone did an amazing job with their projects and I hope to see you all again soon!

#teaching #sewing #juniors #handsewing #skills #making #doodle#cushions #makes #madeatmac #handmade #felt #bags #pillows #elephants #mice #youngdesigner #course #handsewn #stitching 

#traveladventures: Mediterranean Tour with Princess Cruises

After a busy Spring and Summer season teaching, I took some time off during the Summer teaching break to go travelling with family. As we were interested in seeing a few places, we decided on a cruise around the mediteranean with Princess Cruises. We visited a number of different places; Barcelona, Rome, Livorno, Portofino, Genoa, Marseille and Gibraltar (I know, that's a lot of places in 2 weeks!) and we had an amazing time. we saw lots of wonderful things, the weather was fantastically hot and I was lucky enough to celebrate my birthday halfway through :)

Take a look at some of the pictures below to see what we got up to!

Barcelona: Casa Batllo by Gaudi	Rome: Coloseum	Rome: The Vatican
Livorno	Portofino	Birthday candles in brie for my birthday :)
Genoa	Marseille Cathedral	Rock of Gibraltar

You can see more of my holiday photos on my instagram page.

Huge thanks to Jeffrey, Marie and Mark on the Sapphire Princess for taking good care of us.

BCU MA Fashion Show 2018: The Images

As an alumni of this course, I have been attending the MA Fashion Show at Birmingham City University since I graduated in 2013.

Last nights show displayed some incredibly strong work; the silhouettes and cut were innovative but not so far as to take away its purpose as wearable clothing, the developments in print and application were beautiful to look at and the attention to detail was exquisite.

Well done to everyone who took part. Take a look at some of the images from the show below. The name of the designer is underneath.

Fiona Lu

Matej Lovric

Yingqi Xu

Stefan Emanuel Ungureanu

Meng Han

Jing Yi Lin

Huishi Ye

Zuo Zuo

Xin Lian

Yu Pan

Yongyun Zhang

Jialu Zhang

Kehan Yang

Yihui Jiang

Xiner Du

Weichang Yang

Jiajing Zhang

Anca Maxim

Jing Guo

Lisi Du

Helen Simone Johnston

Amber Leigh Prescott

Jessica Wilde

Ke Zhou

Sophie Clements

 

#aboutlastnight: BCU MA Fashion Show 2018

#aboutlastnight . An amazing #fashion show by #birminghamcityuniversity #masters #degree #students . Here’s a preview of the finale . More photos to come . @yungclub @claire_kel @jasbirkaur1 @_heather_orr . #fashiondesigner #fashionstudent #design #fashionshow #finalcollection #visionforthefuture #mafashionbcu18

A post shared by Sian Riley (@sianrileystudio) on Jul 13, 2018 at 4:30am PDT

More photos to come-Stay tuned for more!

Pattern Drafting at The Sewing Cafe: Session 3

Today marked the last session of my pattern drafting workshops for the trouser and bodice.

In the bodice session, we worked on making the fit just right, checking that it was comfortable and that the sleeve worked well. Absolutely love the flamingo printed fabric that was used to test a t-shirt shape!












And in the afternoon....

The trousers were made in the final fabrics and the fit double-checked before finishing them off with a side zip and an inside facing.








Thank you to everyone who came to the workshops. We're looking to develop more courses soon so stay tuned to see how you can develop your skills further in some new pattern cutting classes.


If your interested in taking one of my workshops at The Sewing Cafe, email Becky & Fay on: hello@thesewingcafe.co.uk to register your interest for the next set of pattern drafting classes.