It's finally happening. After years of lurking on their Blog and Instagram, I'm going to The Tailoring Academy in Macclesfield , UK! I'll be joining four other Americans and one student from France as the "international contingent" for the next 10 months. We'll be the first group to go through the newly created pathway that [...]
Do you have one of those patterns that you like, but that you're not exactly in love with? The Belvedere Waistcoat is one of those patterns for me. It seems that no matter what I throw at it, all the care and attention to detail I can muster, the end result is still slightly disappointing. [...]
As promised, I'm finally getting around to posting some of the construction details from my Stylemaker projects. I'll start with the waistcoat first. The instruction booklet for the Belvedere Waistcoat emphasizes the importance of interfacing the fronts. The goal is to have it sit smoothly over the chest without buckling. My longtime readers know that [...]
There is a "wild pond" in my little coastal town. It's down a dirt road and accessible only by a walking trail. There are no camps (There's a little swimming platform), no boats, no sounds of the human world. Kind of a secret place. It seems like the perfect setting for my Stylemaker Blog Tour [...]
When you're a global luxury brand, clearly focused ads are apparently tres passé. Hermès seems to have a whole campaign of these burry ads, so I'm following suit. Behold my most recent Summer shirt... All kidding aside, my Summer sewing almost always revolves around new shirts. What used to be a drawer of polo shirts [...]
Did you, faithful blog followers, give up on this? Was this going to be the UFO of the pandemic? Truth be told, I totally ran out of steam on this project. Maybe you've been there? As many of you know, I love sewing for a special occasion. One of my nephews was going to be [...]
Ah, yes... imitation. I've been a Junya Watanabe fan for several years. He's able to spin out new versions of his patchwork shirts, season after season. I never tire of them. He takes traditional menswear shirting and shakes it up in a way that's fun and approachable. The price point, however, is another story. These [...]
Making clothes for a special occasion is fun, yes? But there's something different and equally amazing about making the clothes we wear day in and day out. For me that's usually a button-down shirt, khakis and a sweater. After making a much needed Winter coat, I turned my attention to making some basic winter appropriate [...]
OK, call me crazy but I like to get dressed up a bit to walk the dog (my sweet schnauzer Homer). It's a special time between us, usually early enough in the morning that it's just the two of us out in the neighborhood. It's such a great way to start the day. After a [...]
It's very unusual that I'm making something for the current season. I'm so slow that I never attempt it. It always seems that in winter I'm sewing for summer and vice versa. So I'm completely amazed that I have a new shirt and pair of pants that are Fall appropriate. First up....the red pants. These [...]
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