Sewing-a-GoGo

Sewing-a-GoGo Sewing my way through the 1960s and 70s

Have you had chance to look at the vintage Bargello Books for sale on my eBay page? (Click on link in bio)I’ve also deci...
26/07/2026

Have you had chance to look at the vintage Bargello Books for sale on my eBay page? (Click on link in bio)

I’ve also decided to part with this cool 1970s vintage rug book with some lovely Bargello designs in it 🤗

Happy bidding everyone 🪡

🪡 🪡 ATTENTION ALL BARGELLO EMBROIDERY ENTHUSIASTS !🪡 🪡 I’ve decided to sell my Bargello Embroidery Book/Magazine collec...
22/07/2026

🪡 🪡 ATTENTION ALL BARGELLO EMBROIDERY ENTHUSIASTS !🪡 🪡


I’ve decided to sell my Bargello Embroidery Book/Magazine collection !🪡 🪡 🪡

This is several years of collecting whilst I had my Bargello embroidery business and some of them are quite rare and not easy to find.

Some of them are also only available in the US so if you’re UK based, you can get hold of some of these gems without having to pay international postage 🤗

Please note that I’m only currently posting within the UK so apologies to my overseas friends if you were interested in any of these.

Click on link in bio to my eBay page where they’re currently up for auction….happy bidding! 🪡 🪡

https://ebay.io/m/QMGB3x

I absolutely love this bag and compact mirror I got from after visiting her beautiful stall in Brighton Laines on Satur...
20/07/2026

I absolutely love this bag and compact mirror I got from after visiting her beautiful stall in Brighton Laines on Saturday 💕💕💕

Zoe made the gorgeous tote bag herself using vintage fabric in her stash and it’s also lined in another beautiful vintage fabric, meaning they truly are unique and you won’t see another one around in the same fabric 😃

I’ve been wearing the tote bag on my adventures out all weekend and it’s the perfect size for carrying my knitting and also my laptop when I traveling to and from my studio.

Thanks Zoe for creating such a beautiful bag 🤩 xx

I’ve hand sewn the bust darts and definitely managed to have more control over them hand sewing them 🤗I decided to add s...
16/08/2025

I’ve hand sewn the bust darts and definitely managed to have more control over them hand sewing them 🤗

I decided to add some bias binding to the dart edges so they didn’t have a raw finish.

I’ve also sewn in the front facing using a back stitch by hand.

Now it’s time to hand sew the darts and zip into the back 🪡

♥️

🪡 MY HAND SEWING ESSENTIALS🪡 I love to use Scanfil 100% organic cotton when hand sewing my garments. I find this thread ...
13/08/2025

🪡 MY HAND SEWING ESSENTIALS🪡

I love to use Scanfil 100% organic cotton when hand sewing my garments. I find this thread nice and strong and easily glides through most fabrics when hand sewing.

It also comes in a nice variety of colours and is easy to obtain online.

I highly recommend the John James Sharps needles in size 3/9. I tend to use Size 9 for a lot of my hand sewing.

I use the beeswax to glide my thread through to make it stronger whilst sewing.

A lot of people tend to pre-cut the threads, glide them through the beeswax, place them under a light cloth them iron them as it’s the heat that sets the beeswax in the cotton and strengthens it.

I don’t tend to apply the heat until after I’ve stitched and sewn the garment as I don’t pre cut my threads. I cut and use as I go.

You still get the strength from the beeswax on the thread after sewing once ironed although you potentially lose some beeswax in the fabric whilst sewing because you’ve not heat set it first.

I’ve personally never noticed any beeswax residue from doing it the way I do so am happy to continue to do that 🤗

My silver antique thimble is from around 1926 and fits the tip of my middle finger perfectly and is an absolute joy to use 😃

I’ve experimented with different thimbles in my hand sewing journey…a cheap nickel thimble turns the tip of my finger green as I have a nickel allergy and I never really enjoyed using leather thimbles.

I find the silver thimble very comfortable and easy to sew with. It’s also really pretty to look at whilst sewing 💕💕💕

Not in photo here but I also use embroidery scissors for cutting my thread.

I’m going to be sewing view 2 of this dress pattern which I believe was heavily influenced by a 1960s Biba Dress.I’ve ha...
13/08/2025

I’m going to be sewing view 2 of this dress pattern which I believe was heavily influenced by a 1960s Biba Dress.

I’ve had the fabric for several years, which is vintage one I bought off a friend who was having a clear out of old fabric.

I believe the fabric is 100% cotton and has a nice woven feel to it.

I had just enough fabric for this dress pattern so it’s nice to be finally using this fabric and because it’s cotton, I know it’s going to be really lovely to hand sew.

I made this dress several years ago with a different fabric on my sewing machine and I really hated the lack of control I had on the machine making it, especially on the dart area. These bust darts are very ‘Biba’ as they are a square shape and trying to place them together on the machine and sew them at a fairly quick speed proved very difficult for me.

I feel hand sewing them will give me much better control and a better finish.

After reading through Louisa’s book, I’m most likely going to finish the majority of the seams with a hand sewn French style seam.

This one is definitely slow fashion to the extreme and I really don’t know how long this dress will take me to sew 🪡

I plan to post photos on my work in progress as I complete each stage so you will get a better understanding of how this dress is hand sewn together (if you’re interested 😂)

I’m really looking forward to seeing how this dress turns out 🤗

I cut out the pattern last night which didn’t take me long to do.

I’m hoping to find some time today to stay stitch the front and possibly sew the front darts but I’m not going to rush this.

It is a slow process but I find hand sewing very meditative and relaxing like hand knitting so I know I’m going to really enjoy it 🤗

I was super excited when my copy of The Handsewn Wardrobe by arrived in the post last week that I had pre-ordered a whi...
12/08/2025

I was super excited when my copy of The Handsewn Wardrobe by arrived in the post last week that I had pre-ordered a while back from

The book on the left was Louisa’s first book about hand sewing that I’ve referenced so much over the past few years in my hand sewing journey.

I was therefore really thrilled to see Louisa was releasing her second book with information about pattern cutting garments and the construction of them.

I originally learnt to sew garments by hand with a few years ago and that gave me the confidence to give hand sewing a go.

I find myself hand sewing lots of ‘bits’ of my machine sewn garments that I’ve recently made, especially hems and other finishes.

This book is amazing and I’ve been reading it intensely in my spare time since receiving it.

Whilst I’m not currently going to sew any patterns from the book, it has inspired me to completely sew a garment by hand again🪡

I had a fabric and pattern in mind a while back that I put all together in my ‘to do’ pile and now feel is the time to hand sew it together.

Louisa gives great instructions in the book on garment construction by hand with the best sewing techniques to use on various parts of the garment.

I will be using Louisa’s construction methods as a guide and look forward to showing you the garment I’ll be making with a vintage sewing pattern I’ve chosen 😃

Here is my hand smocked summer dress that I managed to finish on Saturday 🪡 Unfortunately the weather has been quite ove...
05/08/2025

Here is my hand smocked summer dress that I managed to finish on Saturday 🪡

Unfortunately the weather has been quite overcast/raining the past few days so I’ve not been able to wear it out and have some proper photos taken in all it’s glory 🤗

I was keen to show you what it looks like on so did my best to get some photos of it whilst indoors.

It’s a maxi dress style. I didn’t use a dress pattern for this project, I just cut two basic rectangles for my height and used a smocking pattern that was used on a bandeau style dress in the Rocking Smocking book from

I used my to gather my rectangle fabric ready for smocking.

I needed approximately 4 metres of fabric for this dress that was 150cm wide to make sure I had sufficient fabric to cover the pleated bust area.

This was a bit of an experiment for me so I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on fabric in case it didn’t work out.

I therefore purchased this cute ditsy floral fabric from for £6.99 a metre. In view of the price, I bought 5 metres in the end in case I needed extra.

I was really pleased with the fabric and it is a nice crisp cotton, making it perfect for pleating.

I hemmed the top by hand, hand smocked the panels then sewed the front and back together.

The finished smocked pleating was a little loose around my top bust area so I inserted some elastic on the very top part to bring the pleating in a little more and I’m now really happy with how it fits.

I cut 8 x more smaller rectangle pieces for the tie straps (2 x pieces were sewn together for each strap) and I was inspired to add some vintage I purchased on eBay after seeing this style of strap in some of the Smock London bandeau style dresses which, I thought looked really pretty 🤗

I used mouline thread for the hand smocking that I split into 3 strands.

I’m really pleased with how the dress turned out. I really love how the hand smocking has shaped the dress and I’m looking forward to wearing it when it’s sunny in Brighton again 😎

I’m loving the vintage that I decided to add to the edges of my tie straps of my hand smocked summer dress.I managed to...
04/08/2025

I’m loving the vintage that I decided to add to the edges of my tie straps of my hand smocked summer dress.

I managed to finish the dress on Saturday and I look forward to sharing photos of the finished dress 🤗

Here are some photos of me in my 1970’s hand smocked blouse I recently finished 🤗I’m really pleased with how it’s turned...
24/07/2025

Here are some photos of me in my 1970’s hand smocked blouse I recently finished 🤗

I’m really pleased with how it’s turned out and in the summer months I can also wear it as an open shirt with a vest top underneath 😎

I will definitely be wearing it lots and I absolutely love the fabric and buttons I added 💕💕💕


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Brighton And Hove
BN1, BN2, BN3, BN41

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