Sew Hip 11 – Hong Kong Finish

Here are the step by step images and instructions for the Hong Kong finished that Tracy Cushing used in her Plaid trousers.

HONG KONG FINISH
This is a simple way to give a very upmarket look to your seams.

Step 1 CUT BIAS STRIPS
Cut enough 3.5cm bias strips from lining fabric to cover the seams you
want to finish. The strips can be joined together if they aren’t long
enough.

Step 2 SEW TO SEAM ALLOWANCE
Press the seam you want to finish open.

Sew the bias strip to one unfinished edge of the seam with right sides
together, 6mm from the edge.

Step 3 FOLD OVER
Fold the bias strip over so that it wraps around the unfinished edge.
Pin in place, then sew a line of straight stitch just in the join
between the two fabrics.

Trim the excess on the wrong side.

Repeat on the opposite side of the seam allowance then press the seam
open again.

A few of our favourite things

Wow, you guys love a give away don’t you? I love reading all the comments as they come through, keep them coming, there is still time to be in with a chance to win a lovely bundle of goodies from the Sew Hip offices.

I’m sitting here on a Sunday morning, surfing around some of my favourite fabric blogs and thought I’d share them with you. In no particular order here are a few interesting snippets and links I have in my current read list. Many of them are US so if you know of any equally inspiring UK links please leave them in the comments.

Bari J quilt pattern – I love the collage border on this, its something I’ve never seen before.

Anna Maria Horner and her lovely new baby boy. I’m so inspired by this woman and everything she does. She is talented, a great mother and really super nice as well.

Film in the Fridge. I’m obsessed with Ashley’s quilts at the moment, how does she make so many of them and so beautifully as well?

Matilda Jane blog. Some of the clothes are not quite my style but I love a lot of them and I’m fascinated by the concept of the company.

One Shabby Chick. Again, I love her quilts and her sense of colour and style. There is a quilt in her etsy shop that I’ve coveted for ages. Go and buy it quickly so that I don’t have to!

Weekend Designer. I love the tutorials and how this site makes pattern drafting seem so easy.

Cicada Daydream. I’ve been a big fan of Michelle’s blog ever since she sent us some of her lovely Dogwood fabric which we made into 2 projects for the magazine.

Giveaway

As you can probably imagine we have a lot of books, fabric samples, swatches etc in the Sew Hip office. Every day the postman arrives its a little bit like Christmas with all kinds of goodies being sent to us to review. We’re getting to the point when our offices are almost full to bursting with all the little piles of fabric and threads so we contacted everyone who has sent us samples and asked them for their permission to organise a giveaway to some of our blog readers, and they said yes!

To be in with a chance of winning an envelope of fabric, patterns, threads, needles and more all you have to do is to leave us a comment here with 3 reasons that you like Sew Hip. We’ll pick 3 winners on June 1st and your envelope of treats will be on its way to you shortly after. It is pot luck what you’ll receive, we can’t let you know in advance and you can’t choose. International people are welcome to enter however your envelope will be sent via surface mail so may take up to 6 weeks to arrive.

We’re going to be announcing a similar yarny giveaway on the Yarn Forward blog at some point this week as well, you are more than welcome to enter both. I can see a lovely tidy and spring cleaned office in our future!

ClothKits Doorstop

Here are a couple of pics of the new Sew Hip subscriber gift, Clothkits doorstop. All new (or renewing) subscribers will receive the fabric and instructions with the first issue of their new subscription, while stocks last. It’s a beautiful apple design by Jane Foster in a very recognisable Clothkits style and when filled with rice makes the perfect doorstop. We chose this pattern as its a good introduction to Clothkits products as well as being something that would have more universal appeal than say, a bag or item of clothes.

Our stock is flying out of the door really quickly so if you have been tempted with a subscription now would be a good time to start.

New Subscription gift with issue 7

Issue 7 is now safely off at the printers and I can show you one of the final drafts of the front cover (if anything changed I’ll swap it out for the final one later!)

Tracy made it on to the cover with her GORGEOUS moebius wrap made out of a Tula Pink Jelly Roll. We have lots more of Tracy’s clver designs coming up in the magazine in the next few issues, I for one and impatiently awaiting the arrival of her latest creation next week (no pressure Tracy!)

The smocked dress is by Heather Ross and we made our sample using her totally gorgeous double gauze princess and the pea fabric. We have a quilt coming up in issue 9 that also uses this fabric, it is just the most beautiful print design ever and Heather was such fun to work with. Her interview questions made me want to get on a plane and go straight to New York and be her new best friend. Although I’m not sure she would have appreciated that!

The big floor cushion is made with the remainder of the Dogwood scraps that we had after making the yoyo quilt in issue 4 and the birds that you can see in the bottom right hand corner were made by the talented Jessie Quinn. We also have some great refashioning pieces in there, an amazing man’s shirt, a set of laptop bags, a feature on sourcing vintage fabrics, the next installment of our mystery quilt project and a cute embroidered T shirt by Janet Clare. Seriously, this is one of my favourite issues ever.

And while I’m talking of my favourite things our new subscription gift for issue 7 is amazing. In the spirit of wanting to give you something so perfect that you just can’t say no to the magazine we worked with our good friends at Clothkits to develop an exclusive gift that has been printed especially for you. I can’t show you what it looks like because we haven’t even seen the final version ourselves yet but its Clothkits, how can it not be gorgeous?

Stocks are super limited and are for new subscriptions from issue 7 only. If you are still waiting for a subs gift from us you will get a Clothkits one. They can also be purchased from us for £9.99 plus postage and if you are an existting subscriber whose subscription is due to run out with issue 10 you can resubscribe early from issue 7 onwards in order to be able to claim your Clothkits gift (which will be sent to you with issue 11 of the magazine). The best way to do this is to phone the office on 01279 879038 and talk to either Kerrie, Mandy or Alex.

How exciting!

Holiday season

Anna will be back from Japan this week while I will be heading off to the South West with my family for a week so we’ll be like ships passing in the night, with piles of emails and submissions handed off from one of us to the other. If you try and contact me this week, I won’t be back online and answering emails until 21st April so bear with me.

Just to prove to you that the Sew Hip team are dedicated sewists though, I thought I’d leave you with a photo of my son in a shirt I made for him from Heather Ross’s amazing new book, Weekend Sewing.   We reviewed the book in issue 6 and really couldn’t find enough words to express how amazing the book was.  We have a gorgeous design from Heather in issue 7 as well as an interview and a preview of her new range of fabric which is just gorgeous.  I may even organise a giveaway for some pieces of the fabric when I’m back from holiday, I’ll see what we have leftover after the quilt in progress for issue 9 has been completed.

/>

So here is the boys shirt, doesn’t he look grown up?  I’ll confess to cheating slightly and cutting the pieces from one of my husbands old shirts so I didn’t actually make the button band and I only made the collar smaller rather than making it from scratch.  I did have to resize the pattern to fit my tall and skinny almost 5 year old as the pattern only goes up to age 3 but on the whole I was really pleased with it.  Its hard to find good boys patterns, something that we are looking to achieve with a GORGEOUS boys pattern in issue 8, designed by one of our fast becoming favourite contributors Tracy Cushing.

Hello?

Its been a while hasn’t it? Lots going on behind the scenes here at Sew Hip – lets do a brief recap and then we can get back into the business of proper blogging, yes?

- We have a new editor, the lovely Anna Hodgson from Eternal Maker. Anna is working for us as commissioning editor 2 days a week and is doing a brilliant job. You may have seen her introduction in Sew Hip issue 6 (also known as the one with the chicken!) and we have more patterns and input from her coming up in the next few issues.

- Sew Hip has gone digital! You can now subscribe to or buy single issues of the magazine and download them to your PC / Mac here. Its a fantastic way to try the magazine out or to keep reading us if you are concerned about your carbon footprint. International subscribers will see a huge difference in price by reading us this way.

- Sew Hip issue 7 is in production at the moment, we have a gorgeous Heather Ross dress pattern and interview for you as well as some sewing projects for the men in your life. I can’t wait to see the pages come back from the art department.

Errata and therefore, pattern checker. And a hello to Alex.

There are a few pattern errors that have been bought to my attention recently, we are busy compiling a list of them and will be updating the website soon.  Apologies that they slipped through our proof reading net, which brings me onto my next point.  We’re looking to hire a freelance pattern checker.  It needs to be someone with good sewing experience who can look at a pattern, read it through and spot what is missing, incorrect, needs clarifying.  We have a technical editor on board who takes care of all the sizing of the garments so it would just be the pattern instructions that would need to be checked and formatted.

This role is home based and freelance and would suit someone who can spare a couple of hours a week to read through Word documents, highlight changes and liase directly with designers through email.   All applications should be emailed to kerrie@kalmedia.co.uk before the end of January.  Successful applicants will be contacted the first week in February, if your application is not successful we may not be able to reply to you, depending on the number of applicants.  You can also call 01279  874630 for more information.

Finally, a big hello to Alex who joined us last week as Sew Hip production editor.   She is based in the Hertfordshire office and can be contacted on the above number.  Her role in the magazine is to pull everything together, chase copy, write and edit and generally make sure that the magazine comes together on deadline.  Her email is alex@kalmedia.co.uk if you want to drop her an email and say hello.

Jelly Roll

Does anyone have any bright new ideas for a jelly roll of fabric?  I have a Nest Jelly Roll from Tula Pink sitting on my desk in the office that needs to be used in a brand new, modern design.  Not necessarily a quilt design, just something clever and new.  

I’d be happy to send it to someone if they would make it into a design for Sew Hip.  Email me at kerrieATkalmedia.co.uk with your ideas about what you’d design with it and I’ll pick one person to send it to.  Deadlines and price for design to be discussed with the person whose idea I choose.  Closing date for design submissions is a week from today, Sunday 11th January.  (and to answer a question in the comments, yes I think the strips are 2.5 inches)

Jumping girls

Does anyone know just how hard it is to get 3 girls to jump at the same time without any one of them looking ridiculous?  If you’ve seen a copy of Sew Hip 3 you may have noticed the pillowcase dresses in there, with 3 daughters of our staff jumping around in wellies and dresses.  We had such a hysterical time trying to get them all to jump at the same time as having all 3 of them (and the dresses) look amazing.  I think we pulled it off in the end, but not without a huge number of out-takes!

These pillowcase dresses are a great way to experiment with sewing.  They are so simple to make and can be customised to suit you and your child. My eldest daughter lives in them over the summer months, they are great to wear on their own or layer over a swimming costume or T shirt.   You don’t have to use a pillowcase either, just use any fabric that is about the same size as a pillowcase.  That will mean more cutting and stitching but the end result will be the same.  

We’re setting up a flickr group for any Sew Hip projects that you make, we’d love to see photos of your little ones jumping in their pillowcase dresses!