Firehose

One more birthday gift for Tim: a fish shirt!

My latest project for the Fabricville blog is a little different for me - instead of a dress, I made a two piece matching outfit! Now I have separates that I can wear together for the dress feeling, or break apart to wear in other combos. 

I saw this floral rayon online at Fabricville, but the online image was a bit deceiving -- it looked like it was all floral stripes, but when I received it, the stripes ran along either selvedge edge with the centre more of an open floral. If I would have looked more closely at all the images, I could have seen this ahead of time - but I didn't.  Fortunately the print and colours are very cohesive, but it did mean that I had to make some decisions about how to lay out my pattern and how to use the print effectively. I didn't want the wide band of stripes running horizontally at the bottom of the blouse so I held the... [read more]

Are you taking your first steps in selling a product or service online and don’t know where to start? Be sure to register for our upcoming WooCommerce 101 webinar, where our expert Happiness Engineers will walk you through everything you need to know about setting up an online store with WooCommerce and WordPress.com managed hosting.

Webinar details

• Date: Tuesday, March 28, 2023 
• Time: 16:00 UTC  | 18:00 CEST | 12pm EDT | 9:00am PDT  
• Cost: Free
• Who’s invited: business owners, entrepreneurs, freelancers, service providers, store owners, and anyone else who wants to sell a product or service online.

What you’ll learn

Whether you’re an e-commerce veteran or this is your first business, join us for the inside scoop on launching a store that’s fully customizable, completely yours,... [read more]

Has your desktop been looking a bit drab lately? If so – or if you’d just like to show a little WordPress love – we’ve got just the remedy: 30 one-of-a-kind WordPress desktop wallpapers to breathe new life into your backgrounds.

The wallpapers

Download and install

To add a wallpaper to your desktop:

• Click on any image to open a fullscreen carousel
• Right-click the image if you’re using Windows or Linux, or command-click on a Mac
• Save the wallpaper to your favorite folder
• And set it as your desktop wallpaper (Windows / Ubuntu / MacOS)

About the wallpapers

The wallpapers are a homage to some of our favorite artists, with a nod to the freedom, innovation, and creativity of open-source software. 

We put these together with an entirely open-source AI tool called Stable Diffusion. Like WordPress, Stable Diffusion is all about helping more people... [read more]

The Little Ghost Who Was A Quilt / Riel Nason illus. by Byron Eggenschewiler Toronto: Tundra Books, c2020. 42 p.

One Halloween he ends up on a porch railing for a better view, and is mistaken for a blanket -- he's picked up and taken on a trick-or-treating journey. He keeps a little girl warm, gets a little sticky, and escapes late at night when everyone in the house is asleep. His adventures make him the hot topic in his peer group after that! 

This is a gentle tale, and the illustrations match the tone of the story perfectly. The colours are muted, and the images feel a... [read more]

Happy 44th birthday to me!! It may be my fourth pandemic birthday today, but I’m still going strong!

A few weeks ago, it occurred to me that I had no idea what I wanted to sew for my birthday this year, so I took inspiration from my stash of patterns and pulled out Style Arc’s “Issy Knit Top”. It was released (and bought!) quite a few years ago but I never quite got around to making it but I still loved the style. It’s a long-sleeved (or sleeveless) knit top with gathered side seams, an asymmetric hem, and an interesting, asymmetric draped neckline, too.

At first, I made this up in a white tencel jersey, and I really liked the pattern, but the top didn’t feel special enough to be a Birthday Make (you’ll see this version in a later post). So I dug a bit further into my stash and noticed a beautiful, abstract floral jersey that I’d bought years ago from [read more]

 the price keeps catching my eye and I would love to see this pattern, but something seems weird

Here are a few questions to ponder today and for the next while -- whether you have begun reading, or you've only read blurbs & author interviews so far and still have something to say, join in! Although there might be a few spoilers in the questions and discussion below so if you haven't got too far yet you might want to come back to this post.

I'll add some of my own thoughts and you can reply to them or add your own impressions. If you want to hear other takes on a part of the book that you are curious about, leave your own questions in the comments, too.

Sometimes I see so many cute items on Pinterest my head spins. Especially pillows. And these boho style recycled denim pillows from Urban Outfitters … More boho style recycled denim pillows »

The post boho style recycled denim pillows appeared first on My French Twist.

Budget-friendly

One of the biggest benefits of our Business and Commerce plans is that you can add additional WordPress plugins to enhance the functionality of your website.

Below, we’re highlighting two of the newest additions to our plugin marketplace, now available at a hefty exclusive discount for WordPress.com users.

Create courses with Sensei Pro

Automattic, the same company behind WordPress.com, creates Sensei LMS. We’ve collaborated to bring our Learning Management System and course creation tools to WordPress.com sites in one seamless experience.

With Sensei Pro, you can create online courses with quizzes, certificates, cohorts, and detailed student reports. Lessons are edited just like WordPress posts or pages, so you will already know how it works.

You can enable the distraction-free Learning Mode to provide... [read more]

I know that I said I shouldn't pattern test when school is in session.  But things being what they are, I have a knack for not taking my own advice and no sooner had I said that I pretty much signed up to do another pattern test.  In my defence, I had the fabric at hand and it promised to be a super quick sew and I was able to do the proof-reading of the pattern instructions on my lunch break so it wasn't too onerous of a task.

Let me introduce you to the latest Itch to Stitch* pattern!  It's a fun little top with a twist.  Literally.  It features a twist at the neckline.  It's no harder to make than a standard tee shirt, so you can decide you want a new top in the morning and be wearing it by afternoon.  Really!  It's that easy!

For your Zakopane Top, you can choose from long sleeves or short sleeves and it has the pattern pieces for either a full or regular... [read more]

Why did I wait so long to sew up this pattern?!

Blueprints of Fashion: Home Sewing Patterns of the 1950s / Wade Laboissonniere Atglen, PA: Schiffer, c1997. 176 p.

This was a fun discovery I made recently via OpenLibrary. It's a history of home sewing patterns, focused on the 50s, created by a man who was a collector and a costumer. It's so pleasing to look through! 

There's text for about half of it, and then images of patterns divided by types of clothing for the second half. It's so great to see all the examples, many of which were patterns I've never seen before. Looking at all the details was entertaining -- although only the front of the pattern envelopes are shown, without many examples of line drawings or pattern information. 

The text consists of some history of how paper patterns were used in schools and in the sewing world in general, specifically in the US. It's really only looking... [read more]

We’re excited to announce that Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com, has acquired the popular WordPress plugin ActivityPub. 

This innovative plugin brings a whole new level of social networking to your website by integrating it with the wider federated social web. When installed, the plugin allows you to easily share your content and interact with users on Mastodon and other platforms that also support the ActivityPub protocol. 

Just as Automattic aims to do with all of our products, this plugin helps to decentralize the web, break down silos, and foster a more connected online ecosystem. 

Why you should use the ActivityPub plugin

If you’re a blogger or content creator who wants to reach a wider audience, the ActivityPub plugin is perfect for you. Just as Jetpack Social —... [read more]

photo credit Alexandra Bolduc

1. Welcome, Theresa, and thank you for taking the time to do this interview for the Literary Sewing Circle! Can you tell us a bit about how you came to write Sisters of Grass? What was the genesis of this story?

It’s a pleasure to answer these questions, Melanie. When my children were young, we camped in the Nicola Valley every summer and explored it widely. It interested me in so many ways. The Indigenous and settler histories are entwined, the ecosystem is very lovely, and its social context seemed almost like a microcosm of so much of what our society was grappling with: land use and values, reconciling histories, and so on. I... [read more]

I wrote an older post about providing embroidered makeup washcloths for guests, but it’s a project worth revisiting. I’m in the middle of decorating … More embroidered makeup washcloths »

The post embroidered makeup washcloths appeared first on My French Twist.

I’ve been excited about this episode of our visible mending series: sashiko has become increasingly popular in the UK over the last few years as a way of mending and decorating our clothes, inspired by the heritage and beauty in this practice. Visible mending generally has become a covetable skill, but this ancient Japanese form of repairing garments has particularly caught the attention of home crafters.

This is a very basic intro, I’m certainly not a sashiko expert, but I’m enjoying learning about different mending practices and hope you will too.

What is sashiko?

Sashiko, pronounced ‘sash-co’, means ‘little stab’ and refers to the many small stitches used in the embroidery design. Originally, it was used by the working class as a way to reinforce as well as repair clothes, adding more warmth to garments through layering... [read more]

Loosely inspired by the cheerful and chunky knits worn by Enid, the roommate in Wednesday, and aiming to use up some yarn from my stash, I crocheted this fun sweater for my niece!

After I made my Burda sweater recently, I had enough fabric left over to cut out a skirt. I didn't want to waste any of this fabric, so before putting the fabric away I found a suitable skirt pattern to try out! 

I have had Butterick 6525 in my stash for a while; I bought it for the dress view. However, the skirt included is a quick pull-on, elastic waist style, which was also just the right size for my leftovers. So I cut it out, with a few alterations. 

I didn't really like the hemline style -- so I left the hem straight but marked the curved lines on the fabric in case I changed my mind and wanted to follow them. Once it was done I really liked the straight hem so pulled out my thread markings and left it plain. 

I also used only one piece of 1/2" wide elastic at the waist instead of making two narrow channels. This fabric was just a little... [read more]

WordPress.com is an organization — like others within Automattic — that is heavily invested in Open Source and the democratization of the web. We genuinely believe that everyone should have control over their presence, their data, and even their social experiences. That’s why we’re really excited about some of the work Bluesky is doing.

What is Bluesky?

We’re building a new foundation for social networking which gives creators independence from platforms, developers the freedom to build, and users a choice in their experience.

blueskyweb.xyz

Think about all of the different pieces tied to any one of your social accounts:

• Your username – how people identify you in that platform
• Your connections/network
• The content you’ve created
• The media you’ve uploaded
• The conversations you’ve had with others
• Your connections to... [read more]