March Meet the Maker

by two.sewing.sisters, posted in Sewing Project

March Meet the Maker is a month long challenge created by designer and maker Joanne Hawker. It is 31 days of prompts for creative to share their makes and story. We hope you enjoy learning about Two Sewing Sisters through March Meet the Maker in 2020.

March Meet the Maker Prompts

Two Sewing Sisters March Meet the Maker

Click on the images to find out more about each one.

  • Meet the Maker Day 1 | Story ・・・ Our story of sewing is one of family, love and creativity. We are two sisters, Lauren and Erin from Melbourne, Australia. We learnt to sew from our Nan before we even started school. We spent hours cutting, stitching and playing with fabric. Our Nan created garments for our whole family from everyday tracksuits to ball gowns and everything in between. If there was a special event, we had ‘a new dress’ she would make us a celebrate. In High School, we both studies Textiles, with Lauren going on to study Fashion and Millinery at University. While we both work in ‘desk jobs’ during the day, sewing remains our outlet of fun, creativity and a place for our family to connect. After years of making and wearing things with the countless conversation of ‘I like your dress, where did you get that?’ … ‘you made it? Really? That is so cool. What else have you made?’ – We decided to start Two Sewing Sisters in late 2017. It now provides a place to share what we love and connect with other creatives.
  • Meet the Maker Day 2 | Hands at work ・・・ In our sewing rooms, our preference is to sew as much as we can by machine. However, now and then we have to do things by hand. This can be hand stitching, sewing on buttons and every so often (but hopefully not too often) unpicking. Yesterday after a fitting @ezziekr decided to make a dropped waist to be on the natural waist, that meant the seam ripper came out!
  • Meet the Maker Day 3 | Time ・・・ For us, any time can be sewing time. Free time is sewing time. Sister bonding time is sewing time. TV time is sewing time. Hanging out with friends is sewing time. Car passenger time is sewing time. Public transport time is sewing time. ・・・ In this photo, @lauren.j.ritchie is sewing in a zipper by hand on a train in Austria last year – as you do!
  • Meet the Maker Day 4 | Branding ・・・ The Two Sewing Sisters logo is the key to our branding! @lauren.j.ritchie created the logo on Photoshop one night over a glass of wine in late 2017. Now it is printed on a label in the back of all our garments. It is often the last thing to be put in the garment, marking the end of another project! We chose the colour green because it a family emblem. It was our Grandad’s favourite colour. He was always supporting our Nan’s sewing by going to buy zippers or marking her dress hems. Because it was his favourite colour, Nan used to wear a lot of green and over the years it became a distinctive mark in our family. We continue that family tradition in our sewing today.
  • Meet the Maker Day 5 | Close Up ・・・ This was all the detail that went into the hem of @ezziekr patterned jacquard ruffled dress we made for a themed black tie christmas party. To get the ruffle to sit out it had wide crionline from @millineryonline and bias to neaten the finish from @birch_creative
  • Meet the Maker Day 6 | Reducing Waste ・・・ What do we do with our interfacing scraps? We have an offcuts bag and use them on our upcycling projects like on the underside of this neck facing.
  • Meet the Maker Day 7 |You ・・・ In our case it is us, the Two Sewing Sisters. There are two of us, we sew and we are sisters. We do have some sewing friends that come to visit for Sewing Sundays but this started with the two of us.
  • Meet the Maker Day 8 | Love to make ・・・ This was the first time we made Butterick 9764, Erin wore it to a reception at Wangaratta Council. Since then we have made about 20 different versions. It is fantastic because of the lovely silhouette with the option of straight skirt of A line and the bodice has tucks in the shoulders which means it does not interupt any print through the bodice.
  • Meet the Maker Day 9 | Rough/mock up ・・・ This is a sketch from a rare occassion that we have drawn up the next make. We mostly work from existing patterns and hack them together. This requires a little bit of problem solving that is best done on paper before cutting into the piece of fabric.
  • Meet the Maker Day 10 | Authentic Space ・・・ The studio is a little cosy at the moment as we prepare to move into a new space.
  • Meet the Maker Day 11 |Range ・・・ Erin has started work at a Law Firm this year which means a shift in our making to more corporate wear that is appropriate for the commerical office setting.
  • Meet the Maker Day 12 |Learning curve ・・・ Despite the amount of sewing we do, knits are not a common fabric choice but we fell in love with #gracetop by @fridaypatterncompany and loved the texture of this grey knit we found at @ferrierfashionfabrics
  • Meet the Maker Day 13 |USP ・・・ What makes the Two Sewing Sisters unique is how we work off each other to develop our ideas and sewing projects. We collaborate and challenge each other allowing each other strengths to shine through.
  • Meet the Maker Day 14 | Current project ・・・ Our current project is our entries for the @tessutifabrics #tessutiknotsandcrosses competition.
  • Meet the Maker Day 16 | Self care ・・・ Sewing Sundays with @stitchesandsutures is an important part of our sewing self care. It involves us just diving into projects while Kate loves a plan. We try to corrupt her but she is too strong.
  • Meet the Maker Day 17 | Proud of ・・・ This is one of our proudest makes so far. This stunning blue lace is from @tessutifabrics and we made it into two seperates @mccallpatterncompany 6331 bodice and adapted from #mnflint @megannielsenpatterns which we made for @deakinlss Law Ball last year
  • Meet the Maker Day 18 | Technique / Skills ・・・ Using bias binding in the hem gives an alternative finishing to overlocking, offers a smooth finish and extra volume as it holds out the hem.
  • Meet the Maker Day 19 | Packaging ・・・ @bloglessanna @erinlewisfitzgerald and @craftyjane_makes organsied the Melb Restash and these were the fabrics that we took along to swap with the amazing #melbournesews community
  • Meet the Maker Day 20 | Marketing ・・・ The best opportunity to share our work is when we have the opportunity to say thank you I made it ! This wonder woman print is made in our favourite pattern #butterick9764 and there just seems to be something magical about it.
  • Meet the Maker Day 22 |Tools & Materials ・・・ One of our favourite tools is the gathering foot we have for our sewing machine which we got from @sewingmachinesaus It has saved us pulling out many a gathering thread.
  • Meet the Maker Day 22 |Tools & Materials ・・・ One of our favourite tools is the gathering foot we have for our sewing machine which we got from @sewingmachinesaus It has saved us pulling out many a gathering thread.
  • Meet the Maker Day 23 |Photography ・・・ We try to make sure we take the time to get a quality photo of your special outfits. When we are lucky enough to have @sophia_rasch with us she likes to take sneaky photos of us taking photos.
  • Meet the Maker Day 24 | Personal touch ・・・ @ritchie_robyn and @ezziekr at the sewing machine having a Sewing Sunday Session
  • Meet the Maker Day 25 | How it's made ・・・ We mark our button holes with our @cloverusa Chaco Liner Pen. as it creates such a clean line to follow with the stitching.
  • Meet the Maker Day 26 |This or that ・・・ How could Sammywise not make it in our March Meet the Maker? This is him proudly wearing the bow tie we made him for his birthday. In full disclosure he is not our dog but his Dad kindly let's him come for Sewing Sunday playdates
  • Meet the Maker Day 27 | Future goals ・・・ We are looking forward to sharing more of our Sewing Sunday work on our blog. We have some great projects that we have shared so far but we are so excited to bring you more.
  • Meet the Maker Day 28 | Planning ・・・ We walked the 1000 Steps and spend the whole time (on the way down) planning and scheming our next Sewing Sundays projects. This particular moment was captured by @patto_4592
  • Meet the Maker Day 29 | Self Promotion ・・・ We put one of labels in every garment that we make. They include logo and a little notes on the back
  • Meet the Maker Day 30 | Work life balance ・・・ Work life balance is taking time to pat Sammywise when he comes for Sewing Sundays