Nerida Hansen + Rachelle Holowko

We were so excited when Nerida Hansen approached us to be guest sewing ambassadors to celebrate this new fabric collection in collaboration with Australian designer and artist Rachelle Holowko from Pattern and Design

The fabric prints and colours are so beautiful, it was wonderful to sew these two projects!

The Fabric

For these projects, we used three of the Nerida Hansen and Rachelle Holowko collection fabrics. 

The first fabric was the Bold Gingham by Nerida Hansen, which we used for the culottes. 

The second fabric was the Carina fabric in navy by Rachelle Holowko which we used for the Cuff Sleeve Top. 

The third fabric was the Manifesto fabric in wine by Rachelle Holowko which we used for the jumpsuit.

All of the fabrics were the Tencel Linen. We haven’t sewn with Tencel very much before. It has a wonderful drape and silky feel even though it is a medium-weight fabric. 

Tencel is a natural fibre made from wood pulp, which is blended with a small amount of linen for these fabrics. 

Project 1 – Nerida Hansen Culottes

For this outfit, we really wanted to contrast the pretty floral with a bold contrast fabric for the pants. The ‘Bold Gingham fabric has the perfect scale of print for pants and balances the large floral of the top. We don’t usually pair different prints together – so this was a great project to challenge our style!

This was our first time sewing with Nerida Hansen. The cuffs sleeve top and culottes are both simple but effective designs that allow the fabric to be the feature! The patterns are great staple pieces that would be perfect for new sewists looking to expand these skills or for seasoned sewists looking for classic designs to add to their collection.

In particular, we loved that the culottes pattern has a flat front band even though it has an elastic back.

Note: We sized down in the top as we wanted the top to be more fitted than the finished garment measurement indicated on the pattern.

Project 2 – Nerida Hansen Jumpsuit

We made the Nerida Hansen Jumpsuit Sewing Pattern in the Manifesto in wine fabric by Rachelle Holowko.

The biggest challenge was fitting the jumpsuit into the 2 metres of fabric available! 

Based on the pattern, for fabrics that are 137 cm wide you will need:

  •  for sizes 6012, approximately 3.5 metres; and
  • for sizes 14-20, approximately 3.7 metres. 

We managed to make (a slightly cropped version) in just 2 metres! You may be thinking, how? Well, we’ve included a picture of our creative pattern layout below. 

We also managed to get the dominant pattern down the centre front and be (mostly) pattern matched. 

NOTES

Photographer: James Christie
Jumpsuit Pattern: Nerida Hansen Jumpsuit Sewing Pattern
Top Pattern: Nerdia Hansen Cuff Sleeve Top Sewing Pattern
Culottes Pattern: Nerida Hansen Culottes Sewing Pattern 
Fabric: Nereida Hasen 

Fabric and patterns were provided by Nerida Hansen in exchange for photographs of the finished garments. We received no commission in relation to the fabric or monetary payment for this blog post.