Welcome to the Lamazi Makers Club March Luxury Sewing Kits Inspiration blog.
Spring is a special time for us as this is the time of the year when Lamazi Fabrics came to life eight years ago. Our Makers Club has also turned one in March. To mark these special occasions we wanted to make our Makers club kits even more special by inviting our talented brand supporter team members to pick their favourite pattern and a fabric. So the March Makers Club kits were brought to you by lovely Cara (aka @sosewmad) and Kathryn (aka @_sewunique)
Trouser Sewing Kit
Cara’s choice is one of her favourite sewing patterns - the Hussard trousers by Maison Fauve, which we paired with the best possible quality and everyone’s favourite Italian denim fabric by Cousette. These pair of trousers stand out by their exquisite details and silhouette. We hope that you will make many pairs in the future, casual and formal as you can use any other bottom weight fabrics that has no stretch for them.
Cousette 100% cotton Denim fabrics are soft and unique by their exquisite feel and range of colours. It is a match made in heaven with Hussard Jeans, currently available in four shades with one new shade to be added with Cousette new Spring Colleciton.
Tutorials
Cara recorded a very useful vlog with her top tips for sewing Hussard which you can watch here on our Youtube channel. There is also a wonderful step by step sewalong available on Maison Fauve channel which is recorded in French and can be watched with English subtitles.
Tools
In your Makers Club tote bag, along with the sewing pattern and haberdashery and you would have also received a very pretty matching Lamazi Exclusive lining fabric for your pockets, a pack of needles specially made for sewing with denim fabric and denim topstitching thread to give that extra professional finish to your handmade trousers.
We hope that you will love your Hussard jeans as much as we do ours. We cannot wait to see your versions.
Caftan Sewing Kit
Kathryn picked a beautiful and versatile SUVI caftan dress by one of our favourite European indie pattern brand Named Clothing. It can be made in knee length cotton or a more floaty maxi dress.
SUVI is a must have piece for the summer wardrobe and we hope that you will love wearing it at beach holidays, tea parties or while having a leisure time in your garden.
Kathryn made a knee length version in the finest quality cotton lawn featuring Morris print. We paired maxi length version with floaty and beautiful viscose fabric also with a Morris print. If you had purchased both length versions, you would received bright and bold viscose from one of our latest Collections.
Tutorial
You can find Kathryn’s thoughts about her experience of sewing SUVI caftan below.
“Suvi by Named Clothing is a beautiful caftan style knee length or maxi dress with unique drawstring tie waist and optional shoulder ties. A perfect beginner make which has great impact.
I began my Suvi by making a tie for the waist with matching fabric, this tie could easily be made with pre-made drawstring cord but I decided to use a loop turner to make a fabric tie on this occasion. To make the waist tie I cut a strip of fabric 4cm wide x my waist measurement+70cm. I folded this in half length wise, right sides together and sewed this with a 0.5cm seam allowance down the long side and along one end to make a tube with one open and one closed end. To turn the tube I used a prym tube turner (see video) which you can also find supplied as part of your kit.
The dress is an incredibly simple make with just 3 pattern pieces - 2 for the front and one for the back, these are sewn together to make a kind of large rectangle shape which gets its shape from the tie waist.
The raw edges of the side seams, shoulder seams and centre front seam are finished with a zig zag or overlocker first before being sewn right sides together and pressed open, leaving a small opening in the centre front seam for the tie. The arm holes, neckline and bottom hem are turned twice and hemmed in the same way, this repeated process makes the pattern come together quickly and easily.
The only slightly fiddly part is sewing the casing on to the inside of the waist for the tie, but with plenty of pins it is definitely doable for a beginner as you can sew it from the inside of the dress, so you aren’t having to sew blind. I found a safety pin helped to thread the tie through the casing and it pops out to at the centre front in a gap left in the centre front seam.
The finished caftan style dress is perfect for summer and the tie waist is great if you like clothes which can be adapted to fit larger or smaller depending on how you are feeling.
The cotton lawn I used gives a slightly more structured look which is a little voluminous, however a softer finish could be created with a viscose or other similar fabric with more drape.
I think next time I will try a maxi version with the additional shoulder ties, I think this versatility is what sets the Suvi apart.
Tools
In your Makers Club tote bag, along with the fabric, sewing pattern and haberdashery, you would have received cotton cord and ribbon for the ties matching to your fabric as well as a very useful Prym Love loop turning tool for making ties, in case you decide to use the same fabric for making ties yourself. You can watch Kathryn’s guide on how to use the loop tuner on our YouTube channel.
