From Helga’s Instagram account on 17 March 2022:
“If we all do something small, it becomes something big.”
That’s what Teresa @desewtropia said in the recent @seworganisedstyle podcast. In the interview she told Maria that her son’s best friend is Ukrainian and that she decided to set up a list of Ukrainian designers selling their patterns on Etsy. She has had lots of great reactions so far. Many have already ordered one or more Ukrainian patterns from that list and Etsy has removed the sellers fees from these businesses, too.

Nicole and I picked the pattern of a Kyiv based designer Tatyana @factorem_imago_patterns. It is a lovely asymmetrical skirt. We will sew it together and offer a sewalong starting April 18. We created the hashtag #SewpportUkrainianDesigners  and hope that many of you will join us. Everyone is welcome! So far I know that @kissntuss, @luannesewcializes, @sewthreadbear, @sew_curlsnskirls and @lindaferriterl are in.

There are no prizes. The prize is to conquer the feeling of helplessness and to do something small in showing solidarity with a Ukrainian designer.”

I was lucky to have prepped my test pattern on the sewcation at the start of April. The skirt pattern is all in one so there was plenty of room to stick the paper together for the pattern.

The skirt length is about 175cm long so you need a good 2 metres of fabric for this skirt. I used the medium size.

This test fabric is from The Sewing Basket, so it’s from someone else’s stash that became part of my stash for a test garment or a shirt. Now it’s a skirt with plenty for a blouse.

When I test a pattern, I overlock the seam and hem edges. I also use a contrast thread so I can unpick the garment easily. I know the fit will need tweaking so why not make it easy to see as I unpick.

Did I know what I was doing at the time? Kind of. I sewed the pleat to sit outside the skirt without realising what I was doing. Helga was on IG when I sat there thinking ‘what were you thinking?” Obviously now, I wasn’t thinking and Helga held my hand (from Germany) while I decided which pleat option I would use.

If you are thinking of purchasing it to help Tatyana, please join us in supporting her. There are many designers with digital pattern on the list of Ukrainian designers selling their patterns on Etsy created by Teresa.

Thank you for reading this post and hopefully joining us on the journey with Helga and Nicole.