Welcome to my sewing channel.

January in Australia is hot and humid. After Christmas and our New Year celebrations life is all about Summer sport. Cricket, tennis and soccer.

For myself my January sewing is all about finishing the ideas I didn’t get finished in the lead up to Christmas.

What did I sew.

In no particular order, Swim Style Sewing patterns published the paloma top in 2025. Before the year finished a white and black embroidered fabric versions. As at today, I’ve now completed 3 Paloma top versions. 

yep. I sew 3 versions of most patterns I crack open. It’s just my thing. An obsession that is very much under control in my sewing room. More about that in another video.

This month Swim Style Patterns launched the dress version of the Paloma top so I decided to extend my existing top pattern to try a dress version of the Paloma top. The green viscose fabric is from Spotlight and i must stay this dress got a good workout on a hot humid day. I used a piece of white trim across the front bodice for some interest.

The next pattern I sewed was McCalls 8149 skirt that has some jeans features. The first version used a Julie Allison Cost vintage bouquet textiles. This fabric has been sitting in my fabric stash for a few years.

The red denim version is the second McCalls 8149 skirt sewn using Spotlight fabric that’ at least 10 years old.

My sewing stash including the notions is out of control so to realistic, I’ve been refoldiing fabric and culling that purchases that were useless but bought on the fly.

I did find jeans buttons in my stash when I clean up one part of the stash. Once I add the jeans buttons, I show you what that looks like.

I had a quick trip to The Sewing basket ended up my using Butterick 3390 for a couple remnant to pair with McCalls jean style skirt.

The blue print with yellow wattles came from Cloth Cuts in October. The main fabric was used for Liesl Charita dress worn at Sydney frocktail. 

I used the remnants of this print to create the toile. Then I used the adjusted pattern with Julia’s print to create a match set with the jeans skirt.

Lastly I adjusted the two Chacarita dresses by shortening the front bodice and raised the skirt by 3cm. Now both dresses sit a whole lot better on my body.

In the coming months when you book into a Mimiquins scanning session in Sydney, I’ll be your body scanner.

I used my Mimiquin to adjust the Chacarita bodice to better fit my shape.

Personally, I was able to record 5 podcast episodes and complete a wee on the social media team on SewOver50.

Oh and I updated my blog so more details are available for reference for you and for me of every project I complete.

Will I be doing more pattern tests this year?

I most certainly will and I’ll do as much fitting of any new makes on my Mimiquin to get the fit right the first time.