This week, my sewing room is humming with the sound of rotary blades slicing through crisp new patterns and stacks of summery fabrics!
I’m working on something I’ve been excited about for weeks: cutting out several new summer dresses—both for myself and for my daughter. I like to do all of my cutting in big batches; 1. because my cutting mat takes up almost the whole floor, 2. to get my least favorite part out of the way, and 3. so I always have a project in the hopper to look forward to.
This past weekend, I cut for TWO DAYS, which has resulted in:
- Two Eveliina dresses for me with hacked (read: more billowy) sleeves one in a cotton voile with a lace hem detail and one in a crinkly floral chiffon.
- Two hacked (again, billowy sleeves and I reduced the skirt by a tier and I removed the collar) Butterick 6993.One in a cotton voile block print and the other in a cotton geometric print.
- One Vogue 9100 in an orange linen that has a scallop embroidered border. I've made this dress literally three times already and it's such a flattering silhouette.
- A toile of the top of Simplicity's 9289. I'm nervous about this one because it's for my best friend's wedding in October and the darts look reaaaaaal pointy on the model.
- Like four kid's dresses, mostly from leftover fabrics above.
But let me tell you: I went through a LOT of rotary blades (thank goodness I run a rotary supply business and ship these out myself).
First, I’m cutting out paper patterns for all these fresh summer designs. After the paper pieces are prepped, I’m carefully slicing through mostly cottons and linens, changing my blade often enough to make sure every cut is sharp and clean so sewing everything together will be smooth sailing.
If you’ve ever prepped a bunch of new projects at once, you know how important sharp blades are. A fresh rotary blade makes all the difference when you’re cutting both paper and fabric—no tugging, no fraying, just crisp, perfect lines ready to sew into beautiful things.
By the end of May, I’m hoping to have a little wardrobe of dresses ready to go—and a whole lot of happy memories stitched into every seam.
Stay tuned—I’ll be sharing some sneak peeks of the finished pieces soon! 🌸
