News

Meet our newest (and youngest) associate Kenzie.

Here she is in her newly made True Bias Nikko Top made up in yummy organic cotton interlock from Birch (both in the shop) as well as her tried-and-true Persephone pants  (pattern from Anna Allen Clothing). Kenzie has made 19 pairs of Persephone pants, tweaking the fit each time so she has them just the way she wants them to fit. This is truly one of the reasons that We don’t carry this PDF pattern, but we’d be happy to print it for you with our in-house AO printer. We also have a Sun Bleached denim in the shop which would give a very similar look. Special thanks to Zachary for taking these photos during a lull in the action at the shop last week.

Here's Kenzie on her recent trip to California. She made so many great garments for her trip. Here's a highlight, The Merchant & Mills Sidney Sweatshirt (we have Paper or PDFD versions of this pattern) in Merchant & Mills soft stitch jacquard in palest pink. She's also wearing Sew House Seven Free Range Slacks made up in Merchant and Mills EU Linen in neon pink "Andy" colorway. This pattern is a real favorite with many of our customers, many one whom have made multiple pairs of these pants. The Andy linen is currently unavailable, but we are expecting a roll of this linen in "Acid House" which is a deeper neon pink tending toward fuchsia.

The combination of the morning light, winter angle of the sun and the white oak holding on to last years leaves made a shadow over our iconic bench that I’d never seen before  on this day in early Spring. Here, Kenzie is wearing her cozy Grodin coat. This pattern, which we have in paper and PDF format, is  by Minneapolis based designer, Kathryn Sterner for her clothing line, Winsome Goods. Kenzie made her Grodin in our Merchant & Mills jacquard in natural (We also have this fabric in many other colorways). She bound the inside seams are bound the Liberty Tana Lawn, a technique called Hong Kong finish. Such a beautiful make! You can also see  another example of her perfectly perfected Persephone pants pattern from Anna Allen designs. This is such a lovely coat and she's already had a lot of wear out of it. ( As a side note, while we like the aliteration of "perfectly perfected," we like to emphasize learning and improvement rather than striving for "perfection" in our sewing)

Here's Kenzie's Lola Top (also from Winsome Goods). She made up in pink Nani Iro double gauze. She modified it by adding elastic at the waist. Kenzie has worked hard to perfect the fit of these garments and it shows. As always, she has the fit spot on. Way to go Kenzie!

Some things you might not know about Kenzie: She used to be afraid of dogs but is now devoted to (a sews for) her little dog Charlotte. Her favorite color in pink. (well, we expect you had already figured that out). She loves playing mini-golf at Big Stone Mini Golf in Minnetrista.

Follow Kenzie's sewing adventures over on Instagram @kenziesews, where her motto is "Minnesota maker making makes. Mental health matters🧠 Recovering from an ED, sewing clothes to honor my body❤️" We think that says it all.

 

 

 

We've been putting together some sweet little fabric bundles of things we've been hoarding for quite some time. Many are out of print and super-special to us, but we can't hold on to them forever. We hope you find something you like (and maybe are sorry you missed) even if it's just a little bit of it.

Learn to make a super-cute Lakes Makerie slug with our new tutorial.

Closet case Fiona sundress for a new Grad!

New beginnings for Lakes Makerie...

 

The Minnesota Pinners Conference is coming to the Minneapolis Convention Center next week, Friday June 22 and Saturday June 23, and we've been invited to participate. I've never been to a Pinners Expo, so I'm not quite sure what to expect, but the idea is to see and try some of the kinds of projects/ideas you might have seen on the Pinterest platform.

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My first version of the Roscoe, I made from a piece of baby wale corduroy that I bought when my daughter was a baby. I loved the way the bright cornflower,  plum and leaf green floral pattern contrasted with the black ground, almost like velvet, but not quite.

Several months have gone by, but I finally promised myself I would get this posted today. It's snowy outside, but not as cold as when we took these pictures.

I find myself sewing a lot less from big 4 patterns lately, but I think I've purchased almost every pattern by Cynthia Rowley for Simplicity (and even sewn up several of them).