2022/2023 was the washed out years of changing careers, teaching myself how to make clothes, and making things for fun not “products”. It was great to chill out a bit and just work on things. I’ve made a few clothes that I actually wear in public, and had a go at making small things that were useful, such as my penholder book elastic thing. I always carry around a large Moleskine journal (13 x 21cm) and just kind of trap the pens in between whatever page I’m working on. To all those that gasped at how horrible I treat my journal’s spine, I thought up a solution to make the elastic thingy with a little holder on it for all my pens.

The pattern sketch is included. t’s not really a fully developed pattern per se, but hopefully this may be useful to someone? I did the maths, so this should fit most A5 journals or a large Moleskin. The elastic gives it a bit of wiggle room, because I actually had this on my Midori planner for a hot minute. As with the other list and pile of things I hope to actually make this into a pattern. If there is any desire, please let me know and I can make some more detailed notes and measurements.

The shirt in the gallery is a very enthusiastic photo of the Nerida Hansen smock dress (without the dress) in a Lisa Congdon patterned fabric. Added to my list to do is take some proper photos (i.e. force my husband to take multiple photos of me modelling it). I have made the smock dress previously but I am not really an “oversized dress” person, even if they do have pockets. Again, to take photos and post and some point because the fabric I used was called “pickle” and that is 100% the reason that I purchased it. Anywho, to make the top from the dress, I frankenpatterned the bottom of the Willow Top from Grainline to the top bodice of the dress. Sleeves and everything else were kept the same, but I really like the fit of the Willow tank and hem line.

And finally, I went through all my old notebooks with sketches and the like, cut out any useful or colourful ideas and taped them to my sketchbook. I wanted to get rid of old work journals and bullet journals, but I had some useful things there to consolidate. No idea what some of them mean, but I do like the colours.