DIY: Liberty London floral cotton boxers

Liberty 'Lytton' Teal

DIY Boxers

Liberty 'Lytton' Pastel

Sometimes when I'm feeling a bit restless I like going through my fabric trunk and touching all the materials. Sound creepy yet??? I think I just have a thing for the tactile - I mean who hasn't run up to a friend wearing something velvety and just HAD to feel it EVEN though you already know what velvet feels like! There's just something about running my fingers through a silk or a linen that makes me feel calm and fills my head with possibilities. I could fill ledgers upon ledgers upon nuclear stockpiles of ledgers with the never-ending list of projects I come up with just sitting with my trunk.

Cotton is one of those fabrics I love to work with, because it's so easy, its not precious and it doesn't slip. This project in particular had to be completed by a very special date, since I couldn't think of anything to buy my boyfriend for our six month anniversary I figured I'd make him a pair of PJ shorts. The pattern was pretty easy, I lifted it simply from a pair of my own shorts and added extra lengths here and there accordingly for size. If you're after a quick pictorial tutorial (ha), I had a peruse at the one over on Dana Made It and it's super informative. And of course I made a matching pair for myself!

The trickiest part about this for me was aligning the buttonholes, most likely just a result of me not knowing my machine very well. I have an Elna Elina 40 by the way, recently purchased. Being too excited to use it I decided to bypass my manual and launch straight into using the buttonhole stitch. Eep. A good 10 minutes was spent unpicking some bad decisions haha. Learn from my mistakes, read the instructions.



x Amie

Beginnings

Hello there internet creatures, I'm Amie. This is my blog. I'm 22 and from Melbourne, a graduate of Media & Communications and a keen seamstress. I like dresses from the 1970s, photographs of outer space, changing my hair a lot and, of course, sewing. I've been sewing since I was 11 or 12, making dresses for my Barbies and soft toy bears from scraps of my own clothes. More than anything I love to make things. In the construction and deconstruction of things I find out more about how things work and how they come together and each time I make a little more sense of the world.

I used to make dresses with heart cut outs at the back under Amourette by Amie Mai and previously blog at Heartbeats, Intimidation (which was quickly taken over by health bloggers/bots! hahaha) but I thought I'd start something new to show my passion for needle and thread. 

For my New Year's Resolution I decided to set myself a challenge to buy nothing new in 2013 (with exceptions to fabric and essentials like underwear). I wanted to encourage myself to THINK, SPEND and SAVE smart and to encourage myself to CREATE more. With an overflowing wardrobe and fabric trunk bursting at the seams, I want to teach myself to waste not and want not. 

Have you ever looked into your wardrobe and thought you had 'nothing to wear' only to dig deep and find something you forgot you had? It's quite a privileged scenario and I'm ashamed to say that this has been me many times.  

Hopefully with my new mindset I will keep extending the life out of the generous wardrobe I already have and inspire others to save their pockets and their eco-impact!

x Amie