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Helga W.

@salixsews

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sewist🧵, knitter 🧶, writer ✒ admirer of creativity 🌸, 🇩🇪, sharing my sewing journey.

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My most complex project. It's done!
The #tinyninepatch plaid is finished.
I don't call it a quilt because nothing is quilted. The back is a wool fleece and it's bordered with one row of the tinyninepatch blocks. So now it's a plaid and I love it!
7 months of working with my scraps have paid off.

@reproquiltlover #curtainstocouture #curtainstocouturejanuary
#sewover50 #sewover50jan #scrapbusting #scrappyquilt by @salixsews

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2 years ago

In the course of @sewover50 's 6th birthday let me walk down memory lane to recapitulate my highlights within this phantastic community.

1: It's the pandemic. In Jan. 2021 I tag #sewover50 for the first time. I have 22 likes and 1 comment from @sewover50. I feel so proud to be seen!
2: My first #waiwot and first dm from Julie @consistentlydifferentdesigns. An influencer gets in touch with people directly. I can't believe my luck.
3: With #so50patternmixing I get to know numerous fellow sewists who I'm still constantly in touch with.
4: #so50oldphoto in honour of 30k followers: We get to know each other's backgrounds, families and sewing careers.
5: I have the honour to be interviewed by Maria @velosews on her @seworganisedstyle podcast.
6: Suzy @sewing_in_spain + Sue @suestoney take me on board for #magamsewalong. The motto is #rOcktober.
7: Via @sewover50 I find a sewing buddy in my hometown. It's Nicole @Septemberfaden. How lucky am I? The pandemic is over and we meet in real life for a sewalong.
8: Maria @velosews interviews Nic and me for @seworganisedstyle. One podcast is about sewing friends, the other one about bra making.
9: Nic and I organize a global sewalong #sewpportukrainiandesigners. More than 30 ladies sew a skirt designed by a Ukrainian designer.
10: I miss the Edinburgh Frocktails because of knee surgery. I'm still not over it! 😭
11: 45k followers! @sewover50 celebrate with the #so50minime challenge.
12: #sewoverageism prompts us to sew a pattern from a company featuring mature models. I choose the #wbmmirridress.
13: It's sewover50's 5th birthday and we celebrate with making a hat. Not my most successful make.
14: The super generous Pam @sewnonthemap invites @sewover50 friends into her house in Florida for a sewing camp. I have the extraordinary experience to be taught ice-dyeing and ecoprintinting by Julie @consistentlydifferentdesigns in real life. What an adventure!
15: Nic and I invent the hashtag #2fromstashamonth in order to help each other and everyone who wants to join in to reduce our fabric stashes.

Thanks to @judithrosalind and @sunnydayz06 and the dedicated team who keeps @sewover50 going! Happy Birthday and to many more! by @salixsews

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2 years ago

This post is about stash.
What is stash? Where does it begin and where does it end? How much fabric is enough? What does my stash say about me and my relation to sewing, creativity, money, resources, sustainability etc. Speaking to my friends in the sewing community, I have found out that "stash" is a very personal and emotional issue and my questions can't be answered in general terms. Some have collected huge amounts of fabric over the years, others organize their fabric stash with apps, others no longer buy fabric at all and only sew with what they already have. Some despair at the sheer amount of fabric and are afraid to become hoarders, others embrace their collection and see their stash like an art collection.

Personally I feel restricted by the space I take up with my hobby and try to stick to one rule. Whenever the drawers and boxes with my fabrics are full, I must stop buying. These past few years I have coped well with this system, also because I installed some new shelves. 🙈 I love selecting new fabric and can hardly resist a bargain. It's like an addiction. Now, my drawers and boxes are full again. There is no room for more compartments and it's time to come up with a new idea.

My sewing buddy Nicole @septemberfaden and I have created the hashtag #2fromstashamonth. Nicole is posting a similar story. We hope to decrease our amounts of fabric by challenging each other to sew two pieces from our stashes each month. My personal goal for now is to create space in my drawers and boxes and not buy any fabric until I have achieved that. I guess this will take a few months. The hashtag will keep me going. Should you struggle with your stash, too, please feel free to join in! I'd love to hear your stash stories. ❤️

My first #stashbusting project will be a two-piece suit for my daughter. There will be a nice dent in my stash when the cherry pink, tweed like fabric (slide 1) is gone from the box containing "daughter fabric" (last slide). 😆

#2fromstashamonth #sewover50 #sewover50may #so50stashbusting #stashbusting #fabricstash #sewingfriendsarethebest by @salixsews

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2 years ago

Could my catwalk partners @bevwaldwyn and @jericawebber and I have been a better colour match? I don't think so. 💜🧡🩷 Thanks for rocking the catwalk with me.
🧵 My #Londonfrocktails outfit has actually been created around the purple raincoat, the key piece of my little autumn capsule this year. It's obviously a statement piece as many people in London commented on it, especially when I stepped into the Elizabeth line. 🤣 The deep purple double cloth-satin is from @mylittlecoupon in France and the pattern is the Eliza trenchcoat from @papercutpatterns.
🧵 The violet sequin jacket (fabric @komolka.stoffe , Vienna) is New Look pattern 6352. I was so afraid to cut into the precious glitter that I made two toiles. The first went entirely wrong, the second is a wearable green jacquard jacket. I showed it on my grid in July.
🧵 The dress with cutous is made from a heavy black ponte and more than 10 years old. It's a Burda Easy pattern from Fall/Winter 2014 . It has become one of my TNT patterns and I have made several versions of it already, also without any cutouts.
🧵 The bag was a last minute make and brought me on the Japanese knot bag team. I saw several lovely versions that night.
🧵 Last but not least there were my long black gloves. They were my Grandma's. She must have bought them in the 60ies. They're already falling apart and heavily mended, but I swear they still smell like her.
Thanks again to the @londonfrocktails team, the photographer @danieljames.photographic and all the splendid sponsors. It was an unforgettable event. by @salixsews

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a day ago

I spent four days in London, which culminated in a fantastic event: Londonfrocktails. A night I’ll never forget. Countless sewing enthusiasts gathered at a stunning venue on the Thames to celebrate. At last, at last, I was able to give a hug to many of those I’d so far only been in touch with online, get to know them a bit better and, of course, admire their intricately handcrafted gowns. What a joy to pat so many fabrics on people. 😅
I would have loved to have had so much more time to chat with many more of these wonderful women. I hope we’ll see each other again soon.
Many many thanks to the organizing team, Elke @sewthreadbear, Janene @ooobop, Susan @susanyoungsewing and Michele @offshesews who did a phantastic job and thank you to all the sponsors. I even won a raffle prize. 🎉
And many thanks to the photographer @danieljames.photographic and last but not least to the @sewover50 team, the community which brings and holds us together! by @salixsews

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4 days ago

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19 days ago

Salut from the Dune of Pilat in the Arcachon Bay twinning in our Breton striped Tees. The sunsets are breathtaking, but you need to be prepared to take a strenuous hike up in the sand before you're rewarded with a view.
Our three T-shirts were made from a 3-metre length of French cotton jersey from @mylittlecoupon. Their fabrics never disappoint. I actually intended to sew a polo shirt for Mr Salix only, but then I had some fabric left over so I cut out a T-shirt for myself. And after that, there was still some fabric left, so with a bit of patchwork and some navy blue jersey from my stash #2fromstashamonth, our son got exactly what he wanted. His version is actually my favourite. Which is yours?
Patterns:
My Tee is from @burda_style Burda Easy 01/2018.
The Mister got the #wbmdraperspolo from @wardrobebymepatterns and
Max' t-shirt is a German indie pattern
The family holiday season is nearly over, but there's London on the horizon for me! @sewing_in_spain
@suestoney @whendy7 taken in Arcachon by @salixsews

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22 days ago

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a month ago

We're prolonging our summer and enjoy some lovely warm days in the Bassin d'Arcachon in France.
I made myself a little beach cover up for these holidays. The pattern is from @burda_style issue 07/2025. They re-published the pattern from an older magazine as a vintage pattern.
The fabric I used is also vintage. My cousin Astrid gave it to me because it had been sitting in her stash for ages. It's a wonderful silky viscose and absolutely perfect for the chasuble and wide pants. I don’t know if I can still call it a chasuble as I had to make it considerably shorter because of lack of enough fabric, but I am very happy with it as it is. It also helps as a protection against midge bites. There are a lot of them! It's their season! #sagamseasonseptember by @salixsews

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a month ago

There’s a viral trend going round at the moment where you can see what you would have looked like in the 80s, and everyone’s having AI-generated photos made. It's fun, but well, I’ve got actual photos from that era. 😂 I love looking back on that time, and for #SewRecreateTheLook I’m putting my own spin on a vintage fashion style from Mondi.
In week 2 of #srtl26 hosted by @jenleggsews and @sosewdressmaking, we share pattern and fabric choices.
It wasn’t at all easy to decide on a design that captures the quintessential Mondi spirit I grew up with in my early career working there. At first, I thought of a blazer dress with gold buttons and a velvet collar and trimmings on a black watch tartan fabric. But how often would I wear that? I went through my stash looking for a tartan, bouclé or velvet, but then I found a long forgotten knit fabric that instantly reminded me of a colour scheme from the Mondi Autumn/Winter ’92 collection. Back then, I worked closely with Mondi’s UK branch, acting as a liaison between the design team at head office and the UK sales team’s requirements. It was during this time that I learnt, amongst other things, the colour name ‘chartreuse’.
🧵 So, my fabric choice for #srtl26 is a bold chartreuse tartan knit, from which I’m trying to conjure up a Mondi-style jacket in the aesthetics of the chartreuse colour set in the lookbook of 1992. Mondi was very popular for its iconic knit designs.
🧵 The pattern of my choice is a @burda_style biker jacket from 03/2015.
Does it all sound kind of strange? A knit biker jacket in chartreuse 90ies opulence? 😆 Trust me. I have sewn the pattern before and there will be tweaks. As I might not have enough of this fabric, playing Tetris with the 10 pattern pieces will help me make the most of it.
Of course, gold elements are a must and still have to be found, but I do have a button stash, too. Wish me luck. by @salixsews

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a month ago

It's #fashiononthesofafriday, a fun @sewover50 community hashtag and you find me ready for bed in a new nightie. When @debsmadethis who I met in Aberystwyth for Welsh Frocktails, called out to #liberateyourliberty, I started thinking about that one Liberty print in my stash which I have never sewn up. What better time than now? London is calling anyway and thus, I sewed this vintage nightie. The pattern is from a @burda_style vintage magazine from 1977. I chose it because of the ricrac trim. One could say, I seasoned the pattern with that trim, right @whendy7? 😂 #sagamseasonseptember
The Liberty Tana Lawn is perfect for nightwear, so light and soft. I tried to identify the buildings on the print, but many of them are unknown to me. You can help me find out in my stories.
Another stash fabric gone @septemberfaden 💪🏻 #2fromstashamonth by @salixsews

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a month ago

Jen and Sharlene's #SewRecreateTheLook #srtl26 challenge is back. In the first week of September, we’re meant to share our inspiration.
As I’m retiring at the end of the year, I’ve been feeling a bit sentimental of late and have been looking back on the early days of my career at Mondi, an international fashion company. I worked there in International Sales in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s. Mondi was one of the pioneers of the ‘coordinate’ concept in women’s outerwear. From hats to blouses, knitwear and blazers right through to shoes – you could have it all in terms of both colour and style. Lady Di was a loyal regular customer, and supermodels such as Christy Brinkley, Christie Turlington or Eva Herzigova were featured in the Mondi magazines (of which I still have a few) or walking the runway for the company. A signature look of Mondi in the early 90s meant casual elegance in rich cabled knitwear, bold and colourful double-breasted blazers, sharp office-core tailored suits or nautical-themed military jackets. I have always had a soft spot for this kind of preppy elegance and am very inclined to try and recreate the style for #srtl26 hopefully with a modern twist. I want to enter it in the "Best Interpretation" category.
By the way, the Mondi Fashion Group was a family owned business from 1967 to 1993 when it was sold to Investcorp who invested in lots of iconic businesses such as Tiffany, Guccis, Saks etc. Due to management errors, the long consumer crisis in the mid-1990s and losses in its operating business, Mondi lost the Investcorp backing in 1999 and was forced into bankruptcy. It's kind of sad, but I have very fond memories of my time in the fashion industry and now regulary bore my social circle with snippets from all my stories. by @salixsews

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a month ago