I was so excited to discover Swedish design brand Ann Ringstrand via Instragram. I love her modern aesthetic and stylish designs. With many years in the fashion industry, Ann specialises in creating fashionable patterns for home sewing.

Ann's focus is on everyday fashion with good wearability and durability. She takes her inspiration from men’s fashion and old working clothes, combining modern design with traditional crafting. She is very fond of conventional “well-dressed” looks, but also mixes in influences from the street fashions of major cities.

The style is unisex, with a strong emphasis on classic tailoring and functional uniform details like pockets and linings. Her style is often described as Scandinavian minimalism with elements taken from international trends. To achieve a personal expression, Ann likes to combine modern design with traditional crafting. Her style is also influenced by her mum, who sewed, wove, quilted, and patched throughout her childhood.

For several years Ann ran the successful Swedish brand Hope, leaving in 2017 to set up a new design company in New York. In 2019 she was approached by The Swedish Publishing House Bonnier Fakta and returned to the world of fashion to create a book of home sewing with full scale paper patterns in her own signature style. 

Ann quickly discovered a gap in the market between the fashion industry and world of home sewing. She was also keen to address some of the environmental challenges within the fashion industry and embrace a more sustainable approach.

Her first book, Sew: 10 New Fashion Styles contains a collection of that you can sew for yourself. There are ten stylish key sewing patterns, including shirts, dresses, a kaftan, trousers, a blazer, and a coat. Included with the book are full-scale paper sewing patterns for you to trace off and use.

Following the success of Ann's award-winning first book, a follow up Sew: 10 Matching Key Styles for Your Wardrobe was published. Step by step, Ann guides you through the creation of a mini collection of your own, consisting of a coat, jacket, blazer, waistcoat, dress, skirt, two trousers, and two shirts.

This isn't just a sewing pattern book, it also contains lots of valuable advice around building a capsule collection of handmade clothes including how to select your colour palette and finding fabrics.

One of the many things that I love about these books, is that Ann gives design tips to the reader on how to style and wear your handmade piece of clothing. And with so many great styles to choose from I can't wait to get started....

Danish brand Puff and Pencil, in collaboration with Min Mote, have designed the Hangaround Bag as a free PDF sewing pattern. 

The Hangaround sewing pattern is a small, lined shoulder and handbag. The bag is made up of four parts: two side pieces and a front and a back piece, as well as a handle and ties that serve as the bag's closure in the middle. 

I chose to make my Hangaround Bag in in the Irit Organic Raw Denim fabric by Mind the MAKER and used this fabric for both the outer and the lining. You could of course choose to use a different fabric for the lining. I've seen some great versions over on Instagram including one made in a leopard print twill.

It's a really interesting style to make and comes together fairly easily. Don't be put off by the fact that it's a PDF sewing pattern, as it's a small item the pattern pieces are split across just 3 pieces of A4 paper making it really easy to cut out and put together.

I made the sample above for my daughter as a surprise gift when she started her final year at University back in September. She was thrilled with it and uses it constantly. In the new year I'll be making one for myself, I'm planning to use the Thelma Quilted Fabric, also by Mind the MAKER.

Click here if you fancy making your own version of the Hangaround Bag sewing pattern either as a gift for a friend or for yourself. 

There's no doubting the fact that skirts have been having a moment in recent months and this has continued into 2024. 

The A-Line Midi Skirt Sewing Pattern by The Assembly Line is a great sewing  pattern if you're new to sewing as it's easy to make plus there are four different options to choose from which are shown illustrated below.

As the name suggests, it has an A-line fit and key details include an elasticated waistband and side slant pockets. The pattern comes with several versions to choose from - the regular waistband, the paper bag waistband with belt loops and a belt, the regular straight hemline, the rounded hemline and the elasticated hemline. 

Inspired by a quilted ready to wear skirt that I saw last season I made the regular waistband option of the A-Line Midi Skirt in the Thelma Quilted fabric in Black by Mind the MAKER. 

I chose to make the version with the regular waistband. And because the fabric has vertical quilted stitch-lines and is lightly padded I and made a couple of modifications to accommodate my chosen fabric:

1. The centre-front and centre-back seams were omitted and the pattern pieces were pivoted slightly to cut them on the fold. (If you decide to make this amendment remember take off the 1cm seam allowance) This modification would also work well for striped fabrics.
2. Instead of side slant pockets I adjusted the pattern slightly and replaced these with in-seam pockets using the  Thelma Thermal Solid fabric in Black to reduce the bulk of the skirt at this point.

Other than that I followed the pattern, the instructions were really clear and my skirt came together really quickly. I added an additional stitch-line through the centre of the elasticated waistband as shown in the photo below. This not only creates a lovely detail but it also prevents the elastic from twisting within the waistband casing.

This is a lovely style both to make and wear. It's a great skirt for beginners and experienced sewists alike. It's definitely a pattern that I'll be making again. In fact I'm planning my next make, this time in denim without the modifications.

I'm wearing the skirt with the Elastic Tie Sweater, also by The Assembly Line, made in Sevenberry Rustic Indigo fabric Spaced Lines.

The top version of the Wilder Gown was the first style that I made by Friday Pattern Company. I've seen so many gorgeous versions of this style over on Instagram that I simply had to make one for myself.

I decided on the top for my first make of this lovely style and chose to use a Nani Iro tencel fabric with this lovely painterly border detail.

It might not look like it but this style really is very easy to make. The instructions are really clear and very easy to follow, with helpful step by step illustrations.

The raglan sleeves don't need to be set in so are very simple, and the channel for the bow comes together really nicely.

I didn't make any modifications to my top and in terms of sizing I'm a UK size 8 and I made the XS size which fits me perfectly.

This style works really well in plain fabrics but would work equally well in a pattern, florals in both small and large scale, stripes, ginghams and spots all look great.

I'll definitely be making this again, I'd like to make a long sleeved version of the top, for this I'm thinking the Eglantine et Zoe Zebra print in Khaki. I'll also be making a short sleeve dress for summer, it looks great in plain linen I'm going to use one of the Merchant and Mills Laundered Linens, most likely the Scuttle Black however other colours would look equally good.

Most of all, what I really love about the top is that it really does elevate an outfit and I always feel really good when I wear it, and as I mentioned just now I'll definitely be making more...

As you can see, it really wasn't long before I made another top. It really is such an easy style to make and is a joy to wear, next for me will be the dress. 

I first came across The Assembly Line over on Instagram, and as soon I saw their fabulous collection I knew I had to contact them to see if they would consider working with me on a wholesale basis... and I'm so pleased that they were open to the idea!

The ethos behind the brand is to design contemporary, functional and, at the same time, gorgeous items of clothing for us all to make and cherish. One of the styles that I was particularly drawn to initially was the Cuff Top, shown above, which, at that time, was one of their newest designs. 

For my first make I chose our Draper Denim by Robert Kaufman, this lightweight denim has a lovely sheen to it which gives it an elevated look.

The instructions are really clear and easy to follow even though they've been translated from Swedish. I really like that they give you technical tips along with different options for sewing a seam for example.

It's classed as suitable for beginners and I'd say that it is, with no bust darts and grown on sleeves, it sews up really quickly.

When you sew the elastic to the sleeve it's really important to make sure that the elastic is evenly distributed.

To do this I recommend that you divide both into four equal sections and use a pin as a marker, as shown in the photo above.

Next, match these pins first and pin in position, again as shown above, and then stretch the elastic and pin between these points.

I was so pleased with my first make that I very quickly made a second one, this time in one of our Nani Iro double gauze fabrics.

And then went on to make more, it's still one of my favourite makes.

As you can see this style works equally well in both printed and plain fabrics....

This style has proved so popular that The Assembly Line have since brought a dress version, the Cuff Dress, which I've since made too, another great pattern.

Click here to see the full range of patterns by The Assembly Line.