The Neckerchief is proving to be one of the "Must Have" items for the season. Whether it's plain, polka-dot, floral, paisley or patterned, it really is the perfect accessory!

Our Nani Iro for Kokka double gauze fabrics are perfect, however any lightweight fabric will work equally well. The great thing is, that depending on the size of neckerchief you'd like to make, you'll only need one Fat Quarter, or at the most three quarters of a metre of fabric, so they're a fantastic way of updating an outfit for very little money!

The finished measurements for our neckerchief are 45cm X 45cm; however we have seen others which measure 65cm X 65cm, so it's really a question of the end look that you'd like to achieve.

You will need:

• One Fat Quarter of your chosen fabric, or fabric to enable you to achieve the size you'd like. For ours, we're using Nani Iro for Kokka's Joy Flower
• Cotton Thread, either tonal or a contrast depending on the effect you'd like to create, we've used the 100% Organic Cotton Thread in Black

To make:

Firstly, you'll need to pre-wash your fabric before starting.

Then cut your fabric to make a 48cm square. The best way to cut clean, straight lines is with a rotary cutter and a quilting ruler on a self healing cutting mat. However, if you don't have these tools you can use a pair of good dressmaking scissors. Make a paper template to the desired size, so for ours it would be 48cm X 48cm.

With the wrong side of the fabric facing up, turn a 7mm hem on all four sides, as shown below. Press.

Turn the hem again and press once more. You'll now have a double hem, as you can see below. 

Once the fabric has cooled, unfold all the edges. Use the fold lines as a guide to trim the corners by carefully cutting a triangle to prevent the corners from being too bulky. You need to be careful not to cut too close to the corner of the handkerchief when the hem is turned as you don't want it to fray.

Re-fold, making sure to tuck in any frayed edges. Pin the corners to secure it for sewing.

Then using a straight stitch, stitch 5mm in from the outer edge of the handkerchief, making sure you back-stitch at the start and finish. At the corners make sure you leave the needle in the down position, lift the presser foot and pivot the handkerchief 90 degrees to ensure a crisp corner, sew all four sides in this way. 

And there you have it! So simple and a great way to update your existing wardrobe. Why not try one for yourself in one of our Nani Iro fabrics or perhaps one of the Merchant and Mills hand block printed fabrics?

We regularly use the Glass Headed Pins by Merchant and Mills for our sewing projects but have noticed that these tend slip out when we're working with fabrics such as the double gauze.

For our latest project using Nani Iro's Joy Flower double gauze fabric we thought we'd try out the Entomology Pins, again by Merchant and Mills.

These pins are visibly finer than the Glass Headed Pins, and longer at 38mm compared to 30mm. We've got to say they were lovely to work with, easy to insert into the fabric, and didn't then slide out.

They look good too! These ultra fine pins are black with a brass head and as you'd expect with a Merchant and Mills product, they're beautifully packaged in cardboard boxes, each containing 100 pins.

 Although we've only used them a couple of times they're already a firm favourite and we're sure we'll be using them time and time again!

We've just finished making The Top 64 by Merchant and Mills and we've thoroughly enjoyed making it. 

This style is best described as a work-wear garment, an artists smock or a smart jumper. It features in-seam pockets at the front, along with central seams both front and back and raglan sleeves. It's a feminine take on the style and function of a fisherman's top and we love it!

For this style you need a fabric that will hold its shape, so with that in mind we chose to make ours in Robert Kaufman's Yarn Dyed Essex Linen in Black, shown above, it's the perfect weight for this style but has a lovely hand-feel as well.

As we've come to expect from the Merchant and Mills sewing patterns, the instructions are clearly laid out and illustrated. And this make was surprisingly easy to sew! It's much easier to make than it looks. The raglan sleeves, for example, are much easier than a set in sleeve, and although there are a lot of pattern pieces, they're all easy to sew together. Plus, you can choose whether or not to top-stitch.

Whereas some of the Merchant and Mills patterns have tended to come up a little on the big size, we're really pleased with the fit on this style, the only adjustment made was to shorten the sleeves slightly.

This style lends itself nicely to being top-stitched. We chose to top stitch the central seams, front and back, and the cuff and main hems.You may decide to take it further and top-stitch the bottom panels and the central sleeve seams, or you may prefer not to top-stitch at all.

To get a lovely straight line for our top-stitching we followed Jane, from Jane Makes, advise, and used a low-tack masking tape to mark the stitch-line, which worked a treat!

We love how this top has turned out, and it's definitely a style that we'd make again.

Other fabrics that The Top #64 would work well in, as well as any of the other Essex Linens, including the new metallics! This style would also look good in the 8oz Washed Indigo Denim, and you could top-stitch in a traditional gold colour associated with jeans, and the striped Navy & Cream Railroad Denim would also look good too.

This style would also lend itself well to being adapted, the raglan sleeves are really flattering  and would work well as a short sleeved summer weight top, you might choose to remove the in-seam pockets for this and also possibly the horizontal seam that they're built into.

By co-incidence, Merchant and Mills have been working on a pattern hack of this style and have made it into a short sleeved dress, which we think looks fantastic, the hack for this will be available on their website very soon.

We hope we've inspired you to try The Top #64 for yourselves! And don't forget we love to see your sewing projects, so please do email us via the contact page with your photos!

To celebrate the start of British Summer Time this weekend here in the UK, we've taken 20% off all our Sewing Patterns, including those that are reduced, to help you kick-start those summer sewing projects.

Simply enter the code: SPRING20 at the checkout until the end of Monday 28th March, 2016 to take advantage of this offer.

And remember, we love to see your makes so do send in your photos via the contact page.

We had such a great reaction to The Avid Seamstress sewing patterns, that we sold out of two of the styles within a couple of weeks of launching them! Really pleased to say that we're now fully stocked, just in time for that Easter sewing project.

These sewing patterns, designed by Lisa Falconer, are fairly new, to find out more why not take a look at our previous Blog post.