Say Hello to A0!

If you're a digital pattern lover, you may be excited to hear that we now include A0 copy shop patterns with all your PDF purchases. We received feedback that many of you would love to have this option, so have been beavering away to get the files set up for all our patterns - phew!

You might be wondering what the A0 copy shop option means. Well, you can have your pattern printed on a large format printer directly onto A0 paper. Take the files to a local copy shop, or stay at home and get your pattern printed and delivered to your door by our favourite printing option, Netprinter.

Your pattern will be printed on one, two or very occasionally three large sheets (depending on the size of the pattern) and you'll be able to cut your project straight out without having to stick any of the pages together.

When you buy a PDF pattern from us, you'll still get the option of A4 / Letter sheets to print at home, as well as the large format option if that's what you prefer.

Sew a Xmas Sweater Contest

We are so excited announce announce a very festive Tilly and the Buttons contest! Everyone is invited to join us in stitching and embellishing a Tilly and the Buttons' sewing pattern to wear for the holiday season. We are using the term 'xmas sweater' loosely - it could be a Christmas sweater, Hanukah hoodie or Diwali turtleneck... as long as it's festive a snuggly it will fit the bill!

Creativity is key here – we are not going to be checking seams, hemlines or fastenings, we want you to have fun and be free to add the wow factor to your project. We suggest using Coco, Stella, Nora, and Freya – as they’re all pretty speedy to make and cosy to wear. Embellish, embroider and applique to your hearts content. Here is a little inspo to give you some ideas for what you could do : )

Clockwise L-R: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

Free Coin Pocket Pattern! Add this to Your Ness Skirt

Fancy adding a little something extra to your Ness skirt? A coin pocket will heighten the jeans-inspired detailing on this classic skirt. And there’s no such thing as too many pockets, amirite?

We’ve created a bonus pattern piece that you can download for free, plus instructions below on how to add it to your skirt.

Download the coin pocket pattern

Grab your Ness skirt pattern

The pattern prints on one sheet of A4 or Letter size paper. You won’t need any extra fabric – the pattern piece is small and will fit on the fabric around the other pieces.

How to shorten a metal zip

Zip too long for your pattern? It’s not always easy to find a good quality zip in the right colour and type that you need which also happens to be the exact length stated in a sewing pattern’s supplies list.

Never fear – you can always get one that’s a bit longer than needed and cut it down.

You may have shortened an invisible zip before by sewing a bar tack over the teeth to create a new bottom stop. But if you’re using a zip with metal teeth, as needed for our Ness skirt sewing pattern, there’s a different approach you can take.

I’m going to show you how to shorten a metal zip using Ness as an example – but you can apply this to lots of other patterns too.

Attach the zip tapes to the garment as normal, following the instructions in the pattern, using the bottom stop as a guide for where to line it up. In other words, in the Ness skirt instructions we ask you to place the metal bottom stop of the zip 15mm (5/8in) up from the bottom of the zip guard. When you join the zip guard to the skirt, it will end up in the correct position no matter the length of the zip.