Evolution of our Pattern Envelopes

Bit of a trip down memory lane today... You may have seen that we recently gave our sewing pattern covers a makeover, which got me reminiscing about how the artwork has changed over the years. I had a dig around and found different versions of the covers - I thought you might like to see how far we've come!



But first, our amazing assistant Jenny made a little video to showcase our new envelopes... isn't it cute?

You might find today's post particularly helpful if you're starting your own venture and are stuck on trying to make everything perfect from the outset. Launching and growing a business involves starting where you can and iterating regularly to improve over time. I definitely started small with Tilly and the Buttons, and it's still a work in progress every single day. I've written more about this in a couple of posts before - tips for turning your hobby into a business and achieving your goals.

A Dreamy Double Gauze Stevie Top

My everyday wardrobe is seeing more and more versions of our Stevie pattern on rotation. I've made two dresses, which have seen me through the never-ending London heatwave, and my third version is this top, which I think is my favourite one yet.




The fabric is a beautiful double gauze that I found on Etsy. If you haven't handled it before, double gauze is made up of two layers of very fine cotton gauze woven together, giving it a lightweight-yet-not-thick, almost cloud-like - marshmallow-like, if you will - feel. Yes, it's as dreamy as it sounds! I thought the stripes would be horizontal, so was a bit thrown when it arrived and they were vertical, but I've come round to it and think I like it more this way.

Sewing Space Tours.... Lladybird's Charming Studio

For today's sewing space tour where we peek behind the closed doors at a crafter's inspiring sewing room, we're in Nashville TN with Lauren, the inspiring sewist behind the captivating Lladybird Blog.

Lauren is well known for sharing no-nonsense sewing realness and being hilariously forthright about everything she makes. We've admired her sewing knowledge and passion for the craft for years and are so excited to share where her sewing magic happens!

Hello everyone! My name is Lauren Taylor, and I blog at LLADYBIRD.com. I live in the US - in Nashville, TN (born and raised!). I do lots of sewing-related jobs - I manage the class schedule at Craft South, I am an on-set tailor for commercial photoshoots and videos, and I teach a Sew Your Own Jeans Workshop that travels around the US and Canada!

Even with all this going on, I still manage to find plenty of time to sew. I love to make garments and I sew almost everything I wear at this point - including exercise gear, pajamas, and even underwear! I also dabble in several other creative pursuits - including knitting, embroidery, calligraphy, painting (watercolors and acrylic) and sketching - which means I have a lot of supplies that need to be corralled in one space!

Five Tips for Neat Understitching

There are various types of stitching that a DIY dressmaker needs in their toolkit – topstitching, staystitching, edgestitching… and let’s not forget understitching!

What is understitching? Once you’ve joined a facing or lining to a garment, you then stitch the facing or lining to the seam allowances – both its own and those of the piece it’s joining.

Why understitch? The aim of the game is to help keep the facing or lining on the inside of the garment once it’s turned to the inside – stitching it to the seam allowances means it’s less likely to roll out.



It’s one of those steps that is tempting to skip if you just want to get on and finish your project. But making the effort to understitch can help make your homemade garment look much more professional, and means you won’t have any annoying inside bits peeping out when you wear it.

Here are some tips on creating a neat finish with your understitching…

Our New Studio!

Fancy a look at our gorgeous new studio space? It's Katie here and I'm so excited to be able to share a little behind the scenes look at our new home today!



Earlier this year we began to realise we were outgrowing our studio space. When we first moved into our lovely South London premises back in 2014 things were quite different for Tilly and the Buttons. Tilly had decided to have more of a clear divide between work and home life, as until then her office had been based out of her flat. She hoped that making the big move to a separate office space would help the business to grow and encourage her to be more ambitious. To say that worked would be an understatement!

Four years ago Tilly had three patterns, her first book Love At First Stitch and had just hired her first part time assistant. Jump to today and our team has grown to a group of five fabulous women, sending our collection of 17 patterns and 2 books to customers all over the world!