Zoe

Sometimes, our customers visit us in store or search our website for fabrics that are suitable for smart business wear, and are often not entirely sure what we offer that would be a good choice. In today's blog, we'll be suggesting a number of different fabrics that would be great for this purpose, which will hopefully aid you in making...

With Christmas fast approaching (only 11 more sleeps!), many of you will already have your homes decorated and your Christmas trees proudly on display. One thing that might be puzzling you, however, is how to set up your Christmas Day meal - how are you going to decorate the table? A lot of our customers have been visiting our branches...

Today at Calico Laine we're pleased to unveil our new Bag Making section, which you can find underneath our Crafts tab on our website. In this part of the website, you'll find everything you need for making your very own bag from scratch, and in today's blog we'll be talking about some of the items you can purchase and use...

For someone making their first attempt at Sewing, using a zip in your dressmaking project can be a little daunting if you're not sure how to install it in your garment. In today's blog, I'll be walking you through a tutorial on how to sew a zip into your dressmaking project. What you'll need: A regular dress zip measuring your...

With Christmas rapidly approaching, the decorations are starting to come down from the attic and the Christmas trees are finally going up in our homes. If you're hoping to make some of your own decorations for your tree this year, you might have already bought some fabrics and other materials to get started. At home I like to decorate my...

Whether you're Sewing that beautiful evening gown or a cool, billowing blouse for everyday wear, it's important to choose the right fabric to work with. Using a sheer fabric can completely change the look of a garment, or add a new dimension to one by acting as a floaty overlay. In today's blog, we'll be talking about the sheer fabrics...

If you're the parent of a young child, you'll know how much kids love to dress up and play. Sometimes, dressing-up kits and costumes can be expensive, especially as they are not worn day-to-day and children will eventually grow out of them. it can be cheaper to make your own, generic costume pieces that can be applied to many different...

Any dressmaker has that one item in their sewing kit that they can't work without - whether it's a stitch ripper or a needle threader, there's always one tool that makes a dressmaker's work that much easier. In today's blog, we'll be talking about some items that we think are essential to anyone's sewing projects. Needles - Obviously a big...

Sometimes when choosing fabric for our next dressmaking project, we are spoilt for choice and it can be difficult to select the right material when presented with a number of different options. In today's blog post, we'll be talking about some of the different types of Jersey Fabrics we have available here at Calico Laine, and hopefully help you in...

Looking for a quick and easy project to make? Shift dresses are popular in today's fashion; they are easy to wear and a variety of looks can be created using them. Whether you wear them on their own, over a shirt and leggings or under a jacket, shift dresses can be worn in nearly any situation, from casual to formal...