Sewing, knitting, embroidery, easy and fashion blog

Sewing kits for beginners arrived! To offer sewn or in kit, it is the perfect couture gift for Christmas.

Find our 2 sewing pouches :

- lace pouch

- glitter pouch

They are easy to sew, without the need to reproduce a pattern. You just have to follow our detailed explanations in pictures.

Pouch sewing kits are for beginner level. You just need to know how to use your sewing machine.
You will learn with these kits, to master the zipper sewing. You will also apply some iron-on wadding that will give more resistance to the pouch.

This pouch will shine in all your evenings: ceremony, new year, Christmas, chic party... The lace lurex and the glitter of the sequins give a very classy look.

And to offer, what better way to suggest you a small suitcase ?

Translations of the words in the above illustration:

Tissus et ouatine: Fabrics and wadding
Valisette: mini-case
Dentelle: Lace
Lannière: Thong
Zip Lurex: Lurex Zip
Pampille: Tassel

You have the choice between the pouch with the small gold glitter strips on the velvet fabric or the pouch made of jean with silver lurex lace.

The silver pouch has a small imitation leather strap and a pretty lurex tassel.

We have chosen for the pouches inside, a pretty cloth printed cream with small white cotton feathers. The fabrics provided will allow you to make several pouches by choosing yourself zippers, pompom braid, lace, bias, piping, etc..

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You start sewing and looking for help to learn to sew online? We offer today a small blogs and websites overview  for beginners and more savvy dressmakers to help you answer all your sewing questions:

• Thread & Needles :

Thread&Needles Thread & Needles is the reference community website for sewing and knitting. The site was created in 2010 by passionate about sewing, now the site has been widely enriched. Very interactive, volunteers regularly publish articles on the blog:

♦ Keeping you informed of the latest patterns and sewing books releases,

♦ Introducing a seamstress or a tailor with interview,

♦ Giving desire with projects that inspire,

♦ Showing a technique, sewing or knitting tools,

♦ Presenting an artist, an exhibition related to sewing or knitting.

As a community site, the big advantage of T&N is to offer an account where you can post your sewing & knitting projects. You add a title, an image, a link to your blog and other people in the community can interact with you via comments and private messages.

Your project is then referenced in the gallery. Each member may vote and may become the "popular of the week" project.

The website also contains very active sewing and knitting groups. Notably by region, allowing you to organize or to meet other real dressmakers or knitters in your corner.

These groups can also allow you to answer your questions about sewing or knitting technical problems.

The + : Thread&Needles is a very complete website as you will understand. It allows to virtually or actually meet bloggers through project presentations.

• Artesane :

Artesane is a new website created by the talented blogger Annie Coton . The principle is to offer sewing and knitting online classes and it will increase with arts and crafts.

Several recognized teachers therefore propose a course related to their field of choice.

The platform Artesane is beautiful and well done. Most courses are paid (and that's normal considering the work) but you will also find free lessons. Many videos workshops will emerge during 2016 have to watch closely!

The +: Artesane also contains a nice "newspaper" including clear tips on cloth or special sewing techniques, in particular. The illustrations are very well done and the approach discusses in depth techniques.

• Couture Débutant :

This blog was created in 2015 by a young sewing instructor Margaux.

Couture Débutant, is first to overcome the issues and redundant problems of its sewing beginners students. It notes that the problems of sewing beginners are always the same and there are very few site dedicated to the first steps.

Since then, the blog growed and Margaux offers:

♦ Super simple sewing DIY to not be afraid to begin it,

♦ Its patterns and magazine testing,

♦ Its best addresses both on the web than real,

♦ A Youtube channel offering basis support for amateur fashion designers.

The +: The universe of its blog is cool and pleasant. It makes you want to put it right away now even if you were born with two left hands, with these step by step tutorials, you are sure to get there!

• Crafty Bitches :

This vintage and quirky look blog is full of good sewing ideas with supporting tutorials.

There are as well many basic sewing lessons as customization DIY.

There you will find a wealth of information to choose your sewing machine, sewing a particular fabric, but also make everything simple accessories like a headband, a collar, etc.

The +: the blogger's humor. The articles, both for sewing in mood editorial or general web articles are really funny!

• Petit Citron :

Petit Citron is a small community sewing site. It was created by Perrine Colignon in 2007. She wanted to set up as a virtual sewing club.

The site offers in image sewing techniques, but also free simple patterns.

To participate, send your projects, technical ideas, etc. Just create an account on the site.

The +: the Petit Citron blog is full of tips and inspirations for sewing. It is a mine of information interesting when you start!

The baby knitting kit of the pretty striped sailor sweater Augustin is out!

This small model has to be knit simply from the bottom up, starting with a few rows of ribs 1/1 then some jersey. The body is knitted in one piece, alternating stripes is easy! The sleeves require some reductions, but this model remains accessible to beginners.

The Breton sweater has to be knitted in this beautiful Ambiance de Fonty wool, an ultra-soft wool (it's normal, it's Merino) and that can be washed without problem by machine.

The sailor strip sweater model sizes go from 3 months to 2 years. You only need 2 balls to the bottom and 1 ball for scratches to the 1 year size.

The kit comes in a cute recycled bag with:

Plus: you choose yourself your colors! If you want an ecru background with yellow mustard or blue background with gray stripes, it's time!

Winter begins to be felt timidly in this early 2016 ... the perfect time to get back to knitting!

Since I give knitting lessons (it's been 6 years!), I had a lot of people completely beginners, ie which start from zero. This allows me to make you a basic tips small summary if you feel the urge to begin knitting.

1/ The basis

What do you need to start knitting?

- A pair of knitting needles

- A ball

- A very easy pattern

2/ The pattern choice for beginners

Very important ! It's the first thing you need to find. It is important to start knitting small as this can be very frustrating to quickly begin a long scarf and realize in the middle we lost the motivation to finish it.

I suggest you start with adult accessories or ultra-easy baby clothing. The easiest beginners stitch is the garter stitch. You can also test the jersey stitch but for the ribs, you'll see it later!

The snood (or neckband) and mittens are ideal to start. See eg  Sorlin Snood with needles 15 and Triad mittens with needles 6. It's straight on and all in garter stitch. No reduction or increase but a quick super nice finish!

For a baby clothing, I recommend the Paul vest, slightly more complicated than the accessories (you will have to increase by several stitches) and needles are a little finer but clear explanations will guide you easily to the final sewing and you will be proud to offer this little jacket to a baby. It is also available in kit.

3/ Select the ball

Choose what is commonly called  the "wool" is not so obvious. You will find balls in many haberdasheries with very pretty colors but unfortunately not containing 1 gram of wool!

- The material:

I made the choice to offer you on the website, only knitting threads with a majority of natural material.

The material may be: from the sheep wool  (mostly merinos, very soft), recycled yarn from different materials, alpaca (slightly hairy and warmer), mohair (cloudier), cotton (lighter for summer) or even cashmere and silk.

For beginners I suggest you buy a ball of 100% wool, 100% recycled or 100% cotton (if it is for the summer or for a baby). Other wools are more expensive and sometimes it is less clear to observe our meshes or unravel without nodes (alpaca and mohair particular).

Our special beginners knitting balls:

- The thread size:

It is very important to well choose the thread thickness to begin knitting! It is even essential.

The wool ideal thickness that I recommend to begin knitting is for needles 5 mm up to 15 mm.

The needle number is always shown on the ball label (see below):

4/ Choose the pair of knitting needles

The pair of knitting needles number depends on the yarn you've chosen (and if you were paying attention, so printed on the ball label). The knitting needles numbers match their diameter in millimeters. They range from 2 mm to 25 mm or even 30!

There are also  différent needles shapes: straight, circular, double-pointed ...

The circular and double-pointed needles have been developed for seamless circular knitting: hats, gloves, mittens, socks, etc. But interchangeable circular knitting needles new lines (Knitpro line for example) can be very practical to knit straight works (in two-way) and circular, no need to buy both straight needles and circular needles! They need a small starting supplementary budget but they be used all your life.

For beginners, if you do not yet know if you and knitting that's for life, I suggest you opt for straight knitting needles 25 to 35 cm long. 25 cm is a minimum and for small works for babies and children.

You will also have the choice in the knitting needles material! Increasingly type of needles exist and that's good.

There are metal needles, used since time immemorial, they have the advantage not to break but can be heavy (in addition to knit), too slippery to begin, noisy and cause allergies.

You can choose also in wooden needles: bamboo or birch.

Wooden needles are much lighter than metal and do not let slip the stitches. Bamboo remains fragile for small sizes needles (2 to 3.5mm) but the birch is one of the toughest! See our range of 100% birch Basix Birch Knitpro needles. In addition, the wooden needles are very pretty!

It remains plastic needles that I prefer not to propose, they cling too much wool, stitches do not slide well and the feel always appeared to me unpleasant. By cons they do not break and are also very slight.

Happy new year 2016 !

The end of 2015 was very active for A&A because we wanted to introduce you our last sewing kits for babies !

Nadine has developed, after the summer, Sirli romper, Colin shepherd vest and Marouette bathrobe patterns, the plates and finally the explanations but still had to tweak the presentation as a kit.

It is time now to tell you about these three new patterns for baby and child made in A&A patrons

The Sirli romper pattern is available as envelope sewing pattern and as  kit. The romper is slightly puffed on the upper thighs, as a bloomer and has a rounded bib on the front, decorated with 6 buttons. The suspenders are crossed in the back.

An intermediate sewing level is required to sew the romper, the available sizes are: 3-6-9-12 & 18 months.

It is stitched in Corduroy and lined with organic cotton veil (for ecru). You can sew around a nice Lurex (or in the color of your choice) piping.

Romper opens from the bottom thanks to its little snaps band easy to put (and easy for changing baby)!

The Colin shepherd vest is sewn made of Organic cotton fur, Corduroy lined.

The pattern of the vest is available as sewing envelope pattern, downloadable pattern or as sewing kit. The vest is easy to sew and accessible to beginners. Available sizes are: 3-6-9-12-18 months et 2-3-4-6-8 years. So you're spoiled for choice!

You can add a frog or leave open. The vest will be fully reversible.

The Marouette bathrobe is also simple to sew and make a perfect birth gift.

The bathrobe is available in sewing envelope pattern and as kit. It is available in: 6-12 months, 18-24 months and 3-4 years sizes.

It has to be sewn in organic (or not) cotton sponge with a  finish in the bias tape of your choice. You also have a choice in the finishing of the seam angles: round or square and in adding a tassel on the hood and a hook at the neck.

The sewing kits of these three patterns are available on this page. We have decided to offer them in a nice carrying for decorating a child's room, make a sewing storage according to your imagination!

They are achievable by beginners as by the most experienced. The explanations are made with precise step by step diagrams with a clear cutting plan to guide you in achieving. Patterns are designed with sizes complying to the new IFTH French standards.

Feel free to send us your achievements with our new sewing patterns! We will post them on social networks and our blog.

To wish you a nice and good come back, we offer you a new free download model: The bow necklace.

A very simple bow to knit for beginners. The bow necklace is easy and quick to make and allows to easily learn the garter st.

Just add two smaller rings at the ends and put a chain to make it a nice jewelry to accent your outfit.

To download freely the bow model, click on the image and add it to your cart then signup, it's free.