Samantha Pope Creations

 Upcycled Grunge Dress Linda wearing her new dress. Photo by Dean Kyritsis Sewing Pattern Review (www.sewing.patternreview.com) is a website for people to share their reviews of sewing patterns they have made up. SPR hold monthly contests for members to participate in. March 2022 was Upcycle Contest: take one or more existing garments and making them into something totally new.  I joined the contest with 10 days left to make something. I went to my local Op Shop where an embroidered denim mini skirt caught my eye, I found a taffeta dress that complemented the red of the embroidered flowers so I bought both to up cycle into something new. Embroidered denim skirt size 10 $8 Crushed texture taffeta dress size 36 $15 Design Once home I unpicked the skirt at the side seams and cut through the waist band so I had the front and back as two seperate pieces.  I pinned these in different ways onto my dress model until I came up with something that worked as a top. Due to the o...

'Sewing Patterns' App review The app I was using to comprehensively catalog my sewing patterns crashed  when an iOS update I did on my iPad was no longer supported by the app.  This was in October 2020 and because the developers had not bothered to update the app in years. No warning, just gone. I discovered this while shopping for fabric and trying to work out how much I needed for the pattern I planned to use.  So I took this as an opportunity to cull and resort my patterns which I have been collecting for over 30 years.  The next month was devoted to this undertaking and surprisingly, it was a very enjoyable experience to reacquaint myself with my patterns.  I began by sorting my patterns into defined sections in my pattern cabinet.  I then had to make a complete list ready to upload into a new app. Now I had to “audition” potential app’s for suitability. I did some research and consulted other social media forums for options. The previous app I used was...