This article goes through the comparison systematically, category by category, so that by the end you have a clear sense of which fabric is right for your next summer dress — and why…

There is a difference between a fabric that looks summery and a fabric that feels summery — and for anyone sewing their own clothes, understanding that difference is what separates a beautiful garment that you wear constantly from a beautiful garment that you make once and then discover is uncomfortable above 25°C…

Every spring, without fail, the same colours appear. Navy blue and white in every window. Linen in cream, natural, and pale sand on every rail. The Breton stripe on a hundred different garments in a hundred different shops. And every year, without fail, the same thought arrives: haven’t we seen this before?..

There’s a moment in the fabric shop when you fall for two pieces of fabric simultaneously — a deep teal and a warm terracotta, a crisp white and a bold coral, a soft sage and a rich navy — and you think: these would be wonderful together…

Walk into any fabric shop in May or June and you’ll find yourself facing a wall of options: florals in every scale, geometrics in every colour, stripes running in every direction, paisleys, polka dots, abstract prints, checks, and solid colours…

Here’s a useful distinction that doesn’t always get made clearly enough: there’s the question of which colours suit your complexion — your skin tone, hair, and eyes — and there’s the entirely separate question of how colour placement on the body affects the way your figure reads…

Every summer, the same advice appears in every magazine: wear white, wear light colours, avoid black. It’s such familiar guidance that most of us have stopped questioning it. But is it true?..

There is a particular kind of disappointment that every sewist knows. You find a pattern you love. You buy beautiful fabric. You spend a weekend sewing…

t’s one of those words that sounds as if it has always existed — sundress — conjuring immediately the image of a light, sleeveless dress, a warm afternoon, the feeling of being exactly dressed for the season…