PATTERN REVIEW: Zina Shirt in Lightweight Linen

The ZINA Shirt is so comfortable, versatile and it was an absolute pleasure to sew! Is there anything this wouldn’t look cute paired with? Jean shorts, wide leg trousers, overalls, skirts, as a swim coverup with the sleeves rolled up – we think it is the best new wardrobe addition. Even more amazing, when you…

Natalie Shirinian and Elizabeth Baudouin are the force behind NES Creative, a communications agency in New York that represents some of the most in-demand designers of today, including lighting and furniture studio Apparatus, and jewellery designer Yolande Batteau. Partners in life and in business, the duo have two lavish and beautifully designed homes they move…

Japanese ‘ukiyo-e’ paintings and prints are one of the world’s richest treasures, illustrating the complex diversity of Japanese life with a bold and instantly recognisable language. A popular strand of Japanese culture from around 1670 to 1912, ukiyo-e, or ‘pictures of the floating world’, illustrate the development of Japan’s bustling city centres as they became…

Austrian Art Nouveau painter Gustav Klimt is world-renowned for his sinuously flowing fabrics that adorned women and intertwined lovers in richly ornate blankets and gowns. But perhaps less well-known is the love affair he had with fashion designer Emilie Floge, and the impact their creative interchange had on the shape of his art. Floge’s loose,…

There is a quiet, understated elegance to the award-winning architecture of Billie Tsien and Tod Williams, which seems to blend effortlessly in with its surrounding space. In contrast with the macho, monolithic architecture that populates so many of our cities their world is more cerebral and considered, a contemplation of how real people and real…

This week I made the CHELSEA Tee in TERRA linen!  I have been eyeing this simple tee for months and finally downloaded the free pattern to give it a try. The CHELSEA Tee features a boxy silhouette, raglan sleeves, and a bias binding neckline. Like so many of Fabrics-store’s patterns, the Chelsea Tee is a…

I don’t know if I can adequately express how much I think everyone reading this needs to make a ZINA Shirt Dress. Maybe that sounds a little dramatic but wow, this was so fun to make and I think you can tell from my photos, how good I feel in this dress. A linen button-up…

American design duo Charles and Ray Eames are icons of the 20th century, pioneering the streamlined naturalism of Mid-Century Modernism. Their particular brand of Modernist architecture, interiors, furniture and industrial design was both playful and minimal, injecting fun into the po-faced seriousness of the design world. He was the clean minimalist who revolutionised weightless design…

Dutch master Johannes Vermeer was fascinated by fabric, and it informed the nature of his art on multiple levels. This significant connection to fabric began early in Vermeer’s childhood, through family connections to textiles, and it stayed with him for life. He spent his entire career exploring the way its draped, shimmering surface could add…

Husband-and-wife team Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch are the charismatic, larger-than-life founders of Roman and Williams, an American interiors and architecture firm making waves throughout the contemporary design world. Founded in 2002, their company took the names ‘Roman and Williams’ from their maternal grandfathers, a move that would set the stage for their design ethos,…