Made with Love by Brenna

Made with Love by Brenna Self-taught sewist since 2017. Newcastle, NSW. I love creating practical, cute, and sustainable handmade pieces that bring a little joy to everyday life.

Every stitch is made with love. Thank you for stopping by and supporting my creative journey.

Creation of the Month — June & July (Part 1)Okay, so I haven’t been very good at the whole monthly creation, monthly pos...
02/08/2026

Creation of the Month — June & July (Part 1)

Okay, so I haven’t been very good at the whole monthly creation, monthly post thing..

I realised I was putting pressure on myself to make something big each month, specifically some item of clothing. But I want this challenge to be about making time to be creative, so I think it’s important to celebrate the smaller projects too.

I missed May. Most of my weekends were filled with celebrations with family and friends.

In June, I made my own bias tape for the first time. I followed a YouTube tutorial (link below) and used a black and white plaid cotton from SPOTLIGHT that I’d picked up in a super sale months ago. It blew my mind that a 24 x 24 inch square of fabric made over 300 inches of 1.5 inch bias tape! I’m using it in my current project, so keep an eye out for that. If I make it again, I’ll definitely make the tape a bit wider.

Bias Tape Tutorial: https://youtu.be/yxvQZEttQK8?si=qk_tZeUjudzFH4wq

Creation of the Month - June & July (Part 2) In July, I finally upgraded my pin cushion. My old one was one of the very ...
02/08/2026

Creation of the Month - June & July (Part 2)

In July, I finally upgraded my pin cushion. My old one was one of the very first things I made at Family Craft Club back in 2018, when I first learnt to sew. It’s always been a bit too small and thin (and honestly a bit of a hazard). This was such a quick project that I’d been meaning to make for ages, and it made me so happy.

I have a few projects in progress, and I’m excited to celebrate more creations (big and small).

Creation of the Month — April(Posting late again)I missed March. Life got in the way, and that’s okay.This month’s creat...
03/05/2026

Creation of the Month — April

(Posting late again)

I missed March. Life got in the way, and that’s okay.

This month’s creation is the Juni Dress from .ordinaryfolk
The pattern was a great investment, with lots of modification options to customise the style of dress you want to make.
Pattern: https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/4384271609/juni-dress-sewing-pattern-peter-pan?ref=share_v4_lx

I chose the full front bodice, long sleeves, straight waist, and mini dress length. The fabric is Boho Ditzy Floral Organic Cotton, with Sage Broadcloth used for the contrasting collar and sleeve frills, both from

There were definitely a few obstacles along the way (see previous post). I completely failed my toile, but learnt a lot from the process and was able to correct those mistakes for the final version — which is really the whole point of making one.

The vision for this dress was to wear it to a backyard high tea party for my thirtieth birthday.
I’ll admit that because of the failed toile (which took up my long weekend), I ended up sewing every afternoon/night after work just to finish it in time.

But I’m so happy with how this one turned out. I think it looks really cute, and it was actually very comfortable and breathable to wear.
I’ll definitely be making more versions of this dress.

Sewing fail. I decided to make a toile (practice dress) for the Juni Dress pattern from .ordinaryfolk My plan was the fu...
03/05/2026

Sewing fail.

I decided to make a toile (practice dress) for the Juni Dress pattern from .ordinaryfolk
My plan was the full front bodice, long sleeve, scalloped waist, mini skirt.

I used the Kristen Katz Duchess Proteas poplin from , which I’d picked up on sale and thought would be perfect for testing the pattern and checking the fit before cutting into my “good” fabric.

I printed the pattern at home, but the scale was wrong (the 4cm square printed at 4.5cm instead). Even though I know how important that is… I ignored it and kept going anyway.

After a lot of hiccups (including my sewing machine strongly disliking gathering stitches in this thin poplin), I finally finished the body of the dress and tried it on.
As you can see… it was huge.
I laughed instead of crying and tried to treat it as a learning experience.

Things I learnt:
1. Pattern scale matters. This is obvious. And I already know this. I can’t even explain why I used the pattern anyway..
2. Poplin probably isn’t my ideal toile fabric, especially for trying a more detailed pattern for the first time.
3. It’s okay to fail. I still learnt a lot, and I think this dress can probably still be saved with some adjustments (it’s currently sitting in my growing pile of sewing projects to finish).

I ended up reprinting the pattern correctly, taping it all together again, recutting everything, and starting over for attempt number two with my “good” fabric.
Keep an eye out for the next post to see the finished version.

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