A Busy Week at BeeSilva HQ!

September 26, 2026 Bianca Silva

Hello, hello!

I don’t even know where to start!

Let’s go with college.

It was a fun first day officially measuring each other and drafting a skirt block!

It was many of my colleagues' first time measuring a person and it was fun to see that although we are all different shapes and sizes, some of our measurements are the same.

It was interesting for me too because we took some measurements I can’t remember ever taking before like high ankle, ankle armscye depth.

Working from commercial patterns and altering them, very seldom do you come across ones that you would actually need to be taking these measurements for.

After this we started with the skirt block and we are all drafting it to the same size so it’s easier for the tutor to see if we are getting it right.

Some were working in pairs for this, others alone because we all had to spread out for space purposes.

Yes! Because we were only 8 last week, but this week our class size came to 17!

There were too many on the same course on Monday, so they got sent to our class to distribute the groups better.

These college days are so tiring!

After doing my normal day waking at 6am, I spend what is another full day going to college.

It takes me 2 hours 20 minutes (roughly) round trip and then 4 hours in class. That’s 6 hours 20 minutes added on to my normal daily schedule which I definitely feel.

Anyway, I wouldn’t change it because so far I am enjoying myself! 💃🏼

You can hear more about my college days on Youtube where I’m uploading weekly videos on what I’m doing there:

Going Back to School! - Pattern Cutting Week 2

In retreat news, a space has become available!

Unfortunately someone has had to cancel their space and an individual pod is now free.

If you missed out before or have been thinking about trying a retreat, now is the time to join us!

You can see the venue and more details about the weekend here:

Sewing Retreat 2026 at Browsholme Hall

In workshop news, the Make Your Own Trousers is fully booked, the Make Your Own Dress/Top only has 2 spaces left and I have just launched the Trick or Treat Bag: Parent & Child Halloween Sewing Workshop.

For more details, click here!

Stitches of the Week

BeeSilva - Sew&Bond™

It was another lovely day spent sewing!

Except for me. 😂

I did take a project to cut out but it just didn’t happen.

It was lovely to see a few faces that we hadn't seen in a while and just catch up with everyone’s latest.

We had a very successful day completing lots of projects too! Some had been started at previous Sew&Bond days and others were started and finished on the day.

Dina completed 2 cushion covers with zip closures and a mending task on a pair of trousers.

E. cut out and finished a pair of pj trousers.

F. had cut out a pair of trousers before but sewed them all together and finished the edges of a top she had made previously.

Anjalin also finished a top for her holidays she had started on a previous session and started altering a top for a friend.

And in general, everyone else made lots of progress on their projects! 💪

We had some new menu items. As per some of your requests, my partner made savoury scones with cream cheese and sweet scones too with cream and jam. 😋

There was also carrot cake topped with cream cheese frosting topped with walnuts and pistachios, chocolate and banana cake with chocolate frosting and sandwiches with homemade bread. It was all delicious!

All in all it was a lovely day! Thank you all so much for coming! ❤️

Violette Field Threads - Katie Cat

As usual, leaving everything to the last minute.

It’s my daughter’s 5th birthday next weekend and I have nothing ready!

I don’t want to buy things for the sake of it. We’ve got things before for the girls like hair sets and bracelet sets and they play with it for 5 minutes and never again.

What they do most is pretend play with their stuffies, primarily the ones I’ve made before, so I think it’s best I make another to join the clan.

I have quite a few of the Violette Field Threads plushies so I discussed with my partner which was the best animal to go with and we jointly agreed on the cat.

Next was fabric choice and the options were literally endless. I pulled out some of my cotton fabrics and decided to go with a purple for the main cat and a ditsy floral on a blue background for the accents.

This took me about 3 hours to cut out - my whole morning!

I’m also filming my process as I go which means it takes a little longer to make.

I’m up to the point where the arms, legs and tail are stuffed with toy stuffing, the face is completed and the belly overlay is sewn on.

I added an extra detail to the belly overlay which makes it really cute! I decided to add ric rac under the overlay and then edgestitched it which secured them both at the same time.

It’s such a cute detail!

What’s left to do now is sew the body, stuff it and add the legs and arms. Oh and the ears!

Materials: Cotton poplin, craft cotton, pom pom trim and bondaweb.

The Drama: Hours to cut pieces for this little one!

The Win: Looks like we will have a handmade birthday present for my 5 year old!💃

Summer Lee - Luna Socks from The Sock Project book

The yarn is hanging in there!

The foot is nearly finished and the speckled yarn is coming close to the end.

My fingers are crossed that I can knit up to where I need to start for the toes, but it’s not looking promising.

I have a feeling I’m going to come up about ½ inch short.

If I need to knit about 2 or 3 rows extra of red, I can live with that. But if it needs to be more than that, I think it might look odd. 😐

If it comes up really short, I might add a few rows of purple or cream to break it up, otherwise if it’s all red it will look like I have sausage toes!

My toes are already long so I don’t need a long stretch of red yarn to help the look. 😂

I don’t know if I’ll finish these by next week, but I’m already thinking about my next project.

I need a couple of cardigans made so that might be the direction I go in next.

Yarn: Rosários 4 Meia

Size: Started with an L for the cuff and decreased to an M for the foot.

Needle Size: Cast on with 2.5mm, knit one row and transferred to 2.25mm for the rest.

The Drama: There’s only a few metres left of the speckled yarn!😬

The Win: The end is near.

Skill Builder of the Week

BondaWeb

I used BondaWeb this week on my daughter’s cat I’m making. It is so easy to use and is perfect to keep pieces of fabric in place while you add more or just take it to your machine and stitch.

I’ve used it a few times before and I want to share the way I find it easiest to use.

- Cut a piece of fabric a little bigger than the shape you need.
- Cut a piece of Bondaweb the same shape as the fabric.
- Place the BondaWeb glue side down on the wrong side of the fabric and fuse with a hot iron.
- On the back, which is the paper back of the BondaWeb, draw the shape you need.
- Cut out the shape.
- Allow it to cool completely and then remove the paper back.
- Place the shape where you want it to go on your fabric and fuse with a hot iron.
- Stitch around the edges to hold it in place. You can experiment with a variety of stitches on your sewing machine for this.

When you are drawing your shape on to the paper backing, take care if you need to mirror it as is the case with letters.