When S was younger we spent a lot of time building little cities on our living room floor. Those cities inspired this little town, and my favorite part about them is the versatility of the brownstone building. For the photo shoot we made a parking garage and a yarn store. I still want to make an apartment building (with a little garbage can in the back) and maybe a brownstone or a townhouse. The little houses are so much fun to decorate. I made a pink one that we didn’t use for the book that was inspired by a Victorian house with an elaborate covered porch and fancy windows.

Anyway, upcoming project for the sew-along include the Explorer Vest or the Red Riding Hood in March, and the Travel Quilt in April. If you look back through the archives you’ll find the previous featured projects: the Bucket Hat, Penguin Backpack, Bias-Trimmed Apron, Puppet Theater, Cozy Winter Hood, and the Bear Carrier.

Today we’re releasing our next two digital patterns: the Tea Party Sundress & Playsuit and the Sailboat Top, Skirt & Pants. These early Oliver + S styles were very popular while they were in print, and we’re happy to be able to make them available again in digital form.

Over coming  months, we will be releasing two additional styles each month until all our out-of-print patterns are available again as digital downloads.

This doesn’t mean that we’re giving up on paper. We plan to keep all the styles that use our current size ranges (6M-4 and 5-12) in print for the foreseeable future. And we’ll be releasing our new Spring-Summer 2012 styles as paper-only patterns in April as we always have. But we like giving you a way to access items from our deep back list that we have decided not to reprint.

We hope you enjoy sewing with these styles!

Why not use this as an opportunity to stock up on the Oliver + S patterns you have always wanted but don’t yet have.

To receive your savings, use coupon code Jan2012 at checkout.

Here’s the fine print (since we always get questions): the discount applies to paper patterns only and is not available on past orders. Coupon must be used at checkout for the discount to be applied. The coupon expires at midnight (EST) on Friday, January 20, 2012, so don’t wait until the last minute to place your order!

My personal sewing time is scarce because of a few projects we’re finishing up, and I need to make the most of it if I’m going to have anything made in time for spring (and a trip to Palm Springs in a week or so!).

A few of you mentioned an interest in this same theme, so here are a few thoughts about the topic.

photo by Laurie Frankel (un-used image from Little Things to Sew)

Ideas for more efficient sewing

1. If you’re able, cut out several projects at once so they’re ready for you when you have time to sew. When we’re not too busy, I sometimes take an afternoon or a few hours on a weekend to cut out several projects in advance. That way I’m ready to go when I finally have time to sew. Make cutting an enjoyable process by putting on some dance music to keep you going, and you could even invite a friend to join you so you can help each other cut out your fabrics and have fun in the process.
2. Gather all your materials before you start. It’s easiest to keep moving on a project if you don’t need to stop to find the right thread, buttons, or elastic. Once I cut out my fabric, I like to assemble all the notions for that project and put everything together in a large Ziploc bag so it’s ready for me when I’m ready to sew. If I’m missing anything I make a list and put it in my wallet so I can remember what I need when I’m at the fabric store. (And if you follow tips 1 and 2 together, you’ll have time to gather the missing items before you start sewing that project!)
3. Set up your sewing area so everything is convenient for you to sew efficiently. This doesn’t mean that you need a large sewing space. At home I sew in a tiny converted closet, so I keep a sleeve board and an iron next to my sewing machine. Rather than getting up to move to the ironing board (which is way over by the kitchen, about as far from my sewing machine as I can get in our apartment), I simply use the sleeve board when I need to press a seam or an edge. It saves lots of time and allows me to stay at the sewing machine. (Sometimes I get a little crazy and sew with the sleeve board on my lap so my sewing space is pretty much directly in front of me and I’m using very little movement to switch from sewing to pressing, but that’s a little obsessive and usually only happens if I’m in a serious hurry, I admit it.)
4. If you don’t have a dedicated sewing space, find a place to store your sewing materials together where you can easily get them out and quickly put them away again when you’re done. For a long time I sewed at the dining room table, and I kept my sewing machine and supplies in a large cabinet right next to the table so I could set up and take down my pop-up sewing studio in a matter of minutes.
5. Sometimes when you’re familiar with the steps involved in making a project you can set yourself up to sew multiple steps at the same time. For example, I often get everything ready to assemble the collar, make the pockets and sew the belt for a pattern all in one go. Then I move away from the sewing machine to press the seam allowances and set up my next little sewing binge. Note, however, that this usually works best if you’re already familiar with the sewing steps in a pattern, so be sure you’ve read through the pattern in advance and are familiar with the steps involved. If you’re a less experienced sewist you might want to wait until you’ve sewn the pattern once or twice before you attempt this. You need to be able to think methodically about the construction method to make this step work, so be careful you don’t overwhelm yourself and get confused.
6. I’ve said many times before, but one trick that works best for me is to set up the next seam before I quit sewing for the day. I don’t sew that seam, but it’s waiting for me the next time I sit down. This means that it’s easy for me to pick up again where I left off. I don’t need to think about what step comes next because it’s already waiting for me. Doing this helps to refresh my memory about what comes next, and it also helps me to jump back into sewing without reservations. I often sew just a seam or two a night, but I’m still making progress even with that very limited amount of sewing time.

Do you have any additional tips to share? I’d love to hear what strategies work well for you!

I’ve noticed that many of you are taking stock as well. A few people have posted photo mosaics of their sewing projects in 2011, and many of you are very prolific sewists! Look at all this wonderful sewing you’ve been doing! (You can click the photo to go directly to each person’s Flickr photo or blog.)

Have you taken a look back at your sewing in 2011, and are you starting to plan your sewing for the new year? Did you learn or accomplish something you’re especially proud of, and do you have goals for 2012? I’d love to hear from you.

To give you a little incentive to try one of these new digital patterns, we’re discounting all four of them this week.

To save $1.00 off the regular $9.95 price of each, use coupon code DigitalDecember at checkout. The discount is good through December 24, 2011, and the coupon code expires at midnight EST.

Oliver + S Petites Choses a Coudre is published by Les Editions de Saxe and is available at amazon.fr and probably all sorts of adorable little French bookstores and fabric shops too. I really think this an excellent excuse for me to go back to France and get a copy for myself, don’t you agree?

C’est magnifique!

Today on the Lisette blog, we have another useful PDF giveaway: a swatch card set.

You can see the details and download the file on the Lisette blog.

Starting this week, Janome is running a special promotion I thought you might like to hear about. They’re calling it their Friend-to-Friend Challenge.  Once Janome hits 20,000 likes on their Facebook page, they will do a drawing for a huge prize package that includes not one, but two, Janome sewing machines.

Janome isn’t telling you what all is included in the mystery bag, but I can let you know that there will be at least a couple Oliver + S patterns of the winner’s choice there.

To register to win the prize package, you can go to the Janome website (where Janome is featuring some of their friends, including me today) and leave a comment on any day’s post. When Janome hits 20,000 Facebook likes, they will draw a winner from all comments on all the Friend-to-Friend Challenge posts. Good luck!

To thank you for being a member of our little sewing family, we made you each a little gift.

We know how helpful it can be to have the measurements of your little one handy, so we’ve made up a wallet-sized measurement chart that you can print out, trim down, and fold up.

When folded in half, it’s the same size as a credit card, so it will fit neatly in your wallet and will be handy the next time you’re shopping and can’t recall the shoe size for your 2-year-old. Or when you’re shopping for tights and need to know the height and weight of a certain 6-year-old.

I’m planning to complete one for S (those aren’t her real measurement in the photo, but it will be fun to see how close I came when I estimated!) and save each one when I replace it with a new one as she grows. I think it will be fun for us to look back at the charts as she gets older, and maybe she’ll be curious about how her growth and development when she has children of her own.

You can download your own measurement chart from our website. Happy holidays!