Sewing Life by MariaDenmark

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Sewing Life by MariaDenmark SewingLife by MariaDenmark is part Sewing School, part Sewing Pattern Design. They teach you how to sew.

| Sewing Inspiration & Teaching |
✂ Classes, Workshops, & Patterns That Teach Sewing, Knitting, and Crochet to all Levels & Body Shapes
🏳‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️Safe Space
📍 Learn & Get Free Sewing Pattern with the Newsletter👇🏼 MariaDenmark patterns are fashionable, wearable, and easy to sew sewing patterns with detailed illustrated instructions - designed in the Scandinavian design tradition of simple lines and quality. The Sewing Life School is teaching in-person sewing, drafting, and fitting classes in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, and online everywhere!

Rock beats scissors and scissors beat paper - and those are the rules.
10/12/2026

Rock beats scissors and scissors beat paper - and those are the rules.

09/22/2026

You don’t need a pressing station or a super expensive ironing board with suction to sew.

But you DO need a tool that works with you when pressing seams and ironing fabric. I left my pressing station in the US when I relocated to Paris this summer and until I figure out which one I do want (and save up for one ) I am getting very well by, with a standard 20 € household iron.

It’s fine. It works well. The one things you want to go for if you are getting a new iron (and don’t want to invest 100’s of euros in it, is that it is able to do continues steam, and that it is heavy. You want the weight to help you when pressing.

What type of iron do you have?

08/10/2026

We are finally settling in in Paris.
Today I unpacked my fancy sewing machine.
Can’t wait to start teaching machine sewing again!

07/23/2026

A neighbour in my Paris building was putting this away with the trash the other day. I asked if I could take it and see if I could use it - Here’s how it went!

Do you take in old sewing machines?

Does anyone know about the Dorina Zick-Zack 15 machine? I’d love to learn more about it. Google was very sparse with information

07/20/2026

Update on the Life as a Traveling Sewing Teacher - now in Paris.

Follow along - and check out the Free Patreon for tips and videos - to see how my Sewing life as a new Parisian is coming along.

First update: We are back in the city after another heatwave had us flee for a few days. AND we have signed the papers for a permanent apartment (we will move in mid—August).

Meanwhile, not much sewing has been going on, BUT I did manage to get my hands on an old machine, which you will hear more about very soon!


05/26/2026

Buttonholes are still sometimes scary to me - even though I have been teaching others how to sew them for more than 15 years!

Like yesterday, in a last-minute-before-I have-to-pack-everything-down-frenzy I wanted to finish my current project by getting the buttonhole done (can do hemming etc by hand later).

And I did the samples. I even reorded a reel showing how easy it is to sew an automatic buttonhole on modern machines.
And then I wanted to just do that last buttonhole before packing the machine up to go in the moving container (if you haven’t heard - I am moving back to Europe in June!).

And the machine got stuck and sewed in the same spot (and it took a while before I noticed).

So I lied. It’s not always easy.

The good news is, that as long as it is not cut, it’s a somewhat easy fix. I “just” have to unpick the gazillion stitches, press it, and try again.

Will I make it before I have to pack the machine (and won´t see it for 2 months)??

Guess below... And make me feel better - share a sewing fail with me

05/20/2026

I finished this dress at the end of summer last year, just before we moved and I never got around to wearing it.

It’s the Solig dress by and it’s a great pattern! I really love sewing patterns from other designers - and this is definitely a fun sewing project that I could very well repeat!

The fabric is a very thin cotton-silk blend and I think the reason why I haven’t worn the dress is that I felt it is too thin and transparent.

But today it’s going to be 38 degrees Celcius (that’s 100 Fahrenheit) - so I don’t care. It’s going to be so comfortable to wear.

What do you think. Is it too see-through?





Following my own dare to wear something I sewed, but haven’t really worn yet

03/19/2026

I know I am not the only sewist (even with decades of sewing experience) who is slightly scared of buttonholes.

And that’s because they sometimes go wrong.

Even when you have done all the right things.
Made all the samples and tested an extra time.

What do you do when the buttonhole you sewed turns out a complete disaster? Is the garment ruined?

No. It can be fixed. You “just” have to unpick the miss-sewn buttonhole. Use patience, a seam ripper, sharp scissors (careful!) and a tweezer to get all the thread out.
Then try to figure out what went wrong (to keep it from happening again) and re-sew the buttonhole.

In this case, I think what happened was, that the last buttonhole was too close to the bulky corner, keeping the automoated buttonholer from moving freely. So I turned the garment around and sewed the buttonhole from the other side.


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