My name is Lauren. I am a 27 year old Nashvillian with a stupid expensive sewing hobby. I have a very grouchy cat named Amelia Earhart (I call her the Shitty Cat) and I drive a red Ford pick-up truck 
In addition to sewing, I love riding my bicycle & eating tomatoes & watching Back to the Future. I recently learned how to knit (we are currently having an affair) and I also dabble in embroidery, crochet and paint by numbers.
Some FAQ for your faq’ing pleasure:
How/When did you learn how to sew?
I have been sewing for as long as I can remember (started when I was old enough to hold a needle), but I didn’t get serious about it until I was 20. I am self-taught!
How/When did you learn how to knit?
I was taught by my wonderfully patient friend Sarah. She pretty much taught me everything I know! I learned over Thanksgiving weekend, 2011, so I really haven’t been knitting very long but I am all kinds of in love with it!
What kind of dress form do you have?
My dress form is a Dritz My Double, in the smallest size. It’s actually kind of a crappy dress form – it’s rickety, hard to adjust the size & forget about sticking pins in it! I don’t recommend it. Anyway, I padded it out with the Fabulous Fit Dress Form System, which definitely gave it some LT-curves
What kind of sewing machine do you have?
My main machine is Bernina 350 PE. I also have a Pfaff 7570, a 1957 Singer Featherweight & a Janome Memory Craft 4000 as a back-up. My serger is a Babylock Imagine.
What kind of sewing machine do you suggest for me?
I don’t know – it really depends on your budget and your sewing preferences! I feel like a sewing machine is kind of a personal purchase – there is no “right” answer. That being said, I don’t recommend buying one at a big box store like Walmart. Go to your local sewing machine repair shop and peruse the goodies there. And don’t buy the cheapest machine you can get your mitts on, especially if it’s a serger – it’s just a bad idea. Take it from one who knows.
What kind of camera do you use?
LOL JUST KIDDING no one ever asks me this.
But just in case you were curious (so you didn’t, like, accidentally buy the same one or some shit), it’s a Casio Exilim and it is pink. I take all my own pictures (unless otherwise specified) using a tripod and timer. I edit my photos with Picmonkey; it is da besttt.
Do you ever sell the clothes that you make?
I used to, hence my blog title LLADYBIRD. You can see bunchies of photos here. I don’t sell stuff anymore because, frankly, I’d rather make stuff for meeee 
. Sorry!
Does your sewing room really stay that clean all the time?
Yes.
Can I use a picture from your blog on my blog?
Sure! Use whatever you want! All I ask is that you link it back to me
How do you manage to sew all this stuff? Do you work?
I don’t know why, but I get this question a lot! Yes, I work full-time, in a field that is completely unrelated to sewing (and clothing, for that matter). However, my career is not super demanding, and I do not have children… I also don’t cook or clean as much as I probably should :B So that leaves lots of time for sewing! I try to sew for at least an hour or two every day, and get a good marathon session in on the weekend. I also tend to sew pretty fast, so there’s that.
Do you offer sponsership/advertising on your blog?
Sure! Email me and let’s discuss.
Why do you use curse so much? It’s offensive to me!
Because fuck you, that’s why.
Questions? Comments? Contact me @ lladybirdlauren AT gmail DOT com
Stumbled on your blog today while searching for Colette’s Clover reviews. So glad I found you! It’s been sooo fun reading your blog. Thanks for taking the time to share your sewing ventures w/us!
So… I have some creepy sounding questions, lol. I’m trying to figure out if we have similar body types. If we do (from the picts it looks like we may) then I’ll be suuuuper stoked because I’ll be able to learn from your fitting descriptions even more!
From your picts you look petite. Did your weight fluctuate? The Boob Fairy never visited me…dammit…so that’s a diff, but from the waist down, our fit looks similar.
I’m not quite 5’2″ and shy of 100#. You may have more of a waist to hip diff than I do, but is your waist very defined compared to your hips? Mine isn’t.
Thanks again, and sorry for the creeper questions. Crossing my fingers that our overall measurments are indeed similar. Would help to know when it comes to altering patterns.
Thank you & happy sewing!!
Starr from Maui, Hawaii
Not creeper questions at all – it can be really helpful to find a “size twin” so you can just straight copy then when it comes to pattern alterations
It sounds like you are a little smaller than me… to be specific, I am 5’2.5″ and my measurements are 36-26.5-36 (my waist does fluctuate slightly – sometimes 27″ if i stop being active for a couple of weeks lol), high bust is 33″. I weight approximately ~120 lbs, give or take. My waist is pretty defined in comparison to my hips/bust and my height proportions are petite. Typical fitting adjustments for me include full bust adjustment (usually about 1″), tapering in the waist, full butt adjustment, short crotch, lowering the shoulders, and usually cutting off a LOT of length.
I hope this helps! And thank you for your sweet comments – always nice to hear that kind of stuff
Thanks SO much for the info! I was much closer to your measurements a few months back and then all hell broke loose & I lost a stress induced 30#. YUCK! Now I’m tooooo thin. I was a tad heavier than you back then. Hoping to put some of my padding back on. I miss my ass! Lol.
Thanks again!
Lucky me we actually are size twins! I think your waist is smaller (lucky). I am actually really interested in this full butt adjustment you speak of. I have read plenty about bust adjustments fba or sba but help for the back end would be brilliant! I am going to search through your posts but if there are any specific ones you can point me to that would be super!
The full butt adjustment I used is the one detailed in this tutorial
As a side note, if you’ve got a big rear, you NEED to check out the Thurlow trousers – they’ve got the big butt/small waist and the fit is AMAZING.
As a side note, I don’t think this matters so much right now but I did want to point out that I’ve lost a small amount of weight since I posted that comment. I’m closer to a 34-26-34, so keep that in mind if you’re trying to size twin anything I’m currently making
Hello there just wanna to say hello and there i love everything that u do ,your so talented
.
Also I love yor tips .,im not really good sewing but love it,love it ,my mom bought me a little singer I was 6she teatch me everything she new ,so now I have a big girl sewing machine .hugs
Hi there! I’ve been lurking around your blog for a month or so now… and as a newbie to the sewing world I find your posts VERY helpful. Oh, and I’m a Nashvillian too… East Nasty actually
Yay another East Nashvillian! Glad you find my blog helpful
Sorry Lauren, I’ve got no idea how I did that Trackback/Pingback thing. I tried to add your link to my current post, but the words wouldn’t highlight on the page. I also don’t know how to add your Thurlow Sewalong badge to my blog… any tips? Carola
It’s pretty easy! You want to save the image – either in your WordPress pictures, or on a picture hosting site like Flickr – then go to Appearance (in your Dashboard), Widgets, drag the little text box to where you want the badge to appear, and then paste your html in there
Here’s a picture tutorial of the process. If you want to link the badge back to the Sewalong, the link is http://lladybird.wordpress.com/tag/thurlow-sewalong/
Yay, it worked! Thanks for your help.
Are you able to delete that Trackback thing from your wall?
Haha I don’t think it’ll let me. Aw, oh well.
Glad you got the badge up!
I just nominated your beautiful blog for The One Lovely Blog Award. Check it out here http://thewayofthechiro.wordpress.com/2012/12/07/643/
Hey! This is my first comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and tell you I
really enjoy reading your posts. Can you recommend any other
blogs/websites/forums that go over the same topics? Many thanks!
I think I remember your clothes from might be Craftster in the reconstructed clothing forum?! Was before I got my over locker but I loved what you did with old t shirts and the like, and I always wanted to try some of your designs
. Love your blog too!
Hello to every one, the contents present at this web page are truly
amazing for people knowledge, well, keep up the nice work fellows.
What type of Dress form would you recommend? I do not have one and want to purchase one soon.
Sadly, I don’t have a recommendation for you. Sorry! The dress form I have is pretty terrible, and I don’t have experience with any other brands at this time.