This Week in Patterns (20-Feb-2015)

I'll be blunt. I'm still down in the dumps mentally/emotionally and not quite up for writing my usual weekly pattern round-up yet. I try to keep personal stuff (outside of kid/cat/dog pictures) mostly out of this blog, but on top of losing my cat, my dad has been dealing with some serious health issues for the past few months, and he had a major setback yesterday.

If that weren't enough, my team's office moved to a different neighborhood in downtown Seattle last week, so I'm still getting used to a new commute and a tougher parking situation (on days when I don't take the commuter bus). The upside to that is that we're now in a much cooler neighborhood (we're a block away from SubPop records, for example) that should allow me to easily reach a few of Seattle's best indie fabric stores (Nancy's Sewing Basket, Drygood Designs, and District Fabrics) with a short bus trip on my lunch break. So, um, lookout fabric stash?

Basically, I'm still not in the mood to snark or gush about anything. However, we've had a ton of new pattern releases over the past two weeks, and while I'm not doing a full write-up this week, I did compile a list of links and jotted down a few notes, if you'd like to click through and check them out yourselves. The New Looks and Simplicities came out yesterday, and while they're both mostly "meh", they did each have a couple of noteworthy designs (IMO), and I might very well cover those in more depth next week.

Anyway, here's an abbreviated round-up of new pattern releases for the past two weeks:

• Bluegingerdoll: A-clan collection: Warm-weather collection of four patterns that coordinate with each other.
  
  • Abby singlet top
  : Cute woven, button-down tank. Easily my favorite piece out of this collection.
  • Alicia shorts
  Shorts with front pleats. There's something odd going on with the crotch on these in the pattern photo, which would make me wary of buying them.
  • Anne peek-a-boo knit top: Knit top with peek-a-boo cutout. Yeah, that's not going to work with my ginormous bust. I remember there being a similar Big 4 pattern to this in recent years, too, but wasn't able to find it quickly.
  • April gathered skirt: Basic, but cute skirt. If I wanted to make this, I'd probably opt for a Big 4 equivalent.
• BurdaStyle Plus: Modern Museum Collection (02/2015) : Not as fug as last month, but nothing I'd want to sew or wear, either.
  • Day Dress : Dress with pleats over the boobs. Not going to work on the uber busty unless those pleats are stitched down, and then, what's the point?
  • Silk BlouseAnother boxy blouse from Burda Plus (ABBFBP).
  • Hi-Lo Plus size shirt: Meh.
  • Fringe Trim CoatA nice-looking coat, and it's actually not double-breasted.
  • Star JacketCute, if boxy, jacket. Not sure what's up with the giant star applique thingy.
  • Bootcut pantsTurkey-eatin' pants. They should have released these back in November. (Or maybe this is Burda's consession that plus sized women DO actually have sex and get pregnant--because these look an awful lot like my old maternity pants.)
  • Fold blouse: Blouse version of that same pleated dress.
  • Cargo pants: I like these (in a drapey fabric). I probably shouldn't, but hey, they look comfortable and POCKETS.
• By Hand London: Sophia Dress (presale): The latest party dress from BHL. There are some interesting darts there--I'll be curious to see what this looks like on a curvy figure.
• Jennifer Lauren Vintage: Felicity Dress: Cute, vintage-style dress.
• New Look: Spring 2015: Mostly boring basics, but there's a casual wardrobe pattern in here that caught my eye.
• Paprika Patterns: Jade skirt (re-release): The re-released Jade skirt now includes sizes 7-10 and a few other updates. Based on the fact that I flat-out like the skirt and my positive experience with the Jasper sweater, I've already purchased this.
• Simplicity: Spring 2015: More mostly boring basics, but I liked one of the knit skirt patterns and the jumpsuit pattern. Because apparently I hoard (but don't sew) jumpsuit patterns.
• StyleArc: Toni designer dress: Interesting dress, but not my style, and I'm not sure that I'd like the look on my figure, anyway.