Sunday, May 10, 2015

Last Week in Patterns (10-May-2015)

Happy Mother's Day to all of the Mothers out there. And Happy Avoid Going Out to Brunch Day to everyone who isn't a mother! And if you're a mother-to-be, shield your eyes from the last entry out of this bunch of Buttericks.

We had a lot of new patterns released this week, most of which were actually pretty nice, aside from one collection that I thought was particularly awful. So, grab a cup of coffee, and let's get started!

Butterick: Summer 2015 Release

I was initially really "meh" about this release, but the more that I looked through it, the more that it grew on me. One thing that I missed on my first pass through is that there are actually several women's "plus" patterns in this batch that are so "normal" looking (as opposed to being oversized or shapeless sacks) that I initially overlooked them until I clicked the detail links and noticed the size range. I know that a lot of people love Coni Crawford's patterns, but the style of her patterns skews towards an older age group than the one that I'm in, so I was ecstatic to see these plus offerings from Butterick. I love that someone at BMV appears to finally be listening to the requests of larger sewists and is offering us some normal patterns in an extended size range. While there are a number of boring, seen-it-before patterns in this release, there are also some cute, unique designs, too. And, like just about any release from the Big 4, there's a winner if a "WTF?" pattern in here, too.

B6208: Misses' Tunic and Dress

This is one of those "cute for someone else" designs. I suck at sewing pintucks, and the only shaping comes from that tiny teeny little tie. But the sample in that swiss dot type fabric sure is pretty!

B6208
B6211: Retro Butterick Dress and Belt

I hate the fabric choices in the photographed version of this, but love the details and the line drawing. For a pattern with a similar vibe but a less costumey look, you could go for the BlueGingerDoll Odette dress.

B6211

B6210: Women's and Women's Petite Dresses

If you're plus sized and looking for a cheaper alternative (in the US, at least) to the True Bias Southport dress or Colette Adelaide dress, just add a button placket to B6210, which goes up to a size 32W:

B6210

B6224: Women's Kimono and Jumpsuit

Here's the other women's plus pattern--a jumpsuit/romper pattern with a kimono topper. I like this plus jumpsuit offering better than the Khaliah Ali one that was in a recent McCall's release. Including the kimono topper is a nice touch, too.

B6224
B6217: Patterns by Gertie: Misses' Blouse

I haven't been a huge fan of most of Gertie's patterns for Butterick, but I think that this one would make a really cute summer blouse (minus the boob bow, for most of us). For me, personally, I'd probably convert those darts to princess seams, but I love the neckline on this.

B6127
Butterick 6226

We can't have all sunshine and rainbows with a major Big 4 release, though, can we? So here's your WTF-ery from the Butterick Summer 2015 release. Two words: Maternity jumpsuit.

B6226
Really, Butterick?  When I was in my third trimester and peeing every five minutes, I can think of nothing that I'd rather wear less than a jumpsuit where I'd have to mess with taking half of my clothes off while trying to ignore the small being inside of me who was sitting on my bladder. And this jumpsuit has a back zipper, on top of just being, well, a jumpsuit. To be fair, the pattern does include a dress and a tunic view, and those both look okay, but still...maternity jumpsuit.

HotPatterns: Fast & Fabulous Shirt-Tail T's

If you're looking for a quick and easy knit top project, Trudy from HotPatterns released a new t-shirt pattern on Friday. This one has options for piecing, small ruffles, or a solid front. As someone who's always drawn to striped fabric, I'm a sucker for designs that can use stripes in interesting ways. I'm also a sucker for a shirt-tail hem (if you can't tell from various other pattern picks of mine). The pattern itself isn't earth-shattering, but it's very much my style, and I can see myself making this up on a whim when in need of an instant gratification project.

BTW--If you're on HotPatterns' mailing list or a member of the Facebook group, someone has already sewn this up, and it looks really cute on her! 

HotPatterns Shirt-tail T's


Liesl & Co: Spring 2015 Collection

Liesl was clearly going for casual basics with this collection. These designs are cute, classic, and mostly wearable, although not earth-shattering, from a design perspective.

Maritime Top

The Martitime top is a Breton-style knit top.  Breton tops have been pretty popular for the past few years, so I could see this being a useful, basic pattern if you don't already have something similar in your stash.

Liesl & Co. Maritime top
City Stroll Wrap Skirt

The City Stroll Wrap Skirt is a tulp-hemmed wrap skirt. Liesl says that given its shape, you don't have to worry about this wrap skirt blowing open in the wind; however, I wonder what happens to that tulip opening when you sit down in this. Regardless, it's a cute skirt with a lot of flexibility in fabric choices.

If I didn't already own the very-similar Snapdragon pencil skirt (which I still need to make!), I'd consider buying this one. (The Snapdragon actually includes two additional views, unlike the Liesl & Co. version.)

Liesl & Co. City Stroll Skirt

Gallery Tunic and Dress

The third and final style is the Gallery Tunic and dress, a pop-over style tunic or dress with classic shirt detailing. I like this a lot, but I don't think that the pleating would work on my own figure, although it would probably be fine for just about anyone who isn't uber busty. I do actually have a similar HotPattern (the Superfantastic shirt--OOP, so no link) that would probably work better for me, if I did want a blouse in this style.

Liesl & Co Gallery tunic and dress

Papercut Patterns: Chameleon Collection

For the premium prices charged by Papercut, I'd expect more interesting shapes, seaming, and general details than what we're seeing in this collection.

Waver jacket


Papercut Waver Jacket

Sway Dress

Sack with optional belt.

Papercut Sway dress
Flutter top & tunic

Sack.

Papercut Flutter top & tunic
Yoyo dress & skirt

Crotch arrow.

Papercut Yoyo dress & skirt

Final Thoughts and a note about My Sewing Circle

I'm not sure exactly what I'll be buying out of this batch, but I did like a few of the Buttericks. I'd already ordered the HotPattern, but seeing it made up really sold me on the pattern. The Liesl & Co.s were cute, but I already own similar patterns to all three. And finally, the Papercut collection felt like a mailed-in collection in many ways.

On another note, a few of us who are/were looking for an alternate choice in online sewing community to Pattern Review have registered accounts and started posting on My Sewing Circle. There hasn't been a lot of recent activity over there (except for those of us who recently started posting), but I'm hoping that if the activity level increases, there will be an online place to talk about sewing outside of the PR forums. Check out the site, if you're interested.

19 comments:

  1. The one thing which stands out to me in this week's releases is Gertie's continued focus on casual vintage design. There is, IMHO, a massive lack of wearable, practical casual wear for 'gals on the go' in the sewing world generally, and for those of us who are no longer spring chickens (i'm 53) it is even more dire***. It is very heartening to see a designer take an extended look at getting these type of designs out there!

    I agree this top is very cute, and one could go a whole lot of directions in styling choices. Converting the darts to princess seams you could have a ball with color/texture blocking and pattern combining, all hot trends now. With the multiple sleeves as well, a gal could use this one pattern as a basis for an entire summer wardrobe of tops. I hope Gertie continues in this direction!

    I hadn't seen the Gallery Tunic and dress prior to your post. I'm wearing a lot of white blouses these days and that collar is charming the heck out of me. hmmmmm.....

    Happy Mother's Day!!!

    ***tho i have made up V9112, Marcy Tilton's Cirque dress, twice already and if you like the look it's a fantastic everyday casual dress design. I'm on the hunt for more fabric to make up in this one - no closures, nice pockets and easy on the yardage. We need more like this!

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    1. Yeah, I definitely prefer this type of offering from Gertie to the streak of variation-on-a-bust-shelf patterns that she'd been releasing.

      Glad to hear that you've had such good luck with that Vogue dress!

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  2. Maternity jumpsuit... brought to you by a man! Seriously. Back when Project Runway had that season in LA, one of the male competitors made a jumpsuit for the Maternity Challenge.

    Every time I see the Yoyo dress, I hear it say "Insert here."

    Happy Mother's Day!

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    1. I had conveniently blocked the maternity jumpsuit from PR out of my mind until you brought it up. That LA season was bad...although things did manage to get a lot worse after that.

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  3. An alternative to the city stroll skirt is the free pattern that just came out by Itch to Stitch - the Lindy Petal Skirt. Also, I absolutely loved that pintucked Butterick pattern dress but it has no darts and I'm not sure if I know how to FBA (size D) with all those pintucks. Is there a tutorial for that?

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    1. It depends on where those pintucks start and if you planned to leave the (new) side bust dart in the blouse. If the tucks started at the bust apex or on the CF side of the bust apex, I'd probably just do a slash-and-spread FBA, leave the dart there, and call it a day. You'd end up adding some length to the tucks, but you'd actually need that extra length over the bust.

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  4. I do like Coni's pattern line (for the most part) because of the fit. I am over 50, old ladyish/mature in my preferences, size 32 and super busty and I guess this is why I lean toward her patterns. They provide a simple framework for the styles I wear. I wore jumpsuits in the '70s and I don't trust my bladder to wear them again (lol). Pattern designers seem to churning out the same thing hoping we don't notice (!).

    Sometimes it's really not a new pattern or style that stands out--it's the execution or interpretation of an existing style. Pretty Girls Sew gave a sewing challenge to contestants to use a Burda jumpsuit pattern and make it their own. The results were amazing. I would have never guessed that they all used the same pattern. I learned something -- take what I already have in my pattern/fabric stash and 'make it my own'.

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    1. I love the idea of a "make it your own" sewing challenge as inspiration for what you can do with a pattern. That's kind of where I feel that the barrage of "blog tours" of new pattern releases missed the mark (although we've been seeing a lot fewer of those in recent months). With the blog tours, it felt like we were seeing the same thing over and over, just in different fabric (and it often seemed like everyone sewed up the same view a lot of the time).

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  5. I totally just assumed that jumpsuit was knit and instantly loved it. And now I know why; while pregnant with my kids I wore overalls every.chance.I.got!!!!! And I think that appealed to me. A back zipper is just stupid. There's no other word for it.

    I liked a ton of the Buttericks and was so sad that my Hancock doesn't have them yet. They are usually so on top of it.

    They go off sale tomorrow so I'm gonna check back. Fingers crossed.

    That HP top is really cute!!! And Papercut is pretty meh to me.

    Oh and to backtrack -- I LOVE the Gertie pattern and her aesthetic is generally not my thing. But that is a seriously nice top. Sans boob bow for sure :)

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    1. I propose the world needs an all-woman punk band called Sans Boob Bow immediately.

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    2. They'd totally sell out everywhere ;)

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    3. Yeah, the maternity jumpsuit thing would seem more reasonable if you could just pull it down, but a back zipper? No thanks.

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  6. I tried to join but it kept rejecting my email address.

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    1. No idea what's going on there as I'm not affiliated with the site.

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  7. I love Butterick 6218, but I'm so tired of dropped shoulders!

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    1. I've seen a lot of pieced t-shirt patterns in recent years. If you like that one, you might be able to find something similar without the dropped shoulders.

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  8. Here's a silly question: Where do people actually buy their patterns? I'd like to make some of the new Butterick designs but I don't want to spend the full list price on their website. Would the new patterns be in Joann's already? I live in suburban NJ (There's a Joann's 6 miles away, I've just never been inside it) and am relatively new to sewing. I've been buying patterns online but if it's always cheaper "on sale at Joann's" as I keep hearing, I'd like to know more!

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    1. Watch for sales at JoAnn's (or Hancock if there's one near you). They rotate their sales on a regular basis, and you can get Simplicity, McCall's, and Butterick on sale typically for $1.99 each (occasionally they'll even do $0.99 sales, but those are rare lately). Vogues on sale are typically $3.99 or $4.99. If you're not already on JoAnn's mailing list, they post their weekly fliers on the corporate website, so you can find the pattern sale dates there.

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  9. Thanks for the tip, I'll sign up for the emailing list.😀

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