This Week in Patterns (30-Oct-2015)

Happy almost Halloween! I am so far behind on my project blogging, it's not even funny. Over at the CSC, I've been busy working on a few things that I hope you'll all like, or at least find entertaining, and that's been eating up a lot of my blogging time.

In the meantime, we have a LOT of new patterns! This week, we had releases from the following pattern companies:

• Blank Slate Patterns
• Butterick
• Muse Patterns
• New Look
• Simplicity

Blank Slate Patterns: Novelista Shirt

Disclaimer:  I tested this pattern and received a free copy of it, so my opinions (which are my own) are based off of my testing experience with this pattern.

A lot of people love the Grainline Archer shirt, but I also know that a lot of people feel that it's too boxy and would prefer a shirt with the same details but more shaping. Here's the shirt pattern that you've been looking for--the Blank Slate Novelista:

Blank Slate - Novelista shirt

Blank Slate- Novelista (line drawings)

You can't necessarily tell from the line drawings and sample photos, but the Novelista has the classic shirt details that a lot of blouse patterns lack: sleeve plackets (long sleeved version), a yoke, and a collar-with-stand. I'm really excited about this pattern, and you'll be seeing my version of it once I've had a chance to sew up a non-muslin/non-test version.

Butterick: Holiday/Winter 2015

Butterick was the last of the Big 4 to release its winter collection. This collection is heavy on sleep- and loungewear, so if that's your thing to sew, you'll probably find a few patterns in this batch to add to your shopping list.

B6285: Gertie Top and Skirt

I'm only calling out this Gertie pattern, which to me is otherwise uninteresting, because it strongly resembles the Cake Pavlova pattern from a few years ago. Gertie's skirt is pleated, and the Pavlova is a circle skirt, but those are the biggest differences that I'm seeing.

B6285

B6282: Retro Dress and Belt

This retro shirtdress is cute:

B6282

B6288: Misses' Shirt

This blouse has an interesting back detail, which is nearly entirely obscured by the fabric choice of the sample, although you can see it in the line drawing.

B6288

B6031: Maternity Vest, Coat, and Belt

I had to pick this pattern just because it's the first pattern that I've seen for a babywearing jacket, period. I see RTW versions of these all over the MLS Sounders games that my family attends. These weren't a thing, really, even three years ago when my daughter was a baby, but I love the idea of it and would have wanted one of these if they had been around. There's a maternity view for the pre-baby mom, too.

B6301

B6292: Lisette Pajamas

This is Liesl's (of Oliver & S and Lisette patterns) take on classic pajamas. They're quite similar to the Closet Case Files Carolyn Pajamas in that both patterns have similar details: piping, pockets, and both long and short views.

B6296

Muse: Tahi Skirt and Shrug

Along with the Blank Slate Novelista, we have another entry in the category of Patterns That Fill a Glaring Hole in Current Pattern Catalogs--this time from Muse Patterns. Kat's new pattern includes a shrug and a skirt with four different views of various fullnesses and lengths. The maxi- view is exactly what I had in mind this past summer when I was trying to find a pattern for an interesting maxi-skirt that wasn't the Sewaholic Gabriola. I really like all four views of the skirt, although I think I prefer the flared versions slightly. I'd never personally sew the shrug (shrugs and large busts don't mix, in my experience), but it's a nice pattern extra to include for most women.

Muse - Tahi skirt and shrug

New Look: Winter 2015

Whereas the previous release from New Look appeared to be made up entirely of refreshed and reissued patterns, the Winter release includes entirely new patterns, as far as I can tell. (Please correct me on this in the comments, if I'm wrong.)  Not a whole lot of it excites me, but there are a few decent basics in the group. Here are the two patterns that stood out the most to me:

New Look 6417

This cardigan/jacket/coat is similar to the popular StyleArc Harper jacket. I've been seeing this style around town for the past year or so, and it's surprisingly wearable on a lot of different body types. If I didn't already own the StyleArc, I'd probably pick up the New Look version.

New Look 6417

New Look 6421

I think that the color used in the sample is hideous, but this pattern includes a nice princess seamed shift-style tunic and cigarette pants. There's also a basic pencil skirt pattern, if for some reason, you need one and don't already have one.

New Look 6421

Simplicity: Winter/Holiday 2015

The online reaction to Simplicity's Winter/Holiday collection this year has been mostly "meh", but I feel like there are a few gems in here. Overall, this collection certainly grabs me more than McCall's and Vogue's Winter/Holiday releases.  There are definitely a few in this bunch that I'll be picking up at a future JoAnn's sale. The Vintage offerings are particularly strong this time around, IMO, but that could be my own bias because I'm one of those odd people who actually likes some 70's fashions.

Simplicity 8019: 1970's Vintage Skirts

First up is this A-line gored button-down skirt. I had a rayon challis skirt from Express like this in college--another time that the 70's were a big fashion influence. I loved that skirt. And I got really excited when I saw Bowfinger because Heather Graham was wearing the same skirt that I owned. In any case, this seems like a no-brainer to pick up when it's on sale.

Simplicity 8019

Simplicity 8013: 1970's Vintage Dresses

This woven wrap dress pattern is unbelievably 70's-tastic in a very awesome way.  It kind of makes me want to curl up on the couch with a glass of Riunite and watch Love Story.

I have no idea where I'd wear this, but I think I need to buy this pattern just for the sake of owning it.

Simplicity 8013

Simplicity 8014: Misses' Shirt Dresses

Can a person own too many shirt dress patterns?  I don't think so. This one is kind of similar to the famous McCall's 6696 (aka "Mary's shirtdress"), but the Simplicity has an option for a partial circle skirt and an option for a shirdress without a waist seam. Like the McCall's the Simplicity has some cup size options, too.

Simplicity 8014

Simplicity 8034: Animal Stuffies

I am so not usually a craft person, but the stuffed unicorn here is way too cute.

Simplicity 8034

Simplicity 8027: Girls' Sportswear pattern

OMG, a girls' moto jacket pattern! And my daughter is big enough for it!  I am so making this. In addition to the adorable moto jacket, there are some really useful everyday coordinates in this envelope, too. There isn't a piece in this bunch that I wouldn't sew or dress my daughter in.

Simplicity 8027

Final Thoughts

There was a lot to like this week, IMO. If you're looking for an Archer with more shaping, the Blank Slate Novelista is your pattern. I also really like Muse's new skirt pattern--enough that I ordered it right away while it was still on sale. There aren't any must-haves for me out of the Butterick or New Look collections, but from Simplicity, I want the girls' moto jacket, 70's wrap dress, and the shirtdress.

What were your favorites this week?

This Week in Patterns (23-Oct-2015)

We had a pretty interesting week of new patterns this week, including a couple of major indie releases and a new BurdaStyle Plus collection. Here are the new entries:

• BurdaStyle Plus
• Colette Patterns
• Pauline-Alice
• Peekaboo Patterns
• StyleArc 

BurdaStyle (Plus): November 2015 collection (Canal Walks)

I've been so impressed with BurdaStyle's plus collections as of late that I recently spent a chunk of birthday money on a trial subscription (after not having subscribed in ~5 years). While maybe not as outstanding as the September 2015 collection, November's collection has a few pieces that are right up my alley.

11-2015 #130: Cuffed Culottes

First up is a completely unremarkable pair of culottes.  Can you even call these culottes--they don't really have any of the volume associated with culottes and look like long shorts or short capris to me. This is probably the worst design out of this group.

11-2015 #130: Cuffed culottes

11-2015 #129: Button Up Blouse

Up next is a nice basic: a darted button-up blouse. I think that this could be a nice alternative to the Grainline Archer for those of us who wear larger sizes. Note that the Burda (unlike the Archer) has a bust dart for shaping.

11-2015 #129: Button up blouse

11-2015 #128A & B: Shirt Dress and Tunic

Next up are my two favorite pieces of the collection--a retro-inspired shirt dress and tunic. I love the gathered shoulders, open neckline, and tie option on these.

11-2015 #128A: Shirtdress

11-2015 #128B: Tunic

11-2015 #127: Long Sleeve Dress, Skirt with Flounce, Pencil Skirt

This collection has three views that all use variations on the same skirt pattern. There's a long-sleeved dress, a skirt with a flounce, and a plain pencil skirt (which I'm not including a photo of because...it's a pencil skirt and we all know what that looks like).

11-2015: #127: Long sleeved dress

11-2015 #126: Pencil skirt with ruffle

11-2105: #124 Long Pea Coat

Finally, we have a coat and jacket pattern that uses the same base pattern. I'm not a huge fan of the lack of shaping here, but I do think that it's a sharp-looking coat and jacket, and it has nice details. The coat has an optional removable fur collar.

11-2015: #124: Long pea coat

11-2015 #122: Belted jacket

Colette Patterns: Wren Dress

We finally have our latest non-Seamwork release from Colette Patterns, and it's a knit surplice/faux-wrap dress. It's a pretty enough dress, but I'm a little wrap dress'ed out at the moment. The gathered front bands are a nice detail, and I like that it comes with two different choices of skirts. As far as whether I'd purchase it, though, I think I'll wait to see some reviews and how it looks on a curvy figure first.

Colette - Wren dress

Pauline-Alice: Rosari Skirt

OMG, this is such a cute skirt!  Love the 70's vibe and the different length and pocket options. Yes, you could find a similar skirt in a vintage pattern, but this one has a decent (not great) size range, and the PDF is only 8,00€.

Pauline Alice - Rosari skirt

Peekaboo Patterns: Bristol Button-up

I haven't typically included Peekaboo patterns in these roundups because the early women's designs in this line all had similar alternative patterns that were available many other places (e.g. a raglan tee), the samples appeared to have fit issues, and they lacked line drawings. They still lack line drawings, but to give credit where it's due, Amy released a cute hoodie with an asymmetrical zipper a little while back that's been getting rave reviews, and now she's released a shirt-jacket that's a fun 90's callback: the Bristol Button-up.

Peekaboo - Bristol button-up

Remember those flannel shirts with the knit hood? That's what this is. I had a neighbor in the dorms who used to wear one of these all the time. The main things that I remember about him were that shirt and the fact that he used to play Wolfenstein at all hours, blasting the sound over the speakers from his IBM 386. ("Guten Tag!") This pattern comes in sizes from an XXS-XXXL and is fairly reasonably priced for an indie. (And if you question whether these are actually coming back in style, there's a kids' version of this shirt in the December Burda preview.)

StyleArc: Louisa Dress/Top

I'm either in an unusually good mood, or there have been some really cool patterns released this week. The latest from StyleArc also falls into the "want" category.

StyleArc - Louisa top/Dress

I love the seaming/darts and how they open up into pleats to make a full-skirted dress. On the other hand, I know that that neckline (when zipped) isn't going to work for me, so I'll wait to see a review or two on this one to make sure that the zipper can be worn semi-open to give more of a v-neck-style neckline.

 

Final Thoughts

 

What were your favorites out of this week? Mine are actually the Burda Plus shirtdress (no surprise there) and the new Peekaboo Bristol (I'm wearing Doc Martens while I type that, BTW) AND I really like the Pauline Alice skirt. I quite like the StyleArc dress, too, but think I'll need to see it made up a few times first. 

This Week in Patterns (16-Oct-2015)

We had a fairly quiet week on the pattern release front this past week. (This was a good thing for me because I had a friend in town visiting and really no extra time to sew or blog.)

This week, we had releases from only two pattern companies:

• Grainline Studios
• McCall's

Grainline Studios: Tamarack Jacket

Jen has been teasing with sneak peaks of the Tamarack Jacket on Instagram for the past few weeks. Coupled with how much I liked Sewmanju's quilted jacket and Jen's teaser shots, I actually plunked down some birthday cash on some Nano Iro pre-quilted fabric from Miss Matatabi.  Upon seeing the sample pics, though, I wasn't convinced that the lack of shaping in the Grainline jacket would work for me, so I will be using the Tamarack as inspiration, but actually using a collarless Simplicity jacket with princess seams and cup sizing for my actual jacket.

TL; DR: I like the idea of this jacket. Quilted jackets are everywhere right now, and I think that if I wasn't using pre-quilted fabric I'd be interested in learning the quilting techniques in this pattern. I'm not sure that this particular pattern will work well on a curvy figure, although the samples look great on Jen.

Grainline Studios - Tamarack Jacket

McCall's: Winter/Holiday Collection 2015

Usually, when the online sewing community seems to love a Big 4 collection, I can't find anything in it that I'd want to sew and wear (as is often the case with Vogue). Other times, particularly with McCall's and Simplicity, the online sewing community collectively yawns, but I wind up buying six patterns from that collection. This time, however, the online sewing community and I are in sync: this is a pretty "meh"to bizarre collection.

M7280: Misses' Jacket and Dress

Those sleeves are, um, interesting.

M7280

M7293: Misses' Jacket and Pants

I like the shoulder saddle detail on this jacket, although it looks like you'll have to sacrifice the princess seams from the other views to get the shoulder detail:

M7293

M7296: Misses' Jumpsuit and Romper

I can't decide if this lounging jumpsuit/romper is the best or worst idea ever. On one hand, it looks super comfortable for hanging around the house. On the other hand, if it's cold enough to lounge around in a cozy jumpsuit, do I really want to get undressed to use the bathroom?

M7296

M7295: Misses' Top and Pants

Okay McCall's, now you're just trolling:

M7295

Final Thoughts

This is the rare week where there weren't even any patterns released that I'll be putting on my wish list. I'll be keeping an eye on posts related to the Grainline pattern just to see what techniques others are using for their jackets. (I haven't yet decided if my take using a Simplicity pattern will be lined or unlined with bound seams.) 

Did anything new grab you this week?

This Week in Patterns (9-Oct-2015)

Friday roundup time! Lots of new patterns this week! We've got new releases from the following pattern companies:

• BurdaStyle (Plus)
• Cashmerette 
• HotPatterns
• StyleArc
• Tilly and the Buttons
• True Bias

BurdaStyle (Plus): October 2015 collection (Evening Elegance)

Although I missed the announcement, at some point in the past week or so, BurdaStyle published the Plus collection from the October 2015 issue to the US website. I didn't have time to do a rundown on the individual patterns, but it's a nice collection of formal and semi-formal patterns. I've been nicely encouraged by the Plus collections in the past few issues of BurdaStyle; they seem to be getting back on track with including nicely detailed patterns with shaping in their plus styles.

BurdaStyle Plus - Evening elegance collection

Cashmerette: Appleton Wrap Dress

I can finally talk about this!  As you all probably already know, my friend and founder of the Curvy Sewing Collective, Jenny/Cashmerette launched her pattern company on Thursday! I've known about this pattern for a while--I sewed up my pattern tester version back in August and have been wearing it regularly since then. I wrote up my full post on it yesterday, so you can check that for details.

It's a great basic wrap dress and should work well on a lot of curvy women. (Just make sure that you pay attention to all aspects of the size chart, including finished garment measurements, when selecting your size.)

Cashmerette - Appleton dress

HotPatterns 1196: Metropolitan Urban Gypsy Blouses

The first of two new HotPatterns is an off-the-shoulder pullover blouse with an optional built-in shelf bra. It's a very pretty blouse in the line drawing, but the bra unfriendliness here makes this a no-go for me.  (Trudy has suggested to others to tuck in the straps from their bras and use the shelf bra as light support to keep the bra in place. I'm not sure that would work on my huge rack.)

HotPatterns - Urban Gypsy Blouse

HotPatterns 1197: Classix Nouveau Skinny Bootcut Jeans

Want.

Already ordered this one. I am thrilled beyond words to see that flared and bootcut jean styles are coming back into style again finally.

HotPatterns - Skinny Bootcut Jean

 StyleArc: Vivienne Designer Frock

StyleArc's designer October release is up, and it's a shift dress with a twist: it has no side seams. StyleArc posted a photo of one of their samples for this dress, and as is usually the case with their "designer" patterns, the made up sample looks much nicer than the line drawing.  I still don't see this dress working on my figure (lack of bust shaping and all) but I really like the design of it for someone who can wear it--I bet this would look great on someone with a pear shape.

StyleArc - Vivienne designer frock

Tilly and the Buttons: Orla blouse

I feel weird including Tilly's patterns in these roundups because I'm so not her target market. To me, this looks like a top version of her Francoise pattern, but with only one set of darts and different collar variations. Maybe I'm missing something?

Tilly and the Buttons - Orla top

True Bias - Roscoe Blouse and Dress

When Kelli released her Roscoe peasant blouse pattern earlier this week, a small portion of the online sewing community almost seemed like their eyes were offended at the unoriginality of releasing a peasant blouse pattern. I don't really have a problem with it--Kelli's aesthetic tends to very much reflect current RTW trends, and blousey peasant blouses like this one are all over RTW right now.

True Bias - Roscoe blouse

Granted, I did raise my eyebrow a touch at how closely the True Bias blouse resembles the HotPatterns peasant blouse that they released about a year and a half ago. If you'll recall, I made the HP version a few months ago, and it's been in regular rotation in my wardrobe since then.  You do get more options with the True Bias version, though.

I have many more issues with the repetition of, say, Tilly's patterns than I do with True Bias offering a take on a current RTW trend. It's not like this new offering is yet another darted A-line shift dress.

 

Final Thoughts

I've been looking for a jeans pattern like the HP one, so that was a no-brainer to me. I almost succumbed to ordering a similar RTW pair online and thankfully talked myself out of it because the chances of them fitting decently would be so small.

Jenny's new dress is a nice basic with welcome drafting. I'm really happy to see how positive the online reception has been for her pattern launch. I'm aware of a few of the other patterns that she has in the works, and I will say that there's a nice amount of diversity there, in terms of basics and patterns with more of an original design.

 So...what are your thoughts on this week's pattern releases? ;)

Finished Project: Cashmerette - Appleton Dress (Test Version)

The cat is finally out of the bag!  Jenny/Cashmerette has launched her new pattern line, aimed at curvy sewists. For the first time that I'm aware of, we have a pattern designer who's actually targeting those of us who wear a cup size larger than a D/DD-cup. Jenny actually uses three different pattern blocks--separate ones for for C/D cups, E/F cups, and G/H cups.

Given that one of her favorite garment types is a wrap dress, it probably comes as no surprise that her first pattern release is a wrap dress--the Appleton Wrap Dress.

I had the pleasure of testing this pattern back in August, and while I'm normally hesitant to share "pattern test" versions of the things that I make, I'm making an exception this time because I know that many of you are probably curious about the sizing, etc, especially with this being a new pattern line. Plus, I'm pretty happy with my dress and have been wearing it, so why not share? (As a side note, that test coat pattern that I've been hinting about turned out pretty awesome, so I will be sharing that one too, when the pattern is released. Note that that pattern is from another pattern designer, though.)

Appleton - on me

A quick note about this photo shoot...  I'd really wanted to get this blog post up today because I suspected that a lot of you would be curious about this pattern. I'd had a bit of a heads up that this release was coming, but our last few mornings had been quite drizzly and unsuitable for outdoor photography. (I usually try to take my blog photos in the morning before I leave for work so that I look a bit fresher, etc.)  I got up extra-early this morning so that I could park at my local park-and-ride and take my commuter bus into work...only to discover that when I was ready to take photos right before I left, the sun hadn't come up yet!

Obviously, I couldn't take dress photos in the dark, so I went ahead and drove to the park-and-ride, hoping that the sun would be up soon. I knew that there was a little park/bike path off in the most remote corner of the P&R, so I gambled that the sun would be up after I snagged one of the last few parking spaces but before I needed to catch my bus. The resulting photos obviously aren't great and are a bit dimly-lit thanks to the sun just coming up, but I figured that dimly lit photos were better than no photos and delaying the blog post.

On to the actual pattern write up...

Again, note that I am talking about the test version of this pattern. I know that Jenny has made some pattern changes, based on tester feedback.

Cashmerette - Appleton wrap dress

 

Fabric and Notions Used

 

For the main body of this dress, I used an ITY jersey from Gorgeous Fabrics. Yes, it has a purple paisley print, and yes, I do get Prince songs stuck in my head every time I wear this dress. I'd consider this fabric to be light-to-medium weight and fairly stretchy. I wanted something that would skim over lumps and bumps, rather than cling, for this dress, and this fabric fit the bill.

For the contrast bands, I used leftover fabric from a pair of leggings. The band fabric is slightly beefier than the ITY fabric used in the dress body.

 

PDF Assembly

 

I used the PDF version of this pattern for my test garment.  The PDF went together beautifully.  Jenny uses faint gridlines on the background of the pattern to help you line things up for taping. I haven't seen many other pattern companies do this, and it was a nice touch.

Pattern Drafting, Sizing, and Alterations

 

This pattern is available in Cashmerette's sizes 12-28, which equates to a 40" bust through a 58" bust (102cm - 147cm).  The pattern has separate front pieces for each cup size block, with sizes nested within a block. So, for example, if you're sewing a size 20 E/F for your bust, but need a size 22 for your hips, you can easily grade between the sizes of the nested pattern pieces.

Depending on what bra I'm wearing on a given day, my full bust measurement tends to be between 51" and 52" currently. However, taking the negative ease in this pattern into account, I chose to go up a size and sewed a size 24 G/H for my bust, a 26 for my waist, and back to a 24 for my hips.

If you're thinking about making this, you'll want to check out the finished garment measurements for your size. There's a LOT of negative ease in this dress. Knowing that I generally prefer my knit garments to have 10% negative ease at most (preferably less), I went up a size from the size chart for this dress. Ideally, I probably should have gone up at least one more size (and will do so in the future), but I wanted to keep this pattern test as straightforward as possible for Jenny.

Note that I'm short (5'2") and did not make any length adjustments to this dress.

There were a few places where I felt that some of the pattern pieces could have been better labeled and marked, and my understanding is that these changes should be present in the final pattern.

Another Appleton shot

Pattern Instructions

 

The pattern instructions were nicely detailed and used a sensible order of construction. The accompanying illustrations were clear and appropriate for the construction steps. I'd rate this as an "Advanced Beginner" pattern.

Appleton dress - back view

And in line with Gillian's Better Pictures project and in honor of Jenny's signature twirls, I tried to incorporate a few twirling shots into this morning's photoshoot. You can see that I've still got work to do to try to figure out how to get sharp pictures while incorporating motion, but do I get a participant ribbon for trying?

Blurry twirling shots

Final Thoughts

Finally!  Someone is designing for us busty women! I've been looking forward to Jenny's pattern launch for a while now, and I'm really happy to see the largely positive feedback that I've read so far online.

I really hope that she's able to remove the "FBA hurdle" that a lot of newer and time-constrained sewists face by offering pattern sizes for those of us who are larger than a D-cup. Less time for FBAs means more time to actually sew!

Note: As a pattern tester, yes, I did receive the pattern for free, but this review reflects my own opinions.

This Week in Patterns (2-Oct-2015)

Things have been fairly quiet on the release front this past week after a huge week of new patterns last week. I thought about holding off on a post this week and combining this week's updates with next week's, but I have a strong suspicion that many of you might be interested in one of the new StyleArc offerings, so I wanted to get that out there for those of you not on their mailing list.

This week, we have new releases from two pattern designers:

• Colette - Seamwork Magazine
• StyleArc

Colette Seamwork - October 2015 Issue

Before we get into the patterns for this month, let's talk about the subscription change that Sarai announced on Thursday. Whereas previously, your $6 per month subscription got you whatever two patterns were included in that month's Seamwork release. Now, however, you'll be getting $6 in pattern credit, meaning that you can either choose one or both of that month's patterns or choose something from Seamwork's pattern archive. If nothing appeals to you, then your credits roll over to the next month.

To me, this is an extremely customer-friendly move. I do like the occasional Seamwork pattern, but there are also a number of them, such as the Florence bra or the recent bikini top, that I'd never even bother with.

Paxson Sweatshirt

This month, we're seeing the first Seamwork men's pattern released--a raglan-sleeved sweatshirt. There's such a dearth of men's patterns out there, that I can't think of a currently in-print equivalent pattern, although there might be one escaping me.  I've got no complaints about this one--it's a nice basic and something that a lot of men would probably wear. It's got a nice size range, too.

Seamwork - Paxson Sweatshirt

Denali Vest

The Denali vest is a unisex quilted, fully-lined vest. Yeah, I don't see how anyone is going to make this in under three hours, but it could be a pretty useful layering piece. Some of the samples are a bit dodgy-looking, but I really like the idea of this vest, and like the Paxson sweatshirt, it fills a pattern niche that isn't already overpopulated with similar patterns.

Between the subscription announcement and this month's patterns, I have to say "Well done, Seamwork", now keep up the good work in the coming months. (Granted, I still wish that Colette would spend some energy focusing on interesting, regular pattern releases, but that ship seems to have sailed.)

Seamwork - Denali

StyleArc: October 2015 Releases

Beatrice Pea Coat

StyleArc released a classic pea coat! StyleArc released a classic pea coat!

One of the biggest grumblings that I've observed in the online sewing community in recent years is the lack of decent, classic pea coat patterns. Vogue has that new Anne Klein pattern, but my understanding is that it's more of a jacket and not fully lined. The StyleArc version, on the other hand, does have a full lining and it's designed for wool coatings. What's not to love here? This is a classic style that you'll be able to wear for years to come.

This is fantastic. I think I'd opt for a paper pattern here because there's no way that I'd want to piece together the PDF for this.

My only "hmmmm" comment here is that the technical drawing shows a welt that's on the side panel, whereas the fashion drawing shows a welt on the center panel. Welts can be done either way, but on the center panel, you're construction is going to be more like a single welt pocket, as opposed to if it's on the side panel, where it'll be more like doing a fancy inseam pocket.

StyleArc - Beatrice coat

StyleArc's newsletter also revisited the Grace Trans-seasonal Coat, for those who prefer an unlined coat.

Mavis Knit Tunic

This was actually released at some point in the past week or so, but I missed it.  I can't wear a turtleneck (boobs), but if I could, I'd love this tunic with its interesting inset details.

StyleArc - Mavis knit tunic

Pearl Knit top (October freebie - new)

As has been the case in one other recent month, in October, if you place an order for paper patterns on StyleArc's website, you'll get to choose between one new and one older pattern as your freebie pattern. The new pattern is an on-trend if not particularly exciting knit top with an asymmetric hem and drape pocket.

StyleArc - Pearl knit top

Tiffany Blouse (October freebie - archive)

Your other choice for a freebie this month is the Tiffany blouse--a princess seamed pussybow blouse that's been in StyleArc's archives for several years. I've had this pattern in and out of my shopping cart a number of times over the years (I have other pussybow blouse patterns, but none with princess seams). Since the Pearl top doesn't have a ton of shaping, I love that they're also offering the Tiffany blouse as an alternative freebie.

StyleArc - Tiffany blouse

Final Thoughts

OMG, I love that peacoat. Did you get that impression from my post? The thing is, I've already made my "new coat" for the year, and I'm not sure that I want to invest the time in doing another coat...but that coat is such a classic! And, I could finally add the Tiffany blouse to my pattern stash...  Hmmm...  Anyone else love that peacoat, or is it just me?

And how do you feel about the Seamwork changes? Whereas I had no interest in subscribing before, I will say that I'm mildly intrigued now. Probably not right away, but if they could put together a few consecutive months of patterns that I liked, I might bite.