This Week in Patterns (And Other News) (12-Feb-2016)

So of course, the next week after I decide that I'm going to scale back my pattern roundup posts, due to releases slowing down, we actually get a fairly interesting crop of new patterns. Enjoy!

Panic on the Streets of London

Before I launch into the patterns, I just want to give a heads up that my husband and I will be taking our first child-free vacation fairly soon and staying in London for a week. We'll have TripAdvisor and Rick Steves to help us out, but we welcome any suggestions/recommendations. We're staying in the Earl's Court neighborhood ("Do you smile...when you think about Earl's Court?"), and yes, there will be fabric shopping and a trip to the V&A. I've been to London before, but it's been 15 years since my last visit, and I wasn't sewing yet on that last trip.

New Patterns

After a fairly big lull in indie releases for the past month or so, we've got five new releases this week--all indies:

• By Hand London
• Grainline Studios
• HotPatterns
• Paprika Patterns
• StyleArc

By Hand London: Sarah Shirt

I will easily admit that my personal aesthetic and By Hand London's typical party dress aesthetic are usually miles apart...but I think that this shirt is actually really cute. And it's a separate! Obviously, you'd need a really drapey fabric to avoid the tent effect on this, but overall, I think it's a cutesy shirt that isn't vomit inducingly twee.

BHL -Sarah Shirt

Grainline Studios: Archer Popover Expansion pack

I love the trend of "expansion packs" that we've been seeing recently with indie patterns. What a great way to get more mileage out of a pattern that you've already worked out the fit for, right?

Popover-style shirts have been pretty popular in women's RTW for the past few years, and I don't see any reason for them to go away any time soon, especially given the 90's influence that's been popular in fashion and will probably remain so. There have been a few tutorials floating around online on how to turn a traditional button-down shirt into a popover style, but the Archer expansion pack is reasonably priced and eliminates the drafting work of doing it yourself. Plus, it includes traditional tower-style sleeve plackets--a modification that many people ended up making to their Archers, anyway. If I had ever gotten around to fitting the Archer, I'd be all over this.

Grainline - Archer popover expansion

HotPatterns: Athleisure Layer Cake tee

HotPatterns' latest top pattern is inspired by an Anthropologie design and incorporates the draped neckline style that we're starting to see pop up a lot in RTW. It has faux layers incorporated to give a layered look without the bulk. I love the neckline on this one--I like the idea of making up the body of the shirt in a French Terry and then using lighterweight knits for the layered element.

HotPatterns - Layer Cake tee

(Psst...a little bird told me that the Curvy Sewing Collective will be running a giveaway for this pattern, starting tomorrow (Saturday) morning.)

Paprika Patterns: Opal Cardigan

Lisa from Paprika Patterns is back with another practical-basic-with-a-twist pattern. This time, it's an open-front cardigan pattern with three different length options. You know those coatigans that have been back in style for the past year-ish? Here's your pattern for one.

Paprika Patterns - Opal Cardigan

StyleArc: Beth Pants

According to StyleArc, the Beth stretch woven pants are essentially an update on StyleArc's popular Barb woven stretch pant with a few more design details. This one might be worth picking up if you don't already have the Barb in your pattern stash.

StyleArc - Beth pant

Final Thoughts

So this was a pretty nice little group of patterns this week, wasn't it? Will any of these be going into your pattern stash?

Also, if you've got recommendations/suggestions for London, please leave them. Obviously, I'll be hitting Shaukut and window shopping at Liberty of London, but I'd love to hear what your favorite fabrics stores are there. I will be accompanying DH to not one but two Premiere League Football matches while we're there, so I've got some leverage for fabric-related activities. ;)

This Week in Patterns (5-Feb-2016)

Sorry about not posting for a few weeks, but the pattern releases have been trickling in this winter. I'm seriously considering scaling back this post series to an every-other-week (or even once-monthly) frequency while things are somewhat slow in terms of new patterns.

Since the last post in this series, we've had new releases from the following companies:

• Butterick
• Colette/Seamwork Magazine
• Kwik Sew
• Sew Over It
• StyleArc

Butterick: Spring 2016 collection

First up, we have the Butterick 2016 spring patterns, which were released yesterday. Overall, I think that this is a pretty solid collection, with something for everyone. However, nearly ever garment is made up in a print, so you really have to drill down into the individual web pages for the technical drawings to see what's going on with most of these. Here are a few that caught my eye:

B6333: Misses' shirtdress

Hey, it's a shirtdress that's really similar to the ever-popular McCalls M6696, but without the back poof of the McCall's and WITH shoulder princess seams instead of darts. Yes, I will be picking this up at the next Butterick sale.

B6333

B6322: Misses' Ruched Corset-style Dress (Patterns by Gertie)

Gertie clearly took her recent dirndl obsession a step further by designing this dirndl-inspired dress for Butterick's spring collection. I actually think that this is super cute, but this dress would never work on my boobtastic figure. Design-wise, though, it's youthful, and should be flattering on non-busty figures, and it's a fun, unique design.

B6322

B6323: Misses' One-Shoulder Dress (Patterns by Gertie)

Further evidence that Gertie has something against boobs.

B6323

B6321: Misses' Square Neck Dresses (Lisette)

If you get rid of the boob flaps, B6321 is a cute dress.

B6321

B6320: Misses' Sweetheart Neckline Dress and Jumpsuit

The jumpsuit view of this is similar to a romper that I've seen pop up on Modcloth. It's a cute design, although with those defined "cups", I can't see this being particularly large-bust friendly, if you're over a D-cup. Yes, you could FBA/enlarge the cups, but that will throw off the proportions of the look.

B6320

B6331: Misses' Trench Jacket and Pants

I LOVE this trench jacket from Lisette. I have plenty of basic pant patterns and have generally found the Big 4 crotch curve to not be a good fit for me, but these would probably work well for others.

B6331

Colette/Seamwork Magazine: February 2016 Issue

The theme for February is "The Intimate Issue", which isn't surprising given that many organizations/companies/whatever go with a lingerie theme for February. (Heck, over at the Curvy Sewing Collective, we chose February for our lingerie-themed month.)

Seamwork: Almada Robe

First up is a robe with an interesting, if possibly not particularly practical sleeve design:

Seamwork - Almada robe

Seamwork: Lisbon Slip/Nightie

The Lisbon is a princess seamed (!) bias slip or nightie with an optional modesty panel. With my giant boobs, traditional slips or nighties without an underbust seam tend to hang off of me like a tent, so I'm intrigued by this one.

Seamwork - Lisbon slip/nightie

Kwik Sew: Spring 2016 Release

We had a small release for spring from Kwik Sew this past week. Of the 20 patterns included in the release, only 10 of them are for adult women (the rest are crafts or children's patterns). Of those 10, most look either somewhat dated by a few years or like patterns that you could easily find in other catalogs.

K4155

The one pattern that did jump out at me was K4155, a princess seamed shirtdress with a gored 1/4-circle skirt:

K4155

Sew Over It: Tulip Skirt

On-the-rise British pattern company Sew Over It released a new skirt PDF pattern recently. This one is for a tulip-style skirt and is appropriately named "Tulip Skirt":

Sew Over It - Tulip Skirt

StyleArc: Februrary 2016 Release

It's a new month, so we have new StyleArc patterns available.

StyleArc: Alegra Coat/Jacket

The Alegra is a cocoon-style jacket or coat with raglan sleeves.  Put this one in the category of "I think that the design is interesting, but I'm not sure that I could wear it."

StyleArc - Alegra jacket/coat

StyleArc: Talia woven pant (freebie option)

The Talia is a straight-legged woven pull-on pant with optional welt pockets and elastic in the back part of the waistband. This looks like it could be a really useful pattern, and it's one of the freebie choices for the month of February if you purchase at least one other StyleArc paper pattern.

StyleArc - Talia pant

StyleArc: Allison Skirt

The Allison is an elastic waist skirt with inverted pleats at its gores. I really like this skirt--it's cute and looks like it would be swishy and comfortable. If I were to place an order this month, it'd be a tough decision for me between the Talia pant and the Allison.

StyleArc - Allison skirt

Final Thoughts

So those are the big releases of the past few weeks, as they've come trickling in. Would anyone be heartbroken if I scaled back the frequency of this roundup series, given that we're not being inundated with the flood of new patterns that we were a year or two ago?  Also, what are your picks from this batch?