This Week in Patterns (20-Nov-2015)

Happy Friday, everyone!  We've got a short round-up this week, which is probably a bit of a relief for both you and me considering that I squeezed in two project posts over the course of the past week.

This week, we have new releases from two companies:

• Closet Case Files
• StyleArc

Closet Case Files: Clare Coat

We've already spent a fair amount of time discussing the newest Closet Case Files pattern release on my blog post where I talked about testing this pattern.  But, in case you missed or skipped that post, the gist of it is that the pattern gets a big thumbs up from me. It's a really great pattern in a lot of ways for inexperienced coat sewists, and it's got two pretty stylish views even if you don't need the hand-holding.

I'd love to see some more patterns like this one, both to help expand my own and others' skill sets and to give us the confidence to lose the training wheels on the interesting coat patterns offered by other pattern makers who trend to more sparse instructions.

CCF - Clare Coat

StyleArc: Design Contest Winner Patterns - Hampton Crush Collection

Earlier this week, StyleArc released a trio of new patterns, one of which was the winner of the pattern design competition that StyleArc hosted on Instagram a while back. You can see all of the contest entries on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/stylearcdesigner/

StyleArc: Vicki Top

First up is the Vicki Top, a breezey swing top with armhole darts. This pattern is free with the purchase of the collection as a discounted bundle. As is so often the case with StyleArc, the sewn up sample on the product page is much more appealing than the line drawing.

StyleArc - Vicki Top

StyleArc: Emily Skirt

I'm not sure how this skirt would look on someone with a tummy, like me, but I quite like the design itself:

StyleArc - Emily skirt

StyleArc: Christia Pant

The Christia is a woven pull-on pant. It's a fine enough pant, but I'm a little disappointed that this was the design winner when, IMO, there were more interesting designs submitted. On the other hand, interesting takes on a pull-on pant seem to be the bread-and-butter of StyleArc, so maybe it shouldn't be a surprise that this won. It's fine, but as someone with a tummy, I'm leery of the pleats.

StyleArc - Christia pull-on pant

Final Thoughts

I've already made the Clare Coat and have the paper pattern on its way.  I can see the appeal of the StyleArc patterns, but I don't feel like they're the best style choices for my figure. What are your thoughts? Like, love, or hate anything?