This Week (and Last) in Patterns (aka Sweatshirtpalooza!) (11-Dec-2015)

If by any chance you were wondering about my absence last week, I had been knocked on my butt by the respiratory virus that's been going around. I could barely get out of bed, so writing any sort of blog post was out of the question. No post last week means that we've got twice as much ground to cover this week, and we have had quite a few new releases these past two weeks.

Late Breaking News:  Yes, I did see that the Early Spring (!) McCall's were published last night, but given that we didn't have a roundup post last week, I don't want to delay today's post to get them in. There's a bunch of re-hash-y prom dresses in this batch, but I did see a few cute everyday items from the one pass that I've made through the collection so far. We'll cover those next week.

Do you like interesting sweatshirts? I do. And if you do like sweatshirts, you should be pretty thrilled with these past two weeks because we've had FOUR different unique sweatshirt patterns released. We also had a lot of other things released, too. Here's the list of companies with new releases in the past two weeks:

• Baste + Gather
• Cashmerette
• Colette Patterns
• Colette Seamwork Magazine
• HotPatterns
• Itch to Stitch
• Paprika Patterns
• SBCC Patterns
• StyleArc Patterns

Baste + Gather: Birkin Flares

After seeing many teaser pics on Instagram and a few related blog posts even, Lauren of Baste + Gather has finally released her flared jean pattern. Lauren's jeans are a high-waisted retro-style flare and have been getting a lot of positive comments from testers.

I like them, but I'd have to grade up a few sizes for these, plus, I somewhat recently bought flared jeans patterns from Burda and HotPatterns. (Although if StyleArc put out a flared jeans pattern, I'd snap it up in a heartbeat.)

Baste + Gather: Birkin Flares

Cashmerette Patterns: Washington Dress

My fellow Curvy Sewing Collective Editor Jenny from Cashmerette released her second pattern last week!  Like her first pattern, the Appleton dress, the Washington Dress is designed for curvy figures--up to a size 28 and with three sets of cup sizes: C/D, E/F, G/H. The Washington dress combines a knit top, stable knit hip yoke, and woven skirt to give lots of design and color-blocking possibilities.

I pattern tested this dress and have seen some of the tester photos. I won't show my tester version because I should have sized up (use your judgment as far as how comfortable you are with negative ease, when choosing a size), but I'll say that proportions and color-blocking choices are the key to getting a killer version of this dress. If you're looking to get a slimming hourglass shape out of this dress, you'll want to choose a hip yoke fabric that's darker in color--like a black or a navy. I made my tester version using a neoprene remnant for the skirt, and I really liked how the skirt portion came out, so if you're wondering about that, I say go for it!

Cashmerette - Washington dress

Colette Patterns: Phoebe Sheath Dress

Relatively soon after releasing the Wren knit surplice dress, Colette has released another pattern--this time a sheath dress with an A-line skirt.

My reaction? Meh. I appreciate the diversity of the models used for the photo shoot, but I don't feel like the dress fits or flatters the larger model all that well. In fact, if you click through to the product page, you can see that the gray sample has a bust dart (not shown in the line drawing) in addition to the princess seams. Why not just do a princess seam FBA to get a better fit? Also, for both models, why not extend that front panel all the way over to the princess seam? It just looks odd where it ends.

Colette - Phoebe dress

Colette Seamwork: December 2015 Issue

The theme for the December issue of Seamwork magazine is "Appreciation". I'm not entirely sure what that means, but it does include a mixed bag of two new patterns.

Seamwork: Brooklyn Skirt

Ok, THIS is the type of pattern that I had originally hoped would be included in Seamwork. It's a basic pattern but with an interesting attention getting detail: a half-circle skirt with a DEEP front pleat. I know that I've seen similar skirts pop up on Burda from time to time (and StyleArc also has a deep-pleat skirt in their catalog), but having the Colette version available saves you from having to hunt through Burda's dense online catalog or hunt down back issues of their magazine. So yeah, I like this skirt.

Colette Seamwork - Brooklyn skirt

Seamwork: York Blouse

The York is an unremarkable and inoffensive woven t-shirt-style blouse. It's got a boatneck and 3/4-length sleeves.

Most notable...I didn't get a screen shot in time, but the initial photos that were up for this blouse were BAD. The sample was badly sewn and the fit on the model was terrible--with bust darts that ended several inches below the actual bust of the model. I have giant droopy boobs, though, so maybe that would be a good sign for trying to fit myself?

Colette Seamwork - York Blouse

HotPatterns 1182: Athleisure Pretzel Sweatshirt

We've now reached the first (and probably my favorite) of the four new sweatshirt patterns that debuted in the past week. The Pretzel Sweatshirt features a twist hem in front and looks like the perfect cozy top to throw on over jeans. I can't wait to have this made up and hopefully join my Paprika Jasper (unblogged) and Blank Slate Denver comfy tops in near-constant wardrobe rotation.

HotPatterns - Pretzel sweatshirt

HotPatterns 1199: Fast & Fabulous Halcyon Sweatshirt

HotPatterns released a second sweatshirt pattern last week--the Halcyon sweatshirt. I like the deep v-neck and cross-over detail on this one. I'm not sure how I feel about the super dropped shoulder here, but again, this looks like a great layering piece on a cold, rainy day (like we've been having constantly for the past few weeks here in the PNW--I take back all of my complaints about a lack of rain)!

HotPatterns - Halcyon Sweatshirt

Itch to Stitch: Liana Stretch Jeans

Lost in some of the bigger name releases of the past two weeks, the relatively new but very prolific patternmaker Itch-to-Stitch released three new patterns for basics. The first of these is the Liana stretch jean, which have options for a straight, skinny, or flared leg. I think that these jeans are a fantastic idea--fit your crotch/butt area once, then swap in whatever leg you want to use. Honestly, I'm surprised that we're not hearing more buzz about these--the tester versions look good for the most part, and the size range for the pattern is fairly inclusive (better than the Birkin Flares).

Itch to Stitch - Liana stretch jeans

Itch to Stitch: Mila Shirt

The Mila shirt is one of those placket-style shirts that's been everywhere in RTW for the past few years. There are a few similar patterns out there (New Look 6474 comes to mind), but the Mila has classic shirt details and is geared more towards flannels and shirting, whereas the New Look and other similar patterns seem like they're more geared towards lightweight and/or sheer fabric. The Mila also has cup sizes up to DD, so that's a nice feature, too.

Itch to Stitch - Mila Shirt

Itch to Stitch: Irena Top

The third and final pattern in this batch is the Irena top: a knit pullover top meant for layering. I like the design of this one, but I'm not sure how well it would work on someone with a large bust. None of the tester photos that went out with the newsletter showed the top on anyone particularly busty, if I recall. So, this is a wait-and-see for me.

Itch to Stitch: Irena top

Paprika Patterns: Zircon Sweater/Dress

Following up last year's popular Jasper sweater/dress, Lisa from Paprika patterns has released another sweater/dress--this time without pockets but with an interesting inset yoke and hem detail. I think it's a pretty cool-looking sweatshirt; I love that yoke detail. My local JoAnn's (of all places) has a bunch of quilted knits and double-sided knits right now, which I think would be perfect for this.

Paprika Patterns - Zircon Sweater/Dress

SBCC Patterns: Brooklyn Hoodie

So, this is an interesting pattern. Betsy from SBCC wanted to take the oversized look that's currently in style, but draft this hoodie so that it would be proportionate with a petite woman's figure. It's got dropped shoulders and roomy at the chest, but more fitted through the sleeves and torso. I've had success with SBCC patterns, and I like the idea of this hoodie.

SBCC - Brooklyn hoodie

StyleArc: December 2015 Release

With the flood of other new patterns this month, StyleArc's December releases would be pretty easy to overlook. They're not bad, by any means, but we saw more interesting releases from some other companies, IMO. As they've been doing the past few months, if you order a paper pattern from StyleArc, you get a choice of a new pattern (the Maris top) or an older pattern (the Peta pant) as your freebie pattern for the month.

StyleArc: Kaye Tunic

It's a drapey tunic with drapey side pockets. It's fine, but there isn't much to say about it. Or maybe I'm just fatigued from going through so many patterns at this point.

StyleArc - Kaye Tunic

StyleArc: Maris Top (Freebie option)

It's a drapey top with design and color-blocking options.

StyleArc - Maris top

Final Thoughts

After barely having bought any patterns in the past few months, I went on a pattern buying binge these past two weeks.  Far too many patterns screamed "Layer up with me! I'm cozy and comfortable" while we've been mired in a really rainy stretch here in Seattle. (Hint: Most of the ones that I bought were sweatshirt patterns.)

Was there anything that you particularly loved or hated these past two weeks?

Spring Sewing Plans, Part 1: Separates

As is always the case when the seasons change in the spring or fall, I have many more things on my "want to sew" list than I know that I'll have time to sew. I'm also looking to break out of my comfort zone for warmer weather and try some of the newer looks/silhouettes that have been popping up in recent months, and that means more muslins since I'll be in unfamiliar territory from a fit and flattery standpoint.

Typically, for me, most of the patterns that I've pulled out as "candidates" are from recent releases, with a handful of holdovers from previous years/seasons that I've still been wanting to make but haven't yet.

Woven tops and blouses

I am in love with all of the pretty prints that I've been seeing lately in cotton lawns and voiles. I usually stick with knit tops because they're so much easier to fit and generally faster to sew than wovens. This year, though, I really want to add some woven basics to my closet.

HotPatterns 1186 - Plain & Simple Woven Tee and Dress

If you're going to tackle a woven blouse, you may as well start simple, right?  This pattern is HotPatterns version of the woven tees like the Grainline Scout and that several of the Big 4 offer. Trudy released this pattern a few weeks ago.

HotPatterns Woven Tee

I opted for this pattern over the others because I knew that HotPatterns' drafting works better for my figure than some of the other options, and I liked that this pattern gives a few more design options than some of the other patterns, as well--there's both a top and a dress view, and both a v-neck and boatneck option.

I've already muslined this pattern, found the muslin promising, and so made my pattern adjustments and am working on my first "good" version. I'd love to have a few of these tops in fun prints in my closet.

SBCC Mimosa Blouse

I made one of these blouses last summer and skipped the muslin stage when I shouldn't have. The blouse is wearable, but there are certain things about the fit that really irk me, and I know that I can do better. I really want to make another one of these, but apply the fit tweaks that I should have done to the first blouse.

SBCC Mimosa blouse

HotPatterns Super Fantastic Shirt

This pattern is now out-of-print (OOP), but it's been perennially on my "to sew" list for about 4 years. It's like my Colette Hawthorn of blouses! Placket-style blouses like this have been everywhere, though, for the past 2 years, and I think it's finally time for me to sew this pattern up.

HotPatterns Superfantastic Shirt

McCall's 6898

Another recently OOP pattern, with a few modifications, I'll be using this pattern to knock off and create a more plus sized friendly version of the Deer & Doe Bruyere shirt:

McCalls M6989

I like some aspects of the McCall's version better than the Deer & Doe--like the fact that the McCall's version has different cup sizes and shoulder princess seams, both of which should make this easier to fit to my own figure than the Deer & Doe, which I'd have to grade up and do a large FBA on.

HotPatterns Classix Nouveau Refined Peasant Blouse

I loved this pattern when it came out but haven't gotten around to making it up. It's looked good on everyone who's made it up, too. This pattern should be a good choice for when I want to sew a woven blouse but not spend weeks working on fitting beforehand.

HotPatterns Refined Peasant Blouse

Muse Melissa (blouse)

The Melissa, by promising newcomer Muse patterns, is a blouse/dress/skirt pattern that was released while I was taking a break from my blog. I love the open neckline and multi-princess seaming on the blouse, especially since the blouse/dress has an option for D-cup sizing.

The blouse is my favorite view of this pattern and the one that I see myself making and wearing the most:

Muse Melissa blouse, dress, skirt

I don't sew a lot of skirts, but the skirt view of this gives me flashbacks to the A-line rayon challis and corduroy skirts that I loved wearing in the 90's, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. And I think that the dress has potential, but with a bad fabric choice, you're running dangerously close to looking like you're wearing a waitress uniform. And right now, when I think "waitress uniform", I think of that awful "Di" character that they've introduced on Mad Men this season, and I really wish she'd just go away, just like everyone else who watches Mad Men.

Pants and shorts

If I'm going to sew a bunch of new blouses, I need some new pants and shorts to wear with those blouses, don't I?

HotPatterns Classix Nouveau Dolce Vita Slim Cut pant

I'm already two muslins in on this pattern. The second muslin was an improvement over the first, but they're still not where I want them to be. This is such a nice basic, classic style of pant that I'm really hoping to get a TNT pattern out of this one. How amazing would it be to think, "I really need a new pair of pants to go with such-and-such blouse, " and to be able to pull out a pattern and sew up a pair of pants that fit nicely?

HotPatterns Dolce Vita pant

StyleArc Jennifer City Short

Cute walking shorts in a current style. I suspect that the longer and slimmer length on these will also help prevent the dreaded inner-thigh-ride-up that can be an issue with shorts when you have larger inner thighs.

StyleArc Jennifer City Shorts

HotPatterns Camera Ready Culottes

I will be jumping onto the culottes bandwagon!

HotPatterns Camera-ready Culottes

I chose this pattern over some of the other culotte patterns out there because the HotPatterns version doesn't have all of the pleating over the tummy that you see in the StyleArc and Big 4 takes on this style. These have a single, small pleat on either side in front, and two darts in back. Annie from SewBaby has already made these up, and they look pretty fabulous on her. They key to making these look nice on my short, stumpy figure will be getting the length right, but I'm pretty confident that I'll be able to do that.

Final Thoughts

My plan is if I keep the bottoms fairly neutral, the blouses will all likely pair pretty well with any of the bottoms, giving me a nice capsule wardrobe of separates for spring and summer. I didn't do a whole lot of successful sewing for myself in the latter part of last year, and I'm really looking forward to refreshing my warm weather wardrobe a bit.

Have you started planning or sewing for warmer weather yet? What patterns are on your "to sew" list?

Mini-wardrobe 2014 summary and lessons learned

Okay, I promise this will be my last mini-wardrobe post. I'm sick of writing them, and I'm sure that you're sick of reading them. Plus, the challenge/contest ended on July 31st, and it's now August 6th. But in the interest of documenting what I've sewn, both for myself and anyone who happens across this blog in the future, I do want to do a wrap-up post.

The premise

Way back in June, I started planning for the Pattern Review mini-wardrobe contest. With no illusions of winning, I looked at it as a personal challenge, much in the same way many marathon runner are simply looking to beat a personal best time or break the 4-hour mark. The challenge was to sew five different garments during the month of July. The five garments had to be able to be combined in such a way as to create six different looks. While paper patterns could be cut out and patterns could be muslined before July 1st, cutting fashion fabric and sewing could only take place between July 1st and 31st.

I knew that we'd be heading out of town for a mini-break from July 30-August 1st, so I'd need to have everything done and submitted by late morning on the 30th.

The planned pieces

I initially set out to create a lightweight layering wardrobe for Seattle's varying summer weather. This has been my first full summer in Seattle, and it's been a change from San Diego's summers, which are simply, hot, hotter, and hottest.

I love the blue and white combinations that have been so popular in recent months, so I used that color combination as my initial inspiration. I knew that I wanted to make another Moneta dress, and that I wanted a knit maxi skirt, so those were the first two pieces that I scribbled into my plan. I built a few other possibilities around them, winding up with an initial plan (with several pieces still undecided) that looked like the following mood board:

Initial moodboard for mini-wardrobe

Yeah, so that plan was a little ambitious. Because of laundry accidents, time limitations, and simple changes-of-mind, here's what I actually completed:

Final mini-wardrobe moodboard

The look-and-feel is still similar, but I wound up introducing two new colors (coral and radiant orchid) into the mix. Here's what changed from the initial plan:

• First out was the Archer blouse. I knew that I'd need to muslin that and wouldn't have time to properly fit and sew a button-down blouse on my figure. I initially planned to replace the Archer with one of two possible gray knit tops, but in the end, decided to introduce a bit more color into the wardrobe and went with the coral Mimosa blouse.
• About halfway through the month, I realized that I wouldn't have the fitting time to do those ikat-print jeans justice. I swapped those out in favor of the easier-fitting rayon challis trackpant.
• Finally, as you probably knew, I sewed a white hoodie. Said white hoodie was accidentally turned pink via a laundry cycle with a red t-shirt. Of course, this happened right before the final photo shoot for the hoodie. My husband and I tried a couple of rounds of Rit color remover on the pink hoodie but were only able to lighten the pinkness of it. After playing around with some fabrics that I had on hand and seeing how they'd coordinate with the other pieces, I opted to dye the pink hoodie "radiant orchid" (aka Pantone's "color of the year" for 2014).

The completed looks

It came down to the wire (particularly because of the hoodie-laundry-dye debacle), but I did manage to complete all five pieces in time and was able to get my husband to photograph all six looks.

Look 1 (Hoodie + maxi skirt):

Look 2 (Moneta dress):

Look 3 (Moneta + hoodie):

Look 4 (Mimosa blouse + maxi skirt):

 

Look 5 (Mimosa blouse + trackpant):

Look 6 (hoodie + trackpant):

Lessons learned

At the end of the month, I wound up having a few great new outfits to introduce into my summer wardrobe. Given that I work full time and have a 2-year-old, I definitely found it challenging to complete five pieces in a month, even if most of the pieces were fairly easy and didn't require extensive fitting. I also felt like a learned a few things about my "sewing self" in this process:

• Having an aggressive short-term sewing goal was a huge motivator for me. As I started to fall behind, I found myself setting my alarm to wake up an hour before everyone else in the house. (I usually get up 30 minutes early to have some me-time/sewing time.)
• Planning a mini-wardrobe like this helped keep me on track with creating a handful of wearable garments in a short period of time. There are no orphans here and no "frosting" pieces. While I've gotten off-track from the capsule wardrobe that I'd originally planned for 2014 (having sewn only 3 of 12 items at the end of July), a shorter version still fills wardrobe holes for me and doesn't seem so overwhelming.
• Setting out a plan at the beginning of the month and holding myself accountable really helped me stick to that plan. I am going to try to do this on a regular basis. Planning ~4 pieces/month will still give me the flexibility to jump right in and tackle whatever bright and shiny new pattern catches my eye right away.
• I have no desire to do anything like this more than once or maybe twice a year.

For those of you who did the mini-wardrobe challenge this year, how did it go? If not this challenge, have you done something similar, and did you find that it changed how you planned or executed your sewing projects afterward?

Finished Project: SBCC 309 - Mimosa Blouse

Continuing on my personal quest to sew patterns from pattern companies that are friendly to my figure-type, I made up the SBCC Mimosa blouse last week:

SBCC Mimosa blouse

This is a great woven blouse for summer. It's easy-fitting without being boxy (it has bust darts for shaping), and the tie detail adds interest without being fussy. As you might be aware, SBCC specializes in petite sizes (both misses and plus sizes) with their patterns, but if you're taller, they all include lengthen-shorten lines so that you can easily lengthen at the right spots without guessing. I'm 5'2", and I've found the lengths of their patterns to be spot-on for me.

For this version, I used a coral colored cotton pique from Fashionista Fabrics that had been sitting in my stash for a few years. I loved the color, but wasn't sure that it's the best color for my complexion. Seeing the finished blouse, I do think that it brings out the ruddiness in my skin tone, but I don't really care. In any case, this fabric has a hand and drape similar to a blouse-weight linen. I actually feel that it was a little heavy for this blouse, now that it's finished. When I make this again, I will use a voile, lawn, or challis.

Mimosa + McCall's maxi-skirt

I have an older version of the pattern where, when you tape the PDF together, the pages need to butt right up to each other with no overlap. Betsy of SBCC has since released an updated, re-tiled version of the pattern that should be easier to lay out and tape together.

Fitting-wise, I made a size 1X at the shoulders/neckline then did a "cheater FBA" by grading to a 2X at the underarm. (My measurements match the SBCC 2X.) 

For the most part, I love the finished blouse, but there are some changes that I will make the next time around. First, I'm not crazy about the sleeve on this one. when the blouse is laid flat, the hem forms a big "C", and it's just sort of an odd shape. (I suspect that this is partially due to the plus sized draft/grading because I don't see it in the reviews posted by women clearly wearing smaller sizes than me.) You can see this a little bit in the pattern photo from the SBCC web site:

SBCC Mimosa sample photo

Also, the blouse rides up a little bit in front, so instead of doing a cheater FBA, I should have gone with a straight 1X and done an FBA. The dart itself is rather large, so I will likely need to rotate part of that dart elsewhere. (I'm thinking adding some gathers to the shoulder would be nice.) I would definitely like to make this blouse again and will probably use a lightweight woven print for my next version.

Bonus: If you're interested in making up your own Mimosa, this pattern (newly re-formatted for easier PDF printing) is on sale this week from SBCC. (Not at all affiliated, just passing the word along.)

Mini-Wardrobe Progress: Week 3

If you're sick of my mini-wardrobe posts, the month is almost over. I'm in the home stretch now!

mini-wardrobe status on 24-Jul-2014

Yup, I've completed four out of my five planned pieces. For the fifth (the HP trackpant), I've cut out and altered the paper pattern. I am really hoping to be done with everything (except documentation) by the end of the weekend. Unless there's some major unforeseen obstacle, I can't see the trackpants taking more than a half hour to cut out and more than two hours to sew.  (Famous last words, right?)

Plan update

A few more words about the planned trackpants. If you'll recall, last week I was undecided between a floral print or vaguely ethnic-ish dot/triangle print rayon challis, both of which were on their way from FabricMart. From the photos, I slightly preferred the dot/triangle print over the floral for this project, but FabricMart used the word "glitter" in the description. Yikes!  To me, glitter is worn by the types of women who wear pink tracksuits with the word "juicy" bedazzeled across their asses. In other words, not me.

Now, though having both fabrics in hand and having washed them both, the clear winner is the dot/triangle print. Yes, there is noticeable "glitter", but I don't find it too awful unless the fabric is moving. (Side note: This fabric would make a great swishy skirt or dress.) The dot/triangle print is clearly from a different lot than the floral and is much beefier than the floral, making it much more appropriate for pants.  Frankly, outside of the glitter, I really love the print of the dot/triangle fabric. The true test will be if my husband notices or says anything about the glitter.

Where are the Mimosa and Moneta?

Unfortunately, I still don't have photos of the new Moneta or Mimosa blouse yet. My husband has promised me that we'll do a photo shoot this weekend, so I will definitely get pictures of those then and then will finally be able to blog about them and do my pattern reviews. Hopefully, I'll have the pants done by then, and I can get everything photographed in one long session.

I've seen surprisingly few Mimosa reviews/blog posts, which is a shame because it's a neat little blouse. While my Moneta post will be a drive-by (I only made one minor change from my last version), I'll have an in-depth post of mostly raves and a few minor frustrations about the Mimosa.

Overall, the mini-wardrobe contest has been a good challenge for me. I wouldn't want to do this every month, but it's been a very good way for me to be very productive on working towards a plan in a short period of time--sort of like a "sprint", for those of you who are familiar with Agile software development.

Mini-Wardrobe Progress: Week 2

We're just past the halfway point of the month of July, and I am just over halfway finished with my 5-piece mini-wardrobe for the Mini-Wardrobe Contest on Pattern Review:

Mini-wardrobe status as of July 17th

I've completed 3 out of the 5 planned pieces so far:

• White hoodie (HP Weekender Daytona Hoodie)
• Striped maxi-skirt (McCall's 6966)
• Solid blue knit dress (Colette Moneta)

I just finished the Moneta and haven't been able to take pictures yet. I did get my husband to take a few photos of my hoodie and maxi-skirt look a few days ago:

Hoodie + maxi-skirt

The skirt was a royal pain to cut out and sew, but I'll save the details about that for another post. I do love the finished skirt, though, and while I have no intention of sewing this view of this skirt again, I would like to add at least one more knit maxi-skirt to my wardrobe.

Here's the back view (with toddler photobomb):

It was 90 degrees out that day; Eva is the one dressed appropriately, not me.

Now, if you've followed my mini-wardrobe progress, you might have noticed a change in plans regarding my remaining two garments. First off, as I sort of expected, there's no way that I'll have time to properly muslin and do fitting justice for those ikat print pants/jeans that I wanted to make. I'm swapping them out with a set of rayon challis track pants. The look will still be very much on-trend for this summer, but will be a heck of a lot easier to fit and sew. I've got two cuts of rayon challis on the way from FabricMart (ordered over the weekend where everything was 40% off--these were $2.99/yard, I think). My options are either the gray-and-black rose print or the silver-and-black dots print. From the photos, I think that the "dots" print is more of what I'm looking for, but the fabric description contains "Small Dot Pattern with some Glitter," which has me worried that this fabric won't be suitable for anything other than a muslin. I think that the rose print makes a suitable backup.

The other change is that I just wasn't feeling a gray knit top (probably the HP La Strada) as part of this wardrobe. I have a shirting-weight coral cotton pique in my stash, and I'm thinking that I'd rather make the SBCC Minosa top to go with the trackpants and maxi-skirt. I've been wanting to make the Mimosa for a while and kept getting distracted by other projects, but now I think I'm finally going to do it.

Have you done a mini- or capsule wardrobe before? Did you find that you kept changing your mind about what you wanted to sew, or did you come up with a plan and stick to it?

Finished Project: SBCC 320 - Julep Skirt (and another Tonic Tee)

After the fiddliness (is that a word) of my StyleArc Amber top, I needed an easy project to get my sewjo flowing again. Around this time last week, we were hit with a wave of warm weather (80 degrees is a heat wave in Seattle terms), and I realized that I had a serious lack of summery skirts in my wardrobe. I also felt like I was just about the only woman on my tech company's campus NOT wearing a dress or skirt with a hi-lo hem during those couple of sunny days. I've also been so enamored with my various versions of the SBCC Tonic Tee that I'd really been wanting to try a few other SBCC patterns.

I decided to kill two birds with one stone and sew up an easy skirt with a hi-lo hem. Enter the SBCC Julep skirt:

SBCC Julep Skirt line drawing

Now, I know that there are Big 4 versions of this skirt out there that I could have picked up at a $0.99 or $1.99 sale, but given the shape of the skirt, I was more than happy to pay a few more dollars to not have to worry about where I'd need to shorten the skirt for my 5'2" frame. I also made a coordinating Tonic Tee to go with my new skirt:

Julep skirt + Tonic tee

I hadn't seen any photos of this skirt on a "real" person yet, so if you're having trouble telling where the skirt hits, the front of the skirt hem hits me just below the knee, and the back of the skirt hem hits at about mid-to-upper-mid-calf.

Hello swayback! I really need to add a CB seam to the Tonic Tee pattern.

The skirt does have a center back (CB) seam, which isn't reflected in the line drawing. The CB seam adds some shaping and also gives the skirt a little "kick" at the bottom back hem, which you can't really see in my busy print.

Both the skirt and tee fabric are ITY knits from a recent FabricMart sale. The skirt was super easy to make (I think it took me around an hour, two hours if you count PDF assembly and fabric cutting time).

I'll note a few things about the skirt construction and sizing:

• According to the SBCC size chart, I'm a 2X, so that's what I sewed with no adjustments.
• Sizing is true to size chart measurements through the hips.
• As you can see from the line drawing, the skirt uses a yoga pant-style fabric waistband with no elastic. I felt like the waist ran a little large. I rarely size down for a waistband, but for this skirt, I'd grade down to a 1X the next time that I make this skirt.
• As noted in the pattern, you'll ease the waistband onto the skirt. The skirt waistband has a side seam and notches for the CB and center front (CF). Since the skirt itself has a CB seam, you can line the waistband notch up with that. The CF lacks any marking or notch, so make sure that you mark that point in some way (I cut a tiny snip into my seam allowance) while the fabric is still on the fold.
• The skirt waistband piece is marked to lay out and cut on the fold, but does not indicate the direction of stretch. If you've got your fabric folded selvedge-to-selvedge, that would put the stretch for the waistband running vertically. Given that my fabric didn't have much vertical stretch, I laid out the waistband on my fabric so that the fold was perpendicular to the selvedge, making the stretch go around my body. (Maybe this is why my waistband seemed a little big?)

The finished skirt is super comfortable (yoga pants comfortable, with that waistband) and very on-trend at the moment. I will definitely be making a few more of these for the summer--probably when I am in need of another instant gratification project.

Pop will eat itself or a Plantain-ized version of a Tonic tee

If a sewing blogger knocks off a free download pattern with another free download pattern, does that mean that we've reached the end of the Internet?

What if the blogger includes a meme-ish picture of her cat in her post?

 

I used my (free) SBCC Tonic tee pattern to create my own version of the popular (free) Deer & Doe Plantain t-shirt, and I'm quite happy with it:

Plantain-ized SBCC Tonic Tee

I used one of my recent merino wool jersey purchases from FabricMart for the body of the tee. The patches are also merino wool jersey (leftover from one of my husband's Mr. HP tees.) I'm wearing my Plantain-ized Tonic tee paired with a StyleArc Gorgeous Gore skirt that I made ages ago and never got around to reviewing or blogging about.

The modifications that I made to my Tonic tee were to add an A-line flare from the waist (I added 1.5" to the bottom side seams, and blended this up to nothing at the waist) and added the actual elbow patches from the Plantain pattern, which I had previously printed out.

Patches!

I interfaced the patches themselves with a lightweight fusible knit interfacing for stabilization, and used a wide zig-zag stitch to applique them onto the sleeves. I used the same patch placement as was shown on the actual Plantain sleeves.

A few more quick notes:

• I still haven't brought myself to finish my ill-fated Lekala tunic. Every time that I pull it out to play with the button placement/ruching distribution, it feels like an overwhelming task, and I end up putting it back on my desk.
• I've had a few goodies arrive in the mail, recently:
  
  
  • My most recent FabricMart order, two ITY jerseys (one in solid red, the other in a very work-friendly black/white/gray/red print). The solid red will become a top, the print will become a skirt and a top (there's more of it than the solid):

  

  ITY knits from FabricMart

  
  
  • My StyleArc order from last month arrived! I ended up going with the Sandra jeans and Patsy top. I will say that I'm a little hesitant now about the Issy top that I was so excited about. Early comments from the blogosphere is that it's not particularly flattering on a large bust. I'll keep that in mind and will muslin it for the style out of a cheap knit, first. Of course, I had already placed my order before I ran into my Lekala ruching issues.

  
  

  
  
  

  StyleArc now includes a label with your order. I love little extras like this:

  
  

Receiving my new StyleArc patterns revived my interest in a few of my "old" StyleArc patterns. I've since cut out the Olive Spliced Tee. I compared it to my Tonic tee, and the Olive has more ease (as is the style), but the armscye placement is nearly identical. Hmmm...maybe that's partially why I've had mostly good luck with StyleArc?

I also really like the StyleArc freebie Nancy shirt (and some of the other new patterns) for this month.  I am trying to exercise willpower and not place an order, since I just placed one last month. (However, I did go ~6 months before that...)

My Ottobre Woman magazine arrived yesterday, as well, and contains a lot of promising patterns for basics. I'm thinking that I might do a round-up post that highlights my favorites sometime next week.

Friday tapas

We all know that tapas are "small bites". I have several little updates that I wanted to post, but that didn't warrant a whole post to themselves.

Two new HotPatterns!

Okay, I'll admit it. I was stalking the HotPatterns web site this morning. Trudy always releases her new patterns on a Friday, and it had been nearly two months since the last new HotPattern (the Mr. HP Nice & Easy T, which I've already made twice for my husband, so far).  I figured that we were due for a new design or two, and I couldn't be more excited about the new releases, which I want to Sew. Right. Now.

First up is the Weekender Daytona Hoodie:

HP Weekender Daytona Hoodie

Isn't this cute? I had a couple of hoodies like these in the 90's, and I wore the heck out of them. I love the shoulder gathers, too. As I plow through the merino wool jerseys from my FabricMart binges, I will need to set aside a length or two for one of these hoodies.

Also new is one of those high-low hem skirts that we're seeing everywhere right now:

The Deco Vibe Swallowtail Skirt

I was actually looking at a similar pattern to this one from another company, but I'm just going to go with the HotPatterns version--I like it a little better, and I know how HotPatterns fit me.

I think this will look great with boots and one of the many tops that I'll be making from my merino wool jerseys.

Both patterns are 20% off now through the weekend (midnight, EST), too. Yes, I've already ordered both--did you even have to ask?

Sewing Expo in Puyallup

The big sewing expo in Puyallup is happening this weekend. I've never been to a sewing expo before, but this is a big one, and I'm really excited about checking it out. My mom will be in town for a few days starting tomorrow (so no sewing this weekend, probably), and we'll be hitting the expo together on Sunday. If you see two women who are clearly mother and daughter trying to calm down a 20-month-old toddler who is throwing a tantrum because she's had a bolt of fabric taken away from her, feel free to say "hi"!

Plantainification

As I lick my wounds from the likely wadderness of Lekala 4319, I decided that I needed a pick-me-up instant gratification project. I considered the Deer & Doe Plantain free t-shirt download, which I'd already printed out. But, then I had these thoughts:

1. If I make the Plantain, I'll need to tape together the PDF print out, and cut out the paper pattern.
2. The Plantain's largest size is 46. I'll likely need to do some grading up and/or FBA'ing.
3. Can't I just adapt the Plantain details that I like (elbow patches, a-line-ish hem) to my already-beloved SBCC Tonic tee pattern?

 #3 nailed it for me: I am Plantain-ifying my SBCC Tonic tee. I took a look at the pattern pieces from the Plantain and did a guesstimate adaptation to my Tonic tee. You can see the altered side seams/neckline in this photo:

And I love the elbow patches. I think they're adorable. So, I cut out the elbow patch piece from a contrasting fabric and used the Plantain pattern to adapt the patch placement:

I interfaced the elbow patches for stability with tricot interfacing from Fashion Sewing Supply, and used a wide zig-zag patch to attach the patches:

It's taken me about an hour to adapt the pattern, prep, and attach the patches. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I will get a wearable new top out of this experiment.