Goooooooals! Looking back (2014) and looking ahead (2015)

January 12, 2015, 11:19 am

≫ Next: This Week in Patterns (16-Jan-2015)

≪ Previous: This Week in Patterns (9-Jan-2015)

If you can stand one more self-reflective post from me, I want to go over how I did on the sewing goals that I set for myself back at the beginning of 2014 and set a few new goals for myself for 2015. If you can't stand one more post of this nature, go ahead and mark this as "read" in your blog reader; I won't be offended. Like my hits and misses post, I'm writing my goals post mainly for myself to help assess my sewing journey.

Let's start with how I did last year.

2014

Let's face it--I got a bit carried away with the goal stuff last year, so much so that it took me several posts to write about all of the goals that I was setting for myself and the convoluted systems that I was using to track those goals.

Here are those posts:

Gee, with so many rigid goals that I set for myself, how ever did I lose interest?

I did manage to do one re-assessment (when I was still sort of on track) back at the end of Q1 of 2014:

2014 Q1 Sewing Goals check-in

And then I pretty much gave up. But let's see what I accomplished, anyway.

Stash goals

The following statement gives my "stash goals" for 2014:

"I, Michelle of happilycaffeinated, commit to using at least 15 patterns from the candidate pattern stash and using at least 20 pieces of stash fabric in 2014. Stash includes any fabric or patterns on hand/purchased prior to the date of this pledge, 8 Jan 2013."

And then I had a spreadsheet (of course) of "candidate patterns" to choose from. Here are the ones that I actually sewed from that list:

Mr. HotPatterns Nice & Easy t-shirt (I sewed 2 of these for my husband.)
HotPatterns 4 Season Kimono Jacket
HotPatterns Tailored Trackpant
Oliver + S Playtime Tunic and Leggings (sewn for my daughter)
StyleArc Slip-on Suzie dress
StyleArc Olive Spliced tee
StyleArc Amber top

So, 7 out of 15. Meh. My use of stash patterns really dropped off as the year progressed and more new patterns came out because "Ooooh! Shiney!" I need to be more realistic about my tendencies to get distracted and just go with them instead of trying to fight them. So no pattern stash goals for 2015.

Yes, the Colette Hawthorn was on that "candidate" list, and no that never did get sewn this year.

I did track whether the fabric that I used for a given project came from stash or not, as well. "Stash" fabric was any fabric that I owned prior to January 8, 2014.

By my count, I used 23 pieces of stash fabric, so yay, me on that one!

Non-stash goals

Here are the more interesting (I'd imagine) goals that I set for myself, based on my blog post:

Sew a water-resistant jacket with a hood. This didn't happen in 2014, but I still very much need one of these. This will be one of my few carry-over goals, which I'll discuss later in this post.
Sew a winter coat.

Well, we all know how that is going. This is still very much in-progress. I will finish at some point this month (January). Can I ask for an extension on this one or get partial credit for a coat that's about 2/3 of the way finished?
Sew my daughter's Halloween costume.Done. You remember my daughter, Queen Elsa?

Queen Elsa trick-or-treats at my office.
Sew a capsule wardrobe.Well, I did sew a capsule wardrobe, although it was 4 pieces and not 12, and it certainly wasn't the wardrobe that I spent an entire post rambling on about. Partial credit.

Get over my fear of fly zippers.

A weird thing happened with this one. I did sew a number of zippers this year, albeit none were fly zippers since I didn't sew a single pair of fly front pants. But you know what? I don't feel any sort of dread of sewing fly zippers any more, either. I can't give myself credit for this one, though. We'll talk more about fly fronts and pants in my 2015 goals.

Execute a wearable set of welt pockets.

I did this! But you all don't know about it because it was on that pattern that I tested. It's a single welt, inseam pocket. By funny coincidence, I'm actually wearing this top today. So yeah, it's wearable. Here's photographic evidence that doesn't give away the pattern before it's released.

Welt pocket
Not perfect, but certainly wearable. Especially when not viewed in an overexposed photo at close range.
Fabric out for the year should be 50% greater than fabric in.Hahahahahahahaha!

I stopped keeping track of my purchases back in June, when a work deadline caused a few stress-related online shopping binges. I did, however, track that I sewed 77.5 yards this year (including 4 yards for the coat that's still not finished) and donated another 50 yards. I don't want to think about the "fabric in" portion of that, though.
Explore the functionality of my Babylock Evolve.I definitely played around with a lot of stitches on my Evolve. I think we can count this one as "accomplished".

Non-goal: RTW fast

I didn't actually set out to do a RTW fast this year, but looking back, the only RTW that I purchased in 2014 was underwear, socks, bras, and a couple of souvenir t-shirts. I'm kind of amused that I accomplished what is sometimes a major goal for us sewists without even trying, but that I didn't achieve some of my easier sewing goals. That's life, I guess.

2015 Goals

In 2014, I did better on the more general goals than the more rigid goals. I'm not sure that having rigid goals really accomplished anything for me beyond stealing my sewjo. In any case, 2014 is over. It was a crappy year for a number of personal reasons that I haven't blogged about (mostly family and pet health-related issues).

To quote the Counting Crows, "Maybe this year will be better than the last."

I'm going to keep my goals more project-based this year, for the most part. I am interested in stretching my sewing and fitting skills a bit, but I don't want to take on more than I can realistically handle.

In general, I want to be more thoughtful in my sewing this year (it seems like everyone has been saying that as a goal, doesn't it?) and also concentrate more on woven wardrobe staples and not just sew quick knit tops and dresses.

Here are the things that I want to accomplish:

Finish that damn winter coat.

I will finish it, and I will finish it while the weather still allows me to wear it. And then I'll have a nice, warm winter coat for next fall/winter, too. I finished inserting the lining at the facings/hem over the weekend. Currently, I'm trying to figure out the instructions for attaching the sleeve hem/sleeve lining hem. With the coat turned right-side-out, you're supposed to pull the sleeve and sleeve lining through the neck opening, anchor the armscye seam allowances together, and stitch the hems together. I couldn't wrap my head around how this would work. I'll google and see if I can figure it out, but if not, I'll just hand stitch everything like I've done in the past.

Bathroom mirror selfie verifying my coat's progress

I'm really, really hoping to have the whole thing done in the next week or two.

Pattern stash goal: none

One thing that I learned about myself last year is that I really do enjoy picking up a pattern on a whim and diving right into it. Trying to deny the "Oooh, shiney!" nature of choosing my sewing projects sucks some of the fun out of it. In general, though, I am going to try to avoid jumping on bandwagons and buying a certain pattern just because it's the hot new indie pattern that everyone is sewing. I might do that, but only if I truly see myself sewing up and wearing the pattern.

Fabric stash goal: Shop my stash first, shop local for wovens, and quality over quantity

One thing that I learned this past year in semi-tracking my fabric purchases and comprehensively tracking my fabric usage is that knits, especially knit prints, don't stay in my stash for long. I probably have fewer than 10 cuts of better-than-muslin quality knit prints in my stash and another 10 of good quality solid knits. Wovens, on the other hand, are another story since I sew those a lot less frequently.

I really want to stop my impulse buying at FabricMart sales where a big box of 6 cuts of fabric arrives on my doorstep, and I sew 2 cuts right away, and the other 4 go into the stash for god knows how long. In fact, I have one those boxes sitting at my desk at work because I was embarrassed to have it sent to my house and didn't want to have to deal with the "More fabric?" from my husband. I am keeping this box at my desk as a reminder to myself to not order more fabric, unless it's for a specific project and fabric that I can't find locally. (We do have a pretty decent assortment of apparel fabric stores in Seattle.) I know that doing a total fabric fast is unrealistic for myself, but I do want to hold myself to shopping my stash first, then shopping locally, and then shopping online (where the real shopping danger for me lies) if I can't find the "right" fabric at home or locally.

I will continue to track my fabric usage, if only because I like seeing the yardage number go up throughout the year.

Sew a water-resistant jacket with a hood.

Here's that hold-over goal from last year. I still need this. Ideally, I'll sew two of these--one lightweight for spring/early fall, and another, heavier version for colder, rainy weather. Part of why I've stalled on this goal is that there really hasn't been hooded jacket pattern that's spoken to me. I want something with a hood and a zipper--something like the Sewaholic Minoru, but not drafted for the completely opposite figure type of mine and actually available in my size range without grading up. I also really like HotPatterns Mr. HP Hemingway Windcheater, but it's a mens' pattern--those details are perfect for Seattle. I am really tempted to at least muslin it and see how much of a stretch it would be to feminize the fit.

Jeans! Jeans! Jeans!

I've been wearing the same three pairs of RTW jeans for the past year and a half, and two of the pairs are looking pretty worn. I really want a go-to jeans pattern. I'm looking at muslining the StyleArc Sandra narrow leg jean and Closet Case Files Ginger jeans (the non-skinny version) and going with whichever one has the more promising muslin.

Fit and sew a button-down blouse.

A button-down blouse that fits without gaping is pretty much the unicorn of the uber-busty, isn't it? I really like the yoke and details of the Grainline Archer and have had the pattern forever, so that's probably what I'll go with. I'll need an FBA and will leave the bust dart in mine for shaping. There's also a McCall's pattern (with shoulder princess seams and cup sizes!) that's really similar to the Deer & Doe Bruyere shirt that I really want to make, so that's another candidate for this goal. Maybe I'll even use two button-down blouse patterns this year!

Watch and complete the relevant projects for at least two of my Craftsy classes.

I know that my Craftsy class stash isn't as bad as some people's, but I do have a handful of classes that I've paid for and never watched. In particular, I'd like to watch/take the two sloper classes (skirt and bodice) that I bought for $19.99 each when they were on sale a little while back.

Final thoughts

So that's it--seven goals for myself for the year, and nothing tying me to a specific pattern or anything like that, beyond finishing my winter coat.

With me planning to fit and sew more wovens this year, expect to see a lot more "muslin" and "in progress" posts from me. I'm sure that those bore some people, but I'm personally fascinated with the evolution of people's muslins to their finished garments, so I'll be posting mine. If you haven't figured it out, I tend to post the same types of posts that I enjoy reading on other blogs. Plus, I think that muslin posts are helpful for people who find your blog via googling a pattern that they're working on or planning to make--you learn that "Oh, she had that fitting issue, too?"

Happy 2015 sewing, everyone!

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This Week in Patterns (16-Jan-2015)

January 16, 2015, 11:21 am

≫ Next: Sneak peak: Simplicity 1254 - Leanne Marshall coat

≪ Previous: Goooooooals! Looking back (2014) and looking ahead (2015)

Oh boy, so this week, Burda released one of the worst Plus collections I've ever seen. It's really, really awful. It's rare that a pattern collection actually makes me angry, but this one does. Let's take a look, shall we?

BurdaStyle Plus - January 2015

If you were to Google "passive aggressive fat shaming", I truly believe that the landing page for this collection should be one of the top hits:

Loft Life Collection (January 2015)

There's a whole lot of fugliness and unflattering sacks going on here.

Loose-Fitting Elasticized Athletic Jacket (01/2015 #134)

If you've ever wanted to wear an oversized, shapeless, silver sack jacket #134 is your pattern. For those who weren't following Burda back in the Burda World of Fashion (Burda WOF) days, looks like these are partially how Burda got the nickname "Burda WTF?"

BurdaStyle 01/2015 #134

Pleated Trousers with Hip Yoke (01/2015 #130)

Next up is a pair of trousers apparently so unflattering on the model that BurdaStyle used not one, but two different photos that completely obscure the supposed selling point (design-wise) of the pattern--the hip yoke and pleats.

BurdaStyle 01/2015 #130B

BurdaStyle 01/2015 #130A

Batwing Jersey Shirt #132

I have a hard time deciding what's less flattering here: the shirt itself or the fact that the Burda stylist decided to tuck an oversized, bulky shirt into a pleated skirt. This is just awful.

BurdaStyle 01/2015 #132

Mid-calf length Maxi Coat 01/2015 #131

Hey, at least the coat is nice.

BurdaStyle 01/2015 #131

HotPatterns 1185 Three-Piece-Sweet Jacket, Scarf, and Tank

Thankfully, we finish the week by cleansing our brains from that awful (and IMO, insulting) Burda collection with a set of fun layering pieces from HotPatterns:

HotPatterns 1185 Three-Piece-Sweet Jacket, Scarf, and Tank set

HotPatterns Three-Piece-Sweet Jacket, Tank, & Scarf

If you've seen how I dress in real life, then you know that I frequently dress in layers, and this pattern/set is right up my alley. I feel like HotPatterns designs are at their best when Trudy takes a current trend and builds an everyday-wearable garment around it. I like the split back on the jacket--a nod to the current huge cutout trend, but when paired with the tank, it's completely work-appropriate for the office. I also love that there's an option to line (or not line) the jacket.

Now, I live in a moderate climate in the PNW, so I have plenty of opportunity to wear unlined jackets, but one of my biggest pet peeves with patterns is when a recommended fabric for a jacket (or dress or skirt) is something like "wool tweed" or "wool crepe" that you'd always line, and then the pattern doesn't include lining pieces or instructions (I'm looking at you Colette Dahlia).

In any case, this pattern is an excuse to go fabric shopping for 2-3 coordinated fabrics. That's never a bad thing, is it?

Coat update

I feel like I'm so, so, close to finishing my coat. I've got the whole body constructed now. The fit is good, the shape is flattering, and it's looking very, very wearable (albeit a bit warm). I've started on construction of the hood. I'm kind of amused because the hood construction takes an entire page of pattern instructions, whereas they had you completely construct and start to bag the lining in a single step. I'm hoping that this last bit goes fast and then I can finally move on to another project. At the very least, I'll take a few progress photos outside on my dressform this weekend.

Final Thoughts

Hate the Burda, love the HotPatterns. Vogue sent out an email recently teasing their Early Spring collection, so hopefully, we'll have those to take a look at next week!

↧

Sneak peak: Simplicity 1254 - Leanne Marshall coat

January 21, 2015, 10:46 am

≫ Next: This Week in Patterns (23-Jan-2015)

≪ Previous: This Week in Patterns (16-Jan-2015)

I know that this coat saga has probably seemed like this at times:

However, this morning, I finally finished my coat! And I finished it just in time to fly down to Southern California for a work trip tomorrow morning, where I most certainly won't be wearing it in the 80 degree weather that's forecast for the time that I'm down there.

I've already informed my husband that we're doing photos when I'm back in town on Sunday (and hoping to maybe even get him to bust out the DSLR for this shoot), and I'll do a full write-up on the pattern (including lessons learned, tips, etc,) but until then, here are a couple of very poorly-lit dressform photos from my sewing room. Yes, I had to lighten the hell out of these photos to show ANY detail, but I figured that these were better than nothing. Also, my dress form isn't padded out anywhere near to my current size--the coat fits me much better than it does the dressform:

Poorly lit/overexposed coat on a dressform

And a poorly lit shot of the oversized statement collar/hood:

Poorly lit/overexposed collar/hood

Overall, after a lot of frustration with how long construction took and some confusion over some of the construction steps, I'm very happy with how the coat turned out. Unfortunately, I didn't realize how ridiculously warm interlining the coat would make it, and given that it's a pretty dramatic style, this isn't quite the "everyday" coat that I was hoping for. BUT, I did need a warm coat for the days where we have highs in the 30's (which seemed to happen a lot more frequently last winter than have been happening this winter).

Which leads me to my other sneak preview...since I publish my pattern posts on Fridays, yes, I have seen, fell in love with, and already ordered the Grainline Studios Cascade duffle coat. I think it looks like the perfect everyday coat/jacket for me, and I've seriously planned four different versions (combining the different lengths and hood/collar options) in my head. I really need to take a break from the involvedness of coat sewing for a little bit, but I'm already thinking that I'll be doing one or two versions of the Cascade later in the winter or in early spring.

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This Week in Patterns (23-Jan-2015)

January 23, 2015, 9:30 am

≫ Next: Finished project: Simplicity 1254 - Leanne Marshall coat

≪ Previous: Sneak peak: Simplicity 1254 - Leanne Marshall coat

I'm posting this from my company's office in Irvine at the tail end of a whirlwind business trip for me. As someone who grew up in and spent most of my life in SoCal, it's been a brief trip down memory lane, as I've managed to squeeze in some In-n-Out, KROQ, and Green Flash's West Coast IPA in the 24 hours that I've been here. It's also in the mid-70's here, temperature-wise, and I'm finding that I really DON'T miss wearing short sleeves in January. In fact, if I still lived in SoCal, I wouldn't even be considering purchasing my favorite pattern this week. I'll be driving down to San Diego tonight to celebrate my mom's birthday with my family, then flying back to Seattle tomorrow, where I'm looking forward to being able to wear layers again.

We did have several high-profile pattern releases this week, let's take a look...

Grainline Studios - Cascade Duffle Coat

I think that I may have finally found my perfect "everyday" jacket/coat pattern for our weather here in the Pacific Northwest. If you heard a loud "squeeeeeeeeee!" earlier this week, you were probably hearing my reaction all the way from Seattle to Jen from Grainline Studio's latest release:

Cascade Duffle coat and jacket

Unlike the somewhat similar Colette Albion duffle coat, the Grainline version is drafted for a woman, rather than having a unisex draft, includes a zipper closure beneath the toggles, and has both collar and hood options. I'm seriously planning four different versions of this pattern in my head from fabric in my stash by mixing up the jacket/coat and hood/collar options. On one hand, I don't want to dive right into another involved/coat project after just finishing my Simplicity 1254/Leanne Marshall coat, on the other hand, I want this coat.

I've already ordered this pattern (paper version, since I prefer PDFs only for less complicated patterns) and am thinking that I'll finally make my rain jacket using it. I have some of that Marc Jacobs waterproof poplin in my stash that FabricMart had a while back and stumbled unintentionally into a perfect lining for that fabric with another purchase.

Grainline Studios Cascade Duffle coat and jacket

Vogue - Early Spring 2015 (aka "Culottes for Everyone!")

Remember when those knit gaucho pants were all the rage about ten years ago? Vogue (and a few other pattern designers) have apparently decided that that silhouette is back. I haven't seen these pop up on the street in real life yet, but I'm guessing that we'll start to see them this spring.

In other news related to this release, Vogue's patterns this time around included a lot of interesting details. Now, whether the patterns themselves or not for you is up to you. From what I've seen online since the collection was released, most of these individual designs are either love-it or hate-it. And while most of these aren't my aesthetic, I do highly appreciate Vogue putting out a very "not boring" collection. Honestly, I could comment on most of the designs in this particular release, but in the interest of time and space, I just pulled out a few of the most interesting ones (for better or for worse).

V1435 - Tom and Linda Platt dress and jacket

I love the back detail on this Tom and Linda Platt jacket. The sheath dress is the same old boring sheath dress that we've seen a million times, so I'd expect most people would be buying this for the jacket. I won't be buying it, though, because I think that that cropped, drapey shape in front would look terrible on my ginormous bust, regardless of how much I like the jacket back.

V1435

V1437 - Ralph Rucci separates

I can't see myself making/wearing this, but I do love the lines on this Ralph Rucci jacket. The blouse is cute, too.

V1437

V9096

I was surprised when I clicked the link to this jacket to see that it wasn't a designer pattern. Again, not my personal aesthetic to make/wear, but I do appreciate the design and look forward to seeing this pattern made up by others in the online sewing community.

V9096

V1439- Anne Klein separates

These Anne Klein separates are much more to my own taste. I really like that jacket, and the pants are a nice, basic straight-leg trouser.

V1439

V9075

I can't believe that I'm going to type this about a culotte-jumpsuit, but, um, I actually really like this? And I could see myself making/wearing it? It's got the silhouette of those princess seamed bodice fit-and-flare dresses that work so well for so many of us, but with a really full, skirt-like set of pants. And it has sleeves, unlike so many jumpsuit patterns!

Don't get me wrong--I realize that there's a ton of potential for bad-elementary-school-teacher-wardrobe here with this pattern, but I think that in the right fabric, this could be really cute and practical.

V9075

V9091

Oh hey, look, if you didn't want a culotte jumpsuit, here are the culottes on their own in three different lengths:

V9091

V9086

V9086 is a pretty blouse with some interesting details and seaming:

V9086

V9076

Annnnnd my pick for unintentional comedy pattern of this release goes to this oh-so-70's dress that looks like it came straight out of an unopened box found at an Gunne Sax warehouse. This dress looks like something that Sissy Spacek would sport as Carrie, if Piper Laurie weren't yelling at her to not draw so much attention to her dirty pillows.

V9076

V9097

And Vogue randomly included a men's tuxedo pattern in with all of this:

V9097

Pauline Alice Eliana Dress

To round things out from the excitement of the Grainline Studios and Vogue new releases, Pauline Alice release a new dress pattern this week:

Eliana Dress

The raglan-sleeved version is cute, simple, and I'm sure easy-to-sew. I can't think of any off the top of my head, but I'm sure that there are similar patterns to this floating around out there among the Big 4--it's essentially a dress version of a peasant blouse.

Pauline Alice Eliana Dress

Final Thoughts

As I said, I absolutely love the new Grainline jacket and coat pattern and have already ordered it. Of the new Vogues, the two that I am most likely to add to my stash (and who knows, maybe make at some point) are V9075 (the culotte jumpsuit) and V9086 (the blouse with the hidden placket/scooped neckline).

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Finished project: Simplicity 1254 - Leanne Marshall coat

January 26, 2015, 4:44 pm

≫ Next: This Week in Patterns (30-Jan-2015)

≪ Previous: This Week in Patterns (23-Jan-2015)

I just looked back through my post archive, and the last "Finished Project" post I've written was back on...November 4th, and that one was for my daughter's Halloween costume.

(Side note: I did get just an email from the designer whose pattern I tested back in November with the final version of the pattern, among other things, but I'll be blogging about that later.)

In any case, here it is...the coat project that wouldn't end:

Simplicity 1254, the Leanne Marshall coat!

Simplicity 1254 - Leanne Marshall coat

The coat isn't without its issues, but I do really like it.

Yes, my face looks extra pasty/blue. Apparently, my husband's DSLR didn't know what to do with so much blue from the coat, and it overcompensated with whatever autocorrection it applies. We tried fixing it in a photo editor, but weren't able to do so in a way that made us both happy. Yes, that means that we pulled out the "real" camera for a "real" photoshoot for this one. Want proof? Here's the obligatory back-against-a-fence/wall-and-looking-to-the-side pic that is required in sewing blog photoshoots:

Against the fence

Yes, I am aware that my hem could use a good pressing. Trust me, I pressed the crap out of it; what I really needed for this project was to invest in a clappwer, which I will do before attempting to make another coat.

Pattern Drafting Notes/"Does it look like the envelope?"

I found the pattern to be well-drafted in that everything lined up as expected; however, you can see from the photos that the coat on me has more flare at the hip area than indicated in the line drawing and envelope photos. I actually took the hips in a small amount on this final version, so without that adjustment, the coat would flare more. This doesn't really bother me, but I wanted to note it in case you're looking for a sleek, slim-fitting coat.

Simplicity 1254 envelope

Additionally, the oversized collar turns out to make a not-terribly-functional hood:

Collar-as-hood

When I'm holding it in place, you can see how large and floppy it is:

Yes, the hood is this large

This will do in a pinch on a super cold/wet day if I'm caught off-guard, but clearly, this coat will not serve as an all-weather outerwear garment.

Fabric and Notions Used

Coat shell: Wool flannel from Fashionista Fabrics (sadly now-closed). Melody from Fashionista even thought there was likely a bit of cashmere blended in here, too. As to be expected with this fabric type, this stuff sewed/pressed like a dream (my bulky hem, aside). I've had this fabric in my stash for probably ~5 years, and until now, I'd never felt that my skills or that a pattern was worthy of it, so it was a big deal for me to cut into this and make something out of it.
Lining: Poly charmeuse (this design sold out) from Gorgeous Fabrics.
Interlining: Flannel-backed Tricot interlining from Gorgeous Fabrics.
Zipper: YKK two-way separating zipper from ZipperStop.
Interfacing: This stuff from Fashion Sewing Supply.

Pattern Sizing and Alterations

This pattern is drafted with less ease than you'd typically find in a coat pattern. As drafted, it has 3" of ease at the bust, instead of the usual 5 1/2" (per Fit for Real People). If you plan to make this and are not already at the top of the size range, you might want to size up for this pattern. I did make a muslin, and below are the pattern alterations that I used for the final coat. Note that I am 5'2" tall and typically shorten tops/blouses/sleeves by about 2" in most patterns.

1" broad back adjustment
2.5" princess seamed FBA (Fit for Real People method)
1.5" Full bicep adjustment (Fit for Real People method)
Shortened sleeve length 1/2"
Shortened coat 2" at lengthen-shorten line
Interlined the coat by underlining the lining pieces with interlining
Trimmed undercollar piece by 1/8" to help the roll line
Used a magnetic purse snap as the collar closure

None of these alterations are terribly unusual for me, but I rarely need that large of a full bicep adjustment in jackets. I also usually need to shorten jacket sleeves by more than that. Takeaway message: the sleeves on this run slim and short. Everything else fits more or less as expected.

Some sewists on Pattern Review chose not to interface the upper collar piece (as directed in the instructions) because they were afraid that it would affect the drape of their fabric/collars. I did interface mine. Looking at my collar, I think that the interfacing does help give the collar the shape on the envelope and does help keep the collar from flipping up.

Here's a view of the coat from the back:

Simplicity 1254 - back

Also, if you're wondering if with that collar, the coat can be worn open, I think that it can:

Simplicity 1254 - worn open

I really don't think that the collar looks all that bad when the coat is open.

Pattern Instructions

Yeah, so the instructions for this coat aren't great. This coat is rated as "Easy" by Simplicity, and I'm guessing that's only because the coat lacks things like bound buttonholes, welt pockets, and lapels.

This was my first real coat, and if I were to ever make it again, I'd probably find the construction pretty easy, but making a muslin didn't save me from a lot of confusion on some steps. As one of the reviews on Pattern Review noted, some steps in the instruction are super-detailed, whereas others gloss right over important details. For example, understitching the collar seam gets an entire step to itself, but assembling the entire lining and starting to bag the lining is also written as a single step. A number of us on Pattern Review found both the zipper and bagging-the-lining instructions to be pretty confusing.

To finish bagging my lining, I ended up using this tutorial from Grainline Studios, which I found very helpful and less confusing than the Simplicity instructions:

Sewing Tutorial: How to Bag a Jacket Lining

What's great, though, is now that I know how to bag a lining, I'll always know how to apply this to future projects. I hate hand-stitching, so even if it wasn't without stress, I'm very glad to have learned this technique (finally).

Here's my flashing-the-lining shot:

Simplicity 1254 - lining

Final Thoughts

I'm not going to lie; this coat was a huge PIA to construct. Part of this was my own doing by underlining the lining with interlining to make the coat warmer (and trust me, it's very, very warm). However, I really love the final coat, even though I suppose you could make the argument that it makes someone my size look like a giant blueberry (but really, who gives an F? I like the coat). I'd never be able to find a dramatic coat like this in a bright color like this in my size in RTW.

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This Week in Patterns (30-Jan-2015)

January 30, 2015, 1:16 pm

≫ Next: This Week in Patterns (6-Feb-2015)

≪ Previous: Finished project: Simplicity 1254 - Leanne Marshall coat

We only had two new patterns released this week, but IMO, they were pretty good ones. Both are long-sleeved knit tops--the type of tops that are staples in my fall and winter wardrobes.

Paprika Patterns - Jasper sweater and dress

*Drumroll* Okay, so this is the pattern that I tested that I've been hinting about for the past two months. If you're a regular reader of my blog, I'm sure that you'll be shocked to hear that I jumped at the chance to test an upscale hoodie pattern with pockets back when Lisa put out a call for testers a few months ago.

Paprika Patterns Jasper Sweater and Dress

There's a hoodie option, a tabbed collar option, and you can mix and match the sweater or dress lengths with either collar option.

Paprika Patterns Jasper Sweater and Dress

For my test version, I made up the hooded sweater (surprise, surprise). The test version did have a few fit issues, but nothing so severe that it's kept me from wearing my sweater/sweatshirt as a wearable muslin. It's amazingly comfortable and cozy. What's very encouraging to me, is that in her email to her testers, Lisa has said that she fixed every single issue that I can recall running into, and improving a few things that I hadn't necessarily thought of as "issues" but that should make for a better, more wearable garment. I did receive a free copy of the final pattern, and I'll be making that version up going forward. (I'd dive right into it now, but I really need pants, so the Jasper will have to wait a project or two.) When I make up the final version, I'll blog a side-by-side comparison between that version and the test version, which should be interesting for anyone who wants to see how patterns are tweaked/refined between versions. I'm also planning to make up at least one of each of the sweater views, and possibly one of the dress views.

StyleArc - Elita Designer top

StyleArc did something new this month--they released a single pattern that wasn't tied to a 1st-of-the-month or mid-month release, AND they released it both as a printed pattern and a PDF at the same time. On top of that, they're running a 20% off PDF pattern discount through the end of the month, so the price of the new pattern is just over $8 (USD) if you purchase the PDF version with the discount code. So what's the new pattern?

Elita designer top

StyleArc - Elita designer top

I like this top a lot better than anything StyleArc had in their main release for January. I think that the neckline is a fun detail, and with the ties, the crossover front can be kept from opening up over a large bust. Anne (Clothing Engineer) already made this up in a silk jersey, and it looks very cute on her pear-shaped figure. She expressed some concerns about it possibly not being flattering on a larger bust, but in seeing where the drape falls, I'm not super-concerned myself. My bust is low, and I think that the drape will serve to draw the eye up, but I guess we'll see, won't we? For $8, I figured that this was a pretty low-risk indie purchase to create a top that I could see myself wearing a lot if I like it.

Final Thoughts

So, not many patterns released this week, but I own both of them--having received the Jasper as a freebie/thank you for testing, and having purchased the StyleArc with the 20% off promo. Did either of these grab you?

We're still waiting on the first spring release from Butterick, which I'd think we'll be seeing soon.

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This Week in Patterns (6-Feb-2015)

February 6, 2015, 10:13 am

≫ Next: In Progress: HotPatterns 1112 - Classix Nouveau Dolce Vita Slim-cut pants (muslin)

≪ Previous: This Week in Patterns (30-Jan-2015)

Happy Friday! This week was a busy one for pattern releases, and maybe it's just my mood, but sadly, I wasn't super excited by any of them. In any case, there are lots of pictures and patterns to dissect in this week's post.

StyleArc - February release

StyleArc's February release was a bit more interesting than their January release, although I don't feel particularly tempted to place an order for this month's patterns/freebie, either.

Marley Woven Shirt

So, first up is a darted, easy-fitting blouse with side and sleeve vents. It's a nice enough basic, but nothing to motivate me to place an order.

StyleArc - Marley Woven Shirt

Erin Woven Culottes

Because every pattern company seems determined to release a pleated culotte pattern this spring, here's StyleArc's take on the style. I think that these could be interesting, in theory, but I don't see all of those pleats opening up over my (full) tummy possibly being a flattering look on myself.

StyleArc - Erin Woven Culottes

Saskia Woven Bustier

If I wasn't so ridiculously busty, I'd totally be digging the Saskia bustier. I really like the line drawing for this, and if there was any human way that I could go braless without putting someone's eye out, I'd be looking to give this pattern a try.

StyleArc - Saskia Woven Bustier

Dixie Woven Top (freebie)

The freebie this month is the Dixie woven top. This is probably my favorite/most realistically sewn pattern for myself this month, although I'm not sure how that seam placement would look on someone with a very full bust. This one reminds me a little of my Olive Spliced tee, which I love and was designed for knits. I like the keyhole neckline on this one, too.

StyleArc - Dixie Woven top

Colette Patterns - Seamwork Issue 3

So, with the third issue of Seamwork, Colette patterns jumped on the lingerie/bra-sewing bandwagon that's been going strong in the online sewing community for the past few months. The patterns included in this month's issue are a bralette pattern and a panty pattern.

I'm going to link to these patterns, not because the images are particularly NSFW, but I suspect that some of you work in an open-plan office (like I do) and would probably prefer not to have modeled lingerie pictures show up on your monitor, especially if you work with a bunch of men (like I do). So here are the pattern links:

My G-cups laugh hysterically at the idea of a lounge bra, so I'm clearly not the target demographic for this pattern, even if it is available up to a 3X. The panty is cute, but I prefer a higher rise on my panties, otherwise my tummy flab tends to cause the waistband to fall down, and I spend all day hiking them back up. They're nice ideas, though, I guess for those who can pull off and/or be comfortable in these styles.

Butterick - Early Spring Release 2015

The elephant in the room this week is the spring Butterick release. To be blunt, I hated it. As wonderful as I thought the most recent McCall's release was, I thought that the Butterick release was awful. Let's look at some fug.

Butterick 6168 - Lisette

I think that the most notable thing about this release is that Liesl (from Oliver + S and Liesl + co) has apparently moved her Lisette line of women's patterns from Simplicity to Butterick. I have to admit, though, that I preferred her designs for Simplicity, as this batch seems a bit uninspired. The best of this lot, to me, is this dress, although I feel like there's something "off" about how it looks on the model.

B6168

B6169 - Lisette

B6169 is another new Lisette. The moto jacket is okay, but it's nothing that we haven't already seen dozens of times from other pattern lines over the past few years. The dress is a shapeless sack with a hi-lo hem and an optional tie belt. This one is featured in that video that McCall's put out a few days ago, and it didn't do anything for me seeing it on a "live" person, either. Pass.

B6169

B6164 and B6184

I'm only calling these two out because they both feature external darts. Weren't external darts in style just a few years ago? Are we really at a point where we're cycling fashion trends every five years? How can we miss you if you won't go away?

B6164

B6184

B6170

B6170 is the type of shapeless sack that Burda editors think that plus sized women should dress in:

B6170

B6171

B6171 is another entry in the shapeless sack category. Maybe some of the Burda Plus designers decided to follow the trend of leaving Simplicity as a distributor and moving over to BMV?

B6171

B6178

Speaking of trends that were around just 10 years ago... Because Spring 2015 is the Spring of the Pleated Culotte, here's the Butterick version of this trend. View C looks awfully similar to the Erin Culottes that Style Arc just released.

B6178

B6185

I thought that the best pattern out of this whole batch was B6185, a wardrobe pattern featuring a v-neck jacket and a top and dress with Chelsea collars (the collars conveniently fit over the neckline of the jacket). I would maybe pick up this pattern on sale.

B6185

B6167 - Patterns by Gertie

We'll cap off this less-than-inspiring collection with what's probably my pick for "worst" out of the batch--the new pattern by Gertie. This is another pattern that features a shelf bra with some sort of ruching or pleating and cuts the model right across the bustline. I just don't know who this would be flattering on--it makes the slim model look completely flat-chested, and I suspect that it would look ridiculous on anyone with a large bust.

B6167

I'm sure who the target audience is for these Buttericks, but it definitely isn't me.

Closet Case Files - Carolyn Pajamas

Whether you like or or not, based on her blog, etc., I have to really hand it to Heather from the Closet Case Files for carving out a really nice little pattern niche of Patterns That Aren't Available Elsewhere. After the semi-unique Bombshell swimsuit, she's released three patterns in a row that don't really have equivalents in current pattern catlogues--the Nettie bodysuit, the Ginger jeans, and now the new Carolyn Pajamas.

Carolyn Pajamas

Closet Case Files - Carolyn Pajamas

In my previous life as a non-sewing, single, professional woman with a little bit of disposable income, I once splurged on a set of BedHead Pajamas as post-breakup retail therapy. Yeah, I paid that much for a set of pajamas. As embarrassed as I was to shell out that kind of cash for pajamas, I LOVED those pajamas. The Carolyn PJs appear to have similar detailing--cuffs, piping, and a feminine, non-oversized silhouette, PLUS they have pockets (both a shirt pocket and slant pockets on the pants, and both summer (shorts and short sleeves) and winter (long pants and long sleeves) options.

Closet Case Files - Carolyn line drawings

I've seen Heather come off as a bit...emotional on blogs, but I admit that much like the Ginger jeans (once I saw them made and modeled on a few curvy figures), I like these quite a bit. I'm pretty sure that in the modeled pics, she's hiding some pocket gape of those slant pockets with the styling/hand positions, though. This one isn't a must-buy for me right now, but I'll be keeping my eyes open for both finished versions by other sewists and possible (cheaper) Big 4 alternatives that I've overlooked with similar details.

Final Thoughts

I can't say that any of these are a "must buy" for me, and some of them are downright awful, I think. I've liked some of Gertie's designs from her books, but she appears to be in a bit of a shelf-bra rut with her Butterick designs. I can't say that I'm really tempted to buy any of the new Buttericks.

I'm not particularly tempted on the StyleArcs, either. Maybe I'll feel differently when I start to see them made up.

The CCF pajamas are a "maybe"--I'm not inclined normally to shell out indie dollars for a pajama pattern; however, the Big 4 pajama patterns that I've made up have all run pretty big and been pretty baggy. I'll wait and see on this one.

Am I missing something with any of these? Also, do any of you plan to hop on board the pleated culotte trend? My feeling is that if I'm going to do it, I'm going to go all out and make that culotte-jumpsuit that Vogue just released. Personally, though, I just don't think that the pleated culotte trend is one that will be flattering on short, stumpy me-with-a-tummy, but I'd love to be proven wrong!

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In Progress: HotPatterns 1112 - Classix Nouveau Dolce Vita Slim-cut pants (muslin)

February 9, 2015, 4:11 pm

≫ Next: Goodbye, Dante.

≪ Previous: This Week in Patterns (6-Feb-2015)

Normally, after sewing a long and involved project like my Leanne Marshall coat, I'd sew a couple of quick-and-easy instant gratification projects before diving into anything involved again. I did promise my husband and follow through on sewing him another merino wool knit t-shirt (using HotPatterns mens' t-shirt pattern), but instead of quickly whipping up a few more knit tops for myself or a Moneta or something like that, I decided to dive head-first into fitting and making pants for myself. I had two reasons for this:

Over at the Curvy Sewing Collective (CSC), they're doing a series of posts on separates, with a focus on pants this month, and I wanted to join in.
Pants have become the limiting reagent of my laundry cycle. I wear the same three pairs of jeans all the time, a pair of lounge pants on the weekend, and usually a knit dress per wash cycle, and I felt like I was doing laundry far too often. I knew that I needed some everyday pants that I could wear both to my casual office and on weekends.

Enter my pant pattern of choice:

HotPatterns 1112 - Classix Nouveau Dolce Vita Slim-cut pants

HP Dolce Vita pant

I think I've had this pattern in my stash for about four years, but it's never been far from the top of my sewing queue. To be honest, I'd been intimidated by fitting these, especially in the past few years with all of my pregnancy and post-baby-related body changes to my lower half. Proportionately, I carry a lot more weight in my butt now than I used to, and I've been procrastinating dealing with that from a pant fitting perspective.

I chose this pant pattern because I felt that the leg profile was fairly current without being a "skinny pant". Outside of the usual plus size/curvy fitting issues, I also have very large/athletic calves, which adds another fitting hurdle to skinny pants or jeans. I also liked that this pattern had usable pockets, a traditional fly front, and if I felt up to it, an option for welt pockets in back.

Over the past few days, I've sewn up a muslin of a size 22 (based on my hip measurement) straight out of the envelope. This is a true, non-wearable muslin--I wanted to have the freedom of being able to mark up this garment without worrying about trying to preserve it for future wear. The fit isn't perfect by any means, but I don't think it's bad for a first muslin.

Are you ready to look at some unflattering pictures of my crotch and butt, as I document my fitting process with these pants?

Dolce Vita muslin - front

First up, the fronts. Obviously, the length is a tad too long, which I know is throwing some other things off. For the most part, the front looks pretty good, I think. There's a little bit of pulling at the tummy, indicating that I need a little more room there.

Dolce Vita muslin - side view

The side seam straining shows (as I suspected might be the case) that I need more room at the high hip, particularly in back. You can see that seam being pulled a bit backwards as it's both straining to handle my butt and tummy. Also, you can see a bit of pocket gape on the slash pockets. These pants do have a tummy stay, and the pocket gape isn't nearly as bad as RTW pants I've tried on with slash pockets. I suspect that when I add some ease through the tummy and rear high hip, the pulling/gaping will decrease.

And finally, here's the rear view:

Dolce Vita muslin - rear

If it wasn't clear before that I needed more room through the rear high hip, it should be now. I also need more length at the CB seam--these sit a bit low on me just standing and give me a full-on case of plumber's butt when I sit in these pants.

So, with what I've learned from this muslin, I'm going to make a few alterations and then tackle a wearable muslin:

Add 1.5" to the CB seam length.
Add 1.5" to the high hip (split between front and back)
Grade the legs down a size, starting at the ankle up to the upper thigh.

I think that these changes will get me into the ballpark of a good fit, although I might need further tweaks. I'll be making my next version out of a soft cotton twill that I got from FabricMart. It's a deep blue/purple-ish color that I love, but at only $3.50/yard, I can afford to sacrifice it if something in my next version goes horribly awry.

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Goodbye, Dante.

February 14, 2015, 4:59 pm

≫ Next: New HotPattern for a good cause

≪ Previous: In Progress: HotPatterns 1112 - Classix Nouveau Dolce Vita Slim-cut pants (muslin)

I didn't have it in me to write my weekly pattern round-up post this week. On Thursday, we had to say goodbye to my very beloved 17-year-old cat who I've had for my entire post-college life.

My sewing assistant

Dante and I had been together for all but the first few weeks of his life. I adopted him as an unweaned kitten and helped foster/bottle-raise him. He was with me through my stupid and irresponsible 20's, my figuring-things-out 30's, where I met my husband and had my daughter, and for the first few months of my 40's.

Dante, taking a nap on our old stained carpeting

A true native San Diegan, some of Dante's favorite things included:

In-n-Out french fries
Carne asada
Hoppy beers (I'm not making this up--if you left a pale ale or IPA attended, he'd try to steel a few licks)
Pasta with meat sauce (okay, not so much a San Diego thing, but I always found his love of meat sauce odd)

Dante enjoying a few licks of a Stone Pale Ale

This wasn't sudden or out of the blue. We'd been treating him for hyperthyroidism and kidney disease for the past six months, and his kidney function had taken a turn for the worse back in late November. (We'd been giving him subcutaneous fluids to supplement his failing kidneys since then.) On Monday night, he suddenly lost interest in food and treats. On Wednesday, we took him to the vet to see if there was anything more that we could do for him, and she let us know that his time was nearing an end, and gave us some medication to make him more comfortable while we tried to come to grips with saying goodbye, but on Thursday morning, he let us know that it was time for us to let him go.

You know that you have a special cat when the staff at your vet's office comes in to say their final goodbyes while your vet is performing her final act of kindness towards him. Our house feels emptier without him, and I don't feel like our family will ever be quite the same. He will be missed.

Rest in peace, Dante (1997-2015).

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New HotPattern for a good cause

February 17, 2015, 1:38 pm

≫ Next: This Week in Patterns (20-Feb-2015)

≪ Previous: Goodbye, Dante.

First of all, I want to thank you all for all of the kind comments that you've left about my recently departed cat, Dante. I miss him dearly, and even though I haven't responded to individual comments on my post about him, please understand that I very much appreciate your thoughts and sentiments.

In more fun news, Trudy has released a new FREE HotPatterns PDF download in conjunction with a charity fundraising effort that she's helping out with:

HotPatterns Joyful Top pattern

HotPatterns Joyful Top

The top uses mixed fabrics--wovens, sheers, and knits and has hidden bust darts. While you can download the pattern for free, Trudy is hoping that if you are able to do so, you can chip in a few dollars towards a charity that she is helping to raise money for. The charity benefits a summer camp for kids with cancer, and you can click the following link to read a bit more and to donate:

http://www.chailifeline.org/events/Bike4Chai/my/Shauly

I have made a small donation and downloaded the pattern, but have not printed it out or made it up yet. On the HotPatterns Facebook group, a few people asked questions about their printouts. Specifically, they asked how much to overlap the pages, since the pattern lacked a lined border to show the overlap. Trudy explained that the pages are NOT meant to overlap at all; just butt the pages up next to each other when taping them together. You'll get some blank spots where the printer cuts off before the edge of the paper, but you should hopefully be able to mentally "fill in the blank" of where the lines would be. (Note that until recently, SBCC pattern downloads did this same thing.)

Happy sewing!

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This Week in Patterns (20-Feb-2015)

February 20, 2015, 11:03 am

≫ Next: On hiatus

≪ Previous: New HotPattern for a good cause

I'll be blunt. I'm still down in the dumps mentally/emotionally and not quite up for writing my usual weekly pattern round-up yet. I try to keep personal stuff (outside of kid/cat/dog pictures) mostly out of this blog, but on top of losing my cat, my dad has been dealing with some serious health issues for the past few months, and he had a major setback yesterday.

If that weren't enough, my team's office moved to a different neighborhood in downtown Seattle last week, so I'm still getting used to a new commute and a tougher parking situation (on days when I don't take the commuter bus). The upside to that is that we're now in a much cooler neighborhood (we're a block away from SubPop records, for example) that should allow me to easily reach a few of Seattle's best indie fabric stores (Nancy's Sewing Basket, Drygood Designs, and District Fabrics) with a short bus trip on my lunch break. So, um, lookout fabric stash?

Basically, I'm still not in the mood to snark or gush about anything. However, we've had a ton of new pattern releases over the past two weeks, and while I'm not doing a full write-up this week, I did compile a list of links and jotted down a few notes, if you'd like to click through and check them out yourselves. The New Looks and Simplicities came out yesterday, and while they're both mostly "meh", they did each have a couple of noteworthy designs (IMO), and I might very well cover those in more depth next week.

Anyway, here's an abbreviated round-up of new pattern releases for the past two weeks:

Bluegingerdoll: A-clan collection: Warm-weather collection of four patterns that coordinate with each other.
- Abby singlet top
- Alicia shorts
- Anne peek-a-boo knit top: Knit top with peek-a-boo cutout. Yeah, that's not going to work with my ginormous bust. I remember there being a similar Big 4 pattern to this in recent years, too, but wasn't able to find it quickly.
- April gathered skirt: Basic, but cute skirt. If I wanted to make this, I'd probably opt for a Big 4 equivalent.
BurdaStyle Plus: Modern Museum Collection (02/2015) : Not as fug as last month, but nothing I'd want to sew or wear, either.
- Day Dress : Dress with pleats over the boobs. Not going to work on the uber busty unless those pleats are stitched down, and then, what's the point?
- Silk BlouseAnother boxy blouse from Burda Plus (ABBFBP).
- Hi-Lo Plus size shirt: Meh.
- Fringe Trim CoatA nice-looking coat, and it's actually not double-breasted.
- Star JacketCute, if boxy, jacket. Not sure what's up with the giant star applique thingy.
- Bootcut pantsTurkey-eatin' pants. They should have released these back in November. (Or maybe this is Burda's consession that plus sized women DO actually have sex and get pregnant--because these look an awful lot like my old maternity pants.)
- Fold blouse: Blouse version of that same pleated dress.
- Cargo pants: I like these (in a drapey fabric). I probably shouldn't, but hey, they look comfortable and POCKETS.
By Hand London: Sophia Dress (presale): The latest party dress from BHL. There are some interesting darts there--I'll be curious to see what this looks like on a curvy figure.
Jennifer Lauren Vintage: Felicity Dress: Cute, vintage-style dress.
New Look: Spring 2015: Mostly boring basics, but there's a casual wardrobe pattern in here that caught my eye.
Simplicity: Spring 2015: More mostly boring basics, but I liked one of the knit skirt patterns and the jumpsuit pattern. Because apparently I hoard (but don't sew) jumpsuit patterns.
StyleArc: Toni designer dress: Interesting dress, but not my style, and I'm not sure that I'd like the look on my figure, anyway.

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On hiatus

February 26, 2015, 9:54 am

≫ Next: For whom the BHL tolls (Time marches on...)

≪ Previous: This Week in Patterns (20-Feb-2015)

My family has received some very bad news regarding my father's health. As some of you who I talk to off-blog know, he has been battling cancer for the past six months. While things were going well initially, they have recently taken a bad turn, and we now know that he won't be with us for much longer. My family and I are devastated.

I will be taking a temporary break from blogging while I focus on emotionally supporting my family and coming to terms myself with the hand that we've been dealt.

When we've moved past this, and I've had a chance to grieve and start healing (and my sewjo returns), I expect to be back with more pattern snark.

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For whom the BHL tolls (Time marches on...)

April 8, 2015, 1:25 pm

≫ Next: Everybody loves raglans! (or Finished Project: Simplicity 1317)

≪ Previous: On hiatus

What, you didn't think that I'd let this morning's big news from By Hand London go un-posted-about, did you?

By Hand London: Some Heavy Hearts and Big News From Us

The TL; DR summary of the BHL post is as follows:

BHL bit off more than they could chew with their kickstarter-funded fabric printing business.
Because of the overhead of printing/carrying paper patterns, they're doing a 180 on their paper-patterns-only post from a few months ago and will be distributing ONLY PDF patterns, once they run out of their paper pattern inventory.
The BHL girls are going back to their day jobs, but will continue to produce new PDF patterns as a labor of love and do have a few new patterns in the works.

I admire them for being transparent with this post and admitting and taking responsibility for the business mistakes that they made. Reading between the lines, it sounds like that getting into the fabric printing business really torpedoed their finances, even with the kickstarter funding.

I do not own nor have I have I ever made any By Hand London patterns, but I've certainly followed them. They certainly have been one of the higher profile "new indies" of the past couple of years. I'm not an expert at the pattern business, but as a software industry veteran who lived in the Bay Area during the dotcom explosion/implosion and with a resume that includes eight cumulative years at three different startups, I do know something about business failures. Here are my thoughts on where BHL made missteps:

No clear business plan or product roadmap: We're going to start distributing PDF patterns! No, wait, PDF patterns are eating too many sales from our paper patterns, which we printed a ton of and have an overstock of! Ooh, and now we're going to print fabric, too!

At best, BHL came across as indecisive. At worst, they came across as unprofessional. When you're asking customers to pay over $20 USD for a pattern (expensive, even by indie standards), you had better come across as having your shit together both creatively and professionally.
Lack of marketing and manufacturing research before expanding: Clearly, the women at BHL had no idea what they were getting into when they kicked off their funding campaign for their fabric printing business.

From a customer standpoint, custom-printed fabric is very expensive. With several other fabric printing vendors out there, was BHL really filling a niche that couldn't be filled by another manufacturer? From their post, I got the impression that they thought that they'd be able to hit the ground running as soon as they got their printer without accounting for the test runs and fine-tuning that would be needed to produce saleable fabric.
Unrealistic sales forecasts: As BHL admitted in their post, they had overly optimistic sales forecasts (leading me to wonder how much research was done in this area) and that the slow summer months hit them hard. We also saw this point pop up with the excess of printed pattern inventory that they had.
Limited target demographic: Based on their designs and size range, I can guess that the target demographic for BHL's patterns is slender, 20-something women who attend a lot of weddings and parties. And who sew. That's just not a huge customer pool for purchasing your product.

While BHL isn't the worst offender of an indie with a limited size range, it's not particularly inclusive, either. And how many party dresses does one woman need? Even between the years of 27 and 32, when it seemed like I had a wedding to attend every few weeks, I rotated three different dresses among the occasions. To me, the Holly jumpsuit was the only "interesting" pattern they've released in the past year or two, and even in that case, I thought that the original bodice given to the pattern testers was better than the one that they ended up releasing.
Tone-deaf marketing senseand customer service: I cringed when BHL pulled their PDF patterns from their website without any forewarning. I can't think of another pattern company that has pulled a major product line without warning.

What's worse, if you poke around the blogosphere and GOMI, you'll find numerous stories from customers who had paid for PDF patterns but had not downloaded them yet when the patterns got pulled from their website. These paying customers had to fight to get their money refunded, even though a number of them would have been perfectly happy to have just been emailed the PDF that they had previously paid for. A 14 or 30 day grace period or "last call on PDFs" would have saved BHL a lot of bad publicity and angry customers.
Ignoring what your customers want: To me, this is probably one of the biggest contributors to BHL's woes.

If your customers are telling you (via sales) that they prefer PDF patterns, then you don't pull PDF patterns from distribution just because you have an excess of inventory of paper patterns. You put those paper patterns on sale, perhaps write off some losses and lick your wounds, and you focus MORE energy on PDFs, not less. On a positive note, this appears to be what BHL's plan is for the future.

What's your take on By Hand London's big announcement? Were you at all surprised by the news?

My life is starting to return to normal after my father's recent passing. Cancer sucks. I'm back in Seattle and back at work.

I did sew that Simplicity raglan sweatshirt (the one that looks like the Grainline Linden) as a quick sewjo-boosting project, and it's cute even with a few fit issues, so I'll be blogging that soon. And I want to get back to my pattern release recaps! I've missed writing those! However, I'm not sure that I'll continue post them on an weekly-basis. Like BHL, that turned out to be more work than I anticipated. But I will get back to them, and I will be doing them on a regular basis, maybe just not as tight of a schedule as before.

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Everybody loves raglans! (or Finished Project: Simplicity 1317)

April 10, 2015, 2:00 pm

≫ Next: Spring Sewing Plans, Part 1: Separates

≪ Previous: For whom the BHL tolls (Time marches on...)

I have a couple of well-worn raglan tops that I bought from Old Navy a few years ago. They're actually made from French Terry, and I love that weight-wise, they're somewhere between a t-shirt and a sweatshirt, making them very versatile for layering. I've also been digging the trend of the past few years of raglan tops with contrast sleeves, interesting uses of lace, etc. So while I have several other projects in various states of muslin and UFO-ness, when my husband offered me a free weekend afternoon to sew as I grieved the loss of my father, I headed straight for Simplicity 1317 in hopes of a good, instant gratification project.

Simplicity 1317 - raglan sleeved top

Oops. Didn't notice that bra strap until I looked at the photos on my computer! The pants are my second, wearable-on-the-weekend muslin of the HotPattern pant pattern that I originally muslined back in February. I can see that I need to shorten the front crotch length a touch here, but most of the wrinkles in front are just from me having sat in them all day before we took these pictures.

Pattern Drafting Notes/"Does it look like the envelope?"

I found the pattern to be well-drafted in that everything lined up as expected; however, the sleeves on this run large in the larger sizes. How do I know this? This pattern has been pretty popular on PatternReview and in the SBC for the past few months, and the sleeve fit looks normal on smaller women (say size M-L on down), whereas the fewer curiver sewists who have made this up also appear to have the baggy sleeve issue that I do. I hadn't noticed this on others' posts/reviews (it wasn't called out), but it's visible in their pictures. So, if you're sewing the size XL or XXL of this pattern, check the fit of your sleeve before doing anything semi-permanent with it. Baggy sleeves aren't usually an issue with my large arms, but there's an excess of ease there with this pattern.

As far as whether it looks like the envelope, I think it's pretty close (baggy sleeve issue aside):

Simplicity 1317 envelope

Fabric and Notions Used

Black sweatshirting: Cottons sweatshirt fleece from Girl Charlee ordered during one of their recent big sales around the holidays. I prewashed this several times and have washed the top twice now, and so far, it's holding up nicely. This is a nice, midweight sweatshirt fleece. No regrets about this purchase yet.
Black ribbing: (Used on the cuffs/bands.) Cotton ribbing from my stash. I'm not sure if this was purchased from fabric.com or perhaps from JoAnn's at some point.
Contrast/houndstooth print: Heavy-ish weight cotton knit from deep in my stash. No idea where this one came from. It doesn't have a lot of drape to it, and it doesn't have any stretch to it, either. This sat in my stash for years because although I liked the print, your options for a stiff-handed knit with no stretch are kind of limited.

Pattern Sizing and Alterations

This pattern is available in Big 4 sizes XXS-XXL (29"-48" bust). I sewed an XL through the neck/shoulders (based on my high bust measurement), grading up to an XXL at the armscye down through the body of the top. I commonly do this "cheater FBA" in knit tops. Additionally, I lengthed front of the top by 1", easing into the side seams of the back piece in the bust area to give me extra room over my bust without adding a dart. I think that the ease in this pattern is pretty much as you would expect, so you can probably go by your high bust/usual pattern size as a starting point.

Obviously, if you've looked at the photo, you can see that the top has a few fit issues:

The wrinkle between my bust indicates pulling and that I could use a tad more room in the bust.
The dragline that you're seeing from my bust to my butt indicates that in addition to needing a little more room in the bust, the top is getting hung up on my high hip in back, which you can see more clearly in the back view photo.
That wrinkle coming out from my armpit is a dart wanting to form. These wrinkles can happen when you only do a cheater FBA, and you should have done a full-on slash-and-spread FBA. I really didn't want to bother with a full-on FBA for such a simple knit top, and I did yesterday run across a possible solution to this wrinkle in a fitting book that involved transferring (but not sewing) a dart to your pattern tissue. I'm going to try that for my next version.
There's a ton of ease in those sleeves, and the length is a bit dowdy. The dowdy length is what I get for rushing through the project (Hey, I wanted to finish in the afternoon that i was given!) and not checking the sleeve length before serging on the cuffs. I ended up turning up the cuffs and stitching them into place--what you see here is a huge improvement over how they originally were.

Simplicity 1317 - back view

These are all pretty easy fit adjustments, so I'll make those to the pattern tissue and see how the next version looks. This version, while not perfect, is certainly wearable for a casual knit top. I sincerely doubt that the people at the grocery store are going to be pulling their spouses aside and going, "Oh. My. God. Look at her armpit wrinkle! It's so big!"

Pattern Instructions

I didn't even open them to look at them. Reviewer fail, I know. This is such a basic top, though, that most people with sewing experience probably won't need the instructions. If you don't have much experience, though, Google the pattern number and/or check PatternReview--there are plenty of other reviews of this pattern out there.

Similar patterns

Interested in a similar pattern to Simplicity 1317? The following patterns are similar designs:

Final thoughts

I'll be making this pattern again (with the proper fitting adjustments), since it's a quick and easy pattern and has a ton of stashbusting potential.

One observation: I've sewn three Simplicity patterns (all from recent releases) in the past six months--two for me, and one for Eva. Every single one of these has run true-to-size, IMO. Is Simplicity finally getting away from the "excess ease" issue that the Big 4 have been so notorious for? Or have I just gotten lucky? What have your experiences been like with their more recent patterns?

↧

Spring Sewing Plans, Part 1: Separates

April 16, 2015, 11:13 am

≫ Next: Spring sewing plans, part 2: Dresses, shirtdresses, jumpsuits, and rompers(!)

≪ Previous: Everybody loves raglans! (or Finished Project: Simplicity 1317)

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?

↧

Spring sewing plans, part 2: Dresses, shirtdresses, jumpsuits, and rompers(!)

April 19, 2015, 1:53 pm

≫ Next: A Guide to Pattern Cup Sizes

≪ Previous: Spring Sewing Plans, Part 1: Separates

Because I couldn't contain my entire "to sew" list in one post (that first post was getting seriously long), I split my spring planning into two posts. I realize that these planning posts are probably boring for others to read ("Hey, a blouse pattern! Oh, another blouse pattern!"), but I like to write them every few months to jot my thoughts down somewhere so that I can refer back to them for inspiration. From a purely self-indulgent standpoint, it's also fun for me to go back a few months later and look at what I was planning to sew and compare that list to what I actually did sew.

Spring sewing wouldn't be spring sewing without a ton of dresses on my list, so this post calls out the non-separate sewing patterns that I'm looking to make for this spring/summer.

Dresses

HotPatterns Cote d'Azur Dress

First up is an old favorite. I made this dress last summer, loved it, wore it a ton, and got a ton of compliments on it. Unfortunately, the fabric is starting to fade and pill a bit, and I want to replace last year's version with a new version sewn in a higher quality knit.

HotPatterns Cote D'Azur dress

BlueGingerDoll Violet

Tanya's versions sold this pattern to me while back during a BGD pattern sale. Mary's recent version reinforced that I want one of these in my wardrobe sooner rather than later. For mine, for warm weather, I'd be going with the short sleeved option on the dress with the fuller skirt.

Bluegingerdoll Violet dress

On a side note, when one of these Violet dresses pops up in the blogosphere, am I the only one who then immediately winds up with Courtney Love screaming in her head, "Go on take everything, take everything, I want you to!" It's just me? Oh well, carry on, then.

Modcloth Coach Tour Dress knock-off (McCall's 6796& Colette Moneta frankenpattern)

When browsing Modcloth, I became smitten with the Coach Tour Dress:

ModCloth Coach Tour Dress

I couldn't find a pattern that was all that close of a match to this one, but McCall's 6796 does have that collar, and the gathered skirt is similar to the Colette Moneta.

McCall's 6796

I'm envisioning a frankenpattern of the two patterns, and my version will have short sleeves, rather than being sleeveless. Since I'll need an FBA on the McCall's, I'll just rotate the resulting dart to the waist gathers, and I'll add a waistband/belt detail between the bodice and the skirt.

Shirtdresses

Will Spring 2015 finally be the season that I finally sew one of the shirtdresses that I've been openly ogling/pinning/talking about for months, but not actually sewing? If I'm going to deal with the hassle of fitting woven blouses, I might as well tackle fitting a shirtdress, right?

Lekala 4115

The dress that started my recent streak of wanting to knock off Modcloth dresses was this one: the Soda Fountain dress:

ModCloth Soda Fountain Dress (in grape)

I'd sent my husband a link of a swimsuit that I wanted his opinion on (he liked it, I bought it), and I apparently got him browsing the site. He sent me a link to this dress and said, "You should make this!" That immediately sent me browsing pattern sites looking for a pattern that I could use or patterns that I could frankenpattern.

Lekala 4115 is pretty close to the inspiration dress:

Lekala 4115

So, I paid the $3 for another Lekala experiment. I'm not a fan of the super puffy sleeves, but I can modify those. My first experiment with Lekala was a total wadder, but it was a knit, and they seem to do better with woven patterns, so I thought I'd give them another shot.

McCall's 6696& McCall's 7084
McCall's has a few good shirtdress patterns. The two that really jump out to me are the ever-popular M6696 (aka Mary/Idle Fancy's shirtdress) and McCall's 7084.

McCall's 6696

M7084

Both dresses have a separate button band. M6966 has a waistband as well. M7084 has shoulder princess seams (yay!) but no separate cup sizing (boo!). M6966 has the separate cup sizing (yay!) but uses darts for shaping (meh, compared to princess seams). Both patterns have options for a straight skirt or a full skirt--M6966's full skirt is pleated, whereas M7084's full skirt has a bunch of godets. I'm really on the fence as to which of these I'd rather sew and wear--I think my perfect pattern would be if these two patterns mated had had baby shirtdresses.

StyleArc Italia

The StyleArc Italia is the only dress on this list that doesn't have some sort of a waist seam. However, it does have a fair amount of shaping through bust darts, waist darts, and back darts. This pattern is also easily the most modern/least retro looking of the group that I've picked, so if I end up sewing two shirtdresses, I'm sure that this will be one of them.

StyleArc Italia shirtdress

Colette Hawthorn

Because it has to be here, right? I'm going to keep the Hawthorn on my to-sew list until I finally sew the damn pattern. Or maybe if I keep including it in these lists, it will fit and sew itself, right?

Colette Hawthorn

Jumpsuits and rompers

Like a shark drawn to chum, I've been picking up and hoarding jumpsuit and romper patterns every time they're on sale for the last few months. Have I made any of these patterns yet? No, and I'm not sure if they're work on my figure, but I'd like to imagine that they will with the right fit and proportions! I'm determined to at least muslin at least one of the following patterns in the upcoming months.

Vogue 9075

My desire to make this pattern hasn't decreased in the months since it was released. I suspect that I'm not the only one, given that the larger size range was sold out on the Vogue website for a little while. On paper, this pattern sounds like a horrible idea--a culotte jumpsuit! But really, in the photos, it looks like a fit-and-flare style dress (a good silhouette on me) that just happens to have wide-legged pants instead of a skirt attached. In reality, this is probably the "safest" pattern choice out of this bunch, between the shape and the fact that it has shoulder princess seams.

Vogue 9075

Lekala 4053

On my many visits to San Diego over the past few months, I saw rompers everywhere, on women of all shapes, sizes, and ages. I went to brunch with a friend one Sunday morning (at one of those places with an outdoor patio that's great for people watching), and I swear that every third woman was wearing either a romper or a jumpsuit that looked like a maxi-dress. This convinced me that I could pull off this look with the right pattern, fabric, and fit adjustments.

That said, a romper/playsuit on a 5'2" uber-busty plus sized woman should be an ultimate test of Lekala's custom drafting abilities, right? I like this one because it's a little more conservative than some of the romper patterns out there, with its longer shorts and short sleeves, but it doesn't look dowdy.

Lekala 4053

McCall's 7115

McCall's 7115 is probably the closest style-wise, to most of the rompers that I saw in San Diego. It's also similar to the rompers that were popular in the mid-90's that I always coveted but could never wear because my top half was two sizes larger than my bottom half. I still think that I could make this work with the right fabric choice and fit adjustments:

McCall's 7115

Final Thoughts

So, those are the patterns that have made it to the top of the pile on my sewing desk for the next few months. I am sure that there will be at least a few bright and shiny new patterns released this spring and summer that will vie for my sewing attention as well.

I'm extra, extra torn on the various shirtdress selections. I feel like I'm a housecat trying to chase a laser pointer when it comes to choosing one to sew. Here! No, over here! Do any of these grab your attention over the others?

↧

A Guide to Pattern Cup Sizes

April 22, 2015, 10:14 am

≫ Next: PatternReview: Plus Sized thread trainwreck

≪ Previous: Spring sewing plans, part 2: Dresses, shirtdresses, jumpsuits, and rompers(!)

While I was taking some time away from blogging these past few months, I spent some time thinking about what I wanted my blog to be. As has always been the case, I wanted to continue to document my own sewing projects, both to keep a record for myself and to provide more information to other plus size or curvy sewists who might be contemplating or in the process of making a pattern that I've made. I also wanted to continue writing my pattern roundup posts in some way, but trying to keep up with so many new releases and writing a weekly post about them had gotten really stressful. Those posts take a long time to compile, and it felt like the busiest pattern release weeks nearly always fell when I had a ton of other things going on. Between my project posts and pattern posts, I had very little time or writing energy to devote to any other types of posts.

Introducing a new post series...sewing for the uber busty!

Keeping the above things in mind, I also realize that I spend a lot of time complaining about the lack of resources (largely patterns and fitting information) for those of us who fall into the "uber busty" camp (a phrase coined by Shams at Communing with Fabric, who has some great resources on her blog for fitting a large bust). For the purposes of this blog, I am defining "uber busty" as having a cup size larger than a DD. Patterns with built-in cup sizes aren't available in those sizes, and most large bust-fitting tutorials target C-DD cups. Adjusted pattern pieces can look significantly different when you're doing a 1" Full Bust Adjustment (FBA) vs. a 3" FBA. (A 1" FBA is the amount you'll typically see in FBA tutorials.) In short, once your cup size surpasses DD, you pretty much fall off the map of the sewing world.

Through experimentation and a lot of trial and error, I've learned a lot over the past eight years with regards to fitting my own body. Others may disagree, but I feel that a lot of fitting "rules" need to be thrown out the window or at least re-evaluated when your cup size crosses over into uber busty territory. At the very least, you'll likely have additional fitting steps, such as dart rotation, beyond just making a Full Bust Adjustment (FBA) to increase the bust size of your pattern. I'm not a fitting expert, but I'm planning an occasional series of posts that focus on the options and pitfalls of fitting a bodice when you're uber busty.

I'm kicking off this series with a post about pattern cup sizes, which should be helpful to most of my readers, not just the uber busty among us.

Pattern cup size vs. bra cup size

Pattern cup sizes are different from bra cup sizes. Just because you wear a D-cup bra does not necessarily mean that you will need a D-cup pattern or always require an FBA.

Bra cup sizes vary by bra maker, and it seems like there are about a hundred different ways to measure for bra size. Most of these methods involve measuring your under bust area, doing some math (or not) and subtracting that from your full bust measurement. To confuse things further, the volume for a particular bra cup size increases as bra band size increases. For example, the cup of a 36D and a 38C bra will have the same volume. Along the same line, the volume of a 40DD cup will be considerably larger than a 32DD cup.

Thankfully for those of us who sew and frequently need FBAs, pattern companies have a standard method to measure pattern cup size:

Measure your full bust. Wrap the tape measure around the fullest part of your bust. Don't pull the tape measure too snugly, or you will end up underestimating your full bust measurement.
Measure your high bust. Wrap the tape measure around your chest and under your arms. Pull the tape measure snugly.
Subtract your high bust from your full bust, and use the difference to figure out your pattern cup size:
- 1" = A cup
- 2" = B cup
- 3" = C cup
- 4" = D cup
- 5" = DD cup
- 6" = DDD cup

For those of us with very large busts (larger than a D cup), I haven't yet found a patternmaker who specifically drafts for any size larger than a DDD cup, and only very few cover the DDD cup, at that.

Why is pattern cup size important?

If you've ever gone to a pattern's size chart, picked a size by your bust measurement, and had the garment that you've sewn end up too large in the neck and shoulders, then pattern cup size should be important to you. Most commercial sewing patterns are drafted for a B cup, meaning that the pattern maker is assuming that the sewist making the pattern has about a 2" difference between her high bust. The neck and shoulders of the pattern are drafted with this assumption in mind. If you have a larger difference, for example, you're a DDD cup and have a 6" difference between your high and full bust, most patterns that you select by your full bust measurement will be much too large for your neck and shoulders.

If your cup size is larger than the pattern's cup size, you'll usually get a better fit by selecting a pattern that fits your neck and shoulders and doing an FBA to increase the bust size. The following fitting issues are clues that your fit might improve if you start with a smaller pattern size for your neck and shoulders:

Gaping at the neckline
Shoulder seams that extend past your own shoulders
Gaping armholes
A pinch or wrinkle of fabric forming at your armhole above your bust

In my opinion, patterns with larger cup size options are a GREAT option for those of us with large busts. We might still need to perform an FBA, but we have a much better starting point. To make a baseball analogy, as a G cup, starting with a D cup pattern is like trying to score from third base rather than scoring from first.

Determining your starting pattern size

If you're a B cup choosing a B cup pattern, select a pattern by your full bust size. If you're a D cup selecting a pattern by a company that drafts for a D cup (for example, Bluegingerdoll), select your pattern size by your full bust. From there, things get a little more complicated:

If you're a D cup selecting a B cup pattern, choose the pattern size whose bust measurement corresponds to your high bust (not your full bust) measurement. This size should give you a decent fit through the neck and shoulders. Depending on the ease of the pattern, you may need to then do an FBA to increase the bust size of the pattern.
If you're a D cup selecting a pattern that has separate cup size options, such Vogue's Custom Fit patterns, determine what your pattern size would be if only the B cup option was available. In other words, choose your normal Vogue Patterns starting size (typically, going by your high bust measurement), but then select the D cup pattern piece for that size.

What happens when your pattern cup size falls outside of the range of the pattern itself, though? For example, what if you're a G cup (9" difference between your high and full bust measurement)?

If you're selecting a B cup pattern, select by your high bust measurement and expect to do a large FBA, depending on pattern ease. (I'll talk about options for a large FBA in future posts.)
If you're selecting a pattern that has separate cup size options, like the aforementioned Vogue pattern line, select your starting size based on high bust size, then choose the D cup pattern piece for that size. You will probably still need an FBA, but your FBA will be much more reasonably sized.
If you're selecting a pattern from a pattern line that drafts for a D cup, remember that the patternmaker is assuming a 4" difference between your high bust and full bust. Add 4" to your high bust measurement and start with that size.

Let's walk through this example with real numbers. We'll assume that you have a 51" bust and a 42" high bust measurement, for a difference of 9", then pick your starting size for a Bluegingerdoll pattern, which will be drafted for a D cup:

Bluegingerdoll size chart

Take your high bust measurement of 42" and add 4" for a hypothetical bust measurement of 46". Find the 46" bust measurement on the above size chart and see that it correpsonds to a size 20, which is the size that I'd suggest starting with for these measurements. You'll likely still need an FBA, but it will be a smaller FBA than if you were to start with a B cup pattern.

Now, if you're uber busty, you might have other methods that you use to select your starting pattern size; however, I will usually use the method that I've just described, and it works well enough for me.

I do highly recommend making bodice muslins unless you're really familiar with a company's sizing. You may find that you need to go up or down a starting size based on your own personal body.

Cup size reference chart

A question that I see frequently asked in the online sewing community is "What cup size does [Pattern Company] draft for?" I compiled a chart of the most popular and a number of larger-bust-friendly pattern makers to help sewists evaluate what pattern size to start with and identify companies that help make FBAs a little less painful:

Pattern Company	Cup Size(s)	Comments
BlueGingerDoll	D
Bootstrap	Custom	Custom pattern draft based on your own measurements.
Burda	C (Misses) D (Plus)
Butterick	B Small selection of cup size patterns	B5917, B5966 have cup sizes D-DDD in the Women's range.
By Hand London	B
Cake	Custom via grading	Connect-the-dots and lines to grade Cake patterns to your own measurements.
Closet Case Files	B
Colette Patterns	C/D	Sarai has mentioned in blog posts that she officially drafts for a C-cup, but makes sure that her patterns will fit her own D-cup figure.
Deer & Doe	C
Grainline Patterns	B
HotPatterns	C (for base size 16), Increases and decreases with pattern size	Cup size decreases and increases as the pattern is graded for smaller and larger sizes, respectively.
In-House Patterns	D (early patterns) A-D (recent patterns)	Early patterns were drafted for a straight-up D-cup. More recent patterns have cup sizes A-D included.
Jalie	B
Kwik Sew	XS & S = B M = C L & XL = D 1X = D 2X & 3X = DD 4X = DDD
Lekala	Custom	Custom pattern draft based on your own measurements.
Maria Denmark	B C (option for select patterns)
McCall's	B Small selection of cup size patterns	M6436, M6473, and M6927 have cup sizes D-DDD in the Women's range
Muse Patterns	B Some patterns have D cup option
New Look	B
Ottobre Woman	B/C
Paprika	B (sizes 1-7) C (sizes 6-10)
Petite Plus	D	Petite Plus are drafted for curvier women 5'4" and under
Seamster Patterns	C (for base size 6), Increases and decreases with pattern size	Cup size decreases and increases as the pattern is graded for smaller and larger sizes, respectively.
Sewaholic	B	Sewaholic patterns are drafted for a small-busted, pear-shaped figure.
Silhouette	B, C, D	All patterns have options for cup siszes B-D
Simplicity	B Small selection of cup size patterns
Skinny Bitch Curvy Chick (SBCC)	B (smaller sizes) DD+ (larger sizes)	SBCC patterns are drafted for women under 5'4". Here's a great blog post explaining their cup size draft: http://www.sbccpatterns.com/boobs-math-and-margaritas-what-cup-size-sbcc-patterns-are-drafted-for/
StyleArc	B
Tenterhook Patterns	C
Vogue	B Small selection of cup size patterns

Research methods

I used three methods to compile the information on this chart:

Some pattern companies list cup size information their websites.
I contacted a handful of indie pattern makers directly to ask about cup size drafting.
A small amount of information came from Pattern Review threads (e.g. Kwik Sew), but I have not been able to find/verify that information elsewhere. I did, however, want to include those entries for the sake of completeness.

If you think that an entry contains an error, let me know, and I'll follow up. If the entry does, in fact, contain an error, I will correct it on my chart.

Final Thoughts

I hope that you found this post helpful! I don't know how frequently I'll write these since I know that not everyone is interested in reading about fitting a large bust. Also, I do want to continue to document my own sewing projects and will revive my pattern roundups in some form sometime soon. My goal with this series is to document the type of bust-fitting information that at some point, I wished that I could find, but that I was unable to find in a fitting book or via a Google search. I've learned a lot through trial-and-error over the years when it comes to fitting my own bust, and I hope that I might be able to save a few other busty sewists out there a few headaches.

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PatternReview: Plus Sized thread trainwreck

April 24, 2015, 11:12 am

≫ Next: Last Week in Patterns (26-April-2015)

≪ Previous: A Guide to Pattern Cup Sizes

I hadn't planned to write this post, but I wanted to open a discussion about a trainwreck of a thread that happened in the PatternReview forums last weekend. I tried to let this go, but it's been bothering me. While I wouldn't normally post about a PR thread here on my blog, but based on what happened there, I felt that taking things off of PR was the best place to voice my concerns. I feel that the "trainwreck thread" is indicative of some bigger issues in that community.

The Incident

So...what actually happened?

I was browsing the PatternReview forums over the weekend, and a new thread in the low-traffic forums caught my eye. The title of the thread was "Plus Size Resources," and the thread was started by Madeline, a new PatternReview employee, who is supposed to be helping out with order fulfillment, customer service, and site blog posts, among other things. Here is the original, first post (captured by a savvy reader and later re-posted on a GOMI thread):

I am collecting information that pertains to plus size pattern companies, online fabric stores that cater to plus size people, and other companies that provide things for plus size sewists. Please comment below and let me know what are your favorite pattern companies, fabric stores, etc who cater to you.

We all want to look like giant tomatoes, right?

Um, what?

I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt, figuring that she was either putting something together for a PatternReview blog post or for the upcoming "plus size" sewing contest, so I posted a few pattern companies with inclusive size ranges and asked what she meant by "fabric stores that cater to plus size people," since I, and all of the other plus size sewists I know, all shop at the same places that thinner women shop at.

A few other PR posters also posted in response things like, "You mean, where do I get my tentmaking supplies?" and other jokes along that line.
The OP then returns and states that she's a new PR employee and that she was trying to find some new corporate sponsors for PR that were more friendly to plus sizes.
The forum posters pointed out that she had asked some odd questions and that most of what she was asking could easily be found via Google.
There was a bunch of weirdness where the OP edited posts, got argumentative, made a few "sorry not sorry" posts, and said some weird things about the Eiffel tower. As more people called her out on her actions and suggested more diplomatic ways to pose her questions, she appeared to get angrier. More apologies along the lines of "I'm sorry your feelings were hurt" without actually apologizing for what she said or how she framed her question, etc.
Finally a mod locked the thread.
The next day, Deepika posted something about the OP being a new employee who was learning.
Fairly soon after that, the thread was deleted, reminding us all where the "Deletka" nickname came from.

(For those interested, there's a funnier recap in the "Hate Read" thread on GOMI. No, I'm not a hamcat, but I do lurk.)

PatternReview, Inclusivity, Censorship, and You

I see two major issues with last weekend's incident: censorship and inclusivity.

PatternReview moderators have a long history of deleting forum threads when the threads get too heated. An overwhelming number of these deleted threads are political in nature. I can remember a handful of non-political threads getting heated and deleted though--there was a particularly infamous one on breastfeeding, and of course, a thread calling out the PR moderators for too heavily moderating the forums.

The only reason that I can think of for the "Plus Size Resource" thread getting deleted is that it made PatternReview look bad. The OP's responses lacked maturity and professionalism, and of course, that reflects poorly on PR. Unlike most deleted threads, the PR members participating in the thread weren't slinging insults at each other or otherwise at each others' throats. In fact, many of them wrote thoughtful and insightful posts as to how plus sized people are treated, both in the sewing industry and in society in general. I would have liked to have seen the thread remain open because it brought up some painful, but important points to many of us who fall outside of a Misses' size range.

I don't feel that PatternReview is a particularly inclusive community. The community demographic has gotten narrower and narrower in the ~8 years that I've been a member. Whereas there used to be a decent number of plus sized members who'd regularly post pattern reviews, that number has waned considerably in recent years.

For most "contests", most of winners determined by votes from fellow PR members. These winners are nearly always slender and are always well-photographed. If someone raises this concern in the PR forums, someone will point out that "Debbie won the such-and-such contest." Well yes, Debbie, did win a couple of contests...and I think those contest wins were probably about six years ago at this point. The "young, thin, and slim" contest advantage was brought up enough times that last year, some members nominated the idea of having an "Over 50" and a "Plus size" contest to level the playing field for those parts of the community. There were actually then people who bitched that a "plus size" contest wasn't inclusive to thinner members.

Burda Plus Sack of Shame

The contests aren't the only part of PR where I don't feel entirely comfortable, though. While the forums can be great places to ask questions and get help quickly, I also see a lot of body snark there. The body snark doesn't just come from the size 6 "ladies who lunch" who complain "OMG, my thighs are so fat!" One woman wrote a post where she was clearly offended that someone had checked the "plus size" and "regular" boxes on an old pattern review, causing the "plus size" designation to persist to all future reviews, because she was NOT a plus size. Personally, I've had some rather rude comments posted on reviews that I've made (under the guise of "helping" or telling me what was "flattering"), and I know that I'm not alone in those experiences.

When the Curvy Sewing Collective launched last year, I'd hoped that it might become my new online sewing "home" and that I could leave PR behind. At this point, I feel like the CSC is still finding its footing, and the forums don't see enough activity to really be a viable replacement for PR yet. Many communities have growing pains, though, so I'm still holding out hope that interaction level will increase at the CSC, making the CSC will become a viable alternative to PR.

For those of you reading this post, I have a few questions:

Do you participate on PatternReview? Why or why not?
If you are on PR, does PR have issues with inclusivity (or lack of it) and censorship?
What do you expect and want to see in your ideal online sewing community?

Note that I won't delete your comments if you disagree with me. (The only comments that I will consider deleting here are ones that contain body snark, because hey, you've got most of the rest of the Internet for that.)

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Last Week in Patterns (26-April-2015)

April 26, 2015, 11:05 am

≫ Next: Last Week in Patterns (4-May-2015)

≪ Previous: PatternReview: Plus Sized thread trainwreck

So, um, hi? In no way did I anticipate the response that my last post received. I didn't have time over the weekend to respond to everyone's comments, but I did read all of them. That was easily the greatest number of comments for any of my posts on this blog. A few things to take away from that post and the response:

We all have different experiences with PatternReview, but I noticed that the trend from the posted comments was that the people who felt most positively about it were the people who'd made a comment to the effect that they didn't go into the forums much. Take away message for me: Stay out of the PatternReview forums. I have enough things on my plate and don't need to add to them by going places with what I feel is negative energy.
For those of us thinking we'd like to see a little more diversity in guest posters and content on CSC, please send them your articles and reviews!
I've been guilty of saying that I would write something for the CSC and then flaking, and from reading other comments, I'm not the only one. (I had been totally on board with the "season of separates" idea, but for "pants month", my pant muslin needed a lot more work than I anticipated, and I wasn't able to get a "real" pair done by the end of that month. And then my dad's health plummeted, I traveled back and forth to San Diego a bunch, and I barely sewed anything for two months.)

Back to the purpose of this post: I want to get the pattern roundup post series going again, although I'll be posting these on Sunday (rather than Friday) to give myself the weekend to finish writing them. We had a somewhat interesting week of releases this past week.

This week, we have new patterns from the following companies:

Grainline Studios
McCall's
Muse
StyleArc
TrueBias

This Week's Pattern Round-up

Grainline Studios: Morris Blazer

I am so flippin' sick of waterfall cardigans. They were fine for a while, but now I'm done with them (like peplums). It makes me really happy that we're starting to see some new cardigan/casual jacket shapes emerging from the pattern world, like the just-released Grainline Morris Blazer (The SBCC Cabernet cardigan, in a boyfriend shape, is another.)

Grainline Morris Blazer

I'm not sure that this boxy silhouette is the best choice for my figure, but I really like the shape and design. Jen drafted this blazer to be made from either a ponte/doubleknit or a stretch woven, so you have quite a few fabric options for this pattern, and the resulting jacket should be pretty comfortable.

I'm somewhat tempted, but it does look pretty similar to the HotPatterns Sweet Jacket, which I already own. I like the collar of the Morris better, but the back of the HP is a lot more interesting.

McCall's Patterns: Summer 2015 release

I thought that overall, the summer release from McCall's was pretty boring, but of the patterns that I liked, I *really* liked them a lot. There's also a really good "WTF" pattern in here, too, for those of us who are amused by that sort of thing.

M7167: Misses' romper and jumpsuits

So that Vogue 9075 culotte jumpsuit pattern that I've been planning to make for the past couple of months? I like this McCall's pattern better. And the McCall's has cup sizes, too. On top of that, the sleeves are a more youthful shape, and I think that this will be a more flattering look on me.

McCall's 7167

If I could go braless, I'd be all over the view with the cutout/strappy back, but McCall's at least provided a covered back view, too.

M7156: Misses' dresses, rompers, and jumpsuits

I am going to buy make up View A of this pattern, and rock it over a babydoll tee with a pair of Doc Marten 8-eyes, grab a wine cooler, and chant, "Donna Martin graduates! Donna Martin graduates!"

McCall's 7156 - View A

Seriously, though, I will be buying this pattern. It's a classic shape with princess seams, I can easily increase the width of the straps to make it more bra-friendly, and since I now hoard romper and jumpsuit patterns, it'll be good for that, too. (This pattern is also a less expensive version of the By Hand London Sabrina dress.)

McCall's 7156 - View C

M7168: Misses' two-piece swimsuits

How refreshing to have a retro-style swimsuit pattern where the straps aren't halter straps! I think that there are a lot of cute options in this pattern, and I think that by mixing and matching different elements, just about any woman could put together a swimsuit that flatters her figure and that she feels comfortable in. The under-bust band on the tops of these also lend themselves more to adding additional bust support more easily than some retro styles. Love the skirt/tankini option, too.

M7168

I recently bit the bullet and bought a Modcloth swimsuit, and I'm really happy with it, but I've added this pattern to my list for the next JoAnn's sale.

McCall's 7154: Archive collection gown

I have neither the figure type nor the event schedule to wear a gown like this, but I do love the design:

McCall's 7154

McCall's 7176: Leather accessories

And then there's M7176, the perfect accessory pack if you're planning to head to a steampunk leather bar. Thankfully, one of the included patterns provides a nice starting point for a pair of assless chaps, should you ever need them:

McCall's 71716

Muse Patterns: Knit sleeve add-on pack

Muse Patterns (of Jenna cardigan and Gilian wrap dress fame) did something interesting this week: They released an add-on pack of four knit sleeve variations that should work with all of Muse's knit patterns. The knit sleeve add-on pack is available for the very reasonable price of $3 USD (can you tell that I've already purchased this?)

The add-on pack includes the following four sleeve variations:

Short tulip sleeve.
Gently gathered sleeve cap, and options for short, 3/4 or long sleeve length with a classic narrow sleeve.
Short flutter sleeve.
Classic narrow sleeve with options for short, 3/4 or long sleeve length.

Muse Patterns - Knit tulip sleeve

One thing that I've really liked about Muse Patterns, from what I've seen so far, is how much emphasis places on providing a lot of value from her patterns. Most of her patterns contain at least three views, and she truly seems to want to provide sewists with patterns that they'll be able to make multiple times with different looks.

StyleArc: Cleo Knit Dress and Tabard

For their mid-month release, StyleArc released a pair of "designer" patterns, which is something that they've done several times in recent months. I could see how these pieces could look chic on the right person, but they're really not my style.

Cleo Knit Dress

The Cleo has sleeveless and long sleeved options and includes optional dart shaping.

StyleArc Cleo Knit Dress

Cleo Long Tabard

To be honest, before I received the StyleArc newsletter this week, I didn't even know what a "tabard" was. I turned to Google for writing this post:

Tabard definition via Google

I'm guessing that Cleo (or someone else on the StyleArc team, although the garments are named "Cleo") saw something like this on a runway show or something like that. It seems like too random of an offering from StyleArc to not have a clear inspiration piece behind it.

StyleArc Cleo Long Tabard

The StyleArc tabard is designed to be made out of sheer fabrics and worn as an outer layer over the Cleo knit dress.

Honestly, I don't know what to even think of these, so I'm reserving judgment until I see them worn together on a real person.

True Bias: Southport Dress

I've been pretty "meh" on the first two patterns released by True Bias, but I actually think that the new Southport dress is pretty cute:

True Bias Southport Dress

I'm sure that we'll be seeing tons of these popping up all over the sewing blogosphere over the next few months. I think I'd be tempted to buy it, but I do already own the very similar Blank Slate Catalina dress pattern, which I bought last summer.

Final Thoughts

We had a fair number of new releases this week, of which, I suspect the Morris blazer and Southport dress are the ones that we'll be seeing the most of in the coming months. (Now, who will be the first blogger to post a photoshoot of a Morris blazer paired with a Southport dress?)

Of all of these, I think I'm actually the most excited about a handful of the new McCall's, since I don't already have pattern doppelgangers for the ones that I like in my pattern stash.

And what do you think about Muse offering the sleeve add-on pack for a few bucks? I'm kind of surprised that more designers don't do things like this--it's a good way to extend the use of your already-purchased (and altered) patterns without having to buy and figure out alterations for a whole new pattern.

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Last Week in Patterns (4-May-2015)

May 4, 2015, 11:59 am

≫ Next: Last Week in Patterns (10-May-2015)

≪ Previous: Last Week in Patterns (26-April-2015)

Lots of patterns to go through this week, but sadly, I didn't find many of them exciting. Hopefully, you find them more interesting than I did!

BurdaStyle - May 2015 Plus Collection (Sea Breeze Collection)

After what has felt like months of fat-shaming shapeless sacks being marketed as "Plus" collections by Burda, BurdaStyle has finally released a Plus collection with some cute, non-sack patterns.

05-2015 #132 - Sundress with Pockets

I really love this. It's cute, should be flattering on a lot of figures, and is functional with those pockets. I can totally see me running around town in this on a Saturday.

BurdaStyle 05-2015 #132

05-2015 #129 - Raglan(?) sleeved tunic

“Men always say that as the defining compliment, don’t they? She’s a cool girl. Being the Cool Girl means I am a hot, brilliant, funny woman who adores football, poker, dirty jokes, and burping, who plays video games, drinks cheap beer, loves threesomes and anal sex, and jams hot dogs and hamburgers into her mouth like she’s hosting the world’s biggest culinary gang bang while somehow maintaining a size 2, because Cool Girls are above all hot. Hot and understanding. Cool Girls never get angry; they only smile in a chagrined, loving manner and let their men do whatever they want. Go ahead, shit on me, I don’t mind, I’m the Cool Girl." -- Amy Dunne in Gillian Flynn's "Gone Girl"

Really, the only reason why I clipped this one is that I think that the model bears a resemblance to Rosamund Pike.

BurdaStyle 05-2015 #129

05-2015 #128A & 128B: V-neck dresses

This pair of V-neck dresses are a nice way to show of a striped fabric. I love that they have shoulder princess seams and a modesty panel (no needing to wear a cami!). The hidden pockets are a nice touch, too. I think that between these two dresses and the sundress with pockets, Burda may have earned some of my money this month.

BurdaStyle 02-2015 #128A

BurdaStyle 02-2015 #128B

Colette Seamwork - May issue

This month's Seamwork offered us a dress and a shrug.

Adelaide

I've been pretty "meh" on most of the Seamwork patterns so far, but I think this dress is kind of cute. I have similar patterns in my stash (and made up a similar Vogue pattern a few years ago). It has less shaping than the True Bias Southport, but is also a few dollars cheaper if you're buying the Seamwork patterns a la carte.

Colette Seamwork Adelaide

Sydney

This, on the other hand? Not my style. And I just don't see this working well on anyone who isn't tall, slim-figured, and flat-chested.

Colette Seamwork Sydney

New Look - Summer 2015 Release

The New Look and Simplicity summer collections were released at the same time. Neither collection was particularly exciting, but they did each have a couple of patterns that caught my eye.

New Look 6373 - Misses jumpsuit, romper, and dresses

This isn't particularly bra-friendly, and that ruffle wouldn't work on my own bust, but I do think that this is a cute pattern for summer. Nakisha at Sew Crafty Chemist has already sewn up a really cute version of this.

New Look 6373

New Look 6374

New Look 6374 isn't a particularly exciting pattern, but I've seen those shirred-shoulder, tab-collar tunics all over my office for the past year or so. This would be a great pattern to replicate a current RTW trend. Also, is that the same model from this month's Burda plus spread?

New Look 6374

New Look 6389

Noting this pattern because it's a rare tween pattern. I like this because it's cute, current, and age-appropriate for its target audience.

New Look 6389

Simplicity - Summer 2015 Release

I thought that this year's summer release from Simplicity was pretty boring. There were a few patterns, I guess, that could be kind of cute if you didn't need to wear a bra or could get away with a strapless or inserting a shelf bra into the pattern, but none of that applies to me. And since this is my pattern recap, I ignore non-bra-friendly patterns.

Oddly, the two patterns that caught my eye from this collection were both swimsuit patterns.

Simplicity 1116 - MimiG Swimsuits

MimiG's and my own personal style usually couldn't be further apart, but I did think that this was a nice-looking swimsuit pattern AND it goes well into plus sizes (size 28W is the highest offered). If I do tackle a swimsuit this summer, it will likely be using the retro-style two piece pattern that was in the most recent McCall's release (and that I just picked up on sale a few days ago). But if I wanted a non-retro style suit, I'd pick up this pattern.

Simplicity 1116

Simplicity 1120 - Child's rash guard and tankini set

How cute and current are these girls' swimsuits? I'll be picking up this pattern and making it for my daughter this summer. Eva is really into tutus and twirly skirts these days, and these swimsuits look like something that she'd pick out herself.

Simplicity 1120

StyleArc - May 2015 release

Hazel Combo

The Hazel is another cocoon silhouette from StyleArc. This one has a top or dress option. They seem to be offering this style a lot lately. It's not really my style, so none of these variations has grabbed me.

StyleArc Hazel Combo

Faith Woven top

The Faith woven top is May's freebie. I like it, but I hate sewing pintucks (they're optional with this pattern), and I already own the somewhat similar previous freebie Stephanie blouse, so I'll take a pass on this month.

StyleArc Faith Woven top

Final Thoughts and a word on Me Made May

So, lots of new patterns were released this week, but none really grabbed me outside a couple of those Burda dresses. If you're still building your pattern stash, I could see a few of these appealing, though.

I won't be participating in Me Made May (drink!) this month, largely because I wear something "me-made" nearly every day, anyways. It's not really a challenge for me. But good luck to those who are participating (both in the challenge and in the drinking game)!

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