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Made for Mermaids Oaklynn - Pattern Review

 This was the first pattern I made from Made for Mermaids! When the Oaklynn was released, I kept seeing makes of it and they were all so cute I had to buy it and make it for myself!

Pros

I don't have many comments on the fit or construction as it was pretty straight forward so I am keeping my comments to positives and negatives. Here are good things about this pattern:

  • I LOVE that the pattern gives an arm measurement. I often have a an issue with patterns not fitting around my arm and this made it really easy to know what size would fit my arm. I will have to check if they do this for all of their patterns because that would be amazing. It could be it was just because this was a dolman style top.
  • The pattern includes directions for how to mash sizes. This is great for newbies that haven't mashed before, so you can get better fit.
  • There are a million options included with this pattern! There is a v-neck, crew, hood, color-blocking, cuffs, curved hem and probably more things. It made it hard to decide what to make. Eventually, I looked through the tester pics and that helped me to narrow it down.



Cons

So, the flip side of there being so many options is that the pattern is approximately a million pages. I strongly recommend to either have it printed on A0 paper or narrow down what options you need before printing it. I did not do this and yikes it took a long time to put together. 

After printing and assembling it all, it seems like some of the pieces for the front and back are exactly the same...? The middle and bottom of the color block option seem to be the same and printing them only once would have helped reduce the pages but it's also kind of nice to have both. Maybe they're not the same but it seems like they are to me.

Top-stitching with my coverstitch

One last note, the pattern says not to use double brushed poly and I ignored that and did anyway. 😏 It's a little boxier than it would be with the recommended fabrics but I really like it, very cozy for winter!

Version 1 was the crew neck, color blocked option with a straight hem in DBP animal print from Olga's closet. I think the black was from LA Finch Fabrics but I'm not 100% sure.

Version 2 is the v-neck solid top with the curved hem in a brushed waffle that I bought on Amazon when I was in desperate need of waffle. To make the hem curl under more easily, I added a little flange and I do think it helped it to more easily lay when hemming.

I accidentally cut the wrong neckline on this one. There is a line for a v-neck hood and no-hood and I cut the wrong one. With so many options, you have to be careful when cutting the pattern out to make sure you cut the pieces right.



Version 3 was the v-neck with a hood and curved hem in a fabulous rib-knit that I got from a bundle of stripped fabrics from Olga's Closet. I can already tell this is going to be a favorite!





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