Skip to main content

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!





This post contains affiliate links, if you make a purchase using one of these links this blog may receive a small commission. Thank you for your support of my fabric habit!

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

George and Ginger 40k Sway - Pattern Review

Final product - 40k Sway George and Ginger Patterns gave the 40k Sway pattern away to celebrate having 40,000 members in their Facebook group. Look at how cute that neckline is? Of course I had to make this super cute freebie. As an extra bonus, there are directions for making a functional placket opening or faux opening. I opted for the faux placket because it's marginally easier and I have no reason that I need the opening to work but if you needed access to a port or to breastfeed, this top design would be great! I measure a size L12 (full bust 38") but I was at the top of the size range and worried it wouldn't fit in my arms so I decided to go up to an L14 and graded out to an XL16 hip. I checked my fabric stretch before sewing it as I was using a French Terry which is not always very stretchy. My fabric had 50% horizontal stretch and minimal vertical stretch (maybe 10%); the pattern says it needs 50% 2-way stretch so I thought I would be fine. Um.....no....It was way...
2 comments
Read more

Made for Mermaids Aaronica - Pattern review

Hello sewing friends! It's been a hot minute since I posted anything and I think I have only made two new patterns in the meantime. Life was very chaotic last fall and I didn't have access to my sewing supplies! The horror! 😱 And since then, well, I haven't been in the mood. It happens sometimes. I recently finished the Aaronica from Made for Mermaids, serious folks, I know I started this in February at least because I had thought I'd wear it on Valentines Day because the small dots are actually little hearts. And here it is, April. Also you can see in this photo, where the bodice goes up a little in the front on the right? Yeah, that's where I accidentally sliced through it with my serger when I was attaching the skirt. Whoops. It was a bad slice too, over an inch but whatever! It happens! Enough about my slow-poke sewing, to business! Pattern instructions Overall the instructions here are good. The photos are clear. There is only one place where I possibly didn...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ellie & Mac Feel Frisky panties - pattern review

I have been wearing my scrap panties for a while now and I have come to the conclusion that the leg elastic is often too tight so I decided I would experiment with using leg bands instead of elastic. I had a new pattern to test out too, the Ellie and Mac Feel Frisky Panties  (Afflink). Like the Megan Nielson Acacia pattern I made previously, they are a brief style panty. I haven't found a cheeky panty pattern but I have experimented a little with making my own, it still needs some fine tuning before I share it however. Fabric was DBP from Cali Fabrics. The Frisky panties come in 3 rises - low, medium and high. I made the low rise version. Alterations I made The only thing I really changed was to use leg bands instead of leg elastic. I measured the leg holes to be 28" (size XL) and cut my bands at 27 x 1.5" (used .25" seam allowance to sew bands together). I serged the bands on and the coverstiched them. Next time around I might make the bands an inch short...
Post a Comment
Read more