Chasing Coco

It is very rare that I buy a pattern during it's release but George and Ginger got me to do it twice this year! And I even made them both!?! That almost never happens but the Solar Sundress pattern was just exactly what I was looking for and magically appeared. The pattern has now been out for a little while but I have been slow to blog about it because it was a busy summer! On the plus side, the delay means I've now made it twice. Version 2 - pockets! Things I love about the Solar Sundress : Pockets! Under-dress anti-chafe shorts - I always wear shortties under my dresses, so these are built in! Built-in bra options Lots of fun options and variations - so many great ideas from the testing team! I have a super active and young dog-beast. Which leads to me constantly walking and sometimes running her around my neighborhood and I had been thinking that I wanted a skort of some kind. I want to look presentable for work and such but also for it to be practical for walking. I have a...

Does anyone else feel like all they are wearing these days is lounge wear? I have been working from home just shy of a year and while I sometimes wear a cute outfit or a nice top for video conference my day to day wardrobe involves a lot of comfortable clothes, including a lot of athletic apparel. With all the cute bras I plan to make from the new Switch it Up pattern , I want some open-back exercise shirts and thankfully, I have several options in my pattern stash. The first one I decided to make was the Good Sport from Ellie and Mac . I actually did a hack similar to this one a while back from their free tank pattern but I wasn't 100% happy with my hack so I grabbed the Good Sport. I chose this pattern to go first because I have made quite a few E&M patterns and am pretty reliably a large graded to an XL hip and I had this adorable bee print fabric from LA Finch Fabrics that I didn't want to ruin (see a close up of the fabric below, it's really cute!). I also didn...

I never had any desire to make my own bras and here I am, making all kinds of bras thanks to George and Ginger patterns. Their free pattern, the little black bra  (LBB), was a gateway to bra making . I might never buy a bra with an underwire again, I can barely stand to wear the ones I have now that I'm so accustomed to bralettes without them. The new Switch it Up (SIU) bra is actually two patterns a solid front with a bunch of back options and a solid back with bunch of front options. To some degree you could mix and match them, some views quite easily and some you might have to work through some construction changes. When I saw this promoted as a "coming soon" I could hardly wait! I bought it the first day it was released and made it as soon as I had time. There were several nights I could hardly sleep thinking about what options I wanted to make and in what fabrics.  I finally decided I should choose a fairly simple view and went with back view L and use a muslin fabr...

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...

 I liked M7574 so much I accidentally bought two copies. Whoops! I got around to making it around Thanksgiving for a Christmas shirt. I made length C with sleeves B for a long sleeve shirt. I had looked around for a holiday print knit for weeks and couldn't find anything I liked when by chance I hit the jackpot on the Joann's clearance table! This was a red llama fabric cotton knit with a small amount of spandex, I think 3%. The black sleeves are double brushed poly that I had in my stash, which I think was from LA Finch Fabrics. Pros I didn't realize it until I made the pattern but the raglan sleeve is curved on the front. I really like this and it adds some nice interest to the top. It has a two piece sleeve, which I love! You don't usually see this on a knit pattern and I really like the contour that it adds. The back seam is also contoured nicely. If it's going to be cut in two pieces it shouldn't be straight! That is a pattern pet peeve of mine, it's n...

I have been way behind in my posting my fall sewing. I have been sewing a lot, just not blogging about it apparently. I think the COVID blues finally set in for me in late summer/fall which might account for my failure to keep up with my posts; there were a few points when the sewing was more minimal too if I am being honest. One of my recent initiatives has been v-neck tees. I sewed for literally years  before I really noticed how few v-neck patterns there were for knits. They are a little harder to sew than a crew or scoop neck but it's a little surprising to me that there are so few vees out there, it's not impossible to learn! Early on in the pandemic, I bought a couple of a patterns from the Makerist site. I think they were having a $2 pattern sale, and you know I cannot pass that up! One of the ones which found it's way into my cart was the Dandelion tee from Millicent Joy patterns. I have now made this pattern 5 times! I have refined the fit so it's the perfect ...

 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 ...