a few pattern reviews…

I went into vacation mode on etsy this past weekend which meant I went into sewing-like-mad mode this week. I had 3 days with the kids left in school to get a whole host of secret projects completed. I’m on day 3 right now and it’s looking grim that project 4 will get finished today…I digress.

Here’s a wrap up of this week’s projects so far and some pattern reviews to boot.

First up was a holiday/winter skirt for the chick. It’s the skirt part of the Gracie pattern by Portabellopixie.

The pattern I’ve had in my stash before and I’ve made this particular skirt before and a couple of the dress versions too. Overall it’s a super easy pattern to follow. The pictures and directions are well done and easy enough for a seasoned beginner.

I tried something different this go around with making the gathers. I don’t have a ruffle foot so I’m always trying these tactics I see around the web for making perfect gathers. Alas, I’m still struggling.

This time I took some cotton pearl thread that I had and sewed a zig zag stitch on top of it and pulled it to make the gathers. Actually I did prefer this method, until I put it on my serger to sew it and it all fell apart. For the second layer I attempted to do this again and instead of going straight to the serger I decided to sew a basting stitch on top of the gathers and then serge it. That helped some, but it still wasn’t perfect. For the top layer I just went back to sewing a basting stitch and pulling it. I do think for really long strips of ruffles I would totally do the string and zig zag because you don’t have to worry about your basting threads stripping out.

Here’s the finished skirt:

The next project was a kindle case for the chick’s Christmas gift. I followed this tutorial on Riley Blake’s site and it was pretty darn simple.

I used some zebra corduroy I had in my stash and some purple cotton for the inside. The button closure was from my stash of vintage buttons and it makes the whole case awesome. It did turn out just a little bit wider than I would have preferred. I would have rather had a more snug fit, but that’s something that could easily be rectified if I decided to make another case later. And honestly this is such a simple tutorial that even a young beginner could put it together with a little guidance.

Yesterday I put the pedal to the metal and finished a pair of pajamas for the chick’s birthday. Today is pajama day and I knew she would want to wear them to school if I could get them done. The pattern was Oliver and S’ Sleepover pajamas. I’ve had this one marked for a while and bought it over Thanksgiving. I love it mostly because it’s pretty versatile as far as boys v. girls etc.

The fabric is a flannel from Joanns that I bought like 6 yards of a while back. Some of it I used for the chick’s woodland party and then I knew I would do some pajamas out of it too. It’s super cute and they scored big with this print.

I love Oliver + S and Liesl writes what I think are truly the best patterns out there. I’ve grown as a seamstress and garment maker mostly because of how she puts a garment together. This is a very easy to read and follow pattern and honestly they go together really well. There were a few moments where I had to reread the directions and figure out how she was wanting the seams to be, but so much of that could be because I’m so rusty with garment making lately.

This is the first time I’ve done buttonholes on my new machine and man oh man; those buttonholes were well worth the debt I’m still paying off for it. Dang they are lovely.

My only complaint about this pattern is the sizing is way off. I did make a size up just because I would rather make them too big than too small. But I had to cut off like 5 inches on the length of the pants and they were still crazy long and my chick isn’t really that short. The same thing with the sleeves. They were crazy long. I could have totally gotten away with making a 6 instead of a 7. There was that much of a difference in sizing. But who cares…because they are totally cute and now she can wear them for longer anyhow!!