Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Misusu FREEkin' sewing challenge blog tour



A few days ago the Freekin' sewing challenge blog tour started. This means four weeks filled with inspiration on how to use the FREE patterns from Misusu. I have sewed a paid few patterns by Misusu, the Dia, the Louise and the Origami sweater, but I did not sew one of the free ones yet. To make up for this "bad" behavior I sewed up five garments  while using three free patterns and one of them got hacked.



The most straight forward forward and quickest sew that I did was the just released bigger Rowan shirt. This is an oversized unisex shirt which you can download from the Misusu Sew and Tell group. I made one for our eldest and it is clearly a very relaxed fit, but that is fine with the extremely warm weather that we are experiencing now. To make the shirt into an outfit I combined it with a culottes.



The culottes are not a pre-drawn pattern, you make it based on your own measurements. I have to admit that it scared me a bit. I had been planning to sew one when I sewed this Dia, but I chickened out. I somehow seem to have that more often with Misusu patterns, but after sewing them my fear turns out to have no ground. It really was not complicated to draw the culottes and like this I could make exactly the length and size that I wanted. I sewed the culottes with a linen type of fabric that I took from the free for all pile on our latest sewing weekend. The linen is a bit stiff which gives the culottes a lot of volume. I of course added pockets.



After sewing a standard culottes I hacked the pattern to support a full circle "skirt" in jersey. This was actually a super easy hack. The main thing that you change is the distance between 1 and 2 (as mentioned in the instructions). You use 1/4 of the measured waist instead of what the instructions tell you to use. You also use this adjusted distance between 1 and 2 for the waistband. Now, follow all the other steps until you reach the "modify the shape" step. Instead of cutting five strips, you cut strips of one centimeter wide (it does not have to be perfect, just make it rather narrow), and yes those might end up to be many strips, do not loose them. Now rearrange the strips such that the first strip is turned in a 90 degree angle from the base of the skirt and that the strips meet at the top (and still form a line which is 1/4 of the waist). The distribution does not have to be perfect, that is just to give you a sense of the curve. The waist length is important though. Draw the new skirt and continue with the rest of the tutorial.



With this hack I made the orange skirt for our youngest. I made a short sleeved Max to finish that outfit. I also made the Max because I wanted to check if our youngest could step through the neckline into the shirt, and she could! I decided to just add one button instead of three. This does mean that sometimes the neckline opens a bit, but it does not bother me.



The last garment that I made is a jumpsuit of a circle culottes and the Max, which is why I wanted to know if our little one could fit through the neckline. I cut off the Max pattern piece at the waist (just measure it on your child, the pattern itself does not have a visible waist). In my case the Max bottom width and the waist of the circle skirt were almost identical, and I did not have to make any adjustments to sew them together. If you would like to make something similar but would end up with a big difference between the Max and the culottes waist (because your daughter is for example much bigger and actually has a waist), than you can draw the Max a bit narrower towards the waist such that it will fit the top of the culottes.



If after reading my post, and browsing all the free Misusu patterns you feel inspired, than you are probably happy to hear that there is also a challenge for you.  If you sew up a free Misusu patterns and share it on Instagram or Facebook (the Misusu Sew & Tell facebook group totally counts) before August the 18 with the hashtag #misususewingchallenge you might win one of the three very cool prices. Visit the announcement blog post to read all the details about the competition. For the duration of the total challenge, you also get 15% off your total purchase with the code MISUSU15. If you want to win a Misusu pattern to complete your look, than visit my Instagram post!




Misusu Patterns FREEkin’ Sewing Challenge Inspirators

Tuesday, July 24, 2018

Vallis release



Before Anne is releasing a new human child into the world, she decided to also give birth to a twin pattern (one for girls and one for women) while being 34 weeks pregnant. She really is an unstoppable force. Today's new pattern is called the Vallis and it is the ultimate summer dress. The new bodice is sleeveless and there are tunic and dress options.



The Vallis has an unlined bodice and the band length to finish the bodice is calculated to be finished in knits. You therefore do not have to find a matching ribbing, you can finish the dress all in one fabric type. The Vallis has scooped back neckline which is a partial tribute to the summer suprise dress that got retired earlier this year, which was the first ever Sofilantjes pattern. When I put on my dress, I first put it on backwards, and that totally worked as well, it was low, but not too low.



The girl Vallis has a 3/4 circle skirt both in dress and tunic length. It also has a handkerchief skirt option (the skirt contains four square corners) both in dress and tunic length. There is also an option to have an asymmetrical partial circle/ handkerchief cross over option. The last one sounds cryptic, I know, but the idea is that there are two square corners and two round edges. I love asymmetry, so both dresses that I made have the asymmetrical skirt. I was not officially testing this one, and I did a small hack, I cut the asymmetrical skirt as mirror image, which lead to having both corners on one side. The official pattern asks for two the same skirt pieces.



The women Vallis has a 1/2 circle skirt, which makes the skirt lighter than the one on the Solis. Although the skirt is less full than the girl version, it also has the handkerchief options both in dress and tunic version. The women Vallis also contains an empirical waist option with a gathered skirt. The skirts of the Vallis and Solis for women are interchangeable. If you own the women Solis you can also make a Vallis with pleated skirt for example.




Also for the girl Vallis there are mix and match options. The Litore, Solis, Regina and Montis skirts fit perfectly on the Vallis. Both the women and girls version sew up super quick. I highly recommend buying both. Both patterns are as usual on a very attractive release sale until Thursday evening. During the release the Vallis bundle is the same price as the individual patterns combined which is 10.60 euro (excluding taxes).




Wednesday, July 18, 2018

PR&P Shop tour: Dressage leggings



Already almost two years ago, wow where did the time go, I participated as a contestant on Project run and play. For years it had been a  dream for me to participate. Even though I did not make it to the second round, participating in PR&P was a big win for me. I had wanted to participate in PR&P because from the moment that I discovered sewing blogs, PR&P made me want to hack and be extra creative. PR&P is still doing that for many beginning and experienced sewers and they want to strengthen their role by opening a pattern shop. Contestants that created a pattern based on their original PR&P look are now neatly collected there. To celebrate the new shop there is a blog tour to show off all the patterns.



I have the honor to show the dressage leggings by Jenuine Designs. Today's leggings are not the first dressage leggings that I sew up. I sewed them for our youngest and middle one before (the middle one's never made the blog, they were snatched up before I could make pictures). At that time I made only the plain option so for today I of course went for the color blocked as well and Iin the spirit of PR&P even squeezed out a small hack.



The dressage leggings have two options in rise type, making these leggings perfect both for diaper wearing and bigger kids. The diaper wearing period is way behind us, so we went with regular rise.The pattern comes in two more options, regular leggings and color blocked ones. The dressage leggings are a part of a line that is horse riding inspired and these leggings were created to mimic the effect op leggings that need other, more stronger material where is touches the horse to provide better saddle grip. For non-horse riders like us, it gives nice options to play with fabrics.



You could easily make a three way colored leggings, by giving the cut outs on both sides a different color. Our rainbow loving kids would have liked that as well, but I went a different way. In a small hack I only used the front color block and just kept the back as a whole. It is all about strategically placing both pattern pieces on each other when you cut. It really is not hard. I noticed before that our kids' leg with/waist ratio is non-standard. In our case that meant that going width height gave the leggings the best fit, instead of going with waist.



To celebrate the shop opening there is a special discount this week on all  “Separates", resulting in the pattern being 20% off, sales will ne rare, so make sure you use this opportunity! There also is a give away, filll in the raffle copter to get a chance of getting an awesome set of gifts. Giveaway ends August 1st.  There will be 5 (random) winners for the following prizes:

$50 gift certificate to DH Fabrics and Co.
1 dress pattern from the Project Run & Play shop
1 separates pattern from the Project Run & Play shop
1 outerwear pattern from the Project Run & Play shop
1 accessories pattern from the Project Run & Play shop

https://projectrunandplay.com/

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Three times summer Pearlie dress



Do you remember that I hacked the Pearlie dress by Peach patterns into a winter dress last fall? Probably you did not, but I did, and every time my daughter whore it it made me secretly long for summer to have an excuse to sew the summer version. So, now I finally could and I actually made three! One for each of our girls.





The Pearlie dress bodice is perfect for scrap fabrics. The cute ice cream fabric was a leftover that I got from her. By adding a pocket in the color of the skirt you easily create unity between bodice and skirt if you decide to pick two different fabrics. I decided to angle the pocket pattern piece a bit and I really like the diagonal lines on that pocket. Our middle one is still in this interesting, I do not want dresses phase, but she likes everything that I call a tunic. So I made her a long tunic this time, that long that you could call it a dress, but we do not of course.




I screen printed the Pearlie that I  made for our eldest. I am still not a hundred percent convinced about the print, but as a whole garment it works. I feel the print is a bit too big and not sharp enough (I hand cut it), but it might also be the black on orange combi. I just have to print it again on another fabric to find out. I actually cut the print for our bear loving son, so I will for sure use it once more.




The third Pearlie, I sewed in the magic color changing fabric that I already showed you twice before. Weeks ago, I also already sewed up the fourth garment with this fabric ( yes everyone wanted something from it of course), but that one will have to wait until later. I really love the Pearlie both as dress and as top. I think I will also have to sew a winter version for all three of them. Our almost five year old is very pleased with this top that still has a princess vibe.