We love Amare, pattern release

Another pattern release today, the Amare dress and top pattern from Sofilantjes. Amare means love, and the pattern really earns its name, its lovely. This is the sixth pattern from Sofilantjes that I have sewn and she pleasantly surprises me every time. At first sight I always like her patterns, but seeing the end results really makes me fall in love with the patterns.

During the pre-test we were free to choose the version we wanted to sew. I had a strong preference for the dress version with ties. When another tester showed her top version with the bow, I immediately became jealous. I would not have thought that the bow would be for me, but I totally changed my mind. A similar thing happened when I sewed the summer surprise dress. I wanted that bow so much, that I went back to my pre-test dress and just put a bow on it.

I had already finished the official testing process and I was in my usual, who-needs-manuals mode and cut a piece of fabric that matched the width of the tie. It turned out that the official bow piece is bigger, it has two pleats in it (facepalm). The result of my dress is cute, especially with my little one in it, but I wanted the real deal.

I really should practice my bow tying skills and I had to iron the dress again, I know. 

To address my "bow" desires, I sewed up a top for my eldest.  Like I mentioned before, she needs other garments than dresses, so a top is perfect. My kids are very skinny, and I used a size 4 width and size 7 length. I did this based on the measurement table and on the table with finished garment sizes. I like my kids' garments to be truely fitted and based on the finished garment size table I knew my girl would fit a size smaller than I would pick on the general size table. Having these tables is a true asset, now the top fitted perfectly to my standards.

My youngest is also very skinny. I assumed she had grown a bit since my last measurement (never ever assume), but it turned out she somehow became narrower (I probably just miss measured in the past, because we do feed her). The dress I made her is therefore a little bit too wide, fortunately the ties can make the dress nicely fitted at the waist. My ties are shorter than the ties I have seen on other testers, I might have made a mistake there.

In my previous post I wrote that I conquered my fear of button holes, well this post's dress was a big part of that. Not long ago I spoke with a good friend about my troubles of sewing with my button hole feet. I simply didn't get how to use it. Because of that conversation I realized I didn't use the feet correctly and for this dress I forced myself to not use snaps, but buttons. I am very satisfied with my new skill. Now I really have to start buying buttons, I realized my stash only contains small buttons. For both the dress and top I used small flower buttons.

The two uni-colored fabrics are from Soft Cactus as well is the greenish Flowerworks. The other is from Hamburger Liebe called My Aunties Helga. Both the cutting and sewing process were relatively short (the pdf only has a maximum of 12 pages). If I would have to guess you can do the whole thing in about two hours.

As you can see this pattern is great for playing. The pattern is on introduction sale today and tomorrow only and you can buy it at Sofilantjes webshop.

I love to hear what you think of my creations. Feel free to leave a comment in the language you prefer (although Google translate might have to assist me if you choose something different than English, German, Dutch or Hungarian).