Fantasia Fashion

Recently, Sara Lawson from Sew Sweetness announced the upcoming release of her newest fabric collection for Art Gallery Fabrics--Fantasia! When she offered to send me some of the prints to try out, I didn't hesitate to say yes! From the two prints Sara sent me, I was able to create this lovely Fantasia Fashion for Ella to wear this Spring!

Pattern Anthology Parisian Top

My friends at Pattern Anthology have outdone themselves this time, and I was lucky enough to be a tester for one of the designs--the Parisian Top!

The Parisian Top pattern is a design creation from Andrea at Go To Patterns.  She is one of the four fabulous designers behind Pattern Anthology, and this time, the ladies developed a set of patterns just for women!  It's called Just Add Jeans, and the collection was just released for sale a couple of days ago.

The collection of 4 women's top patterns will be available at a discounted price for just 2 weeks before the designers sell them individually at the pattern's full retail price.  To learn all about the Just Add Jeans collection, be sure to visit the Pattern Anthology website.

Testing for the Parisian Top was a few weeks ago, so I have been enjoying my stylish new top for a while now.  So glad I can finally share it with you all!

This top is made using a sweater knit remnant I bought forever ago at Joann Fabric and Craft Stores, and the collar is sewn from black ponte knit with no interfacing.  The fabrics are so soft and comfy that this has become one of my favorite tops to wear.

The Parisian is so on trend with the peter pan collar, 3/4 length banded sleeves, and loose banded waist. Oh, and it has a few gathers at the top of the sleeve which give it the most perfect feminine touch.

I honestly believe a beginner could sew this with no problems, especially since the Go To Pattern instructions include tons of tips for sewing with knit including how to test the stretch and recovery of your knit fabric.  Also, the diagrams and sketches show you step-by-step how to assemble the top.  Using my serger for almost all of the sewing, I think I finished the top in just over an hour!

It's usually hard for me to finally sew a piece of clothing for myself, but because I'm so happy with the fit of the Parisian, I'll definitely be making a few more for Spring.

Be sure to check out the Pattern Anthology Just Add Jeans collection where you can get the Parisian Top plus 3 other terrific women's top patterns for a steal!

And if you haven't already, be sure to enter my sewVery 1,500+ Facebook Likes--Thank You Giveaway that ends this coming Saturday, March 15th, at midnight!

Have fun sewing!

The Belinda Dress

I'm finally getting around to sharing with you the other favorite dress that Ella and I adore right now--the Belinda Dress pdf pattern by Go To Patterns.

Disclaimer:  The pattern designer provided me with a free copy of the pattern in exchange for my honest review.  All comments in this post are my own opinions.

Go To Patterns released this new design a few weeks ago, and I loved the look of it immediately! The Belinda Dress pattern is written for knit fabrics and is pretty simple to make.  In fact, the only time I used my sewing machine and not my serger was to attach the fold over elastic and to baste the fabric for gathering!  Total time to put it all together was roughly a couple of hours, and the fit is spot on perfect for Ella who is wearing a size 6 now!

First of all, the pattern is one of the most professional packages I've seen lately.  The designer uses excellent photos to accompany the clearly written step-by-step instructions for sewing the dress. And the pattern pieces are simple to print out and put together.

For Ella's black Belinda Dress, I used a ponte roma knit fabric from Joann Fabric and Craft Stores. Instead of binding the neckline and pockets with a knit band as shown in the pattern, I decided to add a little color to the basic black dress by using some fun florescent orange and black chevron fold over elastic.

I think I was channeling my youth from the 1980's with the use of the highlighter yellow tights and the funky blue/green headband--that's one of the reasons I like this outfit so much though!  And in case you are wondering, I did not make the headband!  We picked it up at Gymboree.

This was only my second time to use FOE, and I love it!  Now I need to find more of that fun FOE print!

The dress pattern shows you how to make the dress with or without the large kangaroo style pockets. Since I had plenty of the ponte roma fabric, I added them, and Ella is very glad I did (although she doesn't look it in the photo below (she suddenly got embarrassed as a man walking by noticed her))! Since I purchased the fabric when it was 60% off, the total cost of this dress is under $10!  Can you believe it?

The Belinda Dress pattern has lots of gathering just to warn you in case you don't like gathering! Because the ponte roma fabric is a thicker knit, the front of the skirt took a while to gather because you have two layers of fabric to draw up if you put in the pockets.  It's not difficult--just a little time consuming!  My favorite is the gathering at the top of the sleeve that produces the sweetest feminine effect.

Well, it didn't take Ella long to get over her shyness!  In fact, she had a lot of fun playing around in her Belinda Dress!

So, what are you waiting for?!  Head over to Go To Patterns and check out the Belinda Dress pattern for yourself!  Once I buy some more knit I'll definitely be making another one!

Thanks for stopping by today, and have fun sewing!

Pattern Anthology Winter Wonderland Tour

I find it extremely difficult to define my daughter's style (and my own for that matter).  She's not boxed into one look but definitely likes variety--one day it's a fancy dress with ruffles, the next day it's an old pair of sweats paired with a t-shirt, purse, and jewelry!  But no matter what it is, Ella always makes sure the outfit has a feminine touch.

Her outfit for the Pattern Anthology Winter Wonderland Pattern Collection blog tour is no exception!

With cooler weather fast approaching, I decided to swap out the summer clothes in Ella's closet and replace them with winter clothes.  The problem is that she had outgrown almost all her pants and jeans from last year.  Lucky for me (and for Ella, too, I guess), I had just signed up to make a pair of Tree Climber Trousers and a Sweet Bonnie Top for the Pattern Anthology tour.  She'd have at least one new outfit for fall and winter soon.

Sometimes the most difficult part of a sewing project is choosing the fabrics, but not this one!  I immediately knew I wanted to use the hot pink, white, and silver striped knit that had been lying around waiting for that perfect project.  Every time I open my box of knits, Ella begs me to make her something with it, and this time I got to say yes!  She was thrilled.  

This led me to remember some teal stretch corduroy with silver specs in it that I bought a couple of months ago.  When I finally found it, it looked great paired with the pink fabric for the Sweet Bonnie Top, but I wanted to tie the two pieces together more using the silver accent.  Since I had no silver fabric in my stash, this meant it was time to go shopping!

We headed to Joann's and combed the aisles in search of the perfect shade and texture of silver fabric. Finally, I came across this silver pleather.  I was a little concerned that it might not hold up well in the wash or to the rigorous play of an active little girl, but my choices for silver fabric were pretty slim, so I took a chance with it.  I tested a piece of it in the wash and it seemed to hold up just fine.

For the Sweet Bonnie Top, I used the silver fabric with no added interfacing on the collar, and I lined the back of the pocket using the knit fabric.  Check out my mad stripe matching skills at those sleeve shoulder seams! My mom taught me well!

The most challenging part of making this blouse was using the metallic thread to topstitch the collar and pocket!  I learned much later that there are specialty needles for sewing with metallic thread (still need to buy one), but I did manage to finish the entire project using a regular needle.  If you decide to give this a try with a regular needle, I'll just warn you that you might get frequent thread breaks that can be a little frustrating at times!

I love the raglan style of the Sweet Bonnie Top and the fact that it can be made using wovens or knits. Besides the peter pan style collar, the little pocket and the pleats at the sleeve cuffs, the back includes a zippered closure to help make slipping the top on and off a lot easier.  

I'm fairly new to sewing zippers into clothing (this was my second one and done the same week as my first one which I blogged about here).  It was very easy to do using the instructions and pictures in the pattern.

Next, I planned how to embellish the Tree Climber Trousers to make them perfect for Ella's style. I started by quilting the knees using the metallic thread and two layers of regular quilting cotton for backing.  In addition to working with the finicky metallic thread, I was also now working with stretch corduroy!  What was I thinking?!  

This fabric definitely required the use of my walking foot.  It was stretching and sliding/slipping all over the place until I stuck that on my machine.  Quilting the knees took a while, but the look it gives the pants was all worth it!  

I then constructed the front pockets by lining them with a coordinating quilting cotton fabric for a little peek of color.  I used the same fabric to make the inner waistband and to line the back pocket flaps.

For the back pockets, I used some double sided Wonder Tape to hold the folds until I could edgestitch since pins would have left permanent holes in the pleather.  Double sided Wonder Tape is a great product! You should definitely get some along with that sewing machine needle for metallic thread!

You might just notice that the back pockets on these pants are rather large.  In fact, I used the smaller pocket for the size 5 pants that I made Ella, and they are still that big!  Of course, you can always scale the back pocket pattern pieces down to suit your personal taste.

And since I wasn't feeling challenged enough, I decided to try my hand at inserting a zip fly for the first time EVER!  The Tree Climber Trousers pattern comes with pattern pieces and instructions for sewing a faux fly and a completely elastic waistband, but for some reason, I felt I had to do a real zippered fly!  The pattern instructions include a link to a couple of great tutorials (one by Melissa and the other by Shauna) on how to sew a zip fly and modify the waistband, so once I was completely free of any and all distractions, I was able to figure it out.  I'm so glad I did because I love, love, love the end result!

It may not be perfect--obviously it isn't since I sewed the fly shield so that the serged edge shows--but it functions and looks pretty darn good from the outside!

Now that all being said about how happy I am with the results of the zip fly, I didn't really consider that this modification would mean that all the elastic would now end up in the back waistband only and not be distributed across the front as well.  Because of this, the rear end looks a little more cinched than I think it normally would had I followed the exact details of the pattern instructions.

All I know is that I learned a few new tricks while sewing this outfit, tried out some new materials, and most importantly, made one little girl very, VERY happy!  

To learn more about Pattern Anthology and to purchase the 8 pdf pattern Winter Wonderland Collection which includes both the Sweet Bonnie Top and the Tree Climber Trousers, click HERE!

I was provided copies of these two patterns free of charge in exchange for my participation in the pattern tour, and all opinions expressed in this post are my own.

Be sure to check in with Andrea at The Train to Crazy, Kate of See Kate Sew, Melissa of Melly Sews, and Shauna of Shwin & Shwin each weekday through November 18th for links to all the bloggers participating in the Winter Wonderland Tour!  Or click HERE to see all the outfits already revealed.  You won't want to miss it!

I'd love to hear what you think of my Winter Wonderland outfit.  Please let me know by leaving a comment!

Go To Leggings

Day 4 of Pants Week brings us to a great staple piece for every little girl's wardrobe--leggings!  For this pair, I used the Go To Leggings Pattern.

I needed a simple pair of leggings to go with one of the latest tops I've made Ella.  I can't share the top with you quite yet because it's to be revealed during a pattern tour in a couple of weeks.

To keep things simple, I made a basic pair of capri length leggings with a normal hem.  The pattern is one piece, so there are no side seams to sew!  Sweet!  I think I finished this pair is about a half hour.

For the fabric, I used a half yard remnant of a 95% rayon 5% spandex knit.  First words out of Ella's mouth when she tried them on were, "these are so soft, Moma!".  They are so silky and smooth feeling, and the spandex helps give them enough stretch to stay fitted all over while my active little girl plays.

So if you are looking for that perfect leggings pattern, then I suggest trying the Go To Leggings Pattern.  I haven't gotten brave enough to try out bias binding on knit, but when I do, I'm going to make Ella a pair of Go To Leggings with that keyhole opening in the back.  Those are just too cute for words!  Plus there are numerous other options to make from this one pattern:  capris, skort, skirt, ruched, side pocket to name a few.

Thanks for stopping by today.  Come back tomorrow for my fifth and final day of Pants Week.  I've got a great pair to share with you along with another favorite, my second Bimaa Sweater!.

My Casual Lady Dress

Just another quick post to share with you My Casual Lady Dress.  I can't say enough great things about this pattern.  It is just so easy and quick to sew up!  Don't ask me what I'm doing in this picture because I'm not really sure!  But hey, at least I look happy!  Oh, and casual, too!

In case you didn't see my post earlier this week, I made a Casual Lady Top a couple of weeks ago that I have been wearing constantly!  I've enjoyed it so much that I snatched up a bunch of fashion knit remnants (that I got for a steal at Joann's) this past weekend so I can make more.

For the dress, I had already purchased this 95% polyester 5% spandex jersey knit.  It is so soft and silky feeling, plus it has just the right amount of stretch to it.  After thinking about this dress for almost a week but not having time to cut it out and sew it up, I finally did just that yesterday.

I'm still learning to sew with knits, and this was my first attempt to sew with this type of poly/spandex knit.  Everything went smoothly when sewing up the seams on the serger (I used a scrap to test my stitch settings first), but when I went to hem the sleeves on my regular sewing machine, I ran into a snag or two.

First, I decided to use my walking foot right off the bat.  I wanted to make sure the fabric didn't slip or slide so that the chevrons would match up along the side seams.  I had used a universal needle for all my other knit sewing to date, but on this fabric, the needle caused stitches to be skipped.  Luckily, I did have a pack of stretch needles (I have no idea where they came from) in my sewing supplies, and that solved one problem--no more skipped stitches.

Next, I wasn't pleased with the final look of a straight stitch for the sleeve hem.  I again used a scrap to test the tension and the stretch of the stitch, and finally I used a very narrow (almost straight) zig zag stitch based on the recommendation of some very smart sewing friends I have.  This narrow zig zag stitch gave the hem just a little bit of stretch with a nice overall finished look.

Before I hemmed the bottom, I tried the dress on and found that it was way below my knee, so I chopped off about 3.5" and then sewed that into a sash to wear around my waist.  I'll make a note on the pattern about the length for the next time I make one.

I promise I'm not mad!  The sun was just so bright!

I love the fit of this dress, especially with the sash tied around my waist.  Again, my talented sewing friends offered up some suggestions on how to make the dress more form fitting which I might try to do on the next one.  In case you are interested, Andrea, the pattern designer of the Casual Lady Pattern and the creative genius behind The Train to Crazy and Go To Patterns, recommended using 1 to 2 sizes smaller than you normally would for a form fitting, curve hugging dress!  Justine from Sew Country Chick suggested trying on the dress inside out and pinning the side seams to make the dress narrow just under the bust.  Then you contour the side seams to cinch in that area under the bust creating a more flattering silhouette.

What else can I say to convince you that this pattern is definitely worth the money?  How about that all the proceeds go to a great cause--the She's Worth It campaign which helps women and girls around the world who are victims of sex trafficking.  You can purchase your copy of The Casual Lady Pattern here.

Oh, and I have to add, my son even complimented my new dress!  That just made my day!

The Casual Lady Pattern

Have you purchased your copy of The Casual Lady Top and Dress Pattern yet?  If you haven't, then you should right away!

My friend, Andrea from The Train to Crazy and Go To Patterns, designed this pattern specifically to help raise money for the She's Worth It campaign.  When you purchase The Casual Lady Pattern, all the proceeds go to She's Worth It to help women and young girls around the world who are victims of sex trafficking.  

I am blessed to have a safe home and environment in which to raise my two children, and I cannot imagine the pain and abuse that so many women and young girls are forced to endure as they are sold and traded.  I hope you'll count your blessings as well and consider purchasing The Casual Lady Pattern to help this worthy cause.

As you can see, I am really working the casual look here!  

I made my Casual Lady Top in about an hour (which is not bad for me since I am still learning to sew with knits).  This top has quickly become my favorite!  I've worn it three times in the past week already!  You'd think I'd have more/better pictures of it, but sadly, I don't!  

My Casual Lady Top is made from a pique knit that I purchased at Joann's.  It has a little bit of stretch in both directions and is very soft and supple.  The only problem I had with this fabric was that it curled or rolled up along the cut edges.  Andrea offers some tips in the pattern on how to combat rolling knits which did help make it easier to sew.

The Casual Lady Pattern includes sizes XXXS - XXL (I didn't even know there was such a size as XXXS), so it's a perfect pattern for everyone!  After looking over the measurement chart, I chose to make a Small, and I'm very pleased with the fit.  The only change I plan to make on the next top I make is to shorten the length by a couple of inches.  

Here's a better shot of the neckline and the cap sleeves.  

I've already purchased fabric to make myself a Casual Lady Dress, too.  Maybe I'll cut it out tonight and sew it up to wear this weekend!  Spring is here and I really do need some new clothes.  Plus, it's about time I sew something for myself!  

Oh, and I also made four zipper pouches for the She's Worth It Campaign.  You can see them here.  

As always, thanks for stopping by!  And if you already own The Casual Lady Pattern or plan to purchase it, please let me know!  I'd love to hear what you think of it.