Have you heard or visited the clothing site StyleWe? Is it worth it to spend $$ here? Is it legit? Read on for a review.
StyleWe has a beautiful selection of modern fashion clothes. But, if you visit their Facebook page or SiteJabber you’ll notice a lot of negative complaints. Here’s my experience with StyleWe. Continue reading “StyleWe.com: A Review”
If you struggle with pants fitting and you have a rather flat behind, this pattern might be for you! Thanks to Jamie, I found out about and ordered this new pattern from Style Arc: the Flat Bottom Flo. You are forced to choose one pattern size when you order. My measurements fell in-between sizes. After asking Style Arc which pattern to order, I ordered the larger size. Continue reading “Style Arc Flat-Bottom Flo Review”
Well, this was unintentional, me posting a kimono right after Jamie. Plus, we’re having a Kimono night at the Denver Sewing Collective’s next meetup. I’ve got kimono on the brain. This was an super easy jacket to make. Basically a rectangle folded over and the side sewn where your arms go through. I like the drapey band that Butterick has here. I bought the fabric from … Continue reading Butterfly Kimono from Butterick 6065
Sometime last year, I (Lynne) found some fabulous knit fabric at the ARC Thrift Store in Louisville, Colorado. There were actually two pieces, each costing $3 or less. One I kept and one I gave to Kitty, in a challenge to see what each of us would make. At long last, we are ready to reveal our masterpieces! Continue reading “Fabric Swap #1 – The Floral Knit”
I was intrigued by this little tidbit of fabric from Fabric Mart Fabric. It was in Julie’s Picks for June – a little “scuba knit” fabric from Maggy London. It has a nice combination of colors with a leaf motif. How could I possibly lose with this one? So I ordered up almost two yards and lo this is what I received! I was expecting … Continue reading What to do with a Scuba Knit?
This new pattern for summer from McCall’s looked like a great collection of basics – tank top, short sleeve, mid-length sleeve, and long sleeve with V-neck or round neck. I love wearing sleeveless tops in the summer and thought I’d give this one a try. If the fit was good, I could use this pattern in the cooler months for basic tops. Continue reading “McCall’s 6964 Pattern Review”
Kitty made this dress in May and reported on it here. I loved it so much I thought I’d give it a try myself. At the time, Kitty brought the neckline up by 3/4″ and adjusted the back waist to be more curve-hugging. I thought I’d give it a try without any modifications. Continue reading “McCall’s 6074 Pattern Review”
After a few busy weeks where I didn’t have time to sew, the thought of going back to the the moto jacket I was working on was starting to feel like a chore. Do you ever spend so long on a project it starts to weigh on you? I’m still going to finish it, I SWEAR, I just felt that at the moment I needed an easy win to get my confidence back up. Enter Vogue 1395 – a Rebecca Taylor dress pattern from the latest spring Vogue collection. Continue reading “Vogue 1395 – Back in the saddle”
For my 18th 
post, the letter M, I chose to sew McCall’s 6074. This pattern includes 3 lengths of sleeveless or cap-sleeved deep V-neckline knit pull-over dresses.
I really like this dress style. The elastic below the bust gives the dress shape – it’s body conscious but doesn’t cling in any of the wrong places. I can see why it has 18 favorable reviews on Pattern Review. It’s easy to sew (no zippers or buttonholes!) and would be a great pattern for a beginning sewer to make, just like 9 of the 18 pattern reviewers stated. Of the remaining 9 reviews, 6 reviewers rated this pattern as highly recommended, 2 said they would recommend it with modifications, and 1 said it’s a great wardrobe builder. Continue reading “M is for McCall’s 6074”
For my 10th 
project “J”, I chose to sew a Jalie pattern. Jalie is a Mother-Daughter owned company based near Quebec City, Canada. Their patterns are very body conscious and true to size. Jalie patterns are fit on people instead of mannequins, and perhaps that’s why Jalie fits “real” people so well. (Or it could be because the company originally made swimwear patterns). Jalie designs their patterns to be sewn on home sewing rather than industrial machines, and refines their instructions to be as simple as possible. Continue reading “J is for Jalie 2682”
I bought the last 2 yards of this printed jersey fabric over the summer and was looking for the right pattern for it. Unfortunately for someone my size, 2 yards doesn’t give you a lot of options and I wanted to make something a little more interesting than a t-shirt. I had the idea of making a waterfall cardigan because I liked the way the black lines looked when the fabric was bunched up a bit, but with two yards that seemed impossible. When I was riffling through my StyleArc patterns and I saw this cardigan only required 1 3/4 yards, I did a double take! Continue reading “StyleArc Nina Cardigan”
The Billie Top by StyleArc is a an interesting top made out of (basically) one piece. By “one piece” I mean that the front and back are all one giant piece with a single side seam down the right side. (There is a neck facing too, but more on that later…) I made this up in a black and tan striped knit that was 50% cotton, 50% rayon. I think the rayon helps with the drapiness, and the stripes really highlight the craziness of the pattern. Continue reading “StyleArc Billie Top”
Over my sadly sewing-free Christmas vacation I had been window shopping (or whatever you call the on-line equivalent) for laser cut shirts. I don’t think the ability to laser cut fabric is that new, but for some reason I’ve been seeing a lot of really cool applications of the technology lately like lace patterns in leather. Of course I don’t have a laser, but with knits or other fabrics that don’t fray you could do the same with a scissors. I saw one shirt with a lattice / grid type pattern that I thought would be easy to duplicate. I was planning on just buying a RTW T-shirt and chopping it up, but then French indie pattern company Deer & Doe released a free knit T-shirt pattern, the Plantain T-shirt, that was exactly the swingy shape I was looking for. And then they announced a contest for said pattern and I figured, hey, why not kill two birds with one stone?
Continue reading “Lattice Cutwork Plantain T-shirt”
Hancock Fabrics recently had one of their 99c pattern sales for at least one of the big 4 companies. They also had a sale on Kwik Sew patterns. I always give Kwik Sew patterns a look – they seem to have a lot of nice looking basic, functional patterns for wardrobe building. I was perusing the catalogs looking for a nice basic skirt pattern for my daughter, whose next cosplay outfit is going to be Jade Harley wearing God Tier. She’s from something called HomeStuck. Continue reading “My Favorite Pattern-of-the-Week: A Batwing Top”
For my third project, the letter C, in my quest to 
I chose a Christine Jonson Pattern. Recently Christine Jonson had a holiday sale and there was a 30% discount on sewing patterns. That was enough of a savings on a single pattern to cover the shipping cost. Since I can never pass up a bargain, the time was right for me to try the Christine Jonson pattern line! I immediately ordered pattern #107, the Tie-back Top. Continue reading “C is for Christine Jonson Patterns”
I’ve been making dresses all summer long – mostly sleeveless ones from stretchy polyester fabrics. I love wearing dresses! They’re comfortable and cool. I think men are definitely missing out in the comfort department.
But it always seems to me that as soon as September rolls around, it starts getting cold mighty fast. Then I usually abandon my bright-colored floral dresses for darker colored pants. But my waistline seems to “improve” each year, making it harder and harder to fit into the small selection of pants that I purchased in 2007. Thankfully I’ve been slowly adding stretchy yoga-type pants to my wardrobe. Continue reading “Seeking a Winter Dress – Kwik Sew 4026”
The Pattern
The self-proclaimed “Fast & Fabulous” La Strada T-Shirt is a recent release from Hot Patterns. I received it in the mail a couple of weeks ago and sewed it up immediately since it did seem like a quick project. There are only four pieces to the pattern: front, back, yoke, and front facing. It took a little longer to put together than a regular t-shirt with all the gathers, but I think the extra effort was worth it.
Great sewing friends will give you the shirt off their back… so you can test the fit, of course! I had seen the Tessuti Fave Top on other blogs before, but passed it over because I generally shy away from anything that is “one size fits most”. That is, until Jill wore her version to a Denver Sewing Collective meetup and let me try it on. I’m kind of amazed that the exact same top looked good on the both of us, so I decided to sew up my own version. Continue reading “Tessuti Fave Top – The Ombre One”
This freebie pattern from Tessuti Fabrics was highly praised by Jill, who made her own in a lovely grey/silver fabric. At our last meetup, we were discussing whether or not this particular top would look good on all of us. Jamie tried it on and though I missed actually seeing her in it, I heard that everyone said she looked great in it.
It took a little while for me to come around, but I finally decided to give it a go. The pattern is free, after all, and I did have some appropriate purple stripey fabric just waiting to be used. Continue reading “Tessuti Fave Top – The Stripey One”
Denver Sewing Collective 