Indie Pattern Month

Indie Pattern Month is being hosted by Mel of the Curious Kiwi, and Kat of Modern Vintage Cupcakes. Head on over to their blogs to find out more, and join in the fun.

Despite, having quite a substantial pattern stash containing both Big 4 patterns and Independent pattern designers, it is the Indie's I tend to reach for the most. 

Case in point, the last few patterns I have made;

Hot Patterns Cabana T shirt

Hot Patterns Superfantastic Shirt

Made By Rae Parsley Pants 

Colette Laurel

Jalie Winter Accessories

Jalie Mens and Boys Rugby Jerseys

Liesl + Co Woodland Stroll Cape

and about a dozen different wallets and bags from Michelle patterns.

On my immediate to-do list (this list is really long, so this is just the highlight reel)

Jalie's .... so may Jalies.

Most of the Hot Patterns catalogue, most notably their pant/trouser patterns ;-)
And these beauties below ...

Decades of Style 1930's Capelet

Decades of Style 1950's Object dArt Dress

Onion Coat with cut on Collar.
If you order your patterns from shopOnion, you can even have the instructions in English!

For even more Independent Pattern Designer inspiration, head over to A Good Wardrobe for an ever expanding list.

Colette Laurel

Well! After my camera went AWOL for a bit, it has turned up again so I can get on with photographing a bunch of finished projects (not necessarily in the order they were completed, though)

First off, is Colette patterns most recent release, the Laurel shift dress.

I will be the first to admit that when this pattern was released, I was not really very ennthused. I just wasn't convinced this was going to be a good shape for me. After having seen a few iterations made up though, I felt it was at least worth a try.

I chose a cotton poplin that I just loved when I first saw it, but have had sitting in my stash for a bit because the 'right' pattern hadn't presented itself. It is a happy fabric, but not too out there.

I made the pattern up as drafted, except for tracing off the length of the largest size, which gave me about an extra inch to play with. The only other deviation was to machine stitch my sleeve and neck bindings down rather than slipstitch by hand as suggested in the pattern.

This is a really quick sew, particularly as I left out the back zip. I basted the back seam together to check the fit and discovered I could comfortably take it on and off without a zip, so didn't bother!

While this dress is comfortable, and I'm pleased with how it came out, I'm still not sure if this is the right style for me. Time will tell how often this makes it out of my wardrobe.

Final Word: happy enough, but no immediate plans to make it again.

Birthday Present Sewing

Another one of those things 'they' don't tell you before you have children, is that children will make friends, and get invited to a LOT of birthday parties! And it seems we are in the midst of birthday season.

I am fortunate to have crafty friends who appreciate a good handmade gift, so the search was on for a great idea. I came across this Art-on-the-Go kit, and decided it would be perfect for the varying ages I needed to make gifts for - mostly 3 - 7 year olds.

These are great as they don't use much fabric, so I have been able to make use of my leftover offcuts from previous sewing projects.
I have also been able to match the fabric and colours to the child I have been making them for.

I have so far made at least half a dozen of these, and my own children are making noises that they would like one for themselves.

As well as the examples pictured, there have been art rolls made from denim, shirting stripes, sock monkey print, pinwale cord, and I have used what I had on hand for the batting layer - mostly towelling, polar fleece and flannelette.

Fabric-a-brac is on

After some concern near the end of last year, Fabric-a-Brac is back in Wellington

Save the date!

Pattern Pyramid Winner

Thanks to everyone who took the time to comment, and have a looksee round my wee corner of the blogsphere. It was also awesome to find some new-to-me bloggers in New Zealand!

While I have seen some really cool prize draws on blogs recently, I am going with the standard fallback of the random number generator. Sooo................... the number that came up was number 7! (sorry, can't figure out how to get the actual number generator to display, so you'll just have to trust me on that!!)

dressesandme
What great patterns! And fantastic to find another new Zealand based blogger like myself! Count me in please!

Congratulations, I've sent you an email to sort out postal addresses and whatnot.

Map the Sewists

Found something cool you may want to take part in - Vicki of the blog Another Sewing Scientist, has started a google map, where you can add yourself and find other sewing friends near you too.


View Map the Sewintists in a larger map

Great for coralling new sewing friends for a meetup, or finding who is about in a place you might be travelling to?!

See her post here to see all the details.

Pattern Pyramid Giveaway!

Just before Christmas I was fortunate enough to win a Pattern Pyramid giveaway from Imogheena at Tropical Threads. What with the busyness of Christmas and such, a parcel arrived for me this week.

After some deliberation, I chose to keep a Burda Easy magazine with some really interesting looking patterns. The magazine is entirely in German, but I have a friend who speaks German who has offered to help out if the Google translate is a bit bewildering!


So, to my giveaway - these four are the remaining patterns from the original package.

BurdaStyle peplum blouse; Simplicity 5931 - size 14.

McCalls 2085 - size12,14,16; New Look 6773 - size 6-16.

We have the very last label that Karen had made up whe she originally started the Pattern Pyramid.

Because I chose a Burda magazine with several great patterns, I have added a few more patterns of my own to give the next winner a few extra options.

Simplicity 8186 - size 14; Style 1809 - size 6-18.

Simplicity 6896 - size12.

Below are the original rules set out by Karen of 'Did You Make That?'

I’ll add a request: I don’t have many readers on this blog, so if you guys could spread the word, that would be lovely. The more the merrier!

From 'Did You Make That?’s blog post:
THE RULES

• Anyone, anywhere can enter the giveaway by posting a comment below by midnight NZ time Friday 22 February BUT you must have an active blog. (Reasons to become obvious.)
• I will post the above selection of patterns to the winner, along with the final hand woven label to be sewn into anything made from one of these patterns.
• The winner will pick one pattern to keep for themselves, then host their own giveaway. They will randomly select a winner, post the remaining patterns to that Person C. Person C will pick a pattern for themselves, host their own giveaway and post the remaining patterns to the winner, Person D. Person D will…You get the idea! 

I’m really keen to see how far and wide we can spread the pattern love and I’m intrigued to see who ends up with what.

THE SMALL PRINT

• If you’re a winner, I would love it if you could make a small contribution to The Brooke. This is a charity close to the heart of Catherine, who so generously provided these patterns.

Obviously, I’m operating on a huge level of trust – but I totally trust my readers. All I ask of participants is to engage in a timely fashion, launching their own giveaways soon after receiving a parcel. I also ask that you be happy to post patterns worldwide – we really want to spread the love! 
Once I send the patterns out, I’m not going to attempt to moderate further giveaways, but I’m curious to see how long this takes until the final patterns find loving homes. So please contact me with details of your win and where you live – I suspect another world map is essential! (Remember the World Map of Snoods?)

Finally, if you’re taking part or just want to spread the love, please feel free to add the below button to your blog’s sidebar. Let the fun commence!