Past Indie Pattern Love

Ok, so I just found this post in my drafts folder and I swear I published it a while ago but it’s not there…so…I am hitting publish now and wondering, is this déjà vu?

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

I’m going to kick off Indie Pattern Month the same way I started with Burda by first reviewing my past Indie makes.

There are only three of them because I’ve only recently discovered the joy of a prettily packaged and well drafted independent designed sewing pattern.

I will readily admit that these pattern can be quite expensive, especially when converted to NZD$ and then you add on international postage. Sheesh, how can something so small and light cos so much to send?! However, I have a strategy, and it goes like this: if you are patient and join enough mailing lists eventually one of the pattern companies you covet will do some sort of discount or free postage offer and then you can pounce, wish-list in hand, on the pretties.

Another option is to find some other local sewists and share on postage.

Loudly announcing which patterns you desire out aloud to anyone and everyone several times before your birthday and Christmas has also been known to work 😉

(EDIT 19/06/2013: And for the Kiwi’s there is this option now too!)

I’ve built up my Indie stash slowly. The Colette patterns are the oldest, Sewaholic came next, the Hollyburn and Robson coat were thank you gifts for participating in pattern testing and then I bought the other three myself.

The Papercut patterns joined my stash last Christmas and the Deer & Doe patterns are my latest additions. There are others on my wishlist but I need to sew a few of these up to justify any additions.

I love all of them, I’m not one to let the red mist descend during a sale. I am picky with my fabric and I am picky with my pattern purchases, I like to think of my entire stash (fabric, notions & patterns) as carefully curated, inspiring and there as a enabler for me to indulge my creative passion 🙂

So, my first indie make was a Colette Rooibos:

I made this dress for my 30th birthday and it was supposed to be the inaugural birthday dress but the next few birthday dresses have not gone so smoothly and now I just think I’ll make pretty dresses, who needs an excuse to make a pretty dress?!

Despite being totally in love with the finished dress I didn’t wear it very often after making it and at first I couldn’t work out why. I think the fabric has a winter look about it but then the lack of sleeves and shorter hem makes me think of summer…so a few months ago I dug it out and had a think of how I can wear it more often. A cute black shrug helps, as well as tights and some vintage-look boots. It takes me a while to get things mentally into my wardrobe rotation but I think this dress deserves to get out more often!

Writing this post makes me want to make another version now, this patten is really versatile. Patterned fabric and plain piping, plain fabric and patterned piping, to pipe or not to pipe or where to pipe is all up to you.

I used Photoshop to help me decide on my piping colour and location:

This is a really fun way to visualise the finished garment and get you really excited to sew. I have written two tutorials to show you how it’s done, one for Photoshop and one for Gimp (a free alternative). Click on the thumbnails below to go to each tutorial.

My Rooibos stitched up like a dream, the instructions were fabulously illustrated and clear and I even learnt a new clean look bodice lining technique. I took it in a little bit at the waist and nothing else, so easy, so gratifying.

A Sewaholic Hollyburn was next and showed me that a style of skirt I had previously discounted didn’t look so bad on me at all!

This also stitched up super easy and I think if you were looking to add a few skirts quickly to your wardrobe you could probably whip up one of these up in a couple of hours and have two more complete before dinner. And it’s another really versatile pattern, add some piping at the waist, contrast pockets, different lengths, you could even add a lining too.

I was hooked and added 3 more Sewaholics to my stash and now we come to my most recent 100% complete project, a Sewaholic Robson Coat. I really enjoyed making this coat and I am super happy with the final result.

I’ve wore it to work earlier in the month during a bitterly cold winter-is-here-week, it kept me very warm and every time I took it off the lining made me smile.

And now I am back at the Colette Lady Grey. I think the black wool will make this coat really versatile and easy to wear and I love the slightly vintage look and big collar.

I’m excited to finally get back to it but it was a hard decision. I was so tempted to leave it a little bit longer and jump onto Papercut’s Watson or Deer & Doe’s Belladone, I even have fabric in my stash especially picked out…but it’s OK, they’ll happen eventually and until then I’ll have another super warm coat to keep me warm this winter.

Which indie patterns have you previously sewn up and what are you planning to sew this month?

It doesn’t matter how small they are, they still count as POCKETS!

Hey look I finished my Burda Sew Along project, Skirt 111 from Burda 07/2009! 🙂

(Sorry these photos are so dark, it feels like night time all the time now but the shortest day is coming up so yay for more daylight soon!)

For such a simple skirt is took me a really long time to finish it but I’m sure you’ll agree that this month I spent more time writing tutorials than actually sewing!

But that’s all good because I LOVE writing tutorials and you guys seemed to appreciate them so, win-win 😀

I kept this make simple, mostly following the instructions (or not), and it is 100% from the stash. The Ikea (Sthlm Blad in Black) printed canvas-cotton has been maturing nicely since July 2010 and the buttons are from my very first Fabric-a-brac trip in 2011, awesome!

You’re going to ask about the cardi now aren’t you? Hmm, well…that’s hanging up for a bit, we need some time apart.

The fabric was a bit ehh to work with and the pattern is ok but I cut it two sizes too big (I cut my usual 42 but this pattern was designed to sit more loose that I prefer) so while I’ve managed to take in the sides and sleeves now I need to fix the shoulders and sleeve head which are massive.

Aaaaand it’ll look a whole lot better with a good press.

It can be saved, it’s cute, it deserves it, probably in less than an hour but…not today, not this week. I need to make something exciting now or I’ll slouch into that mojo sucking place and you know what? IT’S OK TO STEP AWAY FROM A PROJECT FOR A WHILE.

This is not a UFO, it’s just on hold and I am ok with that 🙂

I did some emergency non-garment sewing on the weekend too but I’ll share that with you tomorrow.

Thanks everyone who stitched along with us this last month, it was super awesome to discover so many new bloggers, so much talent, you guys made my May, honestly!

So, are you in for Indie Pattern Month? Go on… 😉

Indie Pattern Month – The Deets

As I mentioned in my last post Kat and I am excited to be hosting another sew along, this time to show the love for our fabulous Indie Pattern Designers.

We’re calling it Indie Pattern Month and we’d love you to join us.

But what does all this mean? Kat is hosting the sign up page so jump on over, have a read, grab the badge and leave a comment.

We have a new Pinterest board for you to share your makes and inspiration on. This is great if you don’t have a blog (because of course we’d still love you to join us!) so make sure you include your Pinterest user name or a link to your boards in your sign up comment so we can invite you.

Because we started a bit late and also extended the Burda challenge we’ll run this one until about July 5th.

Exciting! 😀

So much to do, so much to do…oh and some winners

I’ve quite quiet a bit to share with you in this post!

First up, you might have already seen on Kat’s blog: The Burda Sew Along has been extended until June 9th. Then Kat will do a final round up of all your fabulous projects. You asked for it and we listened…and we kind of needed some more time too 😉

Kat and I have enjoyed this sew along so much that we have decided to do another, right away. We think it’s time we showed the Independent Pattern’s some love too so we are declaring that June is Indie Pattern Month. Want to play along? Oh yes you do!

Here’s the button and later this week we will have up the rest of the details (sign-up page, photo sharing site etc…) but that shouldn’t stop you from starting your planning.

Do you have some indie patterns already in your stash? Maybe you’ve been swooning over a few but haven’t quite gotten the credit card out yet? Why don’t you show us your collection (or wish-list), let’s get inspired!

Here is my collection:

Colette, Deer & Doe, Sewaholic and Papercut goodies

I also have a Cake Cabarita on its way from Australia. Also missing from above is my Colette Lady Grey because:

That is what I will make this month. It has been cut out since two Winters ago, lining, interfacing and all. The main fabric is a black chunky weave wool I bought from The Fabric Store in Melbourne over 2 years ago (!) specifically for this project. The cotton sateen lining was bought later from Spotlight here in NZ when I finally decided to start it.

I am also dying to make Deer & Doe’s Belladonne, Papercut’s Watson Jacket and Ooh La Leggings. Check out this AMAZING tutorial on her website. Since I am already ahead with the Lady Grey I might get one of these started. The others will not happen as officially part of this sew along but they will happen because I am super excited about them.

Now, on to the Pattern Pyramid and Burda winners. I enlisted Harri’s help, she was quite enthusiastic and it took a few takes before I got her to not knock ALL the entries on the ground!

Ready?

My camera is a bit basic in quality so you can’t really read who won in the video so here are Harri’s winners:

The selection gets Harri’s paw of approval

Congratulations to Fleur, who Harri picked as next to receive the next Pattern Pyramid and Kat, who won the Burda magazine, that’ll save me some postage, tee hee! 😉

Thanks for playing, now go flick through your pattern stash and find a pretty Indie to make up this month…