Pattern Emporium Allure Bell Sleeve Top with modern bell sleeves in short and long lengths, size AU10, less than a yard of ITY, scoop neck, shortened 5 inches.
I had some fabric leftover black and white ITY fabric from my double-faux wrap dress and decided to use it to make a double-bell sleeve top for my daughter for her birthday last month. I used the Pattern Emporium Allure Bell Sleeve Top pattern, a pattern I had previously used only to add bell sleeves to the Wanderlust dress. Allure comes with a wide range of sleeve options. I decided to use the modern bell style in short and long lengths and attach them to short sleeves. I cut size AU 10 with a wide scoop neck. The pattern falls at hip length, so for me I would make it 2-3 inches shorter to account for my short height. My daughter prefers shorter tops and she is only an inch taller than me, so I shortened it by 5 inches.
The pattern came together pretty quickly and I’m really happy with the results. I’m sure I’ll be making more Allure tops. For me I will shorten it less next time, use the sloped shoulder adjustment I used on the Wanderlust dress, and probably also uses the Wanderlust neck band, which is slightly less scooped. Here you can see me modeling it before I sent it to my daughter.
And here’s my daughter modeling it when I visited her last week. I wore it untucked, she preferred to tuck it in.
I made my lilac Be Mine and Spill the Tea mashup cap sleeve blouse as a simple, elegant summer top. So I decided to try the mashup again, but this time with the flared long sleeves from the Pattern Emporium Spill the Tea pattern. Although the size chart suggests that I am a size AU10, I sized down for all my Be Mine tops to an AU8, but they still seem a little big, so I decided to try an AU6 this time. I used the Mily Mae cobalt airflow polyester fabric this time – same woven crinkle fabric as the lilac top but a different color.
Once again, I sloped the shoulders and eliminated the front and back seam to keep this super simple. I also skipped the wide hem this time and serged the hem, and then folded it under a quarter inch twice and stitched it down with my quarter-inch edge foot. The flared sleeves were easy to assemble and attach. I shortened them by 1.5 inches before I cut them out, anticipating that I usually need to shorten sleeves unless it is a petite pattern. I sewed the whole thing together in a few hours one evening after dinner.
I like the sized-down fit, and didn’t have any problem getting it on or off. The flared sleeves aren’t as dramatic as the Be Mine balloon sleeves, but they still have plenty of drama, and they are easier to wear under a sweater. The top works both tucked and untucked.
Boo & Lu Blizzard dress with half-circle skirt and raised V-neck instead of modesty panel, size 4, 2 yards ITY, bishop sleeves shortened 1.5 inch
No, it didn’t snow in Pittsburgh. Actually, the weather has been delightful and more like Summer than Fall. Nonetheless, it’s starting to feel a little bit like Fall. In anticipation of more Fall weather coming this week, I made a Boo & Lu Blizzard dress from the most Fall-like fabric in my stash, a lightweight leaf-print ITY fabric. This cracked leaves fabric from Surge Fabrics is more light and drapey than a typical ITY, and appears to be slightly brushed on the front of the fabric and smooth and silky on the back. Unlike most other ITYs I’ve worked with, the edges on this one tend to roll a bit.
When the Blizzard adult top and dress pattern was released last year, I really liked the knot-front detail, but was less excited about the modesty panel (to cover the plunging V) and the squared hem on the skirt. I decided to buy the pattern anyway, with the plan to alter it to suit my preferences. I cut a size 4 without the modesty panel and I cut the hem of the skirt using a regular half-circle skirt pattern (size 4P from the Sinclair Valley Skater skirt add-on pack, cut 1 inch longer than above-knee length). I used the bishop sleeves but shortened them by 1.5 inch at the lengthen/shorten line. I also added pockets using a self-drafted inseam pocket bag I’ve used on other skirts without waistbands (or if I don’t want to attach it to the waistband).
The knot detail looks complicated and it was a bit confusing to figure out. I was disappointed not to find a video demonstration. But I followed the instructions and photos in the pattern, and once I understood what I needed to do, it went together very quickly.
I assembled the dress and then tried it on before hemming to see whether I could wear it without the modesty panel. It was definitely wearable, but the knot hit a bit lower than I really wanted for a dress I planned to wear to work. I thought about sewing in a smaller modesty panel, but any modesty panel would break up the V-neck line. I realized if I pinched together the V about 1.5 inches above the knot I could raise the neckline and still have a V-neck. So I pinned it in place and then sewed it down. since my fabric was a fairly busy print, I just zigzagged it in place with black thread that you can hardly see on the finished dress. Had I not had fabric that would camouflage the seam so easily, I would probably have hand sewn it in place from the back.
Most knit patterns I sew have 1/4-inch seam allowances, which means you can sew them with a serger without the need to trim the edges. This pattern has 3/8-inch seam allowances, which is sometimes used when you are supposed to serge the edges and then sew the seam with your sewing machine. But that is not what is suggested in the instructions so I just trimed 1/8-inch as I serged a 1/4-inch seam. It’s not a big deal, but not my preferred approach.
The bishop sleeves include a band at the wrist so no need to hem them. I used fusible seam tape to tack down a 5/8-inch hem seam and then zigzagged the hem on my sewing machine. Again, the fabric hides the zigzag so well that I didn’t bother cover stitching.
The dress bodice fits like a glove, which works well for this light, stretchy fabric. If I were sewing a heavier or less stretchy fabric, I would probably size up. I have a top I bought many years ago with a similar knot front design, but it is looser and has a center front seam. I’m pondering how to adjust this pattern to reproduce that look as well.
The dress looks great with tights and ankle boots. I’ll probably wear it with a black tie-front sweater when it gets cooler. I accessorized with an inexpensive leaf pendant that matches the fabric perfectly.
We had beautiful weather this weekend, and my photographer was willing to follow me around in search of leafy backdrops for a photoshoot, so I have lots of photos to share. We aren’t anywhere near peak leaf color here, but we still found some nice Fall backdrops.
The museum chartered a bus and took the honorees, family, friends, and guests on a guided tour of Yellowstone National Park. This was my first trip to Yellowstone (also my first trip to Montana and Wyoming) and the weather could not have been more perfect.
We saw a Bison from the bus, and later big-horn sheep, elk, and ravens. We did not see a (live) bear (and did not rent any bear spray).
My favorite stop of the day was the Norris Geyser Basin, which featured a boardwalk around a huge basin full of gurgling, bubbling steaming geysers with brighly colored pools of water and sediment. It was a full sensory experience: you could see, hear, smell, and almost taste the geysers.
Our next stop was Artist Point, for beautiful views of a waterfall and canyon.
It was interesting to see and hear about all the different types of rock formations in Yellowstone. We also enjoyed making friends with everyone on our tour. At the end our tour guide suggested we take a group photo on the big “frog rock.” I think she expected us to climb on the rock, but our group wasn’t particularly into climbing so we all ended up in front of the rock.
The American Computer and Robotics Museum sponsored the Stibitz-Wilson Awards, so they invited all the 2025 award honorees and guests for a guided tour of the museum, given by the museum president, Barbara Keremedjiev. Barbara was a very knowledgeable tour guide who talked about the museum collection with great enthusiasm and passion. I was excited to see some familiar computers and toys from my childhood in the collection. My elementary school had a PET. We had an early PC, a luggable, and a Sinclair at home. My high school had Apples and a lab of original Macs. I also had a Simon game, which I used as part of a science fair project.
After the museum tour we went to Montana State University for lunch with the new university president, Brock Tessman (he’s on the left side of the bottom photo).
We spent some time exploring Main Street in Bozeman, which had a banner across the street advertising the awards ceremony. There were lots of bars, outdoor stores, tshirt shops, and some ice cream shops and nicer restaurants. While we were wandering around I checked Google maps for the nearest fabric store and discovered one about 300 feet from where we were standing — I hadn’t noticed it because there was scaffolding in front of it for some construction. So I declared a fabric emergency and we immediately headed to the fabric store. It was a good sized store with a lot of quilting fabric. I was impressed that they had commissioned their own Yellowstone batik fabrics in several color ways. So I had to buy some as a souvenir.
The awards ceremony was held that evening at the Ellen Theater on Main Street. I wore my passwords ball gown and Chuck wore his matching passwords tie. Each honoree was invited to give a 15-minute presentation about their research. We had to send our slides in advance and the museum director was a bit concerned when I sent her 65 slides for a 15-minute talk. So we compromised on 50 slides, and I did finish my presentation in just under 15 minutes, briefly discussing my work on passwords, privacy notice and choice, and the art of privacy. It was fun hearing from the other honorees as well. Yasmin Kafai and Mitch Resnick both talked about their work teaching creative computing skills to children. They were both involved in the development of the Scratch programming language (which was very popular with my children). Serge Belongie and Pietro Perona helped build Visipedia, which underpins iNaturalist and the Merlin Bird ID apps.
When the American Computer and Robotics Museum reached out to me to let me know I was a winner of their 2025 Stibitz-Wilson Award, I was excited, especially when they told me that my prize included a trip for two to their award ceremony in Bozeman, Montana and a guided tour of Yellowstone National Park. I didn’t quite know what to expect, but my colleague Mary Shaw, a previous honoree, assured me that the trip would be fantastic. Indeed, it was!
Chuck and I arrived in Bozeman two days early so that we would have time to hike in Bozeman. (We had to fly through Denver to get there from Pittsburgh, and when our flight to Denver was delayed we thought we had missed our flight to Bozeman, but United Airlines held the plane for us and the handful of other passengers with late flights and we got to Bozeman on time!)
The weather was outstanding: not a cloud in the sky. On our first day we hiked the Beehive Basin trail, which ended up being about 7.3 miles round trip with a 1,645 foot elevation gain. We had to drive over an hour outside of Bozeman to get to the trailhead in Big Sky, and the hike took about 4 hours. There were not a lot of other people on the trail, but most of the people we saw had dogs and bear spray. We did find a dog named Ted (according to his collar) hanging out in the parking lot, and he accompanied us for the first mile and a half before turning back.
On the second day we started out with the College M hike near Bozeman. The College M is a giant letter M for Montana State University made out of white washed rocks. We had seen the M at the Colorado School of Mines and wanted to compare. The M at Mines has lighting, while the Montana State M does not. At the bottom of the trail there was a sign posted with recent bear and mountain lion sightings. There was a also an easy (and long) way to the top and a short and hard way to the top. We opted for the long way. It was difficult to actually see the whole M on this hike, but we saw it from the plane on our way home. We hiked to the top of the M and then hiked beyond it a bit and ended up coming down partially on the more difficult trail. We hiked almost three miles in about two hours with a 869 foot elevation gain. We did not see any bears.
College M trail
Since the M hike was pretty short and we hadn’t driven very far to get to it, we had lunch and then went on another hike: the Triple Tree Trail. This hike starts out as a public trail that basically cuts through peoples’ back yards and farms. It isn’t very steep until the end, but goes through a variety of changing landscapes and is quite picturesque, especially with the fall foliage starting to change colors. The aspen and cottonwood trees were bright yellow and the trail was lined with several types of berry bushes. Near the summit there are lots of switchbacks and when we got to the bench at the top we were happy to sit down. We hiked 5.6 miles round trip over about 2.5 hours with a 900 foot elevation gain.
I wanted to make a short-sleeve top to go with my magenta suit. I bought lots of polyester crinkle airflow woven fabric when it was on sale at Mily Mae and I thought the polyester lilac airflow would go well with the magenta. (Note, the airflow is advertised as non-stretch, but because of the crinkle texture, it actually does have a bit of stretch (which could, perhaps, allow sizing down a size). It’s actually fairly similar to the Surge Florence stretch woven that I used recently for a Spill the Tea top; the Florence is just a bit crisper.) I considered making another PE Spill the Tea top, but wanted something without ties. I love the look of the ties, but not futzing with them and having to keep them from getting in the way as I go about my day. I realized that the PE Be Mine Balloon Sleeve top has a very similar bodice to Spill the Tea and that the sleeves are interchangeable. The balloon sleeves are awesome, but don’t play well under jackets and sweaters (and there’s no point wasting a fabulous balloon sleeve under a sweater). So I thought I could get a more practical and layerable top for wearing with jackets and sweaters by putting the Spill the Teas cap sleeves on the Be Mine top bodice.
I cut a size AU 8 Be Mine bodice with a sloped shoulder adjustment and eliminated both the front and back center seam. I cut the regular length with the mid neckline and the wide facing. This was fairly quick to sew together without the center seams and no hemming, bands, or binding needed for the cap sleeves. The part that took the longest was the wide hem, which I think looks really nice on an untucked shirt and adds some weight to this light-weight fabric. But the wide hem is quite the process: it requires stitching, surging, trimming, understitching, folding, top stitching, and pressing between each of these steps. The simple hem option would have been much faster.
I’m pleased with how my top turned out. It looks good tucked or untucked, coming or going!
Joanne faux wrap knit dress with flounce sleeves, faux wrap flounce skirt from Flared skirts ADD-ON, size P4, pockets modified so as not to attach to waist, made from 3 yards of 60-inch-wide ITY (2 yards black, 1 yard white).
I recently made the Sinclair faux wrap flounce skirt for the Valley Skater dress and liked the results. I have long wondered about combining this skirt with the Sinclair Joanne dress, which has a faux wrap top. I figured if I had the the top and the skirt faux wrap meet at the waist it would look close to a real wrap dress.
I made my first Joanne dress over two years ago, before I had a serger or a projector. It is an old Sinclair PDF pattern but it doesn’t actually have projector files. Fortunately, the A0 copyshop files work just fine as projector files. I copied the pieces for the flounce-sleeve top and the pieces for the add-on faux wrap flounce skirt into an Affinity Designer File and was ready to project and cut.
I had a vision for using a pair of coordinating fabrics for this dress that would highlight all the flounces. I selected coordinating black-on-white and white-on-black “heartstrings” print ITY from Surge Fabrics, which seemed perfect for the project.
I accidentally copied the wrong size Joanne top and didn’t realize it until it was mostly sewn together and I wondered why it was so big. So I took it apart and cut the pieces down to the correct 4P size. Other than that little mistake, the dress came together pretty easily. I took the time, as usual to add pockets. I modified them so they attach only to the side seams and not the waist and made them a little deeper and sewed the openings up a bit so nothing falls out.
Since I used ITY fabric that doesn’t curl or fray I was able to leave all the flounces unhemmed.
These two patterns pair well. I decided to add a 2-inch wide belt to help “sell” the wrap idea and make it look less faux. The pattern includes a narrow belt, but I made a wider belt by cutting two 2.5-inch wide strips across the width of my fabric and serging them right sides together with a small gap, turning right side out, and hand sewing the gap closed.
Overall, I’m pleased with the results. However, I’m a little disappointed that my coordinating fabrics actually blend together and the flounces are much subtler than expected. I still like it, but I hope to find coordinating fabrics with higher contrast and make another dress like this some day. Another fabric shopping opportunity!
I was intrigued on mulltiple levels when I read Rory Evans NYTimes Wirecutter article about how she found a dupe of her $410 jeans and turned them into shorts. So first of all, these must be really special jeans to be worthy of paying $410 for them. I am often the goldilocks of jeans purchases, so I can respect Rory’s satisfaction at finally finding the perfect jeans, especially perfect jeans with enormous pockets, high rise, and barrel legs. I want jeans with a high rise but a short length, pockets big enough that I can store my phone vertically below my hip crease, snug at the waist so they don’t fall down but enough room in the seat and legs that they are comfortable to wear all day and sit in for long periods of time. But although I could afford a $410 pair of jeans, I’m not sure I could bring myself to buy them. And I don’t love the styling of Rory’s dream jeans as much as she does. So instead I wait until Lands End puts my current favorite $90 pair of jeans on sale for half price and then alter them myself to closer to perfection. My most recent jeans purchases from Lands End were a pair of barrel-leg jeans with inadequate pockets that I extended and a pair of wide-leg jeans with decent pockets that I had to take the hem up nearly three inches. The wide-leg jeans look great as long as I wear them with a belt. The barrel-leg jeans are more of a casual look but don’t require a belt at all. Both are comfortable and seem to be holding up well. In both cases I invested less than $50 and about half an hour of my time for alterations.
But what really caught my attention about Rory’s article was that she had also been on a quest for jeans shorts, which I can also relate to. I have a few pairs of jeans shorts that look good on but I have stopped wearing them completely due to a combination of their inadequate pockets and not being all that comfortable to sit in. Instead I sewed myself a couple of pairs of elastic waist shorts, which are really in no way a substitute for classic denim shorts. At this point I’m sure I have the sewing skills to sew a pair of denim shorts or even full-length jeans, but I haven’t taken that plunge yet and I know that it will be a time-consuming experience and I likely won’t get the fit right the first time. So when Rory recommended hacking the legs off a $35 pair of jeans from Amazon that were somewhat of a dupe for her beloved jeans, it was an idea I could get behind.
Rory purchased a pair of the EVALESS Baggy Barrel Jeans from Amazon, cut off the legs, and hemmed them to create her perfect jeans shorts with pockets big enough to hold her water bottle. I figured they were worth a shot and I could always return them before cutting them up if they didn’t fit. I ordered a pair in size 4, Beau Blue for $31.99. The price has since gone up to $39.99. When they arrived I tried them on and the fit was indeed almost perfect. They are made of 65% cotton, 33% polyester, 2% elastane (spandex) and are super stretchy. The waistband stretches so they fit like a glove, but the waist is firm enough that they don’t fall down, and the cut is roomy enough that they are pretty comfortable to wear. The denim is lightweight (good for shorts in summer) and fairly smooth. The jeans look pretty good, but there are some flaws in the stitching and they don’t have rivets or other features of high end jeans. I’m not crazy about the way the knee darts are sewn, but that’s ok because I cut them off. They come with four enormous pockets. They are ankle jeans, but since I’m short they are full length on me. (Note, I tend to wear a size 2, 4, or 6 depending on brand. 4 is the smallest size these come in and it fits me fine. I think a 6 would probably also work for a looser fit, but I like the fit of the 4. I would not go any smaller even if they came in a 2. Because of the stretch most people could probably wear more than one size.)
I decided to make shorts with a 6-inch inseam so I measured and cut the inseam at 7 inches. Then I folded and pressed them up 1/4-inch and then again 3/4-inch. I stitched them with a straight stitch on my sewing machine from the inside about 1/8-inch from the folded edge.
I tried on my new shorts and they fit great! The pockets are incredibly large too — with storage like cargo pockets but without looking like you’re wearing cargo pockets. I like the back waist darts and I’ve been told they make my butt look good. I might even get more in other colors and maybe even another pair to keep as-is and wear as pants.
Sinclair Valley Knit Skater Dress with faux wrap flounce skirt from Flared skirts ADD-ON, size P4, pockets modified so as not to attach to waist, scoop neck, without a waistband and bodice extended 1.25 inch, made from 2 yards of 60″-wide ITY.
Inspired by Bernice’s sleeveless light blue floral faux-wrap flounce Valley Skater dress that appears in the pattern tutorial, when I saw this light blue ITY fabric last summer at Surge Fabrics, I decided to make the same dress. (Bernice’s fabric is actually a thin slub knit, not an ITY.) I bought the fabric in Summer 2024 and didn’t manage to make it before the end of the summer. I wasn’t inspired to make a sleeveless dress last winter. Now that we are heading towards the end of Summer 2025 I decided it was time to make the dress before another summer passes.
The design for the faux wrap skirt is pretty clever. I love the way the flounces are cut out as donuts with the inner edge attaching to the skirt hem. With this approach, there is no need for gathering the fabric to create ruffles. The main downside is that it uses more fabric this way.
This is an older Sinclair pattern and it is not written and tested as thoroughly as the more recent patterns. I found a few errors, including pattern pieces labelled 4 that were shown as being labelled as 3 in the tutorial. More critically, for view F (the flounce wrap skirt) the instructions say to cut two of piece 8, but in fact only one piece 8 is needed (which I didn’t realize until I was sewing it together and wondered why I had an extra piece). The instruction for overlapping and securing the panels for view D should also mention that it applies to view F. A diagram of the assembly with flounce would have been helpful too (although the diagram showing where to attache the flounce pieces on the bottom of page 14 is quite helpful). Despite these issues, the skirt went together fairly easily.
I added pockets to the skirt using the same pocket construction technique as I used for my other Valley dresses. I altered the pocket design slightly so it connects only on the side seam and not the waistband to prevent dragging the waistband down when I put my phone in my pocket. I also extended the bodice by 1.25 inches, as suggested, since I did not add a separate waistband.
I made this dress in a petite 4, my usual size for Sinclair dresses. I recently sized up to a petite 6 for a Valley dress in less stretchy fabric, but that wasn’t needed for this ITY. This was my first time making a sleeveless Valley dress and I was a bit skeptical of the very narrow shoulder seam for the sleeveless scoop neck. But I resisted the urge to alter it and was pleased to see it came out just fine after adding the neck and arm bands.
I followed the neck and arm band instructions but took a few extra steps to make sure they came out well. First I zigzagged over the edges of the bands after folding them so that the layers of the slippery fabric wouldn’t shift. Then I used the “quarter method” for marking and pinning the neck band. I then basted it on with a wide zigzag stitch on my sewing machine, removed all the pins, and finally sewed it on with my serger. I did basically the same thing for the arm bands, but did not use the quarter method since the pattern included a mark for positioning the shoulder seam.
Since the ITY fabric has a nice clean cut edge that doesn’t fray or curl, I decided not to hem my flounces. This saved time and gave the flounces a nice drape.
I finished the dress before lunch and then put it on to wear to our block party this afternoon in the street in front of my house. While I normally wear shorts and a t-shirt to this event, I couldn’t wait to wear my new dress, and it was pretty comfortable to wear in our hot and humid weather. I love the look of this dress from both the front and back! I was also pleased that despite the fact that the inner wrap is connected only at the waistband, it stayed suitably wrapped.
I tested Cassie V1 but was traveling when the V2 pattern released and didn’t get back until after the testing period was over. So here’s my V2, better late than never.
Cassie is a v-neck pattern for woven fabrics. In the original V1 pattern the neckline crossed over, but too many sewists complained about gaping, so the final V2 was switched to a v-neck without the crossover, but including a pair of cute notches. I decided to try the pattern in PyLos LiKnit, a stable knit fabric made from 55% Rayon/45% Nylon. It has about 25% stretch horizontally, but minimal vertical stretch. I treated it as a woven when I sewed. I think it behaved pretty well for this pattern, although it has a little bit more thickness than a woven and it stretches a bit, so it made it harder to get sharp points in the notches and a crisp V. However, the stretch also made the top more comfortable to wear and easier to get on and off.
I cut out a 4p AB cup top with long sleeves and made no pattern modifications. I top stitched all the optional places where it was suggested. My original attempt at sewing down the neck binding was a bit off and caused the v-neck to be uncentered. Fortunately it was pretty easy to unpick and resew (although looking at the finished product now I realize it still isn’t perfectly centered… oh well).
After I sewed the first sleeve on I tried it on and was disappointed to see the sleeve hanging well past my wrist. I’m used to sleeves that are too long on me, but was surprised the sleeve was too long on a petite pattern. Since this sleeve is gathered and the band added before you sew it to the garment, there is no opportunity to check the sleeve length before it is finished. I went back and looked at photos posted by other sewists and noticed that most opted for the 3/4 length rather than the long sleeve. It looks to me like the long sleeves in this pattern just run long. The sleeve bands took a while to construct and I didn’t want to take them apart. So instead I unpicked the sleeve head and cut two inches off the top of the sleeve head. I was able to mark my cutting line by using a ruler to draw dots every inch or so two inches from the top edge of the sleeve. Then I connected the dots. I cut along the line and reattached the sleeves. This time it worked much better. (Warning for other sewists, unless you have particularly long arms, if you sew the long-sleeve version you will likely need to shorten the sleeves!)
Overall, I’m happy with this top. This is not a style I normally wear, and it may be more difficult to layer than my typical long-sleeve tshirts. But it goes well with both wide and skinny jeans as well as black dress pants, and it should not require ironing. I really like this long-sleeve version (now that I shortened the sleeves) but I also like the sleeveless and 3/4 length versions other sewists made.
Sinclair Cassie V1 made of 43” of 52” wide dark sage cotton double gauze, size 4p, modified to remove gathers and wrap sleeve bindings.
My first time doing a pattern test for Sinclair I ended up being the pattern cover girl for the Linda pattern. I haven’t had time to sign up for a pattern test since, but when the Cassie top and dress was announced, it appeared I would have time to make it before heading out on a trip.
Cassie is a woven pattern, and I don’t have a lot of woven fabric in my stash besides the 18 yards of cotton double gauze I bought on clearance last year and a lot of quilting cotton. I was worried that the quilting cotton would be too stiff for this pattern, so I went with dark sage double gauze. But I waited for other sewists to post some initial photos of their makes before cutting. I wasn’t sure I would like the fit of the dress, which appeared to be fairly loose, so I made the top version in a size 4P.
I initially tetrised the pattern in Affinity Designer to fit in 1 yard of 58” fabric before realizing that my fabric was actually 52”. At that width it takes more than a yard of fabric, but i made it all fit in 43″.
The pattern was released for testing with only partial instructions, as the pattern designer made some last minute changes. She updated the instructions a couple of times to add the missing information, but never released the full instruction set. As I worked on my top, I periodically checked the Facebook group for the pattern test to see whether new updates had been released.
The top has a crossover V-neck with cute notches. I wasn’t sure from the line drawing that I would like the notches and was tempted to leave them out. But I’m glad I kept them as they are a really nice and unique detail. The instructions for facing the crossover pieces was pretty easy to follow. The double gauze was a bit of a challenge because it is fairly fluffy and thus hard to get nice sharp points, but I made it work. I regretted trimming the facing to 1/8 inch (as instructed), as it made understitching the gauze more difficult — next time I think I would clip the curve but not trim.
Other sewists complained that the V-neck gaps open — this seemed to be a big problem for larger sizes. Besides the gaping problem, people were complaining that the top was too loose, and some who tried adding the optional ties did not like the look. In addition, there were some complaints about the cap sleeve being too pointy. I suggested that the pattern designer offer a sleeveless option to address the cap sleeve problem, a suggestion she adopted. The pattern designer polled testers about some possible changes and a couple days later posted some new line drawings while she worked on revising the pattern.
I could see from the new drawing that I would need to start over to make the revised design. So I decided to go ahead and finish the top I had started in the mean time. I sewed on the “skirt” and was not happy with the look of the gathered front and back, which looked to me like a maternity top. So I took it apart and cut the gathered pieces down so they would fit in place without gathering. I also graded in the waist a bit and trimmed the point off the cap sleeves.
As the top stitching on the neck facing stands out in the double gauze I decided to mirror the look by making a hem of similar width. I serged the bottom of the top, folded it up .25 inch and then another 1.25 inch, and top stitched it from the front.
The last bit to figure out was the sleeve binding. The pattern included narrow bias binding strips, but the instructions did not detail how to attach them. Having done this sort of binding before for double gauze necklines (on my purple Alva top and my orange Meet You There dress) I had a good idea of how to do the binding and I knew it would be difficult with double gauze. Therefore i cut wider bias binding (1.75 inch) and attached it wrapped around the armscye edges.
I finished my Cassie V1 top before leaving town, and even managed to do a photo shoot. It looks great with my matching PE Vacation Vibes pants, but also looks good with other pants and shorts. it was fun to try out a new pattern and be involved in the discussion of what worked well and what needed improvement. I uploaded photos to the Facebook group right before the pattern designer posted the V2 pattern, but making V2 had to wait until I got back into town a week later.
Photos below of my hacked Cassie V1. The final Sinclair Cassie pattern is now available, and as you will see, no longer includes the crossover front or the horizontal seam in the back. But it still has the cute notches on the neckline and now comes with multiple sleeve options. I’ll post the top I created with the final pattern next.
Wow, I’ve sewn a lot of clothes! To make it easier to find my makes, I’ve put together this index page. You can look for garments by type, or by pattern maker. You can also use the search box in the upper right corner of this page to find more specific items.
I’m still not going on vacation, but I made a second pair of Pattern Emporium Vacation Vibes Palazzo Pants. I made my first pair of Vacation Vibes last summer in purple cotton double gauze. That was my first time sewing with double gauze and I wasn’t sure whether to iron it or not. I found conflicting advice online and decided to go with those who advised against ironing since that seemed like the easy way out. However, I learned that if you cut and sew double gauze without ironing it, it stretches and grows quite a bit as you wear it. My pants ended up being too big. I had cut the high-rise version because generally I prefer high-rise pants. However, I’ve found that, as a petite person, PE high rise seems to be too high on me, and that was even more the case when I used double gauze. So after wearing them, I removed the waistband and about 2 inches from the rise before reattaching it. They are still too baggy, especially in the seat, but quite wearable and I do wear them (but I’m considering taking them apart and cutting them down further).
After sewing a PE Be Mine top (modeled with the pants in the photos in this post), I decided to make a pair of green double gauze pants to match. I had a little less than 2 yards of 52” wide gauze left from another project (I’ll post about that one soon) so I did some pattern piece tetrising in Affinity Designer and discovered I could get the pattern into 65” if I rotated it 90 degrees and cut the pants legs along the width of the fabric rather than the length. My gauze doesn’t appear to be directional, so this worked out ok.
This time I thoroughly pressed the gauze, sized down from an AU10 to an AU8, and cut the lower rise. I used the pocket opening line from the high rise so that the pocket opening would not be as low when I added the foxy pockets (I’ve done this with other PE patterns as well to keep things from falling of pockets). I sewed according to the pattern except for the pocket opening modification and adding a second row of topstitching around the pocket bag as a decorative design detail.
As I was sewing I discovered that despite my best efforts, I had managed to stretch the gauze as I was cutting it. This resulted in one of the pants legs being abut an inch shorter than the other. I evened them out before hemming, which meant I could not do the full 2-inch hem I had planned. I serged the hem, folded under .25 inch and then .75 inch and top stitched.
I think these fit a lot better than my pruple paints, although they are still a little baggy in the seat and the fabric slides around on the waistband a bit. I wonder if they might be better with a shirred waist band. Nonetheless, they look pretty good, especially with my Be Mine top. I also made a sleeveless top from the same fabric as part of a new pattern test, but I can’t show you until the new patten releases. These pants are very comfortable to wear and work with both tucked and untucked shirts. One of these days I will make a pair of Vacation Vibes in some other woven fabric.
No, I’m not going on vacation, but I made a Pattern Emporium Going Places dress in a tropical print, and with some of the warm weather we’ve had lately in Pittsburgh, when I stand next to the flowers in my front yard I feel somewhat tropical.
I picked up this pattern a few weeks ago when it was on sale (it originally came out in 2019). This dress has both a fitted and flt & flare option and several different necklines (including a low cut “babe” option). But what is distinctive about this dress is that regardless of which option you choose, you have cute sundress straps in back that are designed to cover bra straps. I chose the ballet neck and flit & flare options, cut to knee length, with side seam pockets added (not part of the pattern). I used a soft and lightweight double-brushed polyester print that I bought on clearance last year from Milly Mae.
The fit & flare version of this dress is basically the same dress as the PE Wanderlust dress but with straps instead of sleeves and binding instead of a neck band. Having previously made and adjusted three Wanderlust dresses, I knew I would need a sway back adjustment, so I went ahead and copied the adjustment I already worked out for the Wanderlust pattern. I also had already worked out how to add pockets to this pattern. I decided to use the AU 8 for the bodice and then graded the waist and skirt to an AU 10. After sewing it together I decided it was too long and shortened it by 2 inches (I should have anticipated needing to shorten it as I usually shorten PE patterns by 2 inches). I turned under the hem 5/8 inch and cover stitched with off-white thread.
The dress is a pretty fast sew, but it took me a bit longer due to adding the pockets and sewing neck binding with my cover stitch machine for the first time. I had never does this binding technique so I practiced on scrap fabric, but once I figured it out it was pretty easy, although does take some (and a lot of pins) to pin in place before sewing. I opened up my Triumph suitcase and got out my cover stitch foot and used it for the first time.
The bra-strap covering straps are great, but they do take some work to position properly. The pattern instructions suggest where to pin the straps in place as a starting point, but they were set too wide and too long for me. I had to repeatedly shift them and try the dress on again, and I finally enlisted the help of an assistant who could more easily see my back. Once I was happy with the positioning I sewed them in place with my cover stitching on top of the cover stitching on the binding. The binding is a nice polished finish in both the front and back.
I’m very happy with this dress and my husband really likes it too. I like the fact that I can wear a sweater or jacket with it and wear it to work too. I’m looking forward to trying other neck options, and maybe a maxi version in some fancy fabric. The pattern can also be truncated to make a tank top, which I may try as well.
The Pattern Emporium Facebook group is filled with lovely Spill the Tea tie-neck blouses. I don’t own any tie neck blouses or even very many woven blouses, but I was intrigued by this pattern, especially the cute cap sleeve version. I normally shy away from any blouse that needs to be ironed or buttoned and has fussy collars or ties that I find always shift around and look sloppy when I wear them. This pattern doesn’t have buttons but I was a little bit uncertain about the tie.
I don’t have a lot of drapey woven fabric in my stash, but I found a couple of yards of medium weight 100% polyester Florence stretch woven in flourishing lavender than I bought last year from Surge, and decided to give Spill the Tea a try. The Florence fabric has a subtle crinkly texture and has a little bit of body but a very fluid drape. It doesn’t need to be ironed and it stretches a bit. The lavender Florence seemed perfect for this blouse, and it allowed me to get one more make with purple thread before changing the thread in my serger (my previous three makes were an Alva double-gauze purple top, Nori purple batik quilters cotton pants, and Be Mine purple double-gauze jacket).
I selected the regular length with the shorter tie and opted for the cap sleeves. I proactively added a 1/2-inch sloped shoulder adjustment and raised the center front opening by 1 inch (both adjustments that I tend to need). I finished the bottom hem by serging the edge and folding it under 1/4 inch twice and top stitching.
The Florence fabric is a bit slippery and made this pattern more challenging. It does hold a press, but takes some effort. The edges start fraying fairly quickly. I made a number of sewing mistakes that required unpicking and resewing, but in the end everything worked out ok. My good sewing machine is still in the shop so I’m using my backup machine, which adds to the challenge. When I sewed the front center seam, I don’t think I used a full 5/8-inch seam allowance, and thus when I turned under the seams and tried to top-stitch them at 1/4-inch, the turned-under seams were slightly too small. I should have serged those edges before turning them under to make sure the turned-under edge was more than 1/4-inch. I also accidentally sewed one of the cap sleeves on inside out (nobody to blame but me for this). The tie assembly is clever and a little bit tricky, and I managed to sew too far into the burrito and sewed the opening closed. But I recovered from all of these mistakes. I did take the advice to hand baste the cap sleeve edges together, and I was glad I did. I was also glad to have a serger to clean up all the fraying edges. With all those mistakes, the pattern wasn’t as much of a quick sew as it should have been.
Despite the mistakes, the end result looks great and has a very professional-looking finish. I really like the folded cap sleeves (no hemming required), and may used them on other patterns. It looks good both tucked in and untucked. We’ll see whether I end up liking tie-front blouses or not. I see from photos that people are wearing the tie sloppy, so I guess that’s the thing to do. I found if I folded it in half before tying it was a bit less sloppy. It also looks good untied. I’m unlikely to wear it tied in a bow.
I don’t think I would sew with the Florence fabric without a serger or a pattern in which all the seams were enclosed. But I like this fabric a lot: drapey with body, a little bit of stretch, opaque, washable, and doesn’t require ironing. I will probably buy more and would like to try making some wide-leg pants with it (and possibly other tops or a dress).
Pattern Emporium Be Mine Balloon Sleeve top with jacket hack, size AU8, 1.5 yards cotton double gauze, high neck, regular length, wide facing, no button loop, sloped-shoulder adjustment
I love the Pattern Emporium Be Mine Balloon Sleeve top pattern but find it difficult to wear under a sweater, and even if it fits, a sweater would hide the beautiful sleeves. So when I saw that sewist Livia Jonker-Yamada had hacked Be Mine into a jacket, I was excited to give it a try myself so that I could wear it over a shirt. I waited for Liv’s promised blog post with instructions, but it never came so I figured it out myself.
I started with the size AU8 pattern, which is one size smaller than the size chart recommends but this is an oversized pattern and sizing down worked well for me on my first Be Mine top. I could probably go down one more size for a more fitted top. I used the high neck option so that the neck opening would hit above a scoop-neck t-shirt. I added a half-inch sloped shoulder adjustment as I did on my first Be Mine. I decided to make this jacket from purple cotton double gauze since I still have a lot left even after making PE Vacation Vibes pants and a Sinclair Alva top and I thought it would coordinate with a lot of things in my wardrobe. The double gauze is a good weight for a light summer jacket, it has enough body to help the sleeves balloon, and once you’re done sewing it doesn’t need to be ironed. Having previously experimented with both ironing and not ironing gauze before cutting and sewing, I am firmly on team wash and iron now, despite the fact that ironing the wrinkles out of a couple of yards of double gauze is fairly tedious.
Most of the hack is pretty obvious: you follow the instructions for eliminating the back button, sew the back pieces together, and then you don’t sew together the two front pieces. The tricky part is what to do to have a nice clean finish on the jacket front openings. It looked to me like Liv split the neck facing and added vertical strips to it to face the jacket opening edges. I couldn’t work out exactly what she did where the front edges met the wide hem facing so I improvised a bit.
In the photos below you can see the split neck facing sewed to the merged back facing on its owned and pinned to the bodice. When I split the front facing, I made sure to add my 3/8-inch seam allowance to the split on both sides. The vertical facing is 1 3/4 inches wide and runs the length of the top. I decided to cut neck and vertical facing as a single piece to avoid the need for a joining seam. I used Heat n Bond Ultra Lightweight Fusible Interfacing and fused it to a piece of gauze before cutting out the facings. After I sewed the front and back facings together, I serged around the outer edges and also along the inner edge of the vertical pieces. That last bit of inner edge surging probably wasn’t necessary.
After I finished sewing on the neck and vertical facings I clipped the seam allowance around the neck as per pattern instructions and trimmed the corners to make it easier to turn them under. Then I understitched and top stitched according to the pattern instructions. It was impossible to understitch all the way into the corners, as you can see in this photo, but that didn’t seem to be a problem. I did the topstitching all in one go, from the bottom, up one side of the front, around the neck, and back down the other side of the front, pivoting at the corners. I used an edge foot for all the top stitching and under stitching.
Then I added the sleeves (hand basting the sleeve bindings so the gauze would behave), closed up the sides, and turned to adding the wide bottom hem facing. I split the front hem facing piece in half, adding 3/8 inch seam allowances to the inside edge of each piece. Then I sewed the front hem facing pieces to the back hem facing pieces and serged the top edge. I pinned the facing to the bodice, folding in the seam allowance. I sewed everything together and understitched following pattern instructions. Then I top-stitched just below the serged edge at the top of the hem facing. Finally, I was left with the unsolved problem of what to do with the unstitched 3-inch edges where the hem facing meets the bodice on the jacket opening edges. I decided to whip stitch that closed by hand, which seemed to have worked well.
I decided not to add buttons as I rarely button jackets (and I’m still a bit afraid of button holes). I’ve recently read that tie-front tops are quite fashionable right now, so I thought about adding ties, but decided I was unlikely to actually tie them (or wear them fashionably without a shirt underneath), so I left the jacket with no closures. As a result, it was a little tricky getting the neck openings aligned for the photographs, but they mostly stay in place.
The jacket looked neat and crisp, but since I will never iron it again I threw it in the wash to see how it would look crinkled up. When I took it out it looked great except for the center back seam, which didn’t lie flat because I forgot to top-stitch the seam allowances in place. After a quick trip back to my sewing machine to topstitch, the jacket was complete. That was yesterday, and today I wore my new jacket to work with the PE Heartlight skirt that I sewed last summer. When the outdoor temperature cools down a little I expect I will wear it a lot with wide-leg pants.
Sinclair Valley Knit Skater Dress with half-circle skirt from Flared skirts ADD-ON, size P6, 2 yards Spoonflower modern jersey, short-sleeve, above knee length plus one inch, bodice extended 1.3 inch and no waistband, pockets modified so as not to attach to waist, “screwp neck” with cover stitching
Spooflower.com had some nice custom options with multiple pets, but most were too cute for the look I was going for — a nice pattern for baby clothes but not the vibe I wanted. I found “Pop Art Pets” designed by Susan Faiola and showed it to my husband and he thought it was great, so I ordered two yards in Modern Jersey, my favorite Spoonflower fabric. It’s 95% polyester, 5% spandex, feels like cotton with a nice drape and takes color well. It has a bit more than 25% horizontal stretch and less vertical stretch. I have been less impressed with Spoonflower’s cotton spandex jersey, as I find it feels almost rubbery when you print it with dark colors and they fade over time. When the fabric arrived in the mail I was quite happy with it. My husband pointed out that the dog in the fabric looked a lot like a dog we know named Daisy, so after I finished the dress I borrowed Daisy to take some photos.
I chose the Sinclair Valley Knit Skater Dress with half-circle skirt from Flared skirts add-on, a pattern I have made several times. The pattern is pretty fast and easy, and fits well without much modification. It actually fits like a glove, and as this fabric has less stretch than fabrics I’ve used in the past, I decided to size up from my usual P4 to a P6. Since I omitted the waistband I extended the length of the bodice by 1.3 inch. As I have done in the past, I modified the pockets so they do not attach to the waist to prevent the waist from being distorted when I put my phone in my pocket. I also found from past experience that I prefer a neckline in between crew and scoop, so I used my usual “screwp neck” modification. The fit of the dress is just about perfect!
I sewed almost everything on my serger and then fused and cover stitched the hems with a wide cover stitch. I used the same wide cover stitch on the neck band. This is the first time I’ve ever tried to cover stitch a neck band. I took it very slowly and it came out really well. I used my regular serger foot and it was a bit tricky to see the stitches; next time I need to try one of the feet designed for cover stitching that provides more visibility (I’m sure I have multiple options in my 29-foot accessory kit, I just need to figure out which one to use).
I’ve never sewn pants out of woven fabric, but I liked the peg-leg (almost barrel leg) style and pocket style on the new Sinclair Nori Woven Peg Trousers so I decided to give the pattern a try. I don’t have a lot of woven garment fabric in my stash, but the instructions said it worked with quilting cotton, and I do have a lot of that. I selected a fun batik fabric that I had several yards of, but I ended up needing only about 2 yards of it.
I cut out a size 6P and machine-basted it together to check the fit. I was very happy with the fit, but prefer a higher back rise. I reduced the seam allowance where the center back meets the waistband to increase the rise by almost half an inch (and I marked this on my pattern so that I will cut a higher back rise next time). Then I removed the basting and sewed the pants together according to the pattern instructions. Most seams were sewn on my sewing machine with a 5/8-inch seam allowance, then surged, and then top stitched. This process is much more involved than sewing knits, but it produces a nice finish.
I went with the 2-inch elastic option for the waistband. As there is no stretch in this pattern, the waistband casing is the same size as the top of the pants, and thus become quite gathered after you insert the elastic. To keep everything smooth, the instructions recommended adding three rows of stitching through the waistband. That was a little tricky to do while stretching the elastic and the stitching isn’t as consistent as I would have liked, but I got it done and it looks pretty good. It is also comfortable to wear. Here’s a photo with my shirt tucked in so you can see the waistband.
The pattern offers cuffed or hemmed options. I went with the simple hem.
The pants are very comfortable but don’t look sloppy. And the pockets are plenty big and I love them! I expect I will enjoy wearing these pants and will probably make more in other fabrics. I would like to try these in chambray and perhaps a lightweight stretch woven. It would also be fun to try a colorblocked version of these pants.
My Bernina 440 QE sewing machine has been giving me trouble for a while, and in the middle of this project I got so frustrated with it that I packed it up and got my old Viking 500 out from under the table, wound a bobbin, and used it to finish the project. There’s a reason I’ve kept it all these years. Now I just need to find someone in Pittsburgh who will fix my Bernina.
Next, I decided to make a purple Alva top to go with the pants (and lots of other things in my wardrobe). Recall that I bought 18 yards of cotton double gauze when it was on $3/yard clearance last summer. This top used up less than a yard of it! Before I started cutting I ironed a 3-yard piece of it, so now I need to find something else to make with the rest of the ironed piece.
After reading comments from other sewists on the small end of the size range that the Alva top runs large, I sized down to a P2 (normally I would make a P4 or P6 in Sinclair tops). I cut the A/B cup version with a small dart, but I’m not sure the dart is actually needed for those with small busts and it doesn’t hit me in quite the right place. I will try modifying the pattern to leave it out next time.
I sewed this top entirely on my regular sewing machine without using my serger (which was sad because I had to use my Viking, which is actually a fine machine, but doesn’t have some of the conveniences I have grown accustomed to). This pattern includes instructions for French seams. I’ve never sewn French seams before, but this seemed like an easy pattern to try them on. They are more work than serging the edges, but they do give a nice finish and weren’t that hard to do. I managed to do the collar binding more neatly than I did on my double gauze dress last month, largely because I followed the advice to hand baste the binding in place (that made it much easier).
I decided to use the deep hem option but wasn’t sure whether to go higher or lower. I cut the lower option. When I tried it on before hemming I decided I liked the lower option better so cut off the bottom two inches before hemming. I also debated plain sleeve openings or adding cuffs, and in the end added the cuffs for a more finished look.
Overall I’m happy with the Alva top, and it does go nicely with my Nori pants and the wide leg pants I made out of the same fabric. With this fabric, the Alva doesn’t drape all that well, and it tends to hang away from my body, especially in the back. This might be less of an issue with the longer hem length or a more drapy fabric.
Summer is here and I reached for a pair of shorts to wear out of the house and couldn’t find any I liked. They were all either shorts I wear for playing soccer, shorts I wear for sleeping, shorts that don’t sit where I want them to at my waist, shorts that I find uncomfortable to sit in, or shorts with inadequate pockets. Clearly I need to sew myself some new shorts.
I used the Pattern Emporium Just Peachy stretch shorts pattern to sew up some black PyLos LiKnit shorts. I used this pattern once before to make grey cotton Lycra shorts that I mostly wear for PJs (the yoga waistband is super comfy but doesn’t stay put as well as I would like when I put my phone in my pocket. This time I used the mid rise with the elastic waistband option. I went with length 3, stitched pockets, and back darts. I adjusted the pocket opening to be higher (basically used the bottom of the high-waist pocket opening) — this makes it less likely for things to fall out of my pockets without the need to increase the length of the pocket bags. I stitched the pockets with a zigzag stitch. Next time I will try to cover stitch. I do love the way the look of the binding over the pocket opening edge.
I used the AU10 pattern with the AU8 waistband. I should probably have graded the waist of the leg pieces to match the waistband too — next time.
The rayon/nylon knit LiKnit fabric is very light and these are super lightweight shorts to wear and pack for travel. They look almost like linen shorts but are much softer and easy to care for. They also dry quickly when you get caught in a rainstorm (ask me how I know).
The shorts are modeled here with a short-sleeve 4p screwp neck Sinclair Bondi t-shirt in aqua wide lush poly spandex from Mily Mae Fabrics (which I made last year and may not have blogged). Normally I will wear the shirt untucked but leaving it tucked in here so you can see the shorts waistband and pocket details better.
Overall, I’m happy with these shorts and I have already worn them several times in the hot weather, including on a trip (they travel well!). They fit well but I personally would like them to sit a little higher at my waist, especially in front. Next time I make this pattern I would add a bit of rise, perhaps somewhere between the low-rise and high-rise line, and narrow the pocket bags so my phone will stay vertical.
