I’m over on the New Horizons Designs blog today with a post about my Maui Tankini and Racerback Bikini! Check it out!
Bamboo Nightgown!
Bamboo is my favorite summer fabric, and I’ve been wanting a light summer nightgown, and I finally made one! I am so happy with how it came out!
I used the Tawsha dress pattern from New Horizons, and while I could have just added inseam pockets, I wanted to try something a little different. I used the princess seam line from the Summit Peak to add panels, and sewed a pocket onto the panel!
Gotta have pockets! If you’d like to see how I did it, first I wanted to create the princess seam line on the Tawsha. I overlaid the Summit Peak front bodice pattern pieces onto the Tawsha front bodice and aligned them at the fold line and the neck. I overlapped front A and B of the Summit peak by their seam allowance and weighed down with my super fancy pesto and cinnamon pattern weights.
Functional and delicious!
I carefully removed front A and traced the princess seam line onto the Tawsha, extending it up and down to make a smooth curve.
I cut along this line to make two separate pattern pieces.
Of course, these pattern pieces do *not* include the seam allowance along the curve, so you need to make sure you add it. You can put paper in back and tape it on and measure, orrr you can do it the fast way, keeping in mind you still have another piece of paper with the same curve 😅
I did it the lazy way! I laid out the first pattern piece I wanted to cut, A, on my fabric as usual. Then I laid the other pattern piece, B, next to it, separated by the seam allowance I wanted to use, 3/8″. Make sure to measure and align carefully!
The I cut out A, and when I cut along the curve, I cut along the *B* pattern piece curve line, in order to add the seam allowance to A!
Then I did the reverse for B!
I used pattern piece B as a template for the pocket also. I chose the shorten/lengthen line as a convenient place to put the top of the pocket, and drew an outline of my phone to make sure the pocket would be deep enough, adding 2 inches for seam allowances.
I cut perpendicular to the grain line for the top and bottom of the pocket, and along the pattern piece edges for the sides. That gave me a pocket that would fit on top of the princess seam panel! I used my twin needle to hem the top of the pocket, and sewed the bottom of the pocket in place. I basted the sides to hold them in place until I finished the sides. I sewed fronts A and B together along the princess seam line, catching the sides of the pocket, to finish the front!
The Summit princess seam is just so flattering!
The Tawsha pattern includes a very cute shoulder accent, intended to connect with the set-in sleeves. I used just this shoulder accent for the sleeves, but I left it uncut at the shoulder edge, to keep the scalloped edge of the lace (which also gets you out of hemming them!)
This does result in cutting them a little off grain, but it worked out ok! I sewed them to the front and back bodices as in the pattern, which left the bottom side of the armscye unfinished. After sewing on the neckband, I folded it over, secured it with hem tape and stitched all around both armscyes!
And finished! I did not hem the bottom because I cut on the contrasting band line and liked where it hit for a nightie. Thanks so much for reading! Have you made bamboo pajamas? I highly recommend it if you haven’t!
Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. I only recommend products I have personally used and enjoyed and believe are a worthwhile purchase.
New Horizons Summer Blog Tour!
Summer is finally here! Welcome to my stop on the New Horizons Summer Blog tour! I’m going to tell you all about my absolute favorite shorts and tee shirt patterns, but first, I need to tell you about how New Horizons is celebrating the arrival of summer by giving you a chance to win amazing prizes! 
One Grand Prize winner will receive 3 New Horizons Patterns, a $50 gift card to Raspberry Creek Fabrics, AND a $35 gift card to So Sew English!
One Second Prize winner will receive 2 New Horizons Patterns and a $50 gift card to Raspberry Creek Fabrics!
One Third Prize winner will receive 2 New Horizons Patterns and a $30 gift card to Mily Mae Fabric Shop!
And everyone can receive 10% off one order at Sew So English with code NHSUMMER! Valid June 3rd through June 8th midnight PST.
Enter HERE! Prizes drawn on June 8th!
Once you’ve entered the giveaway, let me tell you about my new summer uniform!
This is a New Orleans Tee and Portlander shorts, and I am going to live in these this summer! The New Orleans is one of my favorite patterns ever, I love a beautifully well-fitted shirt with a ton of options, and it has them! For this one, I was going for a very casual, basic shirt, that I could wear with anything, so I went with a scoop neck and a just slightly curved hem. I used a rayon spandex so it’s soft and breathable and drapey. If this is a little thin for you, I also love bamboo or modal in the summer, and they both tend to be just a bit thicker. 
Please appreciate how amazing my hair is today because it is on point and I have no idea why.
When you have a great basic tee, you can wear cute floral shorts and not look like you’re in your pajamas! One thing that I think helps is not adding any of the floral to the top. I love that look for pjs, patterned bottoms paired with a plain top with the same pattern used as bands or a pocket is pajama perfection! But for daytime clothes, I steer clear of too much matching to convince people I’m not in my pjs (even if I feel like they could be!)
I think I haven’t made Portlander-style pockets since the Caritas came out. I am completely smitten by the inset pocket with the trim, it adds just the perfect amount of polish!
I used a poly rayon spandex french terry for these shorts, and I don’t get too warm in them. I made a pair last year and it did start to pill by the end of the summer, but I wore them a lot! I have plans for pairs in cotton spandex french terry and bamboo as well (I could live on bamboo alone, I think) as well as a knit denim!
I plan to wear these to many summer nights with friends, casual cookouts, to chase the kids around the park, to the pool, the beach, and to ice cream afterwards! I hope you have an AMAZING summer and stay cool and have fun!
Thank you so much for coming by and make sure you enter the giveaway while you can! The summer fun continues all this week on the New Horizons Summer Blog Tour, with a new post every day! Additionally, every pattern featured on the tour is on sale for $6 this week!! Check them all out!
Monday June 3rd: Amanda Briles from Meadow Sews (me!)
Tuesday June 4th: Ashley Griffith from Creating Ashley
Wednesday June 5th: April Baylor from Sewing Novice
Wednesday June 5th: Danielle Thomas from Sew Gr8ful
Thursday June 6th: Darcy Rochholz Bjertness from Sew Beeloved
Friday June 7th: Ingrid from Sewingrid
Friday June 7th: Yvette van Musscher from Droomstoffen
Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. I only recommend products I have personally used and enjoyed and believe are a worthwhile purchase.
The Bellevue Top!
New Horizons has released the Bellevue Top, and it’s adorable! There’s just something about a shirt that falls off of one shoulder that makes you feel sexy!
When I test patterns I always grade out for my measurements, so that I can give an accurate view of how the shirt is intended to fit, even if I usually don’t bother when I’m sewing for myself. The thing that helped this shirt fit the most was grading for my shoulder width, though!
I definitely recommend checking out their post about Choosing Sizes and checking your Shoulder Width against the table there. Because this shirt drapes sexily off your shoulder, it really helps with the fit to grade for shoulder width, and in a different way than usual.
Normally, when I grade for the width at the shoulder, I just take the width for the size I’m grading to, and keep the same height and neckband as for my bust size. For the Bellevue I used the complete top of the shoulder, height and width, and the neckband for the size for my shoulder width.
This allows the shirt plenty of room to drape off my shoulder beautifully!
I made the long-sleeved version, but the short-sleeved one is absolutely adorable, and on my list to make soon. It would be perfect in a rayon spandex! Since it’s a dolman style shirt it goes together really quickly, and is easy to cut out. I also can’t wait to hack it, I think wearing it as a wide boat neck shirt and adding 2 straps would be so cute, and I could also extend it to mid-thigh and make a summery nightgown…
Thanks for reading!
Taking Measurements and Choosing Sizes!
I am happy to say I have a guest post over on the New Horizons Designs blog, all about taking measurements and choosing sizes to make your handmade clothes fit your body exactly as you want them to! Check it out here!
Marbella Dress for the Valentine’s Blog Tour!
Happy Valentine’s Day and welcome to my stop on the Valencia and Marbella Valentine’s Blog tour! I’m going to tell you all about how I mashed the Marbella Tank with the Boardwalk skirt to make a new dress that I deeply adore, but first, I need to tell you about how New Horizons is celebrating Valentine’s Day by not only having a great sale but also by giving you a chance to win amazing prizes! (Seriously I want them all!)
First the sales! The Marbella Tank and Valencia Top (affiliate links) patterns are on sale for $7 each until February 10th!
And Surge Fabric Shop has put together these gorrgeeouusss curated bundles designed for the Marbella and Valencia, and they gave the blog tour a special coupon code for you for 15% off these bundles with code NHBUNDLES15! Good until February 14th, if the bundle quantities last that long!
And now the PRIZES!
4 lucky sewists will receive Marbella and Valencia pattern bundles!
1 VERY lucky sewist will win: the Marbella and Valencia pattern bundle, a curated fabric bundle of your choice from Surge, a $35 gift card to So Sew English, AND a $40 gift card to Mily Mae Fabrics!!
Enter HERE! Prizes drawn on February 10th!
Once you’ve entered the giveaway, let me tell you about my new dress!
I used gorgeous fuchsia stretch lace from Surge and adorable heart DBP from So Sew English. I love those “person leading the photographer by the hand” pictures, and I knew I wanted to try one to show off the lace back of the Marbella dress!
Valentine’s Day is one of my favorite holidays, not to be sappy but I think the greatest human quality we have is love, and I love to celebrate it, and the best way is with chocolate! Second best way to celebrate is of course with lace, so soon as I started thinking about Valentine’s Day, I thought it would be so much fun to make a lace-back Marbella tank as a dress!
I thought about different skirts for a long time, a fitted skirt like a pencil skirt would make a smoking hot bodycon style of dress, but I wanted something a little more flowy, a little more swirly. I considered the skirts from the Tawsha and the Deer Creek dresses, but my heart wanted the 3/4 circle Boardwalk skirt! And, of course, it has pockets!
To mash them, I put on a Marbella I’d made previously and marked where I wanted it to flare out into the skirt, right where my hips start to flare. I laid that Marbella on top of the front pattern piece and marked that line. I also marked it on the back piece.
Then I laid out my fabric, put the Marbella bodice piece at the fold, and overlapped the Boardwalk skirt pattern piece, lining it up at my mark.
The heart fabric has stripes of lighter and darker hearts, so to make sure those lined up I cut out the front first, and then laid out the back pattern piece, and then layered the front fabric over the back pattern piece and made sure the stripes lined up as I wanted!
Then cut and sew as normal, finishing the lace back, topstitching, and then the sides. The Marbella goes together so fast!
For the topstitching, I was in awe of the beautiful stitching the pattern testers had. I played around with it, and I should have known. It’s wonder tape! Any sewing question I have, the answer is always wonder tape!
Put down a smooth unbroken line all the way around where you want to hem. It stands up from the curve, so it’s easy to turn down and press in place.
I’m so into this double needle! It was much easier to use than I thought! Second spool goes on the bobbin spindle, crank the thread tension up to 7, and it’s good to go!
And with the beautiful details finished, I have a new dress and it has pockets!
Thank you so much for coming by and make sure you enter the giveaway while you can! The love continues all this week on the New Horizons Valencia and Marbella Blog Tour, with a new post every day! Check them all out!
Monday February 4th: Becky Petty from Big Fly Notions
Tuesday February 5th: Amanda Briles from Meadow Sews (me!)
Wednesday February 6th: Suzanna Bovinet from Inspired Indigo
Thursday February 7th: Livia Jonker from Liviality
Thursday February 7th: Darcy Rochholz Bjertness from Sew Beeloved
Friday February 8th: Sarah Boses from Sweet Sprocket
Friday February 8th: Jillayne Richey from Hazelnut Handmade
Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. I only recommend products I have personally used and enjoyed and believe are a worthwhile purchase.
Girls’ Vermont Cardigan release! Subtitle: How Do You Close These Things Anyway?!
My daughter chose this black peppered hacci from SSE to make her Girls’ Vermont (aff link), and it’s like sewing a cloud, it’s so soft! I want one.
I made the cropped length with a hood, and I love that it hits right where her pants start and stays in place when she jumps around. The bodice is graded to her measurements and the waistband is for her measured waist size, and the fit is great! She is at the bottom of her size for height, so she has some room to grow in the same size, which is always nice. I don’t want her to grow out of it in a month!
The hardest part about cardigans is, of course, holding them closed! My sewing machine is a bit tetchy with buttonholes, so I tend to use snaps. I thought I wouldn’t need to use interfacing for these ones, but some scrap testing proved me wrong. The snaps pulled right through this lovely floofy hacci.
It took some testing (and I managed to completely dull my snap hole-punching tool in the process) but I finally got something to work without having to take my band off completely and redo it.
I backed the snaps with twill tape! I cut two lengths of twill tape and marked them with chalk where the snaps needed to be.
I snipped tiny cuts there with scissors (since my hole punch was dull) and pushed the snaps through. The hacci was loose enough that I could just snip a few threads where the snap was pushing in and it would come through, but for a more dense fabric probably a hole punch would be better. I really like how it looks too!
It’s nice and neat on the inside and strong enough to allow it to be ripped open by a small child without snaps popping through (because how else would you take it off when you’re 5) so I think that’s a success!
Now I need to make myself a Vermont (aff link) to match, and since the sizes for it are newly updated it should be a great sew!
Which fasteners do you prefer? Are buttonholes mysterious witchery, or do you know all their secrets?
Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. I only recommend products I have personally used and enjoyed and believe are a worthwhile purchase.
Lively Top and Dress!
This top I swear! I feel like a ballerina. And I am not the ballerina type. But it’s so flowy!
The bodice top is navy MVC from So Sew English and the bottom is a woven rayon challis from Surge. I’ve never sewn a knit and a woven in the same project before, but these two fabrics coordinated so well I decided to try it, and I love the flowiness of it!
This version has flattering gathers in the front and back, but you can also do them plain for a smoother look. If you’re not familiar with gathers, the instructions are helpful and easy to follow! I would definitely recommend sewing the gathered fabric to the neighboring piece on a sewing machine first, with the gathers facing up, before serging. That helps prevent them from being squished!
The top is lined, and this MVC feels heavy and slinky in your hands, almost like thick silk. The fronts and backs of the outer and inner bodices are constructed first, then attached at the neck, giving a very smooth neckline, a great contrast to the rest of the top! I recommend basting the sides as well as the sleeve caps before serging, keeping track of 4 layers is a little trickier than 2!
It is seriously hard to wear Lively and not want to dance! Check it out today at Lively Top and Dress (affiliate link)!
Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. I only recommend products I have personally used and enjoyed and believe are a worthwhile purchase.
Don’t Tell Me It’s Too Early For Christmas Pajamas! And a Rolled Hem!
Raspberry Creek has their Christmas and winter club fabrics out, and they’re adorable! I let the girlchild pick hers out, though of course she pointed to every fabric on the site 😅
But how cute are these candy canes she finally chose?? I didn’t even realize until I got them how detailed the canes are, each one is different!
I’ve been looking around for a nightgown or dress pattern to use for a while, and couldn’t quite find exactly what I wanted, which is basically a copy of a rtw nightgown she loves. She’s too warm at night for pants or long sleeves, her father’s daughter that way at least!
Finally I decided to just make what I had in mind to begin with. I overlapped the bodice and skirt of the Girls’ Deer Creek (affiliate link) by New Horizons, to just where the pocket mark is.
I cut the combined pieces out, stopping 4 inches above where the skirt ended and moving up the pattern piece to give me the gentle curve of the skirt edge.
I did the same for the back pattern pieces. Then I measured the skirt edge and the armholes, and doubled those measurements, to give me fairly ruffled ruffles! I made the ruffle at the bottom 4 inches long and the sleeves 3 inches.
I sewed the Deer Creek as usual, though I didn’t add the pockets, and I skipped the waist elastic. I serged the ruffle strips right sides together so they formed circles, then I went to my sewing machine and basted in a line 2/8″ from the top. I put clips in the middle of the ruffles and dress edges to match them, and then pulled the bobbin threads to gather gather gather!
I lined everything up and zigzag stitched with the ruffles on top (so they didn’t get squished) at the same seam allowance.
Then I serged at 3/8″, so I didn’t have to pull out my basting stitches!
I threaded my upper looper with red thread, left the needle white and the lower looper white stretch, and took out my left needle. I followed my manual for the rest to set up a rolled hem, it actually wasn’t bad, just a few settings and it was done! Then I serged all the edges, and I love how it came out! I’ll definitely do that again!
And that’s all for an adorable nightie that’s exactly what I wanted!
Do you like adding ruffles? Have you tried a rolled hem?
Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. I only recommend products I have personally used and enjoyed and believe are a worthwhile purchase.
Spooky Shirts and 7 Minute Hems
Do you sew in a production line sometimes? I decided two days before Halloween that I wanted to make myself and the kids matching shirts to wear the day before Halloween, because who needs more lead time really? But it worked!
I got a Riviera Raglan bodice for me and Streamline Tees for both kids from 1 yard of the spooky cats and moons from So Sew English! Though I only got the front of my son’s shirt 😅
My husband was a little disappointed not to be included, so I have to see if I have enough left for boxers or at least boxer accents 😂
Hemming! It’s one of those things we talk about but we almost never see, and one of the things I hear people say is how long it takes! So I thought I’d show you how I do it, it takes me about 7 minutes for an adult shirt and a little under for a kid shirt. Let me know in the comments if you do it differently!
Start with the shirt inside out laying flat. Hold it by the side seams and flip the bottom edge up.
Measure the edge with a hem gauge in a few spots to make sure it’s even, and then press to form a crease.
Flip the bottom edge of the shirt up, usually the other side is not evenly folded. Just pat it into place (admiring your nails if they’re freshly painted as well 😅)
Measure and iron again!
For adult shirt I’ll help hold the crease by placing a few clips, but kids’ shirts rarely need them.
Then to the sewing machine! I like a zigzag for hemming, twin needles are also nice, but I like the homemade touch when everything else looks professional!
Leave the shirt inside out but sew on the right side, with your seam allowance 1/8″ or 2/8″ less than your hem length. Guide the fabric along and make sure your crease stays properly folded.
This is when I can sew the fastest, since it’s in a straight line all around! Go go go!
And you get a nice even hem!
I didn’t plan my pattern placement, but it worked out pretty well, the kids’ shirts look like they match!
Thanks for reading! Do you hem this way or differently?
Meadow Sews 