Oct/Nov Newsletter

Oct/Nov Newsletter
Hanna bralette and self drafted thong for Halloween!

Halloween Set

Content Sewing

Halloween is my favorite holiday and I found this black lace that reminded me of spiderwebs that I couldn’t pass up! Orange isn’t a color I normally wear, but layered with the black lace, I think it suits me very well if I do say so myself 😄

Inside of the bralette. You can see all the seams are encased and I used the suggested clear elastic around the lace edges.

This is my first bralette and it was so easy to sew! The pattern is the Hanna Bralette from Studio Costura and is the first pattern I would actually recommend to beginners. I will be writing a separate blog post reviewing the pattern soon, but the short version is I only needed to make a few alterations before getting a perfect fit.

Close up of bralette cup stitching.

I always have to alter the area where the back band and and outer cup pieces meet because I have a very rounded torso, which leads to gaping in the underarm. To fix the issue, I removed a 1/4" wedge from the outer cup piece where it joins with the back band. The second alteration really doesn't even count, because it was adjusting the back band to fit my clasp.

To match the bralette, I decided to draft a thong pattern. It’s a very simple pair of underwear that I used as a canvas for fitting in pieces of leftover lace. I ordered 2 yards of lace, which was not quite enough for a set. I had tiny scraps that I was able to either sew in or use as appliques over the orange jersey fabric, which looks intentional...but I spent way too long piecing lace scraps together haha.

Jackie Dress

Personal Sewing

Have you ever purchased a pattern and then not sewn with it for years? 🤣 I think this is a universal sewist experience and the Jackie Dress from Victory Patterns was purchased 2 years ago along with the fabric.  I am not sure why I never sewed it, but I am glad I waited because it truly is a more advanced pattern (as suggested by the pattern itself). No one part was difficult, but there are so many pieces that any alterations require good record keeping and memory to not miss anything.

I already have a knit sloper, so I just matched the bottoms of the armscyes of both the pattern and the sloper to make the initial alterations go a lot quicker. I actually made a YouTube video a while ago on how to do this if you're curious! The alterations I made to the pattern include:

-Removing some ease at the bust line only on the front of the pattern
-Removing 3/4" from the waist height to make the distance between the bust line and waist shorter (an alteration I always have to make)
-Removing 5" from the bottom hem so the dress would hit above the knee (a personal preference)

Sewing over the button loops was a challenge, I would recommend using an awl to push the fabric through or using a walking foot.

I like to make a muslin before cutting into my "good" fabric because quality fabric is expensive AND it allows me to understand how the pattern is put together so I avoid any mistakes when sewing the real thing. This pattern had a lot of pieces and I could not understand how the back was put together until sewing the muslin, but it all came together in the end.

Finished back of dress. The buttons were very difficult to work with because my fabric was thicker, so I ended up using hot glue to get the top to stay snapped on.

I am in love with both the fit and color of the dress and am so happy with how it turned out. I would recommend this pattern if you’re an adventurous beginner or intermediate sewist. The pattern itself was well drafted and I didn’t find any flaws in how the pieces lined up, which is a big pet peeve of mine. I also thought the directions were very thorough and there were plenty of resources if you need to look something up. The only sewing direction changes I would make would be to sew the side seams before attaching the armscye stabilizer (for the sleeveless version).

Overall rating: 4.8/5

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