A Sofilantjes Summer - Down Under Blog Tour

It's Spring here in Sydney, and today is an exciting day for a couple of reasons. The first is that my boys are back at school today after end of term holidays (yay - I may actually get some sewing done this week), and the second is that today I am the second blog stop on the Sofilantjes Down Under Blog Tour.

All Things Fairy

Last month I was pretty excited to receive some gorgeous spandex fabric samples in the mail to sew up and photograph from Kristie Boo! designs.

The Aura Bolero from Sofilantjes

 Hi, I am determined to blog a bit more often than I have been of late and show you a few of the things I've been sewing. First up is the newly released Aura Bolero from Sofilantjes Patterns.

The Sunkissed Kaftan by Pattern Emporium

Hello everyone, I am the last stop on the Pattern Emporium Blog tour today. I've been a big supporter of Pattern Emporium for a number of years now and really rate the patterns highly. Over that time the pattern designer Kate has become one of my sewing BFFs and it's been so exciting to see what a fantastic job the real bloggers (and I say real because I really am only an occasional blogger....something I'd love to fix but at the moment, life is just too hectic) have done on this blog tour.

The Willow Dress - One Thimble Edition 10

Hello!! I'm back blogging as part of the One Thimble Edition 10 blog tour. Firstly I cannot believe that One Thimble now has 10 fantastic editions, and secondly I wanted let you know that I do plan to be blogging more frequently this year. Life does have a way of disrupting plans, but I'm quite determined.

A Boo! Designs Pattern Mash - The Tankini Meets The Skater Dress.

Hello, it's been so long since I blogged that I've almost forgotten how!!! Anyway, it is Summer here (yay) and I've been sewing lots of swimwear at the moment. As everyone knows, I love Boo! Designs patterns, and I love the spandex available for sale in the Boo store. I know many of you also share my love of these things, but lack confidence to try the Boo! Designs togs in the Swimmers pattern because of the binding. This is what I'm talking about for those that don't know.

Whilst the binding is not hard, it just takes practice and some understanding of how your machine sews spandex, I get that many people out there just want to sew their daughter some cute swimmers without spending hours perfecting the binding technique. Call me strange, but I now enjoy the binding and find it to be one of the least stressful parts of sewing swimmers now!!

Anyway, Kristie from Boo also has a few other spandex patterns - one of which is the Skater Dress. The skater dress is a great pattern for those new to sewing spandex. The binding for the neckline does not involve elastic which takes an element of trickiness out, and there are two different binding methods described in the pattern, so if you are not confident with one, you can try the other.

I'm going to share with you today how to mash the skater dress top with the tankini top (found in the swimmers pattern) to make a spandex singlet. This is a very simple pattern mash that many of you will not need a tutorial for, but I know that Boo attracts a lot of beginners who may not be confident with pattern mashing, which is why I am including this tutorial. In the end you'll end up with a spandex singlet that can either be worn for sports related things - like gymnastics, little athletics, dancing if paired with shorts or my choice - one of the lengths in the Boo designs leggings pattern; or paired with one of the three swimmer bottom options in the swimmers pattern.

To start off with you need your pattern pieces for the top of the skater dress (remember there are three options in this dress - I am using the simple front, racer back option), and also your pattern pieces for the Swimmers tankini. Just my front pattern pieces are shown below.

1. Take your skater dress front piece and lay it over the tankini front piece so that the underarm seams meet up. You want to use the skater dress for the top portion, and the tankini for the bottom portion, to get the length and fitting round the stomach right.

2. Trace around the overlaid pattern pieces, using the skater top as the guide for the top half, and the tankini top for the bottom half. Remove the original pattern pieces, place them back in your file so you don't lose them (sorry, had to include that for a few of my less organised sewing friends, you know who you are), and you are left with your new pattern piece. Label it now so you don't forget what it is.

3. Repeat the process for the back pattern pieces. Overlay the skater top on the tankini back, making sure the underarms meet up. You can see with my pieces that the tankini actually sticks out a bit on the bottom of the curve for the racer back - we are going to ignore that part of the tankini pattern and use the curve of the racer back skater instead.

4. Trace around the overlaid pattern pieces. Label the new back pattern piece and cut both the front and back pattern pieces out.

5. You are now ready to go and make your new singlet top. Cut 1 x back on the fold of the fabric, 1 x front on the fold of the fabric.

6. Place right sides together, sew shoulder seams front and back, side seams front and back (remember to use stretch stitches) and hem as per your preferred method (the Swimwear patter explains hemming options in good detail).

7. Follow directions in the skater dress pattern for the binding on the neck holes and armholes and you are all done.

8. Photograph child in new singlet (optional) and share in the Boo! Designs Pattern Club Facebook group so that others can be inspired to give it a go.

All my spandex used in this tutorial was kindly sent to me by the lovely Kristie from Boo! Designs. It will be available as of this week in the Boo! webstore to purchase….lets hope I am fast enough to get some more because I love it!!!

Thanks for reading along,

Marnie

One Thimble Edition 8 - The Butterfly Blouse

Hello, it's that time of the year again when 3 more months have passed and a new edition of One Thimble Ezine is released. For those not familiar with One Thimble, it is a quarterly ezine full of interesting patterns, articles and tutorials, and some exclusive coupons. It is well worth the price. I have all the editions so far and have learnt so much from them. It is complied by a little lady that I have an awful lot of respect and admiration for - Jen Kennedy, who is also the pattern designer of some of my most favourite ever patterns - Ainslee Fox Boutique Patterns. Please do take time to pop on over to the One Thimble Website and have a browse.

How to make A fur lined vest - Hacking the Gyspy Shrug from Tadah Patterns

I have finally found some time to sit down and blog a little about a vest I made Zoe a month or so ago. I   live in denial of winter coming. I tell myself its only or a few months of the years and that we don't need too many warm clothes. And honestly, June is really not too bad in Sydney. But July always comes of a bit of a shock to me and I tend to go on a winter sewing frenzy because I can't deny the fact that it is cold any longer. And this July has been freezing!!!

Dive into Swimwear with Boo! Designs

Those of you that follow my Facebook page will know that I enjoy making swimmers and this week I'm joining a bunch of other bloggers to talk about sewing swimwear. Today I'm participating in a blog tour all about swimwear. There are tons of great prizes and giveaways, and it is all being run by Nicole from Coles Corner and Creations to coincide with the northern hemisphere summer and the release of her fabulous new swimwear pattern. I get so jealous of the northern hemisphere at this time every single year. The world cannot spin fast enough for me during the winter months. Anyway, pop on over and have a look and follow along, its going to be a great week.

One Thimble Edition 7!!!!!

I'm so excited to be a part of the One Thimble Blog Tour for Edition 7 of the ezine, which is released today!!! I haven't seen the whole edition yet, but I know it will be full of fabulous articles and the patterns look great. Today I'm sharing with you my thoughts on the Alyss Dress by Ainslee Fox Boutique Patterns, and also the Jukebox Duet Pattern from FLOSStyle. I really like them both and they are completely different sews, so here are my opinions on the two of them. I'm going to start with the Alyss dress.

The Boo Designs Gallery Dress - in knit!

I've been testing fabulous girls dress sewing pattern this past week or so called The Gallery Dress by Boo! Designs. It's basically a mod shift dress with a whole heap of fantastic options. I have been after a good simple shift dress pattern for so long and I am pretty sure this is my favourite Boo pattern ever, which is a massive call because I really like Boo patterns.

The Archie Tailored Shirt

I'm jumping on the blogging tour for One Thimble ezine today. I have been a follower of One Thimble right from the beginning. I am a big fan of Jen Kennedy's - the brains and talent behind One Thimble and Ainslee Fox Boutique Patterns.  I look forward to each new One Thimble ezine release - not only is it full of wonderful pattern, many of which I would probably not know about without One Thimble, but I have learnt so much from the brilliant articles.

A Boo Swimwear Summer

Ahhhh Summer. It's a beautiful thing. My favourite season of the year hands down. It's full of sunshine and laughter, freckled noses and ice cream eating, long daylight hours and backyard cricket when dad comes home from work, BBQs and friends, summer showers and brilliant thunderstorms, shorts and sundresses, havianas and bare feet. There are so many wonderful things about summer, and woven through all of them is swimming! In Australia, swimming is part of our culture. Pools are full of kids learning how to swim freestyle and backstroke, and it's amazing how many "old friends" that you didn't hear from all winter start calling when the weather warms up and you have a pool in your backyard…

The Little MIss Sweetie Pie in knit

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a compulsive hoarder of knits (and rayon). I do try to keep it under control and be strict with myself, and not allow myself to buy more until I've run the stash down, but I finally ordered some Eurpoean knits this year and oh dear…..it is soooo hard not to buy them! Not to mention all those Art Gallery knits. Swoon! Anyway, I know there is a whole world of quilting cotton only ladies who sew beautiful clothes, but I do think if you limit yourself to only quilting cottons that you are really missing out. That said, many of my favourite girls patterns are sized and designed for quilting weight cottons, so I do understand it. Occasionally a pattern comes along though that as far as I am concerned, deserves a little more of a going over than just making them up in quilting cotton.

The Adele Dress from Violette Field Threads

I have had this little dress to share for a good couple of months, and it seems highly appropriate that I share it this week.

The Little Miss Sweetie Pie Dress

I'm back catching up on blog posts. More things are slowly being added to our page as we move across to this site. I've still got quite a few patterns to catch you up on, but for todays one, I just wanted to say that I love little girls dresses. Not the ones you necessarily see in the shops, but the ones you find when you are a sewer. Dresses that really suit girls, and allow them to look like girls, and not little versions of what teenagers wear. Here's my new fav...

The Skippy Dress

Woo Hoo. It has been ages since I've been in blogland, but Kate and I are back, on our new site. You will find some things still missing and being moved across and added, but it is time to start blogging again because I have so many projects that I don't even know where to begin.

First up though, I absolutely must get this dress blogged about. Its the Skippy dress by Make It Perfect. I actually patterned tested this one ages ago when it was first released in One Thimble Ezine back in May as the Daisy Chain Dress. Toni rereleased this pattern three months later on her own website and changed the name to the Skippy dress. So for those of you with the Daisy Chain Dress, it is the same dress.

The Firefly by Boo Designs

I've got an absolute ripper of a party dress that I'm reviewing today. It's from Boo Designs and it was recently released in the 4th and latest addition of One Thimble Magazine. Here's the cover picture. Isn't it adorable? I love it! Just the right amount of frills, a gathered skirt, the perfect length sash and all those delightful square shapes and angles to work with. I was fortunate enough to pattern test for this one. I have to say it was the most inspiring and intimidating pattern testing group I have been part of. There are so many wonderful versions of this dress to check out from the testing group. I'm not quite sure where they have been posted at the moment, but definitely join the Boo Designs Pattern Club on facebook to see all the cute versions of this people are sewing here.

Joey

Hi all, I was planning on waiting until we had moved out blog over to blogger to post this - which is why my blogs posts have been so minimal of late, but I have a few great patterns that I wanted to review - starting with this one.

The Perfect Kaftan

I'm excited to be a part of the Make It Perfect Perfect Pattern Parade today. As anyone who reads this blog knows, I have alot of Make it Perfect Patterns and I love them. They are simple, easy to sew and most of all, allow you to create wearable clothes. I also love that Toni has patterns suitable for women, girls and boys.
Anyway here in Sydney, we are in the middle of winter. I loathe winter. So when Toni asked which pattern I was planning on sewing, I naturally started dreaming of warmer weather and our upcoming trip to Fiji and went with the Shearwater Kaftan.