Pattern Suggestions

Some people can look at a piece of stone and see a statue of a beautiful Greek Goddess. Others look at the stone and see a rock. This is why I created this section. Looking at a pattern envelope, seeing the picture of the old lady in the polyester ensemble, may make it hard to see the awesome club outfit made of velvet and satin and lace it could be. I hope to make it easier for you to go to the fabric store, knowing ahead of time what pattern you will buy. Some of the patterns won't be shown because of the ingenuity behind them, but rather perhaps because they're easy or inexpensive. So have fun and get some ideas going! This section will grow as I sew, so newest items will be placed first.

Unfortunately, I was so busy making the bride happy, I missed out on making sure any decent pictures of my creations were taken. So this will do until I have the model dressed up once again and can take the picture myself. I used a pearlescent fabric for the dress and wings. The skirt is made from three colors of net, tulle, and mesh. Basically, the difference between the three is the size of the holes. The skirt I took artistic liberty with, so I will be adding it eventually as a Bad Thing because I didn't follow the patterns directions. McCall's 3365 is the pattern.

The flower girl faeries really made my sister's wedding a magical event!

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This is so cool and one day I'll take a picture of it actually on. But for now, it's the sweater jacket she's wearing on the left of the pattern picture, but I used a really cool fishnet like fabric. It is deep navy, almost black with silver threading weaved throughout. Fishnet is a little harder to sew, so you will want to use hem tape and bias tape as well as double stitched hems. This is Simplicity Pattern 7184. It's found in the juniors section, but the sizing goes all the way up to something like 23/24.

For questions about where to find fishnet fabric, see askCat before writing me.

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I've started working on my Renaissance Faire outfit. Unfortunately, I'm so picky that I will be using three patterns because I only like one piece from each. (Other parts of each pattern will be great for my wardrobe though, so keep an eye out for them!) This is Butterick Pattern 6198. It is just a simple peasant blouse, but it was so very easy to make. I think it maybe took me one hour tops. I'm going to make it in other colors for every day wear. But this one is made of bleached white muslin. Seventy-five cents per yard made it for less than five dollars after buying the bias tape, that being the most expensive part!

I made another of the 6198 blouse out of black gauzelike material. Obviously, it cost more than the muslin version, but it was still under $10. I can not express enough how easy this shirt is to make!! It's gorgeous with a corset.

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I made a pillow for my cat. She loves the Christmas tree skirt I made and decided it belonged to her. After Christmas, I almost don't want to take it away from her. So, with the extra yard of red felt fabric which runs about $2 per yard, I created this bed for her. Because she is a black cat, she looks fabulous on it.

The cool thing about this pillow is that it is a pillow inside of a pillow. The top is a case you can take off and clean and since I have a longhaired cat, that comes in handy. Also, the inside pillow is only seen when you clean the case, so it doesn't matter what it looks like. I was able to find a remnant of damaged fabric (it was stained, but again, it won't be seen) for fifty cents. The stuffing was two bags, and I got them for half price so that brings the grand total to $5.50. You can also save your old bed pillows when you buy new ones. Just because they are too flat for your comfort, doesn't mean you can't recycle the stuffing! Not to mention, choosing the fabric to match your decor, you have now saved money, decorated, and made your pet happy all at once! That was McCall's Pattern 3472.

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I love to wear bloomers, weird but true. So I got this panne velvet fabric and decided it would make fabulous bloomers. I used Butterick 3187, view C. The thing about this pattern is that they have the entire costume lumped together for each view. For example, view C is the head dress, dress, sash, and bloomers. This means it'll say you need a lot more fabric than you need. I used 1 1/2 yds, you won't need more than 2 for sure. They were so simple and fast!

All patterns can be found at your local fabric store, or online at the publisher's sites. Here are links to the pattern companies used so far:

Butterick and McCall's and Simplicity

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