Sharon Sews

I finished sewing the white eyelet jacket from the New Look pattern 6609 this morning before beginning preparations for the family Fourth of July cookout. I don't typically sew this brand but the princess seams in the jacket combined with the slight flounce at the jacket and sleeve hemlines intrigued me. I like princess seams as I find them easy to do an FBA. I cut the jacket out in a size 12, did an FBA and tapered out slightly at the hip. I choose to eliminate the lining as I wanted a lightweight summer jacket to toss on over camis and summer dresses. After I had sewn the jacket fronts and backs together I tried it on to do a quick fit test before adding the sleeves. Much to my surprise there was way too much fabric at the bustline! I will admit that I didn't flat measure the pattern before cutting it out. I just did my typical FBA adjustment. I refit the front and then drew the new cutting and seam lines onto my adjusted pattern piece. As you can see, I could have almost el

Sometimes a 30-year old pattern can look look as stylish today as it did when it was first released. I think that's the case with this one. It is pattern number 6530, a design by Betsey Johnson released by Butterick in the early or mid-70's. I purchased this one off of eBay a few years ago and put it away in my pattern collection. While I do enjoy building my pattern collection, I also actually sew some of them, so it doesn't matter to me if the pattern pieces have been cut. This pattern had been cut and the pattern envelope is pretty brittle, but all of the pattern pieces are there. I had a picked up a unique knit piece at a fabric warehouse that I thought would be perfect for this top and skirt, however, I decided to make a wearable muslin first out of a knit fabric that I didn't like as much. I hate it when I sew what I think it going to be the perfect pattern and fabric combination, only to not like the fit of the pattern! I especially wanted to check out the gather