Tag: sewing for summer

Tie Dye Twinning – 11th Hour Gear Joggers

With the sun here, everything gets hot to the touch, chairs, swings, slides, everything. My daughter was getting frustrated with the continual “back of the thigh burn” and she asked for some longer play shorts. Her requests were to have them just above her knees, relaxed fit, and with pockets. She also wanted to match with our puppy, so she picked a beautiful royal/aqua tie dye French Terry from So Sew English Fabrics.

I recently used the 11th hour gear jogger pattern for several pairs of joggers for her and my son. She really liked the fit so I just did a length modification to it, and added pockets.

To decide the length, she tried on her joggers, and I measured down from the crotch seam, to where she wanted them. This ended up being about 6″.

I measured down the 6″ from the crotch curve on the pattern piece, and added a new cut line. Since she gave me a 2″ area she wanted them to hit, I wasn’t worried about including seam allowance or hem.

Sewing tip: before cutting, I like to place my pattern pieces together, and ensure that the modification I did to the front and the back, will match on my side seams when sewn. Once I verified that mine matched, I sewed up the pattern per the jogger instructions.

Added a matching scARF for our “little” puppy, and done!

Enabler Alert – All Pattern Niche patterns are on 30% off sale until tomorrow (March 25th) with code SPRING30

The fabric is from So Sew English Fabrics, and they have $8.50 flat rate domestic shipping, for the month of March.

This post may contain affiliate links. This means if you make a purchase through that link, I may get a % back, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting my sewing 💕

Bridging the clothing gap – Olympia

My daughter is all about the crop tops right now, and while her Dad doesn’t like her looking so grown up, he understands her desire and so we are working on outfit compromises. Who knew that sewing would provide a way to bridge the inevitable clothing gap.

Part of the crop top pull, is how much cooler she is. It is hard living in our heat, being active, and trying to stay cool, so we have been exploring new garments and fabric bases. This recent sew really hit the ball out of the park for her.

The Olympia from Pattern Niche (Formerly New Horizons Designs) has several options, but the most notable design feature, is the open/overlap sides. For her first, she picked a pretty floral double brushed poly fabric, from So Sew English, that I had saved for a while. For the Olympia options, she chose the shirt length, scoop neckline, with kangaroo pocket. The Olympia also has a tunic length option as well as a hood and a scoop hood neckline.

She is a straight size 12 for the first time ever and that made this a crazy fast sew for me. You can see my timelapse of it here.

The scoop necklines are done with a facing and pattern has you use optional interfacing.

Interfacing tip: I like to cut the interfacing 1/8-1/4″ smaller than the pattern piece it is being attached to. I have found that it cuts down on bulk in the seam allowance, and avoids the risk of getting the interfacing on my iron or ironing board.

I cut out the interfacing but ended up not using it, and for the next one, I plan to skip the facing completely, add a little to the neckline, and just turn and topstitch it.

She really loves how breathable this is, and her Dad really likes how non crop it is, and that makes it a sewing win in my book.

She is requesting more for the summer, in swim, in athletic mesh, and since it has a loose fit, I kind of want to try it in a woven.

The Olympia from Pattern Niche is not only available in girls sizing, but women as well.

This post may contain affiliate links. This means if you make a purchase through that link, I may get a % back, at no additional cost to you.