This Summer I entered my first ever Instagram challenge and I’m hooked! I joined The Great Big Pattern Swap started by Alice from Alice in The Polka Dot Palace and Emma from The Zipper Foot.
They invited all sewists to have a rummage through their pattern stash to find patterns they know they will never make and then to offer those patterns up for free to the first to comment! Sewists joined in this “pay it forward” style challenge from all over the world and shared hundreds of patterns with the hashtag #greatbigpatternswap.
The challenge started in early July and everyone had until Saturday 18th August to get sewing and share a photo of their finished make. Up for grabs were some wonderful prizes including vouchers, patterns, pin badges and thread packs.
The patterns I received were the fab Butterick 5846 and Simplicity 8229 followed by a fantastic vintage Style 2680 (forwarded to me from NZ by my parents!) and Butterick See & Sew jumpsuit B6441.
I still haven’t found the perfect fabric for the Butterick dress but the bra is in progress made from lace and channelling picked up at my local scrapstore.
The Style pattern was a remarkable success given that Style patterns come in one size only and have no finished garment measurements. Luckily it’s a very forgiving pattern with adjustable sleeve ruching and a waistband. It was supposed to have an elasticated waist but that looked terrible so I ripped it out and did a removable self fabric belt instead.
I wasn’t planning on making the jumpsuit as anything other than a beach coverup but as I’d just finished the Style tunic I took the brave decision to use my beloved pineapples. I sized down due to the very thin, stretchy knit and it turned out better than I expected! It was my first ever make with my new Juki overlocker and a bit of a learning curve. It would also have gone better if I’d remembered to use stretch needles in my sewing machine when sewing the ties! Many curse words and broken threads later I finally worked out what was going on.
The patterns I swapped were McCall’s M7357 and M7543, NewLook Kids 6408 and a Butterick dog coat. It was a lot of fun seeing everyone’s finished makes especially the finished dog coat by Jo Boyne!