Independent pattern purchases

I went on a wee pattern spree last week! With my monthly supply of pattern magazines, I don’t tend to buy one-off patterns very often, but I’ve been very tempted by some new offerings from independent companies, so I decided to splurge and buy a few.

First, I bought two recent designs from Colette Patterns (though I bought from SewBox in the UK for faster, local shipping!):

Cinnamon is a bias-cut camisole or dress, and it’s from their previous lingerie collection. Reading through the instructions, there are a few changes I’m going to make to the cups to improve the finish, but I’m really keen to give this a go, and I don’t have anything similar in a bias-cut already in my magazine archive.

Clover is their first trouser pattern from the newest collection, and I was so excited to try this that I’ve already made up a muslin and my first pair! I knew it was Meant To Be when I tried on the muslin and had zero fitting wrinkles, but even crazier is that I’d accidentally made my muslin in fabric with zero width-wise stretch, which means the pattern is that awesome on me with no stretch to help it along!!

I went on a wee pattern spree last week! With my monthly supply of pattern magazines, I don’t tend to buy one-off patterns very often, but I’ve been very tempted by some new offerings from independent companies, so I decided to splurge and buy a few.

First, I bought two recent designs from Colette Patterns (though I bought from SewBox in the UK for faster, local shipping!):

Cinnamon is a bias-cut camisole or dress, and it’s from their previous lingerie collection. Reading through the instructions, there are a few changes I’m going to make to the cups to improve the finish, but I’m really keen to give this a go, and I don’t have anything similar in a bias-cut already in my magazine archive.

Clover is their first trouser pattern from the newest collection, and I was so excited to try this that I’ve already made up a muslin and my first pair! I knew it was Meant To Be when I tried on the muslin and had zero fitting wrinkles, but even crazier is that I’d accidentally made my muslin in fabric with zero width-wise stretch, which means the pattern is that awesome on me with no stretch to help it along!!

And yes, you’ll get to see photos of my first (there will be more!) pair of these later this week. The new Colette Patterns book is already on my Christmas list (hint hint).

A few days after buying the above, I saw on Paco Peralta’s blog that he’s got a special offer during the month of November – if you buy one of his handmade patterns, you’ll also get his new cowl shell pattern thrown in for free (you can also choose to just pay the shipping costs and get the cowl pattern on its own).

I’ve had quite a few of his patterns on my wish list for ages, so I thought it was the perfect time to grab his drape-collar tunic pattern, which I think would look so nice made up in a sweater knit that’s been fermenting in my stash since last year. Tany lengthened it into a sweater dress when she made it and it looks fantastic on her! These patterns should arrive any day now, as I got the shipping notification late last week and they’re only coming from Spain…

In both cases, I think it’s great that the pattern designers are so open and sharing with their knowledge to the sewing community. It makes me feel good to know I’m supporting someone who cares about their craft, but also to know that there’s a wealth of support and tutorials available should I need them. I like knowing that Paco drew my pattern for me, or that Sarai wrote the instructions I’m reading. Surely I can’t be alone in preferring these small, friendly pattern companies to the bigger, faceless ones?

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