How are you? I hope, if you are in the Northern Hemisphere, that spring has arrived. Spring is trying to happen here, but it’s still a little cold. Despite that, I’ve got warmer days on my mind, and after some complicated projects just finished and several other tricky ones in progress, I needed a simple, fast, and summery pattern. I found just the right thing in Lotta Jansdotter’s new book Everyday Style. It seemed like just the right thing to go with the lovely pink voile I got at Pintuck & Purl when they opened.
I made Variation 2 with the three-quarter length sleeves in a size large. My only regret (and I find it equally annoying and funny that I did this) is that I didn’t measure the back pattern piece to see if it would need a broad-back adjustment. The shirt turned out to be quite comfortable, but if I had checked ahead of time, I would have done a broad-back adjustment and it would have been even more comfortable. After all my recent blog posts about broad-back adjustments (here and here), I didn’t even check.
Ironically enough, I did check the dart height, and that turned out to be fine. Thankfully, there is good ease in this pattern, and it’s still wearable.
Living in New England where the weather changes several times throughout the day, I’m looking forward to having this for summer when a breeze springs up or the air gets cooler in the evening.
The Esme top gets my stamp of approval as a quick and simple make, especially since there are numerous variations if you want to change things up a bit.
Before we get to the recommendations, I wanted to mention Me-Made-May 2016 one more time. I’m participating because I really enjoyed it last year. Here is my pledge:
‘I, Lisa of patternandbranch.wordpress.com and @lisa.poblenz, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May ’16. I endeavour to wear at least one me-made garment each day for the duration of May 2016. I will try not to repeat any articles of clothing within a single week and I’ll try to wear at least two me-made things together at least once a week.’
I decided that this year I wasn’t going to worry about daily photos, so I won’t be doing weekly outfit round-ups on the blog. You may see a few photos if you follow me on Instagram, but my focus for this year is the challenge itself. The only downside so far is that I might forget what I wore earlier in the week without the photos to remind me! 😉 Check out Zoe’s blog for more information on this year’s Me-Made-May.
Recommendations
- OK, my friends! It’s nearly time for one of my FAVORITE events of the year: BRIMFIELD ANTIQUE SHOW! Brimfield is the largest outdoor antique show/market in the US. It takes place three times a year in the town of Brimfield, MA and people come from all over the country (and the world) to shop for antiques, upcycled antiques, and unique materials for creating. This year, for the very first time, I know one of the vendors! My friend Laurel, of Retromat Vintage is going to be at Booth 22 of New England Motel, which is one of my favorite fields. She sells great vintage items. I’m always really impressed by her clothing, but she has much more than that. If you go to Brimfield, stop by and show her some love.
- Have you ever tried a magnetic pincushion? After buying more pins awhile ago, my little pin jar was full and hard to use, so I bought a Zirkel magnetic pincushion at Pintuck & Purl. I missed the main selling point until I got home and started using it. If you drop your pins in the middle of the square magnet, it fans them out around the edges in a circular pattern. It’s so cool and fun to use! I knew I would like it, but I had no idea I would like it this much. Here’s a link to a 14 second video that shows how it works.
- I’ve mentioned them before, but I think it’s time to officially recommend to you The Curvy Sewing Collective. This is a great site for so many things! I find myself returning to it frequently to read their helpful tutorials, pattern reviews, and to look at the great projects from their contributors. This site also gets two thumbs up for body positivity. We can all use that!
- Finally, the Batman vs. Superman trailer…reimagined by kids:
Pattern and Branch 