Sewing Indie For Free!

Recently, A Sewing Life did a lovely post about independent pattern companies and entitled the post, "Five Reasons The Big Four Should Be Very Nervous About Indie Pattern Designers." One of the five reasons that she lists is freebies. You know this is something that I have taken to heart with my Thrifty Thursdays posts. I think it is a fabulous way to learn about the sizing, how well the instructions are written, as well as the quality of the drafting, all with minimal risk. A number of the companies who are participating in Sewing Indie Month have free patterns. All the more reason to participate!!!

There's a great basic tee from

Skinny Bitch Curvy Chick, Tonic 1 and 2. There is a long sleeve as well as a short sleeve version. A great pattern for trying out a few sleeve designs, hint, hint!!!

 Waffle Patterns  Newsboy Cap

Seamster Patterns Yellowtail Camisole You may remember that I made this pattern up for the very first Thrifty Thursday post. You can see my version here.

 Lolita Patterns  Fushsia Skirt

 By Hand London, Polly Top I have also made this top and you can see my version here.

Here's a little inspiration for the Polly Top. Just lengthen it and add piping. Simple, but I think this qualifies for pattern hacking :)

Maria of Denmark  The pattern is free when you sign up for her newsletter.

With the patterns listed above, you could just about make an entire wardrobe. Yes, they are fairly basic, but all the better for redesigning!
Hope this inspires you to give a pattern a try and do a little hacking, or redesign of your own. There's really nothing to lose! Actually, there's a lot to gain as in all the prizes listed on my introductory post. Check out the prizes and then be sure to hack a pattern and then link it here.

Thrifty Thursday

Finally, a warm day!! It feels soooooo very good to not have on layers of clothes for a change. 

I actually had the top I'm sharing today finished last week, but we announced Sewing Indie Month last Thursday, so I decided to wait and post my top this week.

Craftsy has a boat load of patterns that are available for purchase as well as for free. I really needed some sleeveless knit tops that would work for everything from wearing with a skirt to doing yoga. I found this pattern that was designed by Deby Coles and thought that the front shirring was rather interesting, so I decided to give it a try. 

Here's my version.

Look closely and you'll see that I concentrated the shirring under my bust. I initially had the shirring over the bust as you can see in the pattern picture above, but I decided that I would prefer that the shirring be concentrated a little lower. No changes had to be made to the pattern, I just pushed the shirring into the area where I wanted it to be.

Since I was giving the pattern a try for the first time, I wanted to use up some scraps. I didn't have enough of the black and white knit to cut the front, so I used a remnant of black knit. I think it looks fine. I do like the top and plan to make a few more. The fit is very nice. It will work well for my yoga class as it doesn't ride up when I stretch and when I bend over, nothing peeks out, if you know what I mean ;).

The top has princess line seams, so it is very easy to fit. All around a nice little pattern. For those of you who really don't like to tape patterns together, this pattern comes as one large piece. So the good thing is no taping, on the other hand, you will need to take the file to a print shop that has a large scale printer and have them print it for you. I took mine to FedX and was pleasantly surprised by how inexpensive it was to print. Deby does give instructions on how the pattern can be tiled so that you can print it at home. I couldn't be bothered. It was much easier to just run over to the print shop.  

If you would like to give the pattern a try, here is a link to the Craftsy site, http://www.craftsy.com/pattern/sewing/clothing/gathered-front-top/80620?_ct=fhezusj-tujqyb-fqjjuhd-ydifyhqjyed&_ctp=80620 In order to download the pattern, you will need to create a Craftsy account if you don't already have one. I don't find Craftsy to be too intrusive, so don't worry about getting tons of emails from them. Deby does have other patterns available, so you might want to check out her blog. You can find it here, http://so-sew-easy.com/

Hope you're having a great day!

Rhonda