Sofilantjes Turns 1 - Summer Surprise Anniversary Tour

Big Congrats to Anne Jacobs, the talented designer of the Sofilantjes patterns! She has been publishing her patterns for a year now! If you're not familar with Sofilantjes, you can check out her patterns on her website, Etsy or her Facebook page.

Monday: Inspinration - The Craftiness in Me - Van Je Veel - Boutique Birdie - Tory Frail Designs 
Tuesday: Wining Wife - Keep Calm and Carrion - Moon Star - Circle Meets Line - Amazing Adventures with Buba and Bug 
Wednesday: Manning the Machine - Sugarplum Cuties - House of Estrela - Create 3.5 - Handcrafted by RED 
Thursday: Lulu & Celeste - Rebel & Malice - Two Novembers - From a Box - Sprouting JubeJube 
Friday: Maryall Made - Phat Quarters - Knot Sew Normal - Sew Happily Ever After - All Things Katy

To celebrate, we are having a fun Anniversary tour of a ton of blogs this week, and we have all made a version of the Summer Surprise top, tunic and dress pattern. This pattern has been re-released to a  revision to include layers in the pattern pieces and revise the instructions to the new format you may be familiar with. If you already have the pattern, you can get the update from your account, or, if you got the pattern through Etsy, won it or tested it, email info@sofilantjes.com with proof and you can have the new pattern!

This pattern is super cute and classy. I made the dress for my husband's 30th birthday, and the older girls were eyeing it up even... so definitely buy both size ranges, your daughters won't be disappointed.

Even good for hanging in a camp chair

 I decided to mash-up my Summer Surprise with the Gemini skirt view A. I really wanted that pocket.
I had thought about bringing the side seam to the front all the way around, but was worried it would bug Izzy's little chest, and of course she couldn't tell me.

I made the 18m top and used the 18-24m pocket as the back skirt matched the width of the back piece of the Summer Surprise dress. I overlaid the front piece onto the pocket piece to match the curve, since the bottom of the Gemini skirt is straight and the Summer Surprise is curved.

I attached the binding strip as in the instructions, and then just ironed over the top and sides about 3/8" and stitched it on. I basted the bottom of the pocket to the bottom of the dress within the seam allowance to keep it there while I folded and hemmed the bottom. Alternatively you could also serge the bottoms together before hemming.

I really like this pattern because although it looks really fancy and classy, its a super quick sew! The instructions are really well thought out to make the construction simple and to prevent issues like readjusting the bow placement and doing a lot of seam ripping. This is the first time I have tried directly serging binding without stitching it on first, which I did around the arm binding, and wow, does that ever take a lot of time off! So if you're afraid to try it, don't be, its really not that hard!

For this project, I used a 100% polyester knit for the dress itself, which I found at Len's Mill. Unfortunately there were no details on the bolt. The yellow solid is a 100% poly solid from Fabricland I bought a while ago. The navy and turquoise are actually cotton/lycra tank tops from Old Navy that I bought for $3.50! I got the XXL size to make it much easier for me to reuse. A good way for my Canadian friends to get some cotton lycra (95/5) to work with. It is a bit thin and has a ribbed side and a smooth side but it seems so far to have good recovery.

I hope you all like it and are starting to think about how you could alter the Summer Surprise! My next goal is to make up a top for her to wear... but I will be checking out all the other blogs in this tour to see what fun ideas others have come up with that I can possibly steal.


Check out all the fabulous sponsors for this Anniversary tour!! You definitely want to come back every day and visit the other blogs to enter!!

Today's giveaways are as follows:

E+M Patterns, winner's choice 

-Izzy & Ivy, winner's choice

-Mandy K Designs, winner's choice

-Paisley Roots, Saffron Twirl 

-Rose & Lee Designs, winner's choice 

-Aivilo Charlotte, winner's choice 

-Funktional Threads, winner's choice 

-Sofilantjes, winner's choice

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Run!!! Go! Quickly! Enter to win! The Izzy Monster is after you! 

Popolok's Janet Top - A Pattern of Versatility

I was just granted the opportunity to test the Janet pattern for Popolok Design, a great little pdf pattern company out of Malaysia. Designer Alviana really puts a lot of thought and quality into her designs. This definitely is a shop where you won't find the same old same old!

I love this Janet pattern off the start because there are so many options! 5 neckline and 5 sleeve options gives you a ton of different style shirts, all in one pattern!

Here it is on my little princess, with the puff sleeve and the Peter pan collar! I made size 1, and it fit just wonderfully! No modifications necessary!

She thought it was lots of fun and was happy to wear it all day until... you guessed it... she got it all dirty and wet digging in the garden!

This pattern is definitely not for the beginner, it requires a lot of techniques and a very good hand with the iron. That being said, it is worth the labour, even when you are dumb and cut two left fronts and no right fronts and it takes forever to figure that out. Ha. Ha. :)

It is best suited to light to medium weight fabrics, and the instructions include information on how to fully line (bodice lining is included in general) and also how to add a lace topper over the yoke section.

The pattern is very well written in general with all the terms defined. It might be a bit confusing with all the options to read through, but once you actually get sewing I think its super easy as the end of each step tells you where to go if you aren't doing the part that is shown next. There are lots of color photos too.

Skills required: understitching and topstitching, good ironing skills, lots of gathering, snap insertion or buttonholing. There is no "stitching in the ditch" which is common with collars :) 

You need a good hot iron with steam for this pattern if you're using cotton. 

Materials required:
Lightweight woven fabrics like chambray, poplin, voile, batiste, lawn, dotted swiss etc. Or mediumweight woven fabrics. I used broadcloth for my solids in black and pink, and the pattern is a heavier poly/cotton blend woven (on the heavier side of medium) which was in the stash from a stash-clearout sale where I got 7 garbage bags full of fabric for $40. So in all, my fabric cost was only maybe $2 for this whole shirt!!
Regular thread (I used Gutermann all-purpose)

Snaps or buttons

Fusible interfacing (I always use Pellon)