Women's Helnley by P4P {Patterns for Pirates}

Can we talk about the Henley one time? I really enjoyed making this shirt. I've made it so many times and even turned it into a dress by extending the length and making it a little wider around the hip area. The pieces are so fun and quick to put together and let's just say that Fleece has been my best friend thus far when it comes to this pattern. I'm guessing because it is pretty cold out here in Chicago, just regular cotton knit wouldn't be as warm. I've made it the Henley way once, it happens to be in knit. I am not going to lie, I hate working wit plackets. They never seem to work out for me, no matter how many different tutorials I try.

This one is mad with three inches added. I really don't remember the fabric co the t though. It's stretchy, about 40% stretch wise. 

This is a sweater knit from Jo-Ann's. The fabric has a nice stretch w/a nice recovery. It is very warm. Too bad I only bought two yards. I don't think they sell it anymore. Maybe online, but yoynhave to buy a minimum of 3 yards and you can only use one coupon online. I prefer to go to the store to get it. 

This is fleece. Extremely warm. The print just screams my name. Jo-Ann's.

This one is fleece as well. It isn't as stretchy as the one above it but it does the job. When working with fleece you should make your arms maybe a .25 inch wider. Wince the stretch isn't that much, it can be hard to pull up when washing your hands. 

This one is a knit. Cotton knit. It's actually longer than the rest and straight across the bottom as opposed to the other ones with the curve. I think I added about 6 inches to this one. Thinking I should've paired it with some orange/beige leggings w/brown boots. Haven't a truly worn this dress, this was just a "let's see how this looks" dress.

Same cotton knit dress pulled up a few inches to make for a more casual/feminine dress. 

So that's the Henley in a nutshell...

Color-Blocked Hooded Raglan

Let's start off by saying, "who isn't a fan for P4P? Patterns for Pirates has an amazing array of beautiful, versatile and easy patterns to stitch up. My favorite three has been the Women's Henley (minus the placket and a little length added) The Grandpa Cardigan and last but not least the Raglan. Today I will talk to you about the Raglan and how I managed to color-block it and it still come out wearable.

When I attempted the whole color-blocking I decided I would take the smallest person in the house and make one for them. That happened to be my daughter who's currently a size 8/10 in shirts. Not much fabric and if it didn't come out right, I could always turn it into something else. It came out OK(ish) It wasn't the best, but it was still wearable. She wore it to school with pride and of course that made me happy. I later found some actual measurements on where to cut and align the fabric from this blog, right here. The measurements were spot on. In the tutorial it tells you that if you need to you can make your own measurements. Since I was so new to this, I decided to go with what the tutorial said.

Let me just say this process is so tedious. You have to take your half pieces of patterns and trace them over to make them whole pieces, once you have done that with the front and back pieces you have to then dissect them into three smaller pieces. You have to make a left and a right arm so that the colors match up. Did I mention I hate cutting and taping? Those are my least favorite things to do. You also have to add about a half an inch on to each cut piece so that the finished garment isn't too short. Tedious. When you're done you'll have 9 total pieces to piece together. I made the back solid. I can say that once I've made it, I really don't have to make it again. Unless I'm really bored or just have time on my hand.

Lady Skater Dress by Kitschy Coo

I purchased the Lady Skater around the same time I purchased the Out and About Dress by So Caroline. I never really took the time out to make the Skater Dress, mainly because I'm no fan of measuring myself. I always go with RTW sizes in whatever PDF pattern I buy. This proved to be a problem for the Lady Skater. The sizes are in numbers ranging 1-5+. I had no choice but to measure myself and for fear of measuring wrong, I never took the time out to make it.

I continued to make the Out and About dress and just recently decided I wanted to wear a circle skirt with my dress (well the bottom portion of the dress) I could either measure myself and then figure out how to make the skirt. Again, I hate measuring, so trying to figure out the math to get the skirt just right wasn't gonna work for me. I decided to just measure myself in all the right areas so that I could use the Lady Skater since the pattern was already printed and taped. I found I that I was a size 5 in the pattern and graded the bottom portion of the bodice to a size 6. I should have kept the whole thing a size 5. That one reason alone made me decide to make another one in a size 5 without any grades.

I made this dress in an Argyle sweater knit I got from JoAnn. I had a lot of fun making this dress and it came together quickly. I searched quite a few of the reviews and couldn't really get a feel for the dress because while they were really nicely made the fabric choice (in my opinion) was pretty juvenile. Once I saw a few with more grownup fabric choice I knew which fabric I was gonna use.

The next one I made was one piece. I folded skirt in half and connected it so that it was one piece instead of two. I didn't tape it together because I know I am going to want to color-block eventually. I however didn't take a picture of that dress (bummer I know) I will wear it again soon or just take a picture in it so that I can post it. Because if you're anything like me, then you'd rather see it along with reading about it as opposed to just seeing it. 

This one is paired with a pair of navy fleece lined leggings. I also went without the collar and used a hood instead. I've grown to like hoods on my dresses as of late.