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I have been making my own bras for a few months now and I have to say it is super addicting! I started off being very skeptical about the whole thing. Although I have always had trouble finding a bra that fits, I did not think that I would even attempt to wear a soft cup bra in public. No way! I have always been a foam cup, preferably with some padding, type of girl. Yet, I found most of my ready to wear bras rarely fit me in the cup and the band at the same time, and overall were uncomfortable. Even with those challenges I was still convinced I would never wear a me-made bra. Was I ever wrong... pretty much after completing my third bra (my first two ended up being true trial runs) and trying it on I was mesmerized by how well it fit. The bra itself wasn't perfect! But everything seemed to fit so well that I didn't even need the foam or push up cups to make me look different. For the first time in my life I was truly happy with my natural form and shape! That experience was liberating on so many levels! Fast forward a few months and now I only wear me made bras and I could not be happier with the fit, support, look, feel ... everything! It is safe to say that my lingerie drawer never looked better, sexier and more empowering. This particular set is inspired by Amy's from Cloth Habit Peaches and Lace Bra. I fell so hard for the peach and gray color combo that I could not stop thinking about it and I knew I had to get my hands onto something that would resemble it. I tried to find a suitable lace, online and in stores, but I couldn't find quite what I needed. I stumbled upon Bra Maker's Supply Let Us Chose the Lace Kit (second from the top) and I decided, why not? If it doesn't work out, I will use it for something else! I picked gray duoplex for my set and in the comments for my order I asked for peach or warm pink lace if possible. I think the team at Bra Maker's Supply did exceptionally well! The lace I got in my set was exactly what I envisioned! I used Orange Lingerie Boylston Pattern for the bra. This is my favorite bra pattern so far! Most of my bras are made using this pattern. I simply can not say enough good things about it! I made minor fit modification to the cup by pinching out the excess across the horizontal seam. It seems like it is a common adjustment for me as I've had to do it with all my bra patterns, yet size smaller was too small (this explains why ready to wear didn't fit well). I've also opted not to use the fabric strap and instead I added a tiny strap extension to the upper cup which ended up being folded over onto the cup when I attached the ring. I've used gray duoplex as my main fabric, but I tend not to like how shiny it is. So I actually ended up using the "wrong", less shiny, side of the fabric as my main side. The bra itself is not lined, as duoplex doesn't fray and I wanted to try my bra out without lining. I have to say, so far it hasn't been bad! I do prefer the clean look of the lined bra, and I line most of my bras, but I don't really miss it in this bra. It is always nice to have a full matching set of a bra and underwear, but I find that I prefer making bras to making undies. Somehow bras are slightly more challenging and hence more exciting. So I made sure that I made a full set this time. I had enough leftover lace to squeeze out two Kingston Thongs. Kingston Thong has a really cool design where you use folded power mesh on the side and it ends up giving you a perfect seamless look. I loved it! Although I altered the original design quite a bit because I prefer a narrower side on my underwear and I love to use the lace in the back. I am very pleased with how the set turned out! My only issue is that this beauty is hidden under clothes. Not that I would ever have the courage to go sans sweater in public, even if it was acceptable, but part of me does want to tell everyone "you won't believe what I made and how good it looks!!!" I guess I'll have to stick showing my underwear off, sans the model, on the blog and Instagram. Love, Anya P.S. I am leaving on vacation for a week tomorrow, but I have so many makes and updates to share so rather than taking a break I decided to schedule posts for the coming week :) I will likely be quiet on my instagram, but it will seem like I have never gone away here.

Pants… I think know nothing about pant fitting and it scares the hell out of me. Dresses, skirts, coats, lingerie, I am good with those, but pants terrify me. The fabric needs to hang just right and have just enough ease to look good. To top it off, the fabric is pulled, bent and stretched in directions that fabric in a dress or a skirt would rarely be. In all of my sewing time I’ve made a handful of pants, and I’ve recently spent some time working on my pant muslin. I am not done, but from what I’ve learnt is that reducing the length of front inseam is an adjustment I need to make on virtually every pant pattern. So why not share? This may be a very straight forward tutorial for most people, but for someone new to pant sewing what I’ve learned may be very insightful. I apologize ahead of time for my photos and if they are not super clear. I tried to take most tasteful pant front pictures that hopefully wouldn’t end up somewhere in the abyss of internets in places I don’t want the pictures of my front crotch to be. Also, I’ve used my blue Virginia Leggings I made over the weekend as an example for this adjustment. I understand that it is not the best item to show the issue on since the fabric is stretchy and pattern is already drafted with negative ease. Normally the wrinkles would be more prominent and there will be more fabric pooling, but I am hoping it will still get the idea across. So let’s begin! So to start off, how would one know that the adjustment to the front inseam length is necessary? Here is my before picture. I have quite a few lose horizontal wrinkles right in the front and they are on both sides and in the middle. They come from excess fabric at the front crotch that you can actually grab and pull away. The other pointer is plain comfort. My pants don’t feel very comfortable because the front inseam keeps, or even seems like it is coming up too high on my waist and the fabric pools in that area. Why not just shorten the whole inseam by folding the pattern? Well, that would change the length of your side seam and the front side seam will not match the side seam of the back pattern. Unless of course you also need to shorten the back inseam, then go ahead and takeout the extra length all across. But if the length of the back inseam is good, then you need to keep your side length on the pant front intact. Another idea would be to just take off the extra length off the top of the front inseam and re-draw the top waistband seam to the side seam. But that would change the curve and the length of the waistband seam and you would need to make adjustments to the waistband pattern. So here is how you do it without making adjustments to other seams. First thing to do, is to put on your pant muslin and pin out the excess fabric at the front horizontally, pinning it out to nothing at the side seam, just like a dart. If you find that you need to pin out at the side seam, then there is a different adjustment that needs to be made and this one likely won’t help much. I am not extremely familiar with the other adjustment yet, so I won’t even try to explain it. Now that you have the excess pinned out and you like the fit, here is what it should look like. Note that the horizontal wrinkles are gone! The next thing to do it to measure how much you pinned out in the widest part and divide that number by 2. I pinned out a total of ½” so my number was ¼”. Now you need to transfer that adjustment to the paper pattern. Here I have a tiny paper pattern of Virginia leggings. It is very small for the ease of photographing the steps. Also, this particular pattern has front and back leg together in one pattern piece, but this adjustment works for any pant pattern. Unless you have a seamed front leg, then I would think that the two front patterns would need to be merged into one for this adjustment and then separated again. Take out your front leg pattern, or in my case THE leg pattern, and draw a horizontal line, the one in red in the picture, perpendicular to the grain line at the vertical part of the front inseam. You want to leave the curve part of the inseam alone and not make any changes to it, especially if it fits. From there mark up and down half of the pinned out amount. Mine was ¼”. In the picture the marks are in green, but they actually look black… They are the horizontal dashes above and below the red line. Draw a straight line from the back inseam to the top mark, and to the bottom mark. The lines are in green in the picture. You will have a triangular shape, which looks like a dart, which it is! Now cut you pattern piece along the top line to, but not through the back inseam line and cut the paper on the other side of the pattern to but not through the back inseam. You will have a hinge and will be able to move the top of the pattern up and down without separating it. Take the top part of the pattern and overlap the top green line to the bottom green line. My piece looks so weird because it is small and my½" adjustment is not to scale. In real life you will not have such a drastic angle. The last step is to true the front inseam back into the straight line. I did that in red below. I’ve also straightened my grainline since it bent a little with all my pattern manipulation. Voila! The pattern piece was adjusted and you’ve successfully gotten rid of that excess fabric at the front without altering your side seam (or back inseam in my case) or waistband seam. I should also mention that if you are on the other side of this issue and need to add length to the front inseam without adjusting the other two seams, you can do the exact opposite and instead of overlapping the pattern, spread it and add the required amount. If anyone is struggling with the same issue as me, I hope this helped and clarified the steps. In the meantime I will continue to learn the magic of fitting pants and sharing what I’ve learnt. There is still a long way to go, but it’s starting to get more fascinating and less stressful. Love, Anya P.S. If you are struggling with pant fitting like me, I will leave you with this picture. No, I am not drunk in it. It is me after I finished fitting my numerous pant muslins. Yes, I am on the floor, with a fresh glass of wine and crazy hair. Up until the moments prior to S snapping picture I was comfort cuddling my cat. I am pretty sure I was complaining to my friend about struggles of pant fitting too… So if you are struggling, you are not alone :)

I will never get tired of this song… Especially when I am doing absolutely nothing in my activewear. Although, I think it should also include a line about “doing some sewing in my activewear”, that would definitely move this song to the best ever status in my eyes. So I guess it is pretty obvious that I did some activewear sewing, of course, while wearing my activewear… I gave Virginia Leggings and Resolution Tank a good try this weekend. Two patterns! And I would have to say that unfortunately only one was a success for me. I’ll start with the one that didn’t work out. I had high hopes for the Resolution Tank by 5 out of 4 Patterns. It seemed to be everything I was looking for in a tank. It is a loose fitting tank with many options, you can have panels, straight hem or curved hem, as well as 2 neckline depths! I think that’s pretty great. I also loved the way actual racerback looked. I cut the pattern out, checked it against my measurements and lengthened it. I did expect it to fit quite loose and that’s okay with me. What I should have noticed in the construction process was how small the neckline and armhole binding was… I know that binding should be smaller than the length of the opening, armhole or neckline, so I pushed forward. I also did check the stretch of my fabric to make sure my fabric has the appropriate stretch factor, and I did cut the binding according to the directions for the low neckline. Yet, when the tank was finished my armholes and neckline looked too gathered. I’ve tried to steam them, wet them and let it hang, but it just didn’t work and they are still looking almost ruched. I also prefer my tanks to be slightly more fitted, which would not be an issue at all, it is easy to take the tank it. Yet, this all left a sour taste in my mouth and I don’t know if I will attempt to fix the tank, but I will certainly not wear it the way it is right now. I am really wondering if it was something I did wrong… Here is the back view: And here is the close up of the tank itself: Just to compare, here is a tank that I made a while back using a pattern I drafted (ahem, ripped off lululemon tank I own). It is a very similar racerback look but it is more fitted and I find it hangs a little bit nicer on me and the neckline is flat. As I’ve said, looseness is definitely a personal preference and something that can be easily adjusted. Same with length. I think for my future tanks I will use my self-drafted pattern but I will change my racerback to match that of Resolution Tank. Also to make it clear, I still think that Resolution Tank is a great pattern, but I would recommend double checking the binding length against the tank as you sew. Or measuring the length of the opening and taking only 80%-85% of the length as the length of your binding. I am still going to try making a sports bra pattern that comes with the tank so not all hope is lost for me. Now onto what I think was a success. Virginia leggings!! The pattern is by Megan Nielsen and it truly is a super fast and easy sew. I like a thicker waistband on my leggings, so I cut a maternity rise option and increased the length of my waistband to fit 2.5” elastic. I sewed the leggings using my serger and the whole process barely took any time. The best part is that the fit was very decent right away. I hemmed my leggings to cropped length as I intend to wear them to the gym and that is my preferred length for workout pants. In the end I realized that I could have taken out 0.5” out of my front crotch length and I also ended up deepening the front curve a little bit because I had some excess fabric there. I seems to be a very common adjustment for me. Every single pair of pants I try to make requires it. I will do a separate post explaining how I did it, as it will involve lots of pictures. Just to confuse everyone in the picture above I am wearing a tank made out of my self-drafted pattern but same fabric as Resolution Tank. The fabrics I used came from local fabric stores. I used an activewear blend I got from Peak Fabrics (a local store in Calgary) for the tank top. I don’t remember what is in the blend, but I know it has sweat whicking properties and it feels amazing. It is super soft and silky. The fabric for leggings came from Marshall Fabrics in Edmonton. I picked it up when we went there in early February and I am not sure what is in it. The fabrics in Marshall do not always have content displayed, but the fabric felt good and I decided to give it a try. Of course the true test comes while wearing the leggings to workout… I had to give them a trial run, but I was too lazy to actually go to the gym. So instead I opted for an interval workout at home. I did some fake rope skipping, jumping, running (on the spot), sit ups, squats and lunges. I am happy to report they held up and overall were comfortable! I did not need to constantly pull them up or pull them out of places, if you know what I mean. Although the extra fabric in the front inseam bothered me, but it was purely aesthetical and only because I knew what to pay attention to. Next step is taking them to the gym and hoping that they do not split open while doing an actual weight workout! Love, Anya P.S. I am not smiling in a single picture! It is either my workout game face or just tank related disappointment face...

My saga with fitting pants continued over the weekend. I was very tired of making muslins, trying to fit them and failing… yet, I refused to give up. I would like to say I still refuse to give up, but I need to take a break as pant fitting was killing my sewing mojo. In the end of it all, I finished with 6 muslins and a decent fit in one pair of pants! At the end of the last blog post I ordered the Sewing Pants that Fit book which has yet to arrive, but I am sure it will be here any day now! I can’t wait to get the book and read it, look through it and see what I can learn from it. But in the meantime I was too impatient not to go forward on my own and with the help of the internet. When I went back to my sewing dungeon, I decided to start with my second muslin. It was a size smaller than the third, but the fit issues were similar. Since I was looking for a tight-er fitting pair of pants, I decided muslin 2 was the one I should start off with again. I tired it on and as I remembered it wasn’t great. The front looked good with no issues, but the back… I apologize ahead of time for the bum shots, but I think they are important here since I am trying to show the issues and my journey onto how I resolved them (hopefully eventually I will!). Muslin 2 The upper back fits me well, it’s my upper thigh and lower back areas that were not looking great. I mean I think some wrincklage (I am sure that’s a technical term) should be there since I am planning to move and sit in those pants but not like what I was seeing. I tried letting the pants out on the side but it didn’t resolve my issue. As I’ve mentioned in my previous post, I have a big bum, so I knew I would need to extend and slightly deepen my back seat curve to fit over it . For my next muslin I did just that. You can’t see it in the pictures, but at this point I started to fear that I will run out of my 10 meters of muslin fabric I bought a while back, so I only cut my pants # 4 down to slightly below the knee. Muslin 4 This pair started to fit better! The wrinkles were still there though but the pants weren't digging into my bum as much. For my muslin #5, I actually slashed my pattern at the deepest part of my back inseam curve and spread it by ¾”. It definitely started to fit better and I was happy that I was getting somewhere, yet I was still getting wrinkles under my bum. I must say that this was a Friday night and the he pants were driving me to drink. I do not know how it occurred to me exactly, I must have been staring at my back from the side thinking what should I do to fix the problem and I noticed that I have pretty prominent butt cheeks that kinda stick out there. As I found out days later, there is a term for that – dropped seat. It sounds like something that would occur to a toddler who’s diaper is full and dropping… definitely not the way I want to think or refer to my backside. So to summarize, my seat is full AND dropping. Bam! Muslin 6 Anyways, in the end I ended up scooping my back seat curve to almost straight angle. I drew a very rough illustration of what the pattern for the back leg ended up looking for me, just so it is clearer. The black line is what a normal pattern would look like, and by normal I mean what it looks like out of the package, because likely that curve will have to change in some way for everyone. The red line is what I ended up doing to it to make it look okay on me. Yeah! Full dropped seat! My final, for now, muslin # 6 still is not perfect, but I think it is as close to perfect as I can get it right now. As a matter of fact I was so happy with it that I proceeded to make a pair of pants! They turned out beautifully! I apologize for not taking a back shot, I got too excited and forgot about it. However, my learning did not stop here. I wish it did! I was so ready to graduate from pant making. What I learned next was that fashion fabric behaves very differently than muslin. I am sure most people know it, but I somehow managed to ignore it until the pants situation. My pants fit great once I finished them! The fabric was a suiting blend, granted I didn’t know what exactly was in that blend since I bought it years ago, but I knew it wasn’t a stretch kind. I pulled it on all directions to test. Yet, as the day went on my pants grew looser on me. Not badly! But still at the end of the day I could easily take off at least ¼” from each side to make them fit the way I want them too. I still may do just that, but for now I will leave my pants alone. So far, I’ve come out of this experience with a decent looking muslin and a decent pattern for pants. As well as realization that every single pair of pants I make will have to be fabric fitted prior to finishing just because I imagine every fabric type would behave differently. I wouldn’t say it is an astonishing success, but I still think of this experience as success and I am happy with how it turned out. Here are some close ups of the pant pockets and fly, just cause I'm so proud of them! I think I may move the back pockets out a little bit more since they seem like they are a tad too close to each other. Other than that, I am almost ready for another pair of pants, but I think I will take a break from them for a few days... Love, Anya

In line with my No Buying Clothes for a Year commitment I knew there would be a point where I would need to start making my own undergarments. In fact, I have been following amazing bloggers and seamstresses who are making their own lingerie for a while. I've watched them come up with beautiful undergarments wondering if I could ever even bring myself to attempt it. In late 2015 I decided this was it and I needed to give it a try. I was committed to trying and I was sure I would fail! Still, my desire to work with beautiful lace and learn the skills was more overpowering that my absolute conviction that I would never wear a bra I made in public. Of course it would be under my clothes and no one would see it, but still... First thing I did was purchase a Watson Bra pattern. It is a super basic, beginner friendly, soft-cup bra pattern designed by Amy from Cloth Habit. I read the instructions through and through a couple times. I've read the Watson Sew Along a number of times. I've read reviews and looked at a number of finished Watsons. Still, I wasn't ready to commit and try giving it a go. This is when I decided that what I really needed is to actually see someone do it, explain things to me and show me things. I decided to give a Bra Making Craftsy Class by Beverly Johnson a go. I've promptly purchased it and watched it in a couple sittings. Sorry, random dudes at the gym who were on a bike next to mine! I am sure it was entertaining glancing over to my iPhone. But in all honestly, I've never enjoyed riding a bike this much and barely noticed the time pass as I did when I was watching that Bra Making class. I have to say I really enjoyed the class. Beverly has a very dry sense of humor which I love and she is really good at explaining things. The class took me step by step through the bra construction process and explained things that I would have had trouble figuring out on my own. I had an opportunity to have a close up look at Beverly actually sewing a bra, as if I was peaking over from behind her shoulder, which is exactly what I needed to gain the confidence to do it on my own. She explained the importance of fabrics, stretch direction, and layout of patterns. She also explained the materials that were needed and proper techniques. To someone who had no clue what even comes in a bra kit and how it is to be used, this was invaluable. The class recommends using a simple two piece cup bra pattern, and provides suggestions for the pattern choices. I was a little worried using my Watson and ended up buying Bra Makers Pin Up Girl Classic Bra Pattern. Unfortunately it doesn't come in PDF format and I had to wait for it to come in the mail. It didn't take long though! Having a pattern that was used in the class allowed me to practice on the same bra Beverly was sewing without thinking what adjustments I needed to make to practice the techniques on a different pattern. Was it necessary in the end? I really doubt it was. The pattern did allow me to practice making a wired bra, so that was good. I also ended up with an extra bra pattern I could use. However, I would say that it wasn't necessary for me to have that specific pattern. A side note on the pattern itself, the Classic Bra pattern ended up requiring some work since it came out very pointy. I will talk about that in a separate post, but with some work it is definitely a good basic bra pattern. Overall, my experience with the online Bra Making Class was very pleasant and fulfilling. I learnt everything I wanted to learn, I actually watched someone make a bra in front of me (although on a computer screen), and most importantly in the end I felt confident when trying making bras myself. It also helped me understand Watson Sew Along a lot better and gain more knowledge from it. If someone is considering trying their hand in making their own bras and is extremely unsure about the whole process, I would definitely recommend taking a Craftsy class. After finishing the class and giving a variety of bra patterns a try I am growing more confident in my bra making skills. I am also happy to report that I've pretty much stopped wearing all my store bought bras! I find the ones that I make are very supportive, way more comfortable and better looking. I can't wait to share some of my makes and pattern reviews here! Love, Anya P.S. All opinions of Bra Making Craftsy Class are my own. I was not paid to review or asked to provide any comments. I bought the class myself, although I did score a good deal by buying it on sale. P.P.S All of the bras pictures are actually made using Orange Lingerie Boylston Bra pattern. It is my favorite pattern by far, and I also simply didn't have any other pictures on my phone :)

*Warning, this post is long-ish and does not have finished product pictures. Just rants and thoughts* I hate pant shopping. I don’t love any pants I owe and it’s extremely hard to find something that fits me well and is not jeans. But even jeans though, only a couple brands fit me well and of course they are the expensive kind. When it comes to pants I have a few things that greatly hinder the success of finding something that fits – my waist to hips ratio is bigger than average, I have a big bum that sticks out there (omg Becky, look at her butt... thanks Sir Mix-a-Lot), my thighs are quite thick (and I am okay with that, thank you squats), and I am very tall. Armed with all of that, I have yet to find a pair of pants that fits! For the longest time I liked wearing United Colors of Benneton pants, but their styles and quality started to tail off and then the stores completely disappeared from Calgary and neighboring Banff. I switched to Gap since their pants at least came in long length and I could fit my bum-bum in them as long as I wore a belt, but the quality was not quite right. Well, with my No Buying Clothes For a Year challenge, I figured I need more than one pair of pants (yes, I only have one pair I currently wear) and I needed to start working on fitting a pattern for a pair of pants I could wear for work. Let me explain some sad-ish backstory on this. I started sewing when I was very little. By the time I was around 14 years old I begged my mom to sign me up for a sewing class that was taking place in my home town. I was extremely excited to attend the class and I couldn’t wait to learn! The experience though did not turn out as I expected, since no one in the class including the teacher seemed to take me seriously or even notice me. After all I was by far the youngest person there. That didn’t bother me, I am used to being on my own and I was just excited to learn. We had to complete a project for the class and I always wanted a pair of red velvet pants! So I went for them. Unfortunately they were too advanced for me at the time, and coupled with the lack of direction or leadership towards me and my inability to ask for help loudly, my project overwhelmed me. I still finished it though! I even wore the pants couple times. However, the whole experience left me damaged towards the pants. Over the years I’ve sewn many complicated projects for myself and others yet I have steered away from pants unless they had an elastic waist. The closest I’ve come to that is completing a skirt with a front fly closure and thinking that it actually wasn’t bad! I want to make a good pair of pants! I started with researching patterns and Sewaholic's Thurlow Trousers were a clear choice. Tasia drafts patterns for pear shaped figures and me with my butt are definitely pear shaped on the bottom, my top is too squared for the pear though. I promptly purchased the pattern, printed it off, assembled it and put it away… it scared me! There were so many pieces and I decided to leave it for a bit. This past week I dug my pattern pieces out and decided to try fitting a muslin. By this time I have already watched a Craftsy Class on fitting jeans, which essentially are pants, and I felt like I was finally ready for real world training. I cut my pant legs out, basted them together, put them on and… it wasn’t as scary as I thought! As I said, because Sewaholic patterns are geared towards pear shaped bottoms, the pants didn’t look bad. However I still ran into issues. I had to take the sides in at the low waist, as well as take in the center back seam. My front rise was too baggy, so I pinned it out horizontally. My butt was still an issue though. I have tried deepening the seat which seemed to take care of the pants really digging in, but I didn't think that by deepening the seat I am taking the fabric away from the sides. There is also fabric wrinkling on my things below my bum. At first I was thinking that I just have excess fabric on my back thigh, but now I am actually considering that the wrinkles are stress created and I actually need to add to my seams along the outside seam and inseam. This would make sense, since I've depended the seat and took away the fabric that way as well. But I really won't know until I play around with it I guess... So far I've made 3 full muslins. The fit it getting better but it is not close to being great fit I want. I struggled with my muslins and there were a few times where I just stood there having no clue what I need to do or how to bend over in a way to pin my fabric. Seriously, how does one fit the back of the pants on their own?? I've even enlisted Boyfriend to help me pin the pants after I've accidentally pinned into myself and ended up bleeding on the muslin (yes, things got violent). He really tried and really put in effort! (thank you, S!) Yet, my muslin still has issues. I've considered purchasing yet another Craftsy class on fitting pants, but at this point I decided against it. I already have a couple classes I could watch again. Instead, I ended up purchasing Sewing Pants That Fit book as recommended in this post from Sewaholic. It is on it's way to me, but I have a feeling that I will continue to fiddle with my muslin even before the book gets here. I am just that impatient. Here we go! Love, Anya

I am so in love with this tank and I have been wearing it pretty much non-stop since I’ve made it! It goes with everything and it truly is a basic garment that will fill the holes in my wardrobe. Side note, classic fashion blogger pose! Pretty sure it was unintended but I am shamelessly throwing it in here. Back to the story, I have been on a hunt for a perfect tank for a bit. Although I love a couple other patterns I tried out, this one for some reason did it all for me. May be it is because the tank itself is very basic and it doesn’t need much effort to put together? I am lazy after all, although I much prefer to refer to myself as someone who likes clean lines and simple elegant designs. It sounds much better than lazy. The pattern is Eucalypt Tank by Megan Nielsen. I am a proud owner of a few of her patterns and I’ve read a lot of good feedback on them. Take Darling Rangers Dress for example, that dress is a hit with a sewing community! It is also on my list and one day I will get to it. Eucalypt Tank however was the first of Megan’s patterns I’ve tried. I love the simplicity of design and the lack of darts. As much as I love shaped garments, a simple flowy tank is definitely a wardrobe staple. I also love the possibility to change the pattern up. You can add a seam down the front, make it into a dress or make any other alterations to it! I already have a couple in mind that I would love to try next. The pattern was easy to assemble and everything lined up perfectly. My measurements fell into medium size and I proceeded to cut it out of my fashion fabric. I decided to opt out of making a muslin since the tank was lose fitting and went straight for fashion fabric. I put the tank together using the French seams and bias binding. I hemmed the tank using the baby hem technique Colette has described on her blog. I swear by it! It is so easy and turns out perfect and professional all the time. Unfortunately when I tried the tank on it was too snug! I like to live on the edge by not making a muslin or at least measuring the pattern pieces I guess... Nevertheless, I was pretty surprised when the tank came out slightly snug in my chest. Rather than letting it out, I decided to make another one, this time I went for a large size. I love basic cream tanks and shirts, and thankfully I had enough of the same fabric leftover to make an identical tank. I guess it was an opportunity to practice all those French seams and bias binding techniques. The second tank turned out perfect! It was lose enough in the chest and looked exactly like I envisioned. For anyone who is planning to make this tank I would recommend measuring the paper pattern in the chest and comparing it to your measurements rather than cutting a size bigger right away, since in the end I am unsure if it is just me who prefers a slightly looser fit and the pattern itself is fine, or I just plainly messed something up. As for my first smaller tank I gave it away to my friend who is lucky enough to be tinier than me and inherits all my clothes that come out too small or shrink. I have yet to hear her complain! Overall I am giving this pattern a big thumbs up. It is a great basic that takes a couple hours to make, doesn’t use a lot of fabric and will definitely be a wardrobe staple. Oh, and the variations… they truly can be endless! Love, Anya

Oh boy, where to begin? On one hand, I am absolutely in love with this dress. No, I adore this dress! When fitted right, it is extremely flattering and so elegant! I am in love with the sweetheart neckline, short sleeves with such a slight flattering curve to them, the pleats on the skirt, and the pockets. Oh the pockets… they are perfectly hidden in one of the pleats on the skirt. Just genius. Getting this dress to look right was a whole different story and I really don’t think I fully got there, to be honest. It all started with me coming across a couple completed Macaron Dresses by Colette Patterns. I especially liked the ones by Freya and Sibeli. Seriously, how cute is Freya’s black suiting and lace Macaron? And Sibeli’s Ikat print cotton with see-through chiffon? I was sold and after locating a leftover piece of what I thought was black lace in my stash, I decided to shamelessly rip off Freya’s idea (sorry!) The dress was intended for my work Christmas Party. I do not like the idea of cocktail dresses. Well, I do, they can be gorgeous. Unfortunately, I don’t seem to attend a lot of cocktail parties so my cocktail dresses spend most of their lives in the corner of my closet until I either grow tired of them (after a couple wears… sheesh, so spoiled!) or grow out of them (damn, you cookies!). So when it comes to my “cocktail” dresses, I strive to have something I can wear again, and not to a cocktail type party. I want something that can be dressed down for work, or a nice dinner. Macaron seemed like an ideal dress for that. I know that Colette patterns require some fitting when it comes to me. I am tall, I have square shoulders and sometimes the adjustments I need are plain weird. I started off with making my usual adjustments to the paper pattern – I lengthened the bodice, widened the shoulder, lowered the arm cycle, and slightly re-drafted the sleeve. I proceeded to make a muslin. I only made the muslin for the bodice of the dress, with one sleeve. See, I am lazy! I added 1” seam allowances to the center front, and cut the front as two separate pieces. I cut the back pieces on fold. This way it is turns into a quick and dirty muslin. I don’t need to waste a zipper and I am able to put it on as a shirt, pinning it along the center front. Next time I will take pictures. My muslin came out pretty okay! Only slight adjustments were needed. I ended up lowering the bust darts and taking it in at the slides ever so slightly. I was very happy! From there I decided to cut into my fashion fabric. I saw my dress as being almost identical to Freya’s. I wanted black suiting for the dress and lace for the top part. As I’ve mentioned I already had black lace in stash that was perfect for the dress. I took my lace to the fabric store and thought I could easily find a matching black suiting. Well… the lace looks black, but it does not go with any black fabric I saw in the store. None. The lace has a slight navy color to it in some places but overall it comes off as black. After a long time of me running around in the store looking at all the fabrics I finally found very dark navy suiting that matched the lace! The suiting was 100% wool and it was exactly what I envisioned. I picked it up, together with Bemberg lining and went home happy. I pre-shrunk the fabric. Probably not in the best way possible, I really should have dry cleaned it, but I am too lazy for that. I ended up soaking it in cold water and then laying out to dry. I ironed the whole thing with a cool iron. Then I proceeded to assemble the dress. Since my muslin was fitting me really well I was not too concerned with the final dress, but I was wrong. I am pretty sure the fabric store lied to me… I doubt that the suiting was 100% wool. I’ve sewn with wool before and it always behaved itself. It actually is a dream to sew with! This “wool” was something else. It stretched out every single time I pressed it, even though I used a cool iron and never pulled on the fabric, I was very careful. However, my bodice still ended up looking way too baggy, which looked especially weird on top of the lining that fit well. Was there something I did wrong? In the end, I took the bodice apart twice, both times after the dress was fully assembled and lined. It stretched out and bagged more and more every single time. The last time I took it apart was literally an hour before the party. The zipper gave up on me too and I had to fully replace it that time. I finished the dress with just enough time to fix my make-up and hair and leave for the party. Even though the fabric was mean to me, I still think the dress turned out okay. I probably am very biased in this opinion and am too hard on the dress just because I know how much effort it was. I also find that although I love the look of the dress, every time I think of putting it on I get a wave of frustration. The memories are that traumatizing I guess! I truly don’t know if I will wear it again… I really hope I will but I will likely need some time to “heal” from the whole experience. Other than the fabric hiccup, I am very proud of the dress. It is fully lined. I sandwiched the lace part in between the layer of suiting and lining so all my seams ended up being enclosed. I cut the sleeve with the hem right on the scalloped part of the lace so that it didn’t need hemming and looked beautiful. The neckline is finished with a thin bias tape made out of lining. The dress looks beautiful on the inside. The final verdict for the pattern is that it is an astonishing win. It’s beautiful! I will definitely be making it again. The cut of that skirt alone is very flattering, and I do not like tulip skirts! I already have an idea in mind of making this dress with elbow length sleeves in gray suiting, with or without the sweetheart neckline (may be adding piping to highlight it?). It would also make a really cute summer dress. Next time though, I will be extremely careful about my fabric choice and it may take me a while to trust “100% wool” again. :) Love, Anya P.S. I didn't realize how often I come up on my tippy toes... I swear I don't walk like that. Next time when I take pictures, I'll make sure to put shoes on!

image source For the past couple years or so I have been striving to live more minimally. I am in no way a full on follower of minimalist movement (not because I don't like it, it's just hard for me), but I do try to limit the amount of “things” that I owe. Although, I bet my brother would disagree with that statement. Still, I do strive to do my best to live with less. I find when it comes to my clothing I feel better and more prepared when I don’t have a lot of things, and everything that I have fits me well and goes well together. A closet overflowing with items is seriously anxiety evoking for me. Back in the early days of September 2015 I started thinking about switching my summer wardrobe over to fall/winter. Normally I would pack my summer clothes up and bring all my fall/winter clothes out. I would take everything, put it into my closet and go from there. This time around I decided to do something different. I started with trying to figure out a color scheme, an arbitrary number of items I would want to have and then work within those parameters I narrowed down what I would ideally want in my closet. I tried taking into account what I prefer to wear and what I already have. It did take quite a bit of effort and time, and one day I will share what I came up with, but this post is about something that the process eventually lead me to. Over the fall and early December I couldn’t help but question all my wants and potential purchases from clothing stores. I wondered what I really needed and whether the item(s) I thought I so desperately needed were actually important. Spoiler, unless you don’t have anything to wear, they are not important. That gray sweater I am eyeing is not going to make me happy. I questioned the quality and fit of the items I saw in stores, as well as their prices. The final straw came when I read “Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of the Cheap Fashion” by Elizabeth L. Cline. It is a great read, and although I am a big proponent of questioning everything you read and see, the book aligned with something I felt for a while – I did not like the constant internal pressure to buy things. Yet, there was a dissonance since I loved clothes! After I’ve had some time to digest the information and my own feelings on the subject, I think I’ve finally come to an interesting challenge I was considering. The challenge scared me as I wasn’t sure I could follow through, but the more I thought about it, the more I felt sure that I need to give it a good try. So shortly after in January 2016 I have decided to not buy any clothes for a whole year. Feels pretty big and scary! What? No clothes shopping? For a year?? Now, there are some exclusions and rules that will have to apply here: Everything I wear will be something I either already own or I make myself. This is key, if I want/need something new this coming year, I need to make it. That goes for everything – lingerie, workout clothes, jeans, dresses, t-shirts, everything. I am allowed to buy the following items – socks, tights, stockings, shoes, accessories. But only when I truly need them. That will involve some kind of evaluation process that I didn’t think through yet. I just don’t want to end up buying a ton of things I don’t need just because they are the things I am allowed to buy. I am allowed to buy fabric – but only after I’ve looked through my stash to see if there was something suitable. In other words I need to shop my stash first. I can already see this will be a challenge of it's own. I think that if I utterly fail at making certain items I still have plenty of clothes at home that should carry me through the year. I have no doubts about my dresses, tops and coats. I have been making those items for a few years and I mostly wear what I made when it comes to those categories. But I’ve never tried making jeans, workout clothes, lingerie and trousers until this challenge. My thoughts were that if I run into troubles, be it my skills or the lack of suitable fabrics, I have more than enough right now. I am definitely nervous about this challenge and am worried about certain aspects. I am worried that my “slight” shopping addiction would turn to fabrics and I will end up with a fabric stash bigger than I, or my home, can handle. I am worried that I will end up without a pair of black workout capris halfway through the year since it is hard to find a suitable fabric and I’ve been utterly spoilt by Lululemon (this is definitely a first world problem and part of me doesn't even feel bad for myself!). I am also worried about my sweaters. I love good quality sweaters and it is very hard to find good quality knit fabric to make my own. However, all my worries aside, I think I should have what it takes to get through a whole year of not buying clothes. As much as this challenge is about not shopping, it is also about learning in the process. I am very excited about all the things I will take away from it! I will be posting updates and my thoughts throughout the process on the blog, I haven’t figured out the format or the schedule of updates and that is something I will think about in the coming couple weeks. In the meantime, wish me luck! Love, Anya

Back in the beginning of Fall I decided that I desperately needed a sleeved shift dress. My idea for the dress was that I wanted it to be a go-to dress that can be easily worn for work or dressed up or down for any occasion. I’ve been eyeing Colette Patterns for a while and decided that it finally was a perfect opportunity to give their classic Laurel dress a try. The technical drawing of the dress was everything that I was looking for – clean lines, bust darts and shaping darts in the back, zipper in the center back seam, as well as elbow length sleeve with an option to add ruffle. This dress is perfect for modifications too! It is easy to add a collar, full length sleeves, short sleeves, go sleeveless, add pockets, change the neckline… the opportunities to play with this pattern are endless! I’ve never used Colette patterns before so my first step was to put together a muslin to see how the final dress would fit. Boy, am I ever glad I didn’t cut into my fashion fabric right away! The muslin came out so off. It seems that Colette patterns are targeting a different body type from mine. I ended up having to move the darts to my proper bust height, increase the shoulder width, re-draft the armcycle and sleeve cap, take out most of the ease out of the sleeve cap and fit the dress along the side seams. It sounds like it was a lot of work, but in reality I am not complaining. It wasn’t too difficult and since everything was done on cheap white muslin fabric I could easily draw on it and make all the markings that I needed and then transfer them to the pattern. Because the dress has a very 60’s vibe and is intended to be looser fitting I hemmed it a bit shorter that I would normally prefer. I think this length fits the style of the dress quite well. I do have to wear it with thick tights tough as I feel a little too exposed otherwise. I suppose one can even try wearing fun colored tights with this dress, but it is a little bit outside of my comfort zone. I finished the neckline with a bias binding made out of the same fabric and hemmed the sleeves and the dress using my hemming foot and invisible stitch. The dress is not lined and was very easy and fast to put together. I used a fabric from my stash. I don’t remember what exactly it was, but it felt like a soft suiting blend. It definitely is a bit thicker for fall/winter wear. It washes nicely and hopefully will last me a while (unless I eat too many cookies). How could I not mention the absolutely fantastic animal print? This could hardly get any better. The effort I put into fitting the dress was definitely worth it. I ended up with a pattern that fit me exactly like I wanted it to. This particular dress was made for a black and white themed birthday party we were invited to. I wanted a dress that would be a bit different yet easy to wear every day. I think I hit the nail on the head with this one. I’ve been wearing this dress all the time after the party. As a matter of fact, I loved the dress so much I ended up making 2 more and I have a fourth one cut out and ready to be put together! Love, Anya P.S. I finally put my new tri-pod to good use and spent a good portion of my Sunday afternoon snapping pictures. It's hard to be a model... my hair is in a weird in-between stage right now and ended up falling out, my arms got tired of putting things on, I forgot to put lipstick on... Sigh. But at least now I have enough material to blog about for a while! Yay!

In this post I will talk about underpants. Yep. I finally got the courage and made myself a pair of knickers. My plan for the coming year includes venturing out into the lingerie territory and trying to make some of my own. I must admit, it seems hard and scary! But when I get super scared I remind myself that I've been sewing a while, made a lot of more challenging garments, and even if I screw up a pair of underwear... so what? The amount of fabric used is so miniscule, it really wouldn't be the end of the world. So I finally gave in and tried it. I don't mean to sound weird, but the other day as I was folding laundry I looked at a pair of my favorite underwear and it hit me, this is not hard! The pattern is really like 4 pieces and there must be may be 3 seams altogether... How hard can it be?? I took my favorite pair down to my sewing table, pulled out the ruler and drafting paper and off I went ripping off the pattern. It wasn't difficult. I drafted the main piece and the long thong part and then from there I drafted the lining and a piece for the stretch lace band. For my main fabric I used stretch cotton jersey I had on hand. I also found perfectly matching 2.5" wide stretch lace. Amazing. I think I ended up using a total 8"x8" square of fabric... This is the smallest project ever!! It took me less than half hour to put it together. I love fast and rewarding projects like that. There is one seam that connects all the fabric parts. Then there are two seams in the lace pieces. Attaching elastic to the sides of the fabric was the hardest part. Probably because it was my first time doing it and I wasn't sure if I was supposed to stretch it and how much. I am sure that will come with practice. I attached the lace to the main part with a small zigzag stitch... Half hour, people!! And just like that I had a brand new pair of knickers. I have to say that I wasn't completely sure of the pattern I drafted. I wanted to test it and see if it needs to be smaller, narrower or if the elastic waistband was too tight or too long. After a day of wear I have noticed a few things I could improve on in my next pair: I will shorten the elastic waistband by 4 cm and see how I like that. The elastic was probably stretcher than my ready-to-wear pair and as I wore them I thought it was a little too lose I definitely need to stretch the elastic on the sides as I attach it. With wear the sides stretched out and were gaping a little. I think shortening the elastic and stretching it as I sew it on will remedy this issue I may want to take 1/4-1/2" off the center seam so that they sit a little lower and see if I like that better Overall though I think my first pair turned out great and I would say the experience was a success! Now I will toy around with my pattern and technique over the next couple weeks and I am confident I will come up with my perfect underwear pattern! No more laundry! Just kidding... Love, Anya

I finished my coat!! And I already have been wearing it out every. single. day. It turned out exactly like I wanted and I couldn't be happier. I am still missing a tripod, and I am secretly hoping / was told that with Christmas being so close I shouldn't go out and buy one. Although I am notorious for buying things I want and need right before gift giving holidays. Usually they are the things that someone else has already bought for me too... So, in the absence of tripod, I have to take shameless selfies in poor light and with a bad angle. What can you do? The coat ended up coming together really nicely. I didn't really have issues with it at all! Nothing major at least. After the first fitting I mentioned in the previous post I was very happy with the way it looked and I proceeded to sew the sleeves. Unfortunately the tab at the bottom of the sleeve didn't want to lie flat no matter what I did to it, and kept looking like it was gathering the whole sleeve. I took the sleeve seam apart a few times trying to fix it but it wasn't happening. I even interfaced the bottom of the sleeve hoping that if I make it stiffer it wouldn't look gathered. That didn't help either. So I ended up hand stitching the tabs to the sleeve so that they are lying flat against the fabric. It's not what was intended, but it doesn't change anything about the look or the functionality of the coat at all. Thinking about it now, if I really want to I can try taking my stitching out and see if having lining added bulk to the sleeve and it doesn't look gathered anymore, but I really could care less. When I got the pattern from Lekala, there was an option to make shoulders wider and sleeves longer. I made sure I clicked those off, since I have winder than normal shoulders and longer than normal arms. But I soon learned that was not necessary! When I set the sleeves in for the first time they were a good 1.5 cm wider than I needed. So I ended up having to re-set the sleeves so that the shoulder line sits on my shoulder where it should be. I have to say, I do not mind setting sleeves into a coat at all. I probably sound crazy since most people hate setting sleeves in, but I find on a coat it is a lot easier. Wool is very pliable and responsive to heat, so one has to try really hard to mess up sleeves in a coat. I also had to shorten the sleeves because with extra length they were too long for me. I used kasha lining to line the coat. It is very thick satin lining with flannel side. It is warmer than regular lining and it is not bulky at all. There are other options if one wants even a warmer coat, but I wanted something that will not be bulky but will still be warmer than normal lining. Unfortunately FabricLand does not carry a great selection of kasha lining colors so I decided on this silver looking color. It doesn't match my coat, but it adds a little fun to the inside of it. I am pretty sure I wore my lining as I was sewing and setting sleeves into the coat too... its so cozy! To line the coat I finally decided to give a bagged method a try. I read about it a long time ago but I was just too scared to try it. I've tried my own versions of it, or what I call half-bagged method. I am sure it is a proper term for it as well. In my method I would still need to hand stitch the lining to the bottom of the coat. But this time around I decided that I am going full in and trying the whole thing. Jen from Grainline has an amazing tutorial on bagging a jacket/coat. She even made a tiny little jacket for it! So I followed that step by step and ended up with an amazingly finished lining. There were scary moments when I doubted my ability to turn my whole coat out through a hole in the sleeve, but I did it! I still can't believe how good and professional looking it turned out. Every now and then I admire my lining when I wear the coat... Just yesterday I was telling Mr. Man on our ride home about how amazing my lining is. I must say my Man is also amazing because he listened to my whole story. I can't imagine it being super captivating. Oh yes, I did not talk about coat fabric! I received a very generous gift certificate to the FabricLand for the cushion I made (I also got some amazing silk that I am keeping safe until I find the perfect project for it!!) and I didn't hesitate to put it toward a really nice Melton Cloth I saw and pretty much daydreamed about but wasn't planning on buying. So when I got the gift certificate I knew where it was going to go - coat and denim! Two things I wanted but couldn't justifying buying yet. When I look for coating fabrics I prefer a nice blend with at least 70% of wool content. I find anything less than that is not warm enough, doesn't behave well in sewing and doesn't wear well. This particular Melton Cloth was 80% wool and 20%... something else, that I already forgot... Something man-made that I remember thinking altogether was a really good blend. It was a dream to sew and mold with heat, and so far it has been a dream to wear, but we'll see how it behaves in a year or two and how it holds up! In the end I am very happy with the coat. It turned out exactly like I wanted it to and it is a, I hate to call it that, basic coat that goes with everything. I have been and will be wearing it to work every day, and I imagine that will be the story next year as well. Well, every day until it gets too cold and that is when I imagine my next coat project, the one that I actually planned for this year, will come in - Cascade coat. But that's s a different story! Love, Anya P.S. Secretly hoping that with my tripod, whenever that happen, I will get a better picture of the coat!