Girls Night Out in Purple- 2017

This is the third year that a group of us will attend the “Violette Femmes – Girls Night Out” charity event in Almonte, Ontario.  All funds raised go to assist Lanark County Interval House in establishing and delivering programs to women seeking to escape violence. The idea for the evening is to dress in shades of purple, participate in various fund raising activities and generally enjoy good food, music and company while supporting a great cause. I needed something purple to wear.

I learned about the online pattern recently and found a whole new world of downloadable indie pattern makers.

First Try

To flex my budding sewing skills, I decided to look for a new pattern for my outfit.  You can purchase a pattern and then download and print the pattern pieces and instructions.  For pieces that go beyond one page, it is necessary to glue or tape the pages together and then cut out the pattern shape.

Not bad!

I love the instant gratification of downloading pattern in .pdf format.  But, what really puts these patterns into orbit are:

• the detailed instructions,
• the size ranges offered,
• the support and,
• the flexibility.

Most even have supplemental videos, facebook communities, sew-alongs and tons of examples and hacks from other sewists FOR EACH PATTERN.  One of these incredible pattern makers is Patterns for Pirates.

I selected the Everyday Elegance blouse from Patterns for Pirates paired with a lovely light drapey material in a beautiful shade of mauve.  This will be the second time I made this and I’m hoping my skills have improved from my first try.  I matched it with lacy coordinating fabric for the back and cuffs.  It really strained my newbie skills, but it turned out okay –  just love this online pattern – but the sleeves were kinda wonky and I messed up the front collar a bit.  Not really satisfied with my work.

Second Try

One of my favourite tops in my closet is a white blouse with a twist in the front.  I spent way too much time looking for it especially since I didn’t know what exactly to call it, but my search was definitely rewarded when I came upon the Lotus Blossom Twist online pattern from Love Notions!

There wasn’t enough of my fabric to start from scratch, so I went completely outside of my comfort zone and MODIFIED the online pattern myself.  The Lotus Blossom sleeves were very different so I had to modify the front of the pattern.  I removed the sleeves and back and cut out only a new front using the lotus blossom pattern.  The shoulders got modified a bit so it lined up – but it worked! I re-added the sleeves (actually twice because the first time I put them on inside out). Oh, but I am getting very good with a seam picker!

Maybe it was because I worked with it so many times, but I just didn’t feel up to wearing it out in the end.  The blouse fit my sister-in-law Lisa perfectly though and she rocked it!

I just love these patterns  – sizing, support and directions are so wonderful. The Laundry Day Tee is my favourite online pattern so far!  I ended up going back to the fabric store and got a lovely deep rich purple stretch velvet and made my final outfit for the event from that. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any good pictures except this selfie I took before I left.