Hacking the Winter Wear Design Double Take Tank into a dress

You can never have too many woven tanks in your wardrobe. They are a staple in a summer wardrobe and where I come from, it's summer all year round!

When done well, woven tanks can be very flattering and comfortable. Depending on the fabric choice, you can even use a woven tank as a shell blouse for work to complement the work skirts and pants you own!

This is the Double Take Tank by Winter Wear Designs:

It's a wonderfully flattering woven tank that has many different options. This version uses the scoop back, shirt tail hem option. I liked it cos it was incredibly quick to make and the bust darts gave it (and me) curves. 😅 This tank I made is a mystery black poly-cotton blend and I think plain black goes so so well with so many bottoms! Win!

Because I loved how it fits as a tank, I thought perhaps I could hack the pattern into a 

dress instead because I have always preferred "work dresses". Dresses means I don't have to worry about matching top and bottom and in the morning, you sometimes just want to slip something on and get moving =p 

My "hacked" version of the double take tank:

(Can u tell I had fun doing this photoshoot? 😂) I even put on makeup! And I don't even bother that much for work!

 

This dress is LOVE LOVE LOVE! It's made using slinky slinky rayon which was a b*tch to cut and sew. It frays like mad. but the end result.... was WORTH IT. 

So are you sold on it yet? Let's talk about hacking! Thankfully, it was really easy to hack this tank! 

So what I did was, I wore the black tank (that's the one on top) then held a cloth measuring tape up against it and measured the additional length I needed for a knee length dress (that's 11 inches for me, height 167cm)

Then, I cut along the shorten/lengthen line on the pattern pieces for front and back (I used the straight hem for both pieces), shifted it down by 11 inches, tape additional paper on, redrew the sides, cut the new pattern out and that's it!! 

At first I was worried that I may need more width at the bottom so I can slip the dress over my head since there are no closures (YES! No zippers!! Woot!) So I actually did increase the width at the bottom a little for my first draft. Then after I baste and tried it on, I decided I don't need that extra width and snipped off the excess.

I think it looks really good with a belt too!

 

I hope this post has inspired you to try it yourself! And if you do try it, please let me know how it went!! Can't wait to hear from everyone! 

If you don't have the pattern, you can get it here: Double Take Tank by Winter Wear Designs. Suzanne Winters have very kindly placed the summertime blog patterns, 15 patterns on a summer time $4 SALE. 

The collection can be found here. 

This is an aff link, if you purchase anything after clicking on the link, I will get some commission at no extra cost to you - that gives me a bit of spare change to buy more fabric! =p 

Also, full disclosure, I did get this pattern for free as part of the summer time blog tour but all the comments and thoughts are my own =)

This post is part of the #summertimeblogtour2020 by WinterWear Designs. 

Thank you for stopping by! 💖💖💖

Don't miss out on any of these stops on our Summertime Blog Tour:

6/29

Patricia of Sew Far North

6/30

Alyssa of The Sewing Goatherd

Lim of KekeSews

Ilse of Sew Sew Ilse

7/1

Debbie Groves Guest Posting at WWD

Diane of Sewing With D

7/2

Livia of Liviality

Laurie of The Bear and the Pea Atelier

Rachael of Sew Below the Willow Tree

7/3

Aurelie of Maglice&So

Rachel of Violet and Jewels

Donnisha Jones Guest Posting at WWD

Pattern testing - Seiri Bag

My first pattern test for bags is for the Seiri Bag by Porcupine Patterns

Why "seiri"? The pattern designer wrote that "The word Seiri is from 整理 in Japanese which translates to organize / put in order, which is the idea behind this bag."

And indeed, what's great about this bag is that there are 3 very very roomy compartments where I can stuff practically anything and everything into. 

I call it my doraemon bag and I've been using it ever since I finished testing it back in July 2019. 

Back then, I was still a stay-at-home mum and that bag was my essential day outing bag with kids. I stuffed it full of diapers and wet wipes, food and water bottles, nursing cover and tissues, my wallet, handphone, keys, umbrella... and it was able to hold everything! AMAZING. (This is the M size btw, there's also L which cld hold a laptop! and S which is petite but still holds ALOT!)

Let me show off some design elements I put into this bag:

The coolest thing about making my own bag is the fact that I am the one deciding everything, from pattern placement to inner pockets. I used a beautiful japanese keshiki design fabric and I loved the selvage design so much I knew I wanted to incorporate it into the bag somehow. Then I realised that using it as part of the zipper top wld be beautiful so that was what I did!

The zippers were actually very expensive jacket zippers that were oh-so-smooth to pull open and close. They were not cheap but I'm glad I used them cos they added a touch of 'posh' to the whole bag.

And I wasn't kidding about using this bag everywhere:

Here's the bag, on a beach!

One way of knowing that a pattern is good is whether the tester makes more. And well... I did make more... 3 more ~~~

Seiri Bag M and S sizes, outer compartment hacked to be non-zippered!

Seiri bag M size thick canvas (not recommended! Birthing was HARD!)

Hope you enjoyed seeing my Seiri Bag creations! And hope u will try making one too! 

Bella Sunshine Designs Isabella Banded Skirt

Let's talk about a FREE skirt pattern! This is the Isabella Banded Skirt from Bella Sunshine Designs.

I'm wearing the ladies version which can be found here and my girl's wearing the girl's version.

It's free for all subscribers of their newsletter and you can get links to the free copy after subscribing!

Easy!


What I love about this skirt is the fact that it is so fast and easy. A quick sew for when you need that little bit of sewing therapy.

You don't even need to print anything if you don't want to! The measurements for the skirt are all provided so you can get right to it. And it's great cos you don't have to worry about it not fitting right since all u have to do is check your measurement with the chart and cut out accordingly! There's grading instructions too!

And for a free pattern, it's even nicer that it comes with 2 length options so you can choose whether you prefer a longer length (that's the one we are wearing) or a super cute above knee length!

Did you notice the lace detail on my girl's skirt?

Clear instructions on how to add various types of trims are also found in the tutorial so this is the perfect pattern for a beginner to use!

If you have a lot of woven fabric in your stash (like me), this is an easy way to use them all up! (Then u can buy more! 😂)

So, do consider subscribing to their newsletter to get this lovely, BEGINNER FRIENDLY skirt pattern FREE~~~~~

Psst!! Want MORE free patterns? Join their facebook group and you can grab the Reagan Raglans for kids and ladies (including plus sizes!) Just check the pinned post for the coupon code to make them 100% free!

(I've made so so many Reagan Raglans already! They are very well drafted!)

Bags and bags galore - some of my old self-drafted works.

I often see sewists who say that they only sew garments cos bags are hard, or they would say they only sew bags cos garments are hard. I suppose it's really because garments and bags require different skill sets...

I tried sewing bags and while I like bag sewing, the interfacing, the precise measurements, the notion buying makes me think... bags are harder than garments! hahaha. That said, if I were to 'teach' a friend to sew, I would rather point them to a bag pattern than a garment one! =p

After sewing quite a few bags, I found that precision really matters in sewing bags, the seam allowances need to be followed strictly, the steps and the birthing. oh man, the birthing can be hard!

I started my bag making journey with a simple self drafted drawstring bag:

Then moved on to more complicated designs (also self drafted):

Then there was these:

   

All self drafted! But I must say, self drafting is difficult! and while it is fun to come up with the exact dimensions we need, the difficulty in imagining the bag in 3D and then breaking it down to 2D pattern pieces meant bag making is slow when u are self drafting.

Thankfully there are wonderful pdf bag patterns out there to use!

Like these:

These are made with a  FREE pattern i found on youtube! There's many free bag patterns on youtube which is great for beginners to start on! 

I realised with making bags is u have to get so many new notions and tools. One good way to save some money is to use stuff from the old bags u may have lying ard. For example, the hello kitty backpack actually reused all the buckles and rectangular rings from another old bag of my eldest that can't be used anymore.

Candy Castle Designs - Candy Castle Princess Dress!!

 Some of the best princessy dresses I have made for this little one are made using the patterns from Candy Castle Designs.

This is the Candy Castle Princess Dress that I did using Robert Kaufmann Fabric's Morningmoon Fairies. It's a quilting weight fabric so it holds the shape really nicely and gives the skirt a very poofy silhouette.

I especially loved the scalloped skirt which was surprisingly not that difficult to finish. I used a lace trim and that meant that it wasn't as difficult as hemming scallop skirts wld have been and don't you think that the purple lace is also so pretty?

The oversized front sash also adds to the overall cuteness of that dress and I think she just looks adorable!

My little one has since outgrown this dress (I made it some time ago!) and its about time I made a new one! Now... what look shld i go for this time... ^ __ ^

Peppermint Swirl Dress by Candy Castle Designs

When I first discovered the pattern company Candy Castle Designs, Peppermint Swirl Dress was THE DRESS that caught my eyes. The twirl factor is amazing!!

I absolutely love how it looked and at the same time, if I am to be honest, I was too scared to try it initially cos it looked HARD.

But as I saw all the other beautiful peppermint swirl dresses, I took the plunge anyway. And I'm so glad I did!

I envisioned something very princessy pink and since I needed a lot of pink/purple colors, I got Kona cotton fabric from 2quilters who very very kindly curated this beautiful set of pinks and purple (they ship internationally!) for me.

Cutting it wasn't as difficult as I thought. I pinned the pattern pieces onto a stack of 4 colors, then cut directly with my fabric scissors, then repeat again for the next stack and so on. Cutting took me not even an hour to complete!

Next was putting the dress together. Most of the time, we always say never serge wovens right? But for this skirt, the instructions said serging was okay. Yay! And honestly, serging these skirt pieces together made the whole skirt construction go really fast! And look at how beautiful it is already!

Did you know that there's a free hack to make this into just a skirt instead of a dress? Best hack ever! (I did that too. Maybe I will talk about it in another post =p)

The hemming of the skirt was with bias tape and the bias tape really helped the skirt keep it's shape. If you use a pretty stitch like mine, it can also become part of the design!

Let's see some of the details of this dress shall we?

And here's the happy little girl wearing the dress for Chinese New Year celebrations. =)

Peppermint Swirl Dress girls: Bit.ly/CandyPSgirls

Peppermint Swirl Dress ladies: Bit.ly/CandyPSladies

Peppermint Swirl Skirt tutorial (free!): bit.ly/CandyPSS

Gathering - the "cheat" method that works!!

Ah... "gathering"...

 Let me put it out there.... I dislike gathering fabric. My thread breaks frequently when i pull to gather (prob cos i don't buy very expensive thread!) or the gathers just don't look even.

But I mean... LOOK AT IT! Gathered dresses ARE GEORGEOUS! By the way, this is the tiered Talia dress from Goober Pea Designs that is FREE when u subscribe to their newsletter.

So here's my dilemma: I love the look of gathers but hate the gathering.

Thankfully, I've learnt a few tricks to gather effortlessly!

1. Use the longest stitch length you've got on ur sewing machine!
2. Increase the tension. (for my machine, brother FS101, that is usually a 5 and it wld gather very nicely (see above!)
3. Stitch at the highest speed (no really, slow sewing doesn't seem to gather as well!)

Oh, to help ur gathers be more even (though it isn't really needed if u are feeling lazy), I usually start from one end, backstitch first then sew to the other end using the settings above, turn clockwise 90 degrees, stitch 1 stitch then turn clockwise 90 degrees again so that I'm parallel to the first line of stitching and then stitch my second gathering line parallel to the first.

I find that the 2 gathering lines help keep the gathers in place much much better and with the backstitch at the start, i only need to adjust the gathers from one end without worrying that the other end unravels (cos then u have to gather again and nobody wants that!)

And that's it! Lovely gathers with zero frustration. Give it a try!

Pattern Testing - Baby Opal by Simple Life Pattern co.

Here's my latest completed Pattern Test:

Baby Opal by Simple Life Pattern Company





I pattern test to "try" Pattern companies that are new to me and also cos sometimes I need a deadline to help 'motivate' me when it comes to sewing stuff that isn't very fast like knit dresses =p

I admit I haven't been sewing many woven clothing because it's just "more work" cos we have to iron and prep the seam allowances and you can't 'just serge' everything =p

But I have got many PRETTY woven fabrics in my stash that begs to be used! So I told myself to sign up for more woven pattern test just so that I WILL use these beautiful woven fabric!

But enough about that, back to Baby Opal!

So what I liked about this dress pattern is the sheer number of options that are available for me to choose:

Gathered skirt/Circle Skirt / Wrapped skirt (with gather or circle options!)
Simple Skirt / Ruffle Skirt
Top/Tunic/Dress lengths
Sweetheart neckline/straight neckline
Front faux sash or none
Back tied bow / Front side bow or no bow

With just this one pattern, I can make so many different clothings! (I really love the simple dress look - so that is next on my ever-expanding list of things to make!)

Another thing that is great about this pattern is that it has tie on straps. cos that means it can technically 'grow' with your child! Cos some children grow taller rather than wider so u can simply re-tie the straps as they grow (WIN!) 

Don't you love how poofy the skirt is? Good for preventing wardrobe malfunctions especially when u have a little girl that is very very active!

 The fabric I used here is an Alice in Wonderland print I found in an online shop. I must be honest - when I got this fabric I was wondering "what was I thinking!?" cos it wasn't as cute as when i saw it in photos but then once it was made into a dress.... I'm in love! So So cute!!

It's ON SALE NOW! So do get it!!

Baby Opal by Simple Life Pattern Company (Baby sizes: NB to 2T)
Girl Opal by Simple Life Pattern Company (Girl sizes: 2T to 12 YO)

Don't like gathering much? Here's a little trick i learnt