Winter Wear Designs Ma Cherie Top and Stargazer Shorts

Hello again for the Hello Summer Kids Blog tour for Winter Wear Designs. This is Day 3 and I'm here again with 2 kids pattern sews from Winter Wear Designs, this time for my little girl 💓

I've always wanted to make a cute hanbok inspired top for my little girl and the only pattern I had was for knits. But I finally found one that isn't for knits! 

Ma Cherie is a super cute V neck tunic top that has pleated skirts. I made my girl's version with a solid color Kona Cotton from 2quilters and Kobayashi Colorful Dots in double gauze from Nekoneko. 

Doesn't she look adorable? I think this one is a keeper! In fact, I may hack this to be longer so she can wear it as a cute maxi! But since this is a tunic, I needed to match it with a super cute pair of shorts too. And the Stargazer bubble shorts is perfect! 

And as with all her new shorts, the first thing she checked was whether there was any pockets. 

I'm pleased to say that she is pretty happy with her new bubble shorts with the roomy roomy pockets. I made it just slightly bigger so that she can wear this longer and I think she will wear this pretty often too! 

The fabric is stretch twill. Here's the flatlay!

You can get the patterns here: http://bit.ly/WWDMaCherie 

and here: http://bit.ly/WWDStargazerShorts

Make sure to stick with us all week long for sewing inspiration, pattern hacks, and tutorials about how to get the most out of your summer sewing!!!

Monday:

Suzanne of Winter Wear Designs

Tuesday:

Hwee Ke Lim of KeKe Sews

Suzanne of Winter Wear Designs

Wednesday:

Laurie of The Bear And The Pea Atelier

Hwee Ke Lim of KeKe Sews

Thursday:

Kristen Guest Posting at WWD

Rachel of Violets & Jewles

Friday:

Laurie of The Bear and the Pea Atelier

Donnisha guest posting at WWD

Hacking WWD Perfect Panel Tee into a tank

Hello to everyone from ard the world! I'm Hwee Ke from Singapore and I'm one of the guest bloggers for the Hello Summer kids blog tour for Winter Wear Designs! 

For those who haven't heard of my home, Singapore is a really hot place to live. So it's no wonder my kids like sleeveless tanks and wear summer outfits all year round. 

I had this idea to color block a batman comic strips knit fabric i have to make a perfect panel tee for my boy. But he wanted a tank top so I thought this was a great opportunity to try hacking the tee into a tank top. 

The wrap around of the perfect panel tee is unique and would look really good as a tank top. 

He looks really comfortable in his new tank!

The hack is really easy to do too. Since he likes the armscye depth in his tank, I didn't need to adjust the armscye up or down. Instead, I skipped the cutting of sleeves from the fabric, then after serging the shoulder seams and side seams, I brought it to the cutting mat and cut a new curve about 2cm from the shoulder edge down to the same original point under the armpit. (You can estimate the amount to cut off by comparing it with a tank pattern u already have or if u are like me, just wing it!)

I measured the new armscye length and cut a ribbing knit strip about 80% of that length and that was the arm band! 

It's such a simple hack but one tt looks so good too. Now we can make even more perfect panel tanks with all the small remnants i have in my stash - a perfect summer wardrobe staple! 

Get the Perfect Panel Tee here! 

Make sure to stick with us all week long for sewing inspiration, pattern hacks, and tutorials about how to get the most out of your summer sewing!!!

Monday:

Suzanne of Winter Wear Designs

Tuesday:

Hwee Ke Lim of KeKe Sews

Suzanne of Winter Wear Designs

Hwee Ke Lim of KeKe Sews

Wednesday:

Laurie of The Bear And The Pea Atelier

Thursday:

Kristen Guest Posting at WWD

Rachel of Violets & Jewles

Friday:

Laurie of The Bear and the Pea Atelier

Donnisha guest posting at WWD

Summer days, Summer Sewing~

Where I live, we get summer pretty much all year round! So while most of my northern hemisphere friends are sewing up for cold weather, I still need to ensure I have a decent summer wardrobe! 

Since it is the school holidays, this is the best time for me to sew up on summer staples: shorts, tees, that kinda thing. It also means I have time to sew for family too! 

Here's a top I made for my mum that I paired with shorts meant for me! 

Despite our height differences, (I'm a little taller) we wear pretty much the same size clothes so I can model the clothes for her (she's shy!) This top is Winter Wear Design's Traveller Tee and it's a raglan top that you can make with a woven panel. COOOOL! 

I had a piece of textured Japanese Dobby fabric that I bought some time back that I realised was too small for most woven top patterns (always buy more than 1 yard!!) and I was just feeling sad about it when I realised I can use it with Traveller Tee! And because it has texture, I thought pairing it with a navy stretch crepe knit would be lovely and I like to think that it really is cute! 

In fact, I have half a mind to not gift it hehe (actually no, I will gift it then I will go back to that shop and buy the same fabric to make another to twin with her! yay!)

The shorts that I am wearing with this is the Endless Summer Shorts. This one I made is with a cotton sateen twill that gets really soft and comfy with every wash. I like how the shorts look on me though now that I am older, I think I would extend the inseam just a tad more cos I prefer more coverage these days hehe. (As I am typing this, I do realise just how old I sound lol!)

Front view:

Back view:

Both Traveller Tee and Endless Summer Shorts are great staple patterns to have in your pattern stash and you can really get a lot of sews out of them! 

They are on sale for a very limited time ($3 each!) now for WWD 12 Days of Christmas so don't miss out! 

Pattern Showcase: Toteally Awesome Tote Bag by Winter Wear Designs

Me again for Winter Wear Design's 12 day of Christmas Blog tour! Did you know that Winter Wear Designs have bag patterns too? 

There's the Collect-all Drawstring Bag, the hipster bag, the about town clutch and my favorite bag pattern of hers: The Toteally Awesome Tote Bag. (There's still more free patterns to discover if u click ard the site!)

Many of these patterns are freebies from her very popular 12 days of Christmas giveaways and codes can be found in her fb group under the announcement! 

Why did I say it's my favorite bag pattern? Cos ever since I made mine, I haven't stopped using it.

Here's me with the bag:

and here i am again!

And again...

I could go on since it is relatively easy to find pics of me with this bag but u get my point! 

The pattern comes with 2 sizes of bags. The bag I showed is the bigger version.

Look at all the pockets! It's perfect for everything. 

When I go to work with this bag (I'm a teacher), I fill the pockets with markers, and my comp mouse, cables for the projector, pens, glasses and water bottle then the main compartment has my laptop (I padded this bag really well so it's safe to put a laptop in here!) and worksheets. 

I love it so much that now that it is school holidays at my part of the world, I emptied it out and use it when I go out with kids, so now these pockets are filled with their water bottles, change of clothes, diapers, wipes, snacks, packet milk while the main section contains books, toys etc. So roomy! 

When I go out shopping sans kids (seldom these days but I do!) I bring out the bag mostly empty so that I can fill it up with SHOPPING! WOO HOO. Save the environment yes! 

It's really just a perfect tote bag for working folks/ busy mothers/ shopaholics etc etc 😂

In fact, my non-sewing friend saw me with this bag and was so convinced of its usefulness and versatility (and also that it was an easy sew), that she came over to my place and we spent 2 lovely afternoons, very leisurely sewing her very own tote bag while we chat away about life and kids. 

I think the bag pattern must have been really good cos she is now hooked on sewing and she wants a sewing machine for herself! 

Here's her bag next to mine:

I just LOVE that pink. In fact, I love it so much... 

Here's MY Pink bag. 

This time in the small size without the inner pockets. So cute. It may be 'small', but it is still a good size! I'm using it as a yoga bag for my yoga mat towel and a waterbottle. There's even space for a spare set of clothes and towel (not shown in pic) if i intend to shower at the yoga studio. 

 

Never made a bag before? No worries, this is a simple project. With no special notions needed, no zippers, no buttons/closures etc... 

I did the pocket version in 1 afternoon, my friend, who never sewn before, did hers in 2 afternoons, and that includes cutting and us chatting. The smaller bag without pockets was done in 2 hrs including cutting with a projector*. So it's definitely a do-able project and did I mention free? 

Big bag vs small bag ❤

Get it here and get sewing! 

*regarding projector sewing: if u are like me and love projector sewing, u should totally download the free inkscape software. The side panels and bottom panels are rectangles while the front and back panel already has A0 files that u can use directly with your projector. What i did was i drew a digital rectangles of the correct sizes of side and bottom panels using inkscape then project that file directly to my fabric to cut out the side panels. This saved me loads of time since i only needed to do it once. Projector cutting all the pattern pieces for the small bag without pockets only took me 10-15mins! 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas~~

Over at our house, Christmas is usually a quiet affair and with young toddlers in the house the past few years, the Christmas tree has not been out of storage for a really long time. But 2020 has been a crazy year and the kids are both just so excited about Christmas and decorating and gifts that we decided to finally take the tree out of storage this year! So I'm going to be posing for photos next to the tree! Hehe

Hello from Singapore! A warm welcome everyone who's here for the Winter Wear designs blog tour! I'm Hwee Ke and I'm here to show you WWD's latest free holiday pattern (Don't you just LOVE Suzanne Winters for being so so generous? 💋💋💋)

 So... On the 7th day of Christmas, WWD gave to us... All Wrapped Up (a beautiful scarf pattern)! 💖💖💖

There's 2 versions - a pocket scarf version and a sleeved version. I made the sleeved version and I just love it so much, don't you?

After you downloaded the pattern, you would notice that recommended fabric for the scarf is actually structured knits. In fact it doesn't actually require any stretch (only the sleeves need a good stretch) Well... I had this beautiful, stretchy, drapey, shiny lurex knit that is so soft to touch inside and shiny (So holiday appropriate!) outside that I just HAD to use this knit for my sleeved scarf. 

I'm 5"6' tall so I'm using the regular size but cos my knit is so so slinky, I took 4 inches off the width (you may wish to remove more width if this look isn't what u are going for! But if you are using the recommended fabric then no length removal is necessary. Tip: Check first by wrapping it ard yourself b4 sewing to test the length! ) 

I think it works really well as a wrap scarf and the sleeves help keep the wrap on me! The shiny lurex also gave it just that extra bit of holiday cheer! Also, with the knit I used being so slinky, I knew I could wear this sleeved wrap differently so after playing ard with it, here's another look:

For this look, I pull the wrap all the way past my shoulders so that the entire sleeved portion of the scarf can be seen, then I allowed the wrap to drape down my back so it forms a deep cowl. I think I am gg to wear this wrap like that quite often! Loving that cowl! 

Here's another look:

For this look, I simply wrapped the scarf ard me without wearing the sleeves, then I tied the sleeves at the back of the wrap with a knot. 

And the last look I came up with is this one:

I think you can probably guess how to put this look together 😂 All I did was rearranged the wrap ard my neck, tie the sleeves part and tucked them in. 

Are you excited to try it out? I'm excited to find out from all of you the other ways I can wear this versatile little wrap! 

Download the pattern here and remember to check the FB group for the code to get it for free! 

Thank you for coming and Merry Christmas everyone! 

Blog Tour: WWD 12 Days of Christmas: Free Split Hem Tee and Leggings

It's that time of the year again! The well-loved and long awaited Winter Wear Design's 12 Days of Christmas Giveaways and I am so happy to be her WWD blogging "elf" 😆😆😆

Today's blog tour post is all about the Split Hem Tee for Kids and 12 Days Girl's leggings. Sounds familiar? That's because these were freebies from 2019 and 2018 respectively! This year, we are getting projector updates on both files! 💙💚💛💜💗

Projector users REJOICE! 

When I got the projector file, I was so excited, I got to work on a coordinating outfit straight away and this was done in no time at all! And of course, in the tradition of WWD blog tours, I have included a few little hacks of my own I hope you will enjoy reading about!

Perhaps, the first hack you will notice is the short sleeves on the split hem tee. I cut it short because we live in tropical Singapore and it's hot all year round but I wanted a lot of use of out of this tee hence the cap sleeves. There's not much to this - I just use her current short sleeves as a reference then hem the sleeves with pretty lace elastic. To tie in the look, I hemmed the leggings with the same lace elastic too! 

Guess what she spotted? 

POCKETS!! Yes! That's right! I used the side panel as a guide to cut a shorter piece of the same width to use as a side pocket! And again, the tie in the whole look, I hemmed the top of the pocket with the same lace elastic! 

I think she likes her pockets alot! I constantly find hidden "treasures" in those pockets before I do laundry. I guess she's just really happy that her leggings actually have pockets! 

The split hem tee is really a great pattern to pair with the leggings. I like how the back is nice and long and covers the bum for a lovely modest look while the front is also long enough without being too long that it hinders movement. 

Here's more photos of her in at home enjoying some quiet play time in her new coordinating split-hem + leggings combo. This is definitely a winning combo. And the patterns are both free! Head on over to the Winter Wear FB group to get the free download code and make your own versions today~ 

Pattern feature: Neck Tie top by Winter Wear Designs

If you know me, you would know that I love me a good classic top in black or blue. It's just MY color and so easy to match. 

When I saw Winter Wear Design's neck tie top, I knew it would make a really classy staple wardrobe piece so I went searching for the right fabric in my stash. I found a beautiful black modal fabric, very thin, with a slight sheen and very drapey - PERFECT! And so, I set to work! 

Projector sewing meant this was an incredibly fast sew. The entire top took me 2 hours from cutting to sewing to finishing. Winter Wear Design's many patterns have projector files and the pattern designer Suzanne Winters take all feedback seriously so she is constantly making improvements to her projector files to make it more user friendly for us projector users. 💗💗💗

I love how this top paired with a cute pencil skirt is giving me a Friday night OL (office lady) vibe. I can see professionals wearing this to work in the day then going for dinner in a fancy restaurant after. 

What is great about this is that with a different fabric you can have a very different look, as you can see from the photos in the listing here or in the blogposts linked below. I made my top with the cuffed bishop sleeves for a soft, romantic look which I felt was very flattering. There's also a beautiful gathered poet sleeve which is shorter and really cute. In fact there are three sleeve options, so you can choose the sleeve option that works best for your shape! 

Let's talk about the neck tie! The pattern piece included notches for you to position the tie as per pattern instructions - great if you want to achieve the same look as shown in the listing photos. But, if you are like me, you may prefer to try on the top before sewing on the neck tie and adjust your tie in the mirror to decide the right angle for you. Initially, I thought I may prefer it tied right in the middle, but in the end, I shifted it slightly to my right and marked the position before sewing. Sewing your own clothes means being able to decide on small things like this to make the clothes truly yours! 

And yes, before I forget, the top can be hemmed the usual way or banded. AND if u band it, technically, you wouldn't need to cover stitch anything! YAY! I also happen to think that banding it means that wearing it over a pair of jeans like this can change up the outfit to a more casual look. So cute! 

And finally, if my make excites you, here's something that makes the pattern even more exciting:

The neck tie top is on release pricing of just $3 from October 7th to October 13th 2020!! 

Then after, it will join the $5 Wardrobe builder group! Yay for a great pattern in a great price!

Don't miss any of the other WWD bloggers' version of the Neck Tie Top!

Wednesday 10/7

Patricia of Sew Far North

Thursday 10/8

Alyssa of The Sewing Goatherd

Friday 10/9

Hwee Ke of kekesews

Monday 10/12

Aurelie of Maglice&So

Tuesday 10/13

Laurie of the Bear and the Pea Atelier

Donnisha guest posting at Winter Wear Designs

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