Manic Pop

Hey guys! I know it's been a bit, but here is the latest -- a really fun quilted faux leather trenchcoat using Sewaholic's Robson Coat pattern! Weirdly enough, I think this was my first indie sewing pattern as the past few years I have used Big 4 patterns or even further back, made my own. I used leftover quilted leather from a jacket I made about 3 years ago with a Burda pattern. I knew it would come in handy someday! We were in town in Grand Rapids, Michigan and were able to take these photos. I ended up underlining my jacket (since I hate jackets with no linings!) and ended up using this guide I found online for reference. Although I know how to design myself, when I sew for my own use I generally don't want to think too hard and will just follow instructions of other's. I had a Brooklyn Industries trenchcoat that I loved but it is nearing around 7 or 8 years old and I have worn it SO much that it started to shred. So, I decided that this...

Happy New Year, everyone!  I finished New Look 6212 back in maybe late November? But these photos have been sitting on my camera for a while.  I ended up making the pleated version, mostly in View A in a size 10 with no adjustments, omitting the sleeves. I tend to prefer to wear mostly sleeveless tops with a cardigan over them.  This super-lightweight floral fabric is from the Vogue Fabrics in Evanston and will be amazing to wear in the spring and summer!  Yes, that is a septum ring you see in some of these photos (lighten up, it's just fashion!). The pleats in this weren't necessarily hard to do, but I did fight for a good period of time to get both sides to line up evenly. They still aren't 100% but sometimes you just have to go with the best lining up you can and get on with life. I love how open and swingy this is and yet structured with the buttons down the front. On another note, I don't generally make "sewing resol...

If you follow me on Instagram (@manicpop) you know that for the past 3 months, I took on making my sister's wedding dress. While she actually got married on October 15th, 2016 (a full year prior) we scheduled a dinner for her and her husband for her 1 year anniversary. My sister got married in a courthouse in Houston in a dress she really liked but was not the dress she envisioned and wished she had worn. (Had I known she would be getting married, of course I would have offered to make her dress!) So here we are, January 2017 and I ask myself, "Wait, why don't I make her dress?"  As always, it starts out with a sketch. Here is what I ended up drawing, front and back for her dress. She loves Regency style era dresses, a la Jane Austen time period, so this is the silhouette we went for. She had fairly specific requests which meant I had to create the sewing pattern entirely from my own mind. We couldn't find a sewing pattern that mimicked what she wanted s...