Mood Fabrics – Sew Beach Life

All About The Azure

Greenstyle has been knocking it out of the park with new patterns, and the Azure Top and Dress is another winner! There are options galore with crew, scoop and V-necklines; narrow or wide tanks; cap, short, full, or long sleeves; crop, high hip, or low hip tops; and a super cute dress with elastic in the back for shaping.

When you make three tops and a dress, it’s a sure sign that you love a pattern! 🙂 My first make is a V-neck narrow tank in the high hip length. When I texted my daughter a photo to show her how cute it is, she said she “loves the modern length on me.” Hahahahahahahaha! Obviously I have not been wearing tops with a modern length! She’s not wrong. After losing some weight, most of my tanks and tops are big, baggy, and too long on me. So I really needed to make some new ones!

I love the V-neck, I love the drapiness of rayon spandex for this style, and the narrow tank width is perfect for my shoulder width.

Since those style choices worked so well the first time, my second make is another V-neck narrow tank in high hip length.

This green rayon spandex is a bit heavier weight than the cheetah print, and as usual for testing, the pattern was updated slightly to fit a little slimmer at the armscye and bust. This top may look a little snug at the bust, but it is super comfortable and will fit an average bust quite nicely.

All of my makes are a size E graded out to size F. My upper bust is 33″, which is the smallest end of size E. My full bust is 37″, the largest measurement for size E, so right on the edge of needing an FBA. Because Greenstyle is awesome, they include a +2″ FBA option in the pattern. 🙂

Which leads me to the third V-neck narrow tank in high hip length, made using the +2″ FBA front pattern piece. Along with a bit of width at the bust, the FBA adds length to the center front, which is super helpful for those of us with a lot of bust projection. Although I don’t mind the slightly high low look of my first two tanks, my FBA make has a more level hemline.

This tank is an upcycle made from an old RTW dress. Although the fabric is a polyester spandex (if you know or follow me, I’m not generally a fan of polyester) the print and colors were too fun for me to ignore.

Polyester spandex doesn’t have quite as nice a drape as rayon spandex, but it still works well for this pattern. I wore this outfit all day while playing with my granddaughters. The six year old and I went roller skating around the neighborhood and I was so comfortable that I didn’t even think about my clothes.

Photo courtesy of my six year old granddaughter.

I love that the “modern” 😉 high hip length keeps my belly covered even with arms raised overhead. One of these days I might try the crop length, because it would look super cute with a Paseo Skirt…

After seeing the cute Azure dresses during testing, it was impossible to not make one. The back elastic just gives it such pretty shaping.

The length is perfect! Short enough to be cool and breezy (because let’s face it- Florida is hot and humid for most of the year), but long enough to wear to Mass.

The back elastic not only provides shaping for the front of the dress, but helps it lay smoothly and comfortably against your back.

If you’re nervous about sewing an elastic casing on stretchy knit fabric, I’ve got great tips for you. First, make sure you mark your casing lines (on the wrong side of the fabric) with a high contrast color. I like using tracing paper and a tracing wheel. Then press up both long sides of the casing.

My (not so) secret weapon for keeping the casing from stretching or shifting out of place when sewing is Wash Away Wonder Tape.

Place a strip of Wash Away Wonder Tape along both pressed up edges of the casing. Flip the casing over so that the wrong side of the casing lines up with the marked lines on the wrong side of the dress back.

Start peeling the paper backing off the strip on the top edge of the casing, then use your hands to press it in place along the top marked line. Once the casing is perfectly aligned and pressed into place, do the same with the bottom edge.

My sweet kitty likes to be close by while I’m sewing. He lounges on a chair while I cut or do prep at the dining table, then follows me into the sewing studio when I sew. ❤

The Wash Away Wonder Tape will keep the casing perfectly in place for stitching. What you may have thought of as a challenging step becomes super easy, and you don’t even need to worry about using or pulling pins when you sew the casing in place!

Maybe this winter I’ll try a version with sleeves, but for now the V-neck and narrow tank options are perfect for both the top and dress.

My favorite fabric for both the tank and dress is of course rayon spandex, because I love that fabric blend for pretty much any knit tank, tee, or dress I make.

But I have to admit that the polyester spandex blend worked well too.

Whether you’re working, playing, walking through the woods or just stopping to smell the roses, the Azure Top and Dress will keep you comfortable on your journey.

The details: the Azure Top and Dress is a new pattern from GreenStyle Creations. It comes in sizes B-M (full bust of 30″ to 61″ and hips of 32″ to 62″) and has options galore for the neckline, tank styles, and sleeve options, with three top lengths (plus a dress length!)

I purchased the rayon spandex cheetah print from Mood Fabrics, and wore my tank with bike shorts from the Moxi Shorts pattern.

I purchased the green rayon spandex from Phee Fabrics, and wore it with my Windward Shorts (you can read all about them here.)

I upcycled the teal and purple polyester spandex fabric, and wore the FBA version of the tank with Moxi bike shorts.

The blue rayon spandex for the dress was purchased from Phee Fabrics. The Wash Away Wonder Tape and the 1″ knit elastic used for the back elastic casing were purchased from Wawak.

No matter what options you choose, I am definitely all about the Azure!

The links to GreenStyle may be affiliate links (if I did them properly!) which means that I may earn a few pennies if you use my links without it costing you anything extra. Since this is my blog and represents me, I always give my honest opinion about any patterns, fabric, or supplies that I talk about. I hope the time I spend writing posts actually interests people enough that they take a look at the patterns I review. I write to share my love of sewing, fabric, patterns, and notions, and hope that sharing helpful tips encourages others to love sewing as much as I do! 🙂

Going With The Wind

The GreenStyle Windward Shorts

I’ve been waiting for these shorts for over a year! Volunteering to pre-test them last year, and loving them even back then. The pattern was put on hold until this year, when shorts season rolled around again. One of the things that makes GreenStyle patterns fit so well, is the fact that they are truly put through the test. Comments and fit photos submitted by the testers are taken into consideration, and the pattern gets tweaked again and again to perfect the fit.

With curved back seams to fit smoothly over the bum (with an optional fuller bum cut line), and welt pockets (with optional zipper) the Windward Shorts are flattering and practical. I tend to wear a lot of athletic wear style of shorts. I probably have seven pair of Moxi compression layer shorts that I wear all the time. But my dress shorts options are severely limited. As in I didn’t have any until the Windward Shorts came along!

I love being able to add another category of clothing into my life. There are occasions that require a slightly dressier look, and now I’ve got something that fits the bill.

I thought it was so cool that my husband caught this shot of the dragonfly zooming by my head!

The pattern is designed for stretch woven fabrics, so that inherently leads to a dressier look. Stretch wovens can be made of different materials (all of which contain a small percentage of spandex, which is what gives them that little bit of stretch.) The periwinkle stretch cotton twill from Mood Fabrics is a heavier, crisper fabric, which gives a different look than say a polyester blend that is thinner and a bit drapier.

I also made a pair out of stretch charmeuse from JoAnn Fabrics. The softer drape makes them look a bit more form fitting.

I love that the pattern accommodates a wide variety of stretch woven fabrics and looks great in all of them. A unique design feature is that there is no inseam, which makes the shorts very comfortable for people bothered by inner leg seams. The welt pockets are generously sized, so even my large phone fits perfectly. Since it’s anchored in the top and side seams, the pocket lays smoothly, and stays in place.

As a tall girl, I chose the high rise with the 2″ elastic waistband for both my makes. (I actually made a third pair, but didn’t photograph them.) There is a mid rise, and an options for 3″ wide elastic too. With 2″, 3″, and 4″ inseams, you’ve definitely got choices!

I love that there are no zippers or buttons to deal with (other than the optional zipper on the welt pockets) so the shorts are a quick sew and easy to wear.

I hope you’ll flip for these shorts like I did!

I love that I’m not afraid to still do a cartwheel. And I probably did 10 or 15 of them before my husband actually caught a shot with my legs up in the air and his finger not in the frame! 🙂

As a note of encouragement, don’t let the idea of welt pockets scare you. The tutorial is easy to follow and makes a fancy detail simple to accomplish. And face it, all shorts need pockets!

The waistband is comfortable, and makes the shorts easy to wear.

The details:

The GreenStyle Windward Shorts pattern includes sizes B-M, which covers hip measurements from 32″ to 62″.

The periwinkle fabric is stretch cotton twill from Mood Fabrics. I wore it with a Power Sports Bra that I hacked into a workout top made of black spandex and black snakeskin yogi fabric from GreenStyle. You can read more about the hack here.

The brushstroke print is a stretch charmeuse from JoAnn Fabrics. They were worn with one of my Tangled Swim Tops, blogged here.

Thank you for reading and sharing my love of patterns, sewing, fabric, and cute shorts with large pockets! ❤

The links to GreenStyle may be affiliate links (if I did them properly!) which means that I may earn a few pennies if you use my links without it costing you anything extra. Since this is my blog and represents me, I always give my honest opinion about any patterns, fabric, or supplies that I talk about. I do like knowing whether the time I spend writing posts actually interests people enough that they take a look at the patterns I review, but I write for me. It’s one more creative pursuit that I hope is helpful or interesting to others. I write to share my love of sewing and to encourage others to love it as much as I do! 🙂

The GreenStyle Leeward Tee (and tank!)

When you live in Florida, tank tops can be worn pretty much year round. If you get chilly, you can always throw on a cardigan. In the southern half of the state, a tee shirt is great for the two or three weeks of chilly “winter” weather we may get. A pattern that includes both a tank top and tee shirt is very useful, and the cute new Leeward Tee is one I was excited to test!

Options range from crew, (medium) tank, or scoop necklines; with a plain or pleated yoke back; crop or full length; racerback or tank; and tees with cap, short, long, or colorblocked sleeves; a 2″ FBA front option; and slimmer or fuller cut lines. I love patterns with plenty of options because I can make so many different looks with just one pattern!

Super windy days on the beach make it challenging to to get photos!

I started with a scoop neck, plain back tank in the fuller cut (which was the only width option when the test started) making a size E graded out to F at the hips. The fabric is a fun ombre striped panel that I bought from Mood Fabrics a while back. I hadn’t used the panel because it wasn’t very long and I hadn’t found a good pattern to fit on the limited length. The pattern pieces barely fit on the panel, and in fact, I had to piece the neckband together to make it work! But I love the ombre effect, and the fact that it matches my purple Moxi bike shorts so well. 😉

Angelyn, the main pattern designer at GreenStyle looked over the pattern testers fit photos and made some slight changes in the shape and especially to the fit of the back. She also listened to feedback and added a slimmer cut line option to go with the fuller, flowier fit. I love testing for designers that listen to feedback from testers, and work hard to perfect the fit on a wide range of body shapes and sizes.

Does this mean that testers have to print a new version of the pattern and make another garment? Of course. But that is the whole point of testing, to get a great look and a great fit that people really like!

For my second make I stuck with a plain back scoop neck tank, but chose the slimmer cut line. Once again the shoulders are a size E, but with my fuller bust (but not quite full enough for the 2″ FBA option) I started on the fuller cut line under the arm for the needed bust space, merging to meet the slimmer cut line, and finally grading out at the hip to a size G. My hip measurement is on the edge between sizes F and G, so my grading was very subtle, and only ended up on the size G line at the very bottom 2″ or so of the pattern.

The slimmer cut line keeps the tank or top fitted at the bust, and slightly flowy through the waist and hips.

It’s fun/scary to try new sources for fabric, especially if you’re a bit of a fabric snob like me! 🙂 I’m super picky about fabric because I make clothing to last and wear for years. I strongly dislike the feel and lack of breathability of polyester. So I tend to stick to the same 4 or 5 fabric companies that I always shop or order from because of their high quality of fabric and fabric options. After seeing quite a few positive comments about Purple Seamstress Fabric in multiple sewing groups for years, I finally gave them a try and ordered their modal fabric. It’s a blend of rayon, modal, and spandex, and has the feel, drape, and nice rebound of a high quality rayon/spandex. This bright blue color is rich and beautiful, and I will definitely order from them again.

A couple of testers (me being one of them! :-)) asked for a cap sleeve length for the tee. Cap sleeves just look so much more feminine than regular short sleeves to me, and are much more wearable in Florida heat. So my third make is a cap sleeve tee, with a scoop neck and plain back.

It’s super comfortable, and will look just as good when I wear it with leggings as it does with shorts. We’re heading up to Tennessee to visit our daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughters in a couple of weeks. Their autumn weather is going to be a lot cooler than Florida’s, so tees are going to be necessary!

This is a super soft rayon spandex print from Mood Fabrics. It has even more drape than the rayon spandex striped print and the solid blue modal that I used for my tanks. This is the tee I’ll throw on when I’m a little chilly and just want to feel nice and cozy. It also shows just how different the same basic style can look and fit depending upon the fabric you choose.

You can’t go wrong whether you choose to make a tank or a tee! The GreenStyle Leeward Tee pattern has so many options to choose from, you can make yourself a dozen and easily have a dozen different looks, especially when you play with both the slimmer and fuller cut lines.

So, what are you waiting for? Don’t you need some pretty new tees and tanks in your wardrobe? In my world it’s always time to sew something new for yourself or someone you love.

Here are the details on my GreenStyle Leeward Tee and tanks:

The fuller cut tank was made using an ombre striped rayon spandex panel from Mood Fabrics. I’m wearing it with the bike shorts from the Moxi Shorts pattern made in supplex from Phee Fabrics.

The slimmer cut blue tank is made of modal from Purple Seamstress Fabric. I’m wearing it with an as yet unreleased shorts pattern. Don’t you love getting a sneak peek at future patterns? 😉

The cap sleeve tee is made of rayon spandex from Mood Fabrics, and is worn with Moxi bike shorts made of supplex from Phee Fabrics.

Thank you for reading and sharing my love of patterns, sewing, fabric, and creating practical, useful garments! ❤

The links to GreenStyle may be affiliate links (if I did them properly!) which means that I may earn a few pennies if you use my links without it costing you anything extra. Since this is my blog and represents me, I always give my honest opinion about any patterns, fabric, thread or supplies that I talk about. I don’t even bother to use aff links when I share on social media, so obviously it’s not a big deal to me whether you choose to use them. I do like knowing whether the time I spend writing posts actually interests people enough that they take a look at the patterns I review, but I write for me. It’s one more creative pursuit that I hope is helpful or interesting to others. I’m writing to share my love of sewing, not to make money! 🙂

New Year, New Workout Wear, New Supplies

It’s never a bad time to sew yourself some new workout wear, but losing some weight necessitates making new items that fit! My drawer full of workout wear is nearly all too big. Going to yoga class 4 times a week means that I need multiple outfits that fit.

Obviously making new workout wear is much more fun than seam-ripping apart your reverse triple coverstitched old outfits, cutting them down to a smaller size, and then re-sewing them! So I traced off a tried and true pattern (the GreenStyle Power Sports Bra) and tried a new pattern (the Sinclair Flex Leggings).

As a sewist, I always notice when someone in yoga class is wearing a new style. Several women had worn workout leggings with a deep V side panel with pocket, and I knew just the pattern to try. Sinclair Patterns is known for well drafted patterns that include petite, regular, and tall options in their files. There are quite a few Sinclair dresses, skorts, shorts, and tank tops in my wardrobe. They aren’t necessarily known for workout wear, but the Flex Leggings pattern is super cute, so I had to give it a try.

With no center front seam, the leggings fit smoothly across the abdomen and hips. The color-blocked V side inserts can include a pocket, which in my mind is a necessity. The pocket is deep, as in deep enough for even the largest phone to fit securely down into the pocket. I wore my leggings to Christmas dinner at my sister-in-laws house, and my phone never felt like it was going to fall out of my pocket. Of course I had my phone in and out of my pocket all day capturing moments with people that I love! (There’s one of us in every family 😉 and people sort of count on me to catch a few photos to share!)

This candid photo really highlights how much taller I am than my sisters-in-law. It also highlights the shenanigans present every time we get together! 🙂

The above photo also illustrates the only thing I disliked about the pattern. I need a contoured waistband, and always serge 1/4″ clear elastic into the top waistband seam in other patterns. The front and back waistband pieces on the Flex pattern are contoured, but fold-over. I added powernet to the front waistband piece, basting it to the wrong side of the fabric before sewing the waistband pieces together. Even with a double layer of powernet (since the piece is folded over) the waistband slid down all day long.

In all fairness, the tutorial does include optional directions to add narrow elastic threaded through buttonholes in the inner side of the waistband that could be tied to fit. I own one pair of Athleta leggings with an inner drawstring that in the past I have never bothered to tie. Since I’ve lost weight, I currently have the drawstring pulled tight and tied in a knot. But with a smooth front and smooth waistband, I didn’t really want a knot of elastic bumping out in the front. So I unpicked a small section of the waistband to leggings seam, inserted 1″ wide knit elastic, overlapped the ends by 1/2″ and zig-zagged the overlap, and serged the small section of waisband seam closed. I wore my new outfit to yoga class this week, and they stayed up perfectly! Problem solved!

Adding the 1″ wide elastic was the perfect solution! As always, I added a note to my pattern piece so I know exactly how long to cut the elastic (and remember to add it!) the next time I make these leggings!

As with every pattern, it is important to grade to fit your body. I have well developed calves (thanks to skating and yoga), so I knew I needed to grade my pattern pieces. The size chart doesn’t include calf measurements, but I’ve made enough workout wear and know my body shape well enough to estimate that my calves are about two pattern sizes larger than my hips. My knees are slender and I wanted to ensure that the leggings didn’t get baggy at the knee, so I started my grading just below the knee.

A french curve ruler is super helpful for making smooth transitions between sizes. The ruler helped me make a gradual curve on the outer seams of both the front and back pattern pieces from a size 8 out to a size 12 below the knee.

Since I couldn’t know for sure whether my grading was perfect or not, I basted the outer leg seam and tried the leggings on before serging the seam and reverse triple coverstitching. No one wants to have to seam rip that as an experiment! The grading ended up being just right, and now that I have the pattern perfected for my body, future pairs will sew up much more quickly!

These are the 7/8 length, and of course I want to make a pair with the lower leg color-blocking. So I’ll have to play around with transferring my changes to the color blocked pattern piece. What fun is sewing if you don’t challenge yourself, right? 🙂

I also like to challenge myself to see if I can still do a cartwheel. Yoga has kept my body strong and maintained my balance. Apparently it is also amusing/fascinating to watch a Grandma do numerous cartwheels while being photographed. As my husband finished our photo session a young woman lounging nearby at the beach smiled, nodded, and gave me a thumbs up. 🙂

The Power Sports Bra is a staple workout and/or swim top pattern for me. Women with smaller cup sizes can get away with flat front bras/tops, but a fuller bust is curvy and princess seams are great for fitting smoothly over your bust projection. I love playing around with it and trying new hacks. Doing double narrow straps with a criss cross was a fun, easy hack. It’s important to take your measurements and compare them to the size chart on a regular basis. I started by tracing my pattern in a smaller size. Previously I’ve used the 34 band size in cups E/F. The F is a little too high in the armpits, so I blend the E and F. My current measurements put me in a 32F. But my bust is fuller at the bottom than at the top. So I take away a bit of the upper curve on the side cup piece. Customizing the pattern pieces to fit your body is the key to a perfectly fitted garment.

Perfectly fitted princess curves fit smoothly over the bust with no puckering at the seams.

Porcelynne has some really pretty rainbow finish rings and slides that I wanted to incorporate into my top. Generally I use wide straight straps on the U-back Power Sports Bra because I don’t like straps pulling on my traps or up near my neck. I’ve found that I need the 1″ wide (final size) straps to be about 13″ long with either elastic or powernet in them, as in this post.

After cutting my four 1.5″ wide straps longer than needed, I zig-zagged 3/8″ knit elastic into the seam as shown here. It’s important to press your straps after turning, so they are as flat and smooth as possible. Also, pressing as you sew gives your garments a much more polished and professional finish.

Extending the strap connection point on the strappy U-back pattern piece by 1/2″ gave room to add the 3/4″ rings to the back by folding the fabric over the ring and stitching it in place. Then two straps were folded over each ring and stitched in place. The two outer straps were kept straight and the two inner straps were criss-crossed.

I love the fun shape the straight and criss-crossed straps form on the back. Kind of like a stylized W. I also like the muscles that I’ve developed over twenty years of doing yoga. 🙂 Not bad for a Grandma pushing 60, huh?

You control how close to the neck your crossed straps are by the placement of the 3/4″ slides. Slide them up, and the straps are pulled farther from the neck. Slide them down for maximum crossing. Once you’ve found the perfect placement for you, the straps get tucked into the bra front and stitched in place as per the pattern tutorial. My straight straps ended up 13″ long, and the crossed straps ended up 15″ long.

Using sliders not only adds a fun look, but gives you an option to slightly tighten or loosen the straps for comfort.

I’m definitely going to use rings and slides again because it’s just such a fun look! Making even a few small changes to a pattern is not only fun, it personalizes the pattern for your needs. I was also excited to try a new fabric called stretch eclon jersey from Mood Fabrics. Eclon is a brand name of nylon, and if you’ve read my blog before, you know that I am a big fan of nylon spandex. I avoid polyester, especially for workout wear because it doesn’t breathe and tends to absorb sweaty odors. Ewwww! Florida is usually hot, and my workout wear fabric needs to be moisture wicking.

I hope this inspires you to play with your patterns, and work towards a perfect fit as well as trying new looks.

I love the definition that reverse triple cover-stitching adds to accent the seam lines of well designed workout wear.

The details:

Sinclair Flex Leggings and GreenStyle Power Sports Bra, made of stretch eclon jersey from Mood Fabrics. This and several rayon spandex prints were my first purchase from Mood, so it’s a new supplier to me. I have to say that I liked all of the fabric that I ordered, except one (because it’s only a two way stretch instead of four way. Apparently I didn’t notice that in the fabric listing!)

The rings and slides were purchased from Porcelynne, along with some lovely nylon spandex fabric that I need to share. I made the cutest outfits for my granddaughters! Porcelynne isn’t new to me, I’ve purchased from her before but I don’t really think I’ve shared my makes using her findings before.

Seams were accented with a reverse triple coverstitch on my wonderful Babylock Triumph using Fantastico varigated thread #5028 Peacock Plume from Superior Threads in the looper using a stitch length of 3. Fantastico is one of my favorite threads to use for reverse coverstitching. It has such a beautiful sheen, and the short color repeat is perfect for adding a classy look to garments.

I’m very happy with my new favorite workout outfit, and will definitely be making more! Thank you for reading and sharing my love of creating, hacking, sewing, patterns, fabric, notions, thread, and making beautiful, well-fitting garments! ❤