Hello, sewing friends!  These are certainly strange times we are living in.  I've spent the last few weeks holed up in my house, like so many people, feeling a bit isolated.  It's at times like this that I am so thankful to have hobbies to keep my mind and hands busy.  I hope you have been able to find some comfort with your sewing, just like I have.

I have tried to carry on with my life as normally as I can, and that means I have continued designing patterns.  I am happy to share with you today my latest creation, the Tanja Boyshort.

Now, on with the details of the pattern...

I enjoy wearing boyshorts under summer dresses, but my main pet peeve is the floating gusset.  In RTW boyshorts, the gussets are usually just tacked down in a few spots and flop around the inside of the short.  I find this a bit annoying and uncomfortable.  My goal with this pattern was to create a boyshort style with an enclosed gusset, and also to offer a variety of finishing options.

Waist and leg openings can be finished with lace...

Fabric bands...

Picot elastic...

Or a covered elastic waist and folded up hem.

Waist: 26-50” / 66-127cm
Hip: 35-60” / 89-152cm

Self fabric: Stretch knits with at least 40% stretch.
Suggestions: Cotton/spandex jersey, rayon/spandex jersey, bamboo/spandex jersey, stretch mesh, stretch lace.

Style B: for the waist and leg bands use a knit with excellent recovery and at least 5% spandex and 50% stretch, such as cotton/spandex jersey or nylon/spandex jersey.

​Gusset Lining: cotton jersey. 

Style A: 3/8” elastic, such as picot or piping. Fold over elastic (FOE) can also be used.
Style C: stretch lace trim, up to 2 1/2”/6cm wide.
Style D: 1/4-3/8”/6-9mm wide plain soft elastic. 

For more information, see the listing in my pattern store.

Until next time, stay safe and healthy, and happy sewing.

Hello, my sewing friends.  Things are a bit scary out there, aren't they?  So many events shutting down, schools closing, and the first prospective case of COVID-19 has been reported in my county.  My close sewing friends and I all fall into the high-risk categories, so I'm feeling a bit nervous.  

I don't know about you, but at times like this my hobbies become even more important to me as a way of dealing with stress and keeping my mind occupied.  I've been spending a lot of time out in my garden planting vegetables, and at my sewing machine with some quilting and easy sewing projects.  I hope you are finding the same sort of comfort in your crafting projects too.  On that note, I decided to have a pattern sale in the hopes that this weekend we can all stay in and do a bit of mindless sewing with some easy projects. 

Now until March 20, 2020 all patterns are 20% off when you use coupon code STAYHOMEANDSEW.  This coupon works both in my pattern store on this website and my Etsy store. 

Stay calm and sew on.  And wash your hands :) Be safe, my friends, I'll be praying for all of us.

Is this set looking familiar?  After yesterday's post about creating the strappy pattern hack for the Elodie Briefs, I decided to make this my set of the week.  This also uses the same lace fabric as last week's set, aqua lace.

When I design a pattern, I try to offer four style variations.  Sometimes I'll have ideas for more variations, but, for a number of reasons, I can't include them all in the pattern.  When I was working on the Elodie Briefs I had more ideas for lace overlays, which will be used for a new pattern in the future, and I also had an idea for a strappy option that uses elastic along the sides instead of the side panels.  The pattern was already long enough, so I decided to offer the instructions here as a pattern hack.  I hope you enjoy.

In case you missed it, here is Part 1 of the Elodie Briefs tester roundup. Now we continue to Part 2 of the Elodie Briefs tester roundup.

Here is Part 1 of the Elodie Briefs tester roundup.  Every time I test a pattern I am very lucky to get to work with a really fantastic group of sewists!  Their behind-the-scenes work really helps me improve my patterns and inspires my creativity with their lovely creations.  I am happy to share their work with you today.

I’ve already covered pattern alterations for adjusting the rise for a different torso length, which affects both the front and back rise length.  But what do we do when the back rise length is good, and the front rise dips too low?