Seamless (almost!) Chevron Cardigan Butterick 5789

I love it when I find a pattern that is so simple, that it's genius.

That's how I feel about Butterick 5789. You wouldn't necessarily know that it's genius from looking at the cover, and based on how few reviews of it that I've found, I'd have to say this is a sleeper. It's been out a while, but has gone under the radar of most of us because the cover photo was in a blah beige.

But believe me, if you want instant gratification, this pattern will give you it. Why, you say? What is so genius about this design? Well, take a look at the sides. No seams!

And take a look at the back- no seams! And they did this while only using two yards of fabric.

How did they do this? Well- the front, back and collar are all ONE PIECE! The only piece that is separate is the sleeve, and well, you do have a few seams to sew if you want sleeves.   But, you can choose the vest version too, and avoid those pesky sleeve seams.

This is ideal for striped fabrics that are difficult to match like this chevron sweater knit. You can still match the sleeve stripes to the body stripes like I did if you want, but you don't have too- NO ONE WILL NOTICE BUT YOU! (I always have to tell my perfectionist sewing students to relax, and not sweat the small stuff.)

One caveat to this design though is that the fabric needs to stretch in two directions- that means both lengthwise stretch and crosswise stretch. The reason is that the main piece is cut going the direction of the length of the fabric. I was lucky that my fabric's stretch was going in that direction, or else this wouldn't have worked. So, be careful of this. I've been tripped up more than once with tricky stretch issues. However, the toughest part of this is narrow hemming the perimeter. But the whole thing- cutting to finish takes less than 2 hours, which makes me a very happy customer.

Do you have a pattern that is so simple it is genius? If so, please let me know!   I want it, preferably on sale, and now, thank you!

What to Wear in Madagascar

To be honest, I have no idea what to wear in Madagascar, and this title may need to be changed to "what NOT to wear in Madagascar" in a few months. We will have to wait and see. My 22 year old daughter, Alyssa, left for the Peace Corps this week, and she will be stationed in Madagascar for the next 2 years and 3 months. Yes, you read that right- TWO YEARS and three months!!! We are very proud of her for wanting to help make the world a better place, and for being fearless in doing so, but it will be a looooong time for Mama and Papa back home. Not knowing anything about Madagascar, the first step in figuring out what to pack was to figure out the weather and the cultural norms. Madagascar is a very large island off the southeastern coast of Africa. It's very, very unique in it's ecosystem, and has many species that are not found anywhere else in the world- most famously lemurs. Right now, it is experiencing it's rainy season, as you can see by the

Giveaway Day

The popular blog SewMamaSew is sponsoring a Giveaway Day! We are participating and would like to offer a prize of 3 SewBaby patterns! To enter, just comment about which SewBaby pattern you would like to win the most. We will ship internationally, and the prize winner will be selected randomly on December 6th. Make sure to leave a way for us to contact you if you are the winner! You will get to choose which three patterns are your prize!

Vogue 9305 Asymmetrical Tunics

It's April and we're expecting snow tonight. Have we switched hemispheres? Nevertheless, I am sewing with visions of warm sunny days. And for those warm sunny days to come, I imagine sitting in the shade with a light breeze flowing through the air, enjoying a light beverage with friends. Just close your eyes and you can imagine too. What would you be wearing? Well, I love a dramatic asymmetrical tunic made of the softest linen. As luck would have it, I found just the fabric in the "As Is" section in Fabric Mart's sales category. With just some irregular dye marks on the selvage, it was marked down, but still completely usable. It started out as a solid color, but I did an ombre dip dye process to get this look- more on that later! For my pattern, I chose Vogue 9305 , a tunic with a shaped hemline, and two styles of pants (I didn't make the pants). This pattern must be the biggest bang for your time possible. The tunic went tog

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