Unless you spent the year 1999 under a rock, you know Mambo #5! Lou Bega shared his love for all the ladies in the song and that is exactly what is happening on my blog this week! A little bit of Mambo love every single day!
So as an intro, I want you to know all of these skirts come loaded with options. All of them should be made with semi structured knit fabrics such as Liverpool, French Terry, or Ponte. I also have an insider tip… All these waistbands and pockets are interchangeable between the skirts! This is where I could make a joke about a Mambo threesome, foursome, or moresome, but Momma Mia reads my blog, so I won’t.
First off, I am showing you all the skirts at one time! These are the patterns I plan to share with you this week. Yes, All Of Them! As a bonus, I am sharing all the shirts also! 4 out of the 5 are brand new!
If that is all you need to see to know you NEED this pattern collection then here is the direction link to the pattern! FYI Momma Mia’s skirt is already a dress pattern on the 5oo4 site, but it rounds out the NO. 5! All of the options work with it!
The Entire Collection is at this link!
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A little bit of Erica is what I see
Tina is the half circle skirt in the collection! First I need to question why have I never worn a skirt like this before? Ummm hello! Dare I say this is pretty cute?! It totally hides my stomach and the suspenders are pretty fun!
I choose the wide waistband option with suspenders and height adjusted the skirt by 2 inches as I am only 5’1. This is the mini length and it is suppose to be at or near knee length. If you prefer a shorter mini, just adjust at the height adjustment line. I always say the best part about sewing, it making items to you exact likes and dislikes! Maybe short skirts and tall boots are about to be my thing!
I want to tell you how easy this skirt was to sew up. I made it from printing to hemming in only a 2 1/2 ish hours. I love sewing with Ponte fabric! I picked up this print recently from Sew Blessed Fabrics. It has a nice weight to it which means my sewing machine doesn’t try to eat it when hemming. It serges neatly as well. My biggest issue was top stitching my suspender straps. For some reason, my tension was a little wonky and caused one to get very wavy. I pressed it the best I could then figured when worn it would pull flat anyhow. I am honestly not one of those perfectionist sewists. I go with the flow. If something looks bad, I will fix it. Otherwise, wear it and love it! If i didn’t tell you, you wouldn’t have known one of my straps was a little wavy. I tell you so that when you are sewing, you will check your tension and make sure yours is laying flat!
This awesome red and black plaid is a ponte knit. It screams with 90’s grunge rocker vibes at me and originally I planned to make some pants. When this pattern test popped up, I knew I was about to channel my inner Avril Lavigne and wear a shortie plaid skirt with suspenders! Yep, I went there. I have no idea where I plan to wear this outfit, but even it it goes to the grocery store on a Sunday afternoon; it will be worn!
The Women’s Erica Half Circle Skirt pattern includes the following:
- Three Hem Lengths: Mini, Knee and Midi
- Options include Suspenders, Patch Pockets or Side Seam Pockets
- Three Waistbands: Tall, Slim, Lace Up Front
- Tutorial includes a link to an extensive Skirt Fitting Guide to get your best fit!
- Women’s Sizes XXS-5XL (see the last image for yardage and size chart)
Plus don’t forget Mix and Match with the other Mambo pattern options!
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Surprise, no solid black top in my closet other than a RTW tank that I pull out in a pinch. It isn’t a poor fit, but I now know how to get great fit! So what’s a girl to do??? If you said use your black double brushed poly from your stash, you would be correct. I found this on my Stitchin’ Pretties shelf, so I must have forgotten about it. I hacked a black top to wear with the new Tina! So in my mind, I had great visions of a Camilla, but worn backwards with that amazing cowl swooping down between my shoulders. That isn’t what you see here. Things didn’t go exactly as I planned, but this knot back top is pretty cool also. So let me explain how I got to it!
I used the Easy Tee bodice front and did a Full Bust Adjustment. Next I cut the front bodice from a Camilla top to give myself all that extra fabric for my cowl neck swoop. I graded the armsyces to match the Easy Tee so I could use those sleeves. I assembled the front of my Easy Tee bodice like the back of the Camilla should be assembled. blah blah blah As it turns out this doesn’t work out like I had hoped, but I learned a few things along the way. I plan to revisit this idea so stay tuned. Anyhow, I still needed a pretty awesome black top so I put this top on my mannequin and played around. I ended up cutting straight down the middle of the cowl and serging those edges. Then tied a cut knot! 🙂 Easy Peasy, right?
Anyhow I am loving my first skirt from the Mambo collection, please let me know what you think in the comments! You can pick up your own copy of all these patterns while they are on sale by using my afflink!
Here is the link to only the Tina skirt! On sale for the release party!
Here is the link to all the skirts! On sale for the release party!
Make sure you follow me on social media as this week will continue to be amazing!
You can follow all of my sewing adventures through the links below!
f I wanted to pair a dark plum with green. I could totally use a darker green or even a mid tone, but neon be a little trickier. Look at the two shades of green here. Now swap one for poison green… eeep! Color paint palettes are awesome for matching colors!
SequoiaLynn Sews 