Hazel Top, Tunic, and Dress

Bella Sunshine Designs is back and this pattern is exceptional. I love it so much! I made two during testing and they are both perfect! I love when that happens. I made my dress version first because I wanted to wear it to a quilt show the next day. I didn’t quite make that dead line, but I finished that afternoon. I then immediately began a second one.

As always Bella Sunshine Designs is size inclusive. This means her sizes go up to a Women’s size 30 which is an upper bust and hip of 59.75 inches. This pattern comes in top, tunic, and knee length dress options to fit all of your needs. There are also multiple sleeve lengths available.

Typically, with most patterns I require a bicep adjustment, but not this pattern. This is a very roomy Dolman, even after the drawstrings are added, I still have a great flutter effect. Bonus for me because now it is even quicker to make! Dolmans always sew up sew quickly since the sleeves are cut out with the bodice. Perfect for the last minutes sewist!

First up: The Dress.

I used this stunning floral print from Sly Fox Fabrics to make my Hazel dress. They have a 30% off sale happening right now! This fabric is a very lightweight Rayon Spandex. With my height adjustment, I was able to squeeze this out of a two yard cut of fabric. I did the lower cut neckline which is pretty, but I little wider than I love. Perhaps, if I used something a little sturdier for the band it would have pulled in a bit. I used the matching fabric for the drawstrings. These I sewed narrow tubes, and turned them with a tube turner to make them easy. A bodkin made threading the tubes through the channels easy as well.

Next up: The Shirt.

I have been hoarding this stars and stripes, named Becky, print from Stitchin’ Pretties since early summer I believe. This is also a Rayon Spandex, but a heavier one than the floral print. I would compare the weight and feel to a jersey. I couldn’t decide what I wanted to make with it, until now! I know this would be perfect for a Hazel tunic. I planned to pair this tunic with dark washed jeans for a neater look.

You can pick up a copy of Hazel here Bella Sunshine Designs.

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Also today only is the $5 Sunday Sale on the Emmaline Dress from Bella Sunshine! Here is my orginal blog post review for the Emmaline Dress.

Here is the Aff. Link for you to pick it up while on super sale!

Simple Dress vs.

Chevron Dress

Before I wrap this up, let me guide you over to the House of Curves. We now have a blog that is up and running. Myself and Becky, another curvy sewist, did a review for the BSD Hazel pattern and for some extra fun, We are giving away a copy of the pattern. So go check it out here!!!

As always this post contains affiliate links.

Copy Cat: 12 Months, 1 Pattern, No Repeats

I am copying the heck out of my Sew Sista, Stephanie! Stephanie AKA The Sarcastic Sewist, is doing an exciting, year long blog series using the Diane Joggers from 5outof4 Patterns. She will be using the pattern options as well as hacking the original design to make 12 different pants to cover every possible need you have in your wardrobe. You can read her original post here. 

Her look was created with French Terry for the bottoms and DBP for the top. So I knew I wanted to do the same. I also knew that since I have never sewn this pattern before, I would want to make a muslin. A muslin (or a toile) is basically a mock up of a pattern made with the purpose of testing fit, determining personal adjustments, or even practicing unfamiliar techniques. You don’t use your high dollar fabrics or fabrics you need to make look good for a promo (my situation). At times, pants can be a bit tricky to get right even if an amazing designer has drafted them. My issue is that I have a large belly, no hips and no booty. When I take my hip measurement into account, I am put solidly into a size 5x with these pants. I am also lucky enough to know that The Diane Joggers, The Zen Pants, and The Molly PJ’s all have the same rise. This means that when measuring from the front waist band, between my legs, over my booty and up to the back waist band, all three of the patterns were created equal. Since I tested the Molly PJ set, I knew that making a 5X would have me swimming in fabric. With Molly, I tried making a 4x and grading my legs to a 3x. This worked well for me. My Molly fabric was DBP, so it has more stretch than French Terry. Because of this, I didn’t want to grade down to the 3x for my legs. I needed these pants to have their intended look, which is fitted, but not skin tight and I needed them to look good in public.

These Diane Joggers are a straight 4x. I only adjusted for height. These are my mock up pair and I only removed 3 inches from the length. When I tried them on it was clear that I needed to remove about another 2 inches so you can see the cuffs I worked so hard to put on. 🙂

I choose to add the pockets since this is a copy cat and Stephanie made pockets. I used a decorative stitch on my regular sewing machine to decorate the pockets. I used the wonder tape which was suggested in the pattern and in Stephanie’s blog post. It honestly did make this so easy. Here is photo of my decorative stitching. I like the loop to loop design with the polka dot print. You can also see that I topstitched along the top of the pocket and made the drawstring casing for the waistband.

I used this Gray French Terry fabric as my muslin. I picked this up months ago from Rosa at Sew Blessed. As always, her prices are low and her inventory changes almost weekly. I knew I wanted a solid top to wear with these pants so I wore my Paris top that I recently made to wear with my Arabella Skirt. The Coral solid looks lovely with the darker gray in my pants. I was lucky enough to have these flip flops which are nearly a perfect color match!

Since overall, I was happy with the fit of these pants, the only change I made was removing 2 more inches from the length. I am only 5’1. This will most likely always need to be done when I make pants.

These are my second pair of Dianes. I am obsessed with this fabric. It is French Terry from Stitchin’ Pretties. The print is called Hallie and here is the direct link to it. I love how it looks a little bit vintage and a whole lot of pretty.  My shirt here is Molly. Yes, Molly is a PJ top, but it is also a neatly fitting basic T-shirt which comes with a Full Bust Adjustment. I added several inches to my sleeves (remember Stephanie shortened hers) and did a Full Bicep Adjustment. I also added 3 inches to the shirt length so the world wouldn’t see my belly. My fabric is this Dark Hunter Green from Stitchin’ Pretties. My boots are covering my cuffs here, but I did shorten my length and they no longer pool around my ankles. I wanted to be able to wear this outfit to work, so I dressed it up a bit with boots and added some pretty jewelry my friend, Tonya, gave me.

These pants have a drawstring waist. I used a long narrow piece of my French Terry to make the tube. If you make tubes, Tube Turners will save you so much time and frustration. I was able to turn this narrow piece in about 30 seconds. I used an elastic bodkin to pull it through the waistband and that took about another 30 seconds. I double knotted the ends of my so they wouldn’t easily pull through my waistband. I am very happy to report that these pants stayed up all day! I was worried that they would slip down and fall down as the day drug on. NOPE, didn’t budge!! I am such a happy girl!

Let’s get you some pattern links. All of these patterns are sized up to 5x.

Diane Joggers

Molly Top and PJ Pants

Paris Party Top and Dress

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