The Garden Girl Collection: The Stella Tunic and Leggings

The last but certainly not the least in the Garden Girl Collection

from Shwin Designs is the Stella Tunic and leggings. 

How cute is that?!

Business in front…

Party in the back!

Hahaha, but in a very cute way!!

I adore the high-low hem of the skirt and the pointy collar makes it oh so sophisticated.

This pattern is a little more advanced than the other two in the collection because

of all the buttonholes.  I don’t mind doing buttonholes though, and my new sewing machine

does them automatically and they look really nice.  I do however get stressed out a little bit

when sewing on so many buttons in a row, cause if the spacing is off you will have some

puckering and that does not look good right there in the center of your garment.

The buttons hit spot on this time, pheeew!

If you want you can continue adding buttons down the skirt piece as well,

but I wasn’t about to temp faith by adding two more!

You might notice that I put the buttonholes on the left side instead of the right?

Oh well, I guess you can’t win them all!  

And besides my almost four year old couldn’t care less!

Other than placing the buttons this came together quite fast and easy.

The pattern pieces printed out perfectly and the instructions are very clear.

The bodice is fully lined so it looks very nice on the inside as well.

The pattern has options for sleeveless or cap sleeves.  Although I’m

a sucker for cap sleeves I opted to go with sleeveless this time cause

I loved the slight racer back look on that version.

I made Anita a size 4 and it fits perfect, there is some room so she can wear

a thin long sleeved t-shirt underneath for cooler days.

Which lets face it will be most days in this part of the world!

There is also a pattern for the leggings.  They are straight forward slim fitting leggings.

I should have sized down the width cause Anita is mostly skin and bones,

but I forgot and coming fall/winter we will have to layer with some 

long johns anyway.

All I had on hand for the leggings was this light pink jersey so I added

the flowers to the knees to give them some more color.

The fabric is Playful, cotton lawn from Cotton + Steel by Melody Miller,

bought from Miss Matatabi.  Looks like she is out of this print, but no worries she has

a great selection of cotton + steel fabrics and also really cool Japanese fabrics.

Her etsy shop is one of those dangerous places for sewing addicts!! 

There really should pop up some kind of warning before entering!

And now for Anita’s signature:

She’s got the moves like Jagger

Both of us love the Garden Girl Collection, see here and here.

Anita gets so many complements and having made her outfits gives

me this nice fuzzy proud feeling inside.  I’m so glad I took up sewing!

Thanks for stopping by and go check out Shwin Designs for some great patterns.

Shauna also has a whole bunch of free patterns on her blog.

Love

Dagbjört

Ps:  I bought the Garden Girl Collection before joining the Shwin Designs ambassador program and all opinions are completely mine!

The Garden Girl Collection: The Jane Dress and Top

Today is my part two of the Garden Girl Collection Trilogy.

The Jane Dress and Top from Shwin Designs.

But first I want to tell you guys something really exciting!

A few weeks ago I filled out an application to become brand ambassador for Shwin Designs.

I had no expectations on getting it but I love Shauna’s patterns and 

the application only took a couple of minutes to fill out so I sent it in.

And what do you know, I was amongst the eight that got chosen!!!

What that means is that at least once a month I will sew and blog about one of her patterns.

Since I already have quite a few of them I would probably have done that anyway.

Here you can see The Glass Onion Top I made in May, here is a Maggy Mae and here is a Sweet Bonnie Top from way back.  I have also made a couple more Maggy Mae’s and a Glass Onion Top that never made it to the blog because they were gifts for my nieces.

Alrighty then – lets talk about the darling Jane!

Such a sweet and simple A-line shaped dress or top.

I love the tiny gather detail on the front and a peter pan collar is always cute.

The pattern includes short and long sleeves.

I really want to find some nice corduroy fabric and make a long sleeved version for fall/winter.

In the pattern instructions it says for the back closure to either use 

a small button and embroidery floss or hook and eye.

All I had when sewing this dress was some buttons and just regular thread so that’s what I used.

I went to the fabric store today and bought some hook and eye stuff so I will be changing out the closure on the dress.

I made size 4 and it fits perfect.

The pattern prints out nicely and the instructions are clear

and easy to follow.

The button on the front is just for show.

The fabric is Summer Ride in Melon from the Wee Wander Collection by Sarah Jane,

bought from Urban Sew.  It is not available there anymore.

It is very light and soft, perfect for a summer dress.

There is no photo shoot without some awkward dance moves! 

Check out my part one in the trilogy, The Mckenzie and in a few days I’ll show you the Stella Tunic.

Anita was happy to get yet another cute dress!

See you soon!

Love

Dagbjört.