This month’s Sewing By Ti blog tour theme is inspired by the 2018 Pantone Spring color forecast. I’m not one to be particularly observant about color trends, nor do I tend to dress to them. And for this tour, I almost decided to disregard the tour brief entirely and just do my own spring inspired thing. But then I looked into my ever-growing-stash and realized I had some fuchsia stretch twill from Simply By Ti that seemed to match Pantone Spring Crocus, and I had various random knits in Ultra Violet, Pink Lavender, Lime Punch and Arcadia. In the end I opted for Arcadia in a t-shirt knit I picked up super cheap a year or two ago at Zinck’s Fabric Outlet in Lancaster, PA.
About the Patterns – for Her
I have been wanting to make Jalie Éléonore’s* since forever! Many people in the Facebook groups I’m in rave about this pattern, and since it’s available in kids and women’s sizes, it’s a logical choice for me with 2 little girls to dress!
The Éléonore’s require fabric with at least 20% horizontal stretch. It comes with faux front pockets (there is a separate add on available for real pockets), back pockets, faux fly, and has an elastic waistband. As with every Jalie pattern, the size starts at 2T and goes up to US women’s 22. For my daughter’s pants, she measured a 5T for waist/hip (I) and her inseam was size 8 (L). Measuring her inseam was pretty tricky because she was being super uncooperative so they ended up being far too long. But, it’s easier to be too long than too short! (For these photos I just went ahead and folded them up – I’ll re-hem them later!)
The instructions were very straight forward and easy to follow. I started out by using the chainstitch function on my coverstitch machine to baste everything together (except back pockets) to check the fit. My daughter was complaining that they were too tight and tickling her, but I think this may have been because of the exposed seams rubbing up against her.
Since I wanted to use white top stitching thread for the top stitching, and didn’t fancy swapping the thread, needles, and stitch settings around between every single seam, I decided to set up my daughter’s sewing machine (a mechanical Babylock BL8) for all the piecing, and my Bernina for the top stitching. With my Bernina, I used the open embroidery foot (foot #20) to do all the top stitching and this worked really well, especially in the curved areas. I usually use edge stitch foot (foot #10) for this type of application but I actually found the embroidery foot worked much better for me.
A while ago, Closet Case Patterns put out a free collection of pocket top stitching templates, so I used that to guide my stitching for the back pockets. I love how that turned out!
I’ll definitely be making Éléonore’s for me, though for mine I will use Jalie’s instructions for turning them into skinny pants (of course this is something I only just found now as I’m doing this write up!).
For my daughter’s top, I used Jalie 2805 Women’s T-Shirts pattern* in view C (V-neck). She measured a size H (4) for chest and K for height so I used the H and added length. I think I perhaps should have also added some length in the armscye as the sleeve is a little tight. This could also be attributed to this fabric not having much length stretch and being a t-shirt knit rather than cotton Lycra. This was my first time doing a v-neck though and I’m impressed with the results!!
Jalie 2805 Women’s T-Shirts pattern comes with 4 neckline options – a jewel neck, mock turtleneck, regular v neck, and an overlapped v neck with decorative buttons. It also has a choice of cap, short, three-quarter and long sleeves. Sizes run from 2T up to Womens 22.
And of course – Her Doll
I’d be in big trouble if I didn’t make my daughter a matching outfit for her doll! (My goal has been do do that with every outfit I make her, but I’ve been terrible at keeping up with it!!).
I used the free Liberty Jane Trendy T-Shirt pattern for the top, and I intended to use the Imagine Gnats Eva pants, but accidentally downloaded and used the pants from Sew Adollable. My daughter found these ones a bit hard to get on and I think they could be a little higher waisted, so I’ll try the Imagine Gnats one next time.
Now that I’ve made one outfit in the Pantone Spring colors, I’m inspired to make many more on-trend outfits! I’m constantly struggling to work out what goes with what, so I think this would help me with my color coordinating. What about you? Have you ever used a Pantone color report to work out your wardrobe? Would you? Tell me about it!
*Disclosure: I’m a Jalie Patterns Creative Ambassador and received both Jalie patterns complimentary for purposes of review and promotion.
Need more inspiration?
Be sure to stop by the rest of the bloggers participating in this month’s tour!
Thursday, March 1st: Sewing By Ti- Intro
2nd: Tenille’s Thread
Monday, March 5th: Confessions of the Pink Obsessed
6th: Sewn By Lone
7th: Sewing By Ti, Stylin Stacy
8th: EYMM
9th: Stitched by Jennie
10th: Elli and Nels
Sunday, March 11th: Make it Sew with the Bear and Pea Atelier
12th: Very Blissful
13th: My Heart Will Sew On
14th: Sewing Blue
15th: Seams Like Style
16th: Kate Will Knit
17th: Twinado Alley
Sunday March 18th: Mermaids Den
19th: My Sewing Roots
20th: Our Play Palace
21st: Kathys Kwilts and More
22nd: The Fairy Dust Bin
23rd: Oak Blue Designs
24th: Aurora Designs Fabrics
Sunday March 25th: Flaxfield Sewing
26th: Seams Sew Lo
27th: Ma Moose
28th: Back 40 Life
29th: Auschick Sews
30th: Manning the Machine
31st: Mermaids Den
auschick sews 
Very cute and love the colors! I have the Eleonore’s, too, and made them for my girl. You really need to watch the stretch content…my first one was too small for her unfortunately. At least the second pair fit and she wears them all the time. It’s nice that they come in such a wide size range. I need to get a pair sewn up for myself, too.
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Yes, I made sure these had enough stretch! But unfortunately Ti can’t get anymore, so what’s in the shop is all that’s left!
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