Part 3 - Planning your Summer Sewing Collection

Here we are in week 3! So far we have made a Pinterest mood board, cleaned out our closets and made an assessment of the items we were needing for Summer. Then we sketched out our designs. Today, we are going to talk about finding the right patterns to go along with those designs!

So when I assessed my closet and mood board, I noticed I was in need of tops, skirts, shorts, and beach pants, and I was lacking bright colors in my closet. I drew out a bunch of designs and then narrowed it down to 4-5 items I will be sewing. I made my design decisions based on things I knew I really wanted, and but also wanting to use some patterns and fabrics I already had on hand.

So when looking for a pattern that fits your design, look at the style-lines of the item and the line drawings on the pattern. (I go over this a bit in my post about Recreating Pinterest Looks. You can find it here.) So for instance, I knew that I wanted to make a pair of beach pants similar to this:

I also knew that in my pattern stash, I had McCall's 7164 which matched the lines of the inspiration photo.

But sometimes, the designs you have in mind don't match up with any of the patterns in your stash, so you have go on a pattern hunt! :) When looking for a specific pattern, put specific keywords into your search engine that relate to the item. So for the beach pants, I would search "Wide Leg Beach Pants Pattern" or just "Wide Leg Pants Pattern" and see what comes up in a Google Search.

If I don't find anything there, I go straight to the major pattern companies... Simplicity, McCall's, Burda etc, and do a search for what I'm looking for. Other great places to look are Indie Sew for Independent Pattern Designs, and Pattern Review where people can review all types of sewing patterns. I also search on Pinterest all the time as well.

So go find the patterns that best match your needs, and next week we will talk about picking fabric and sewing up the collection!