Sewing the Bibi Pinafore and Freya Sweater from Tilly and the Buttons Stretch Book

My thoughts on sewing two of the patterns from the Tilly and the Buttons Stretch! book.

When I heard the new book by Tilly and the Buttons was coming out and it was all about sewing knits, it didn't take much convincing before I put in my pre-order on Amazon.

The day after I received it in the mail, I was at Joann's in the happy, stretchy, knit section. I picked a heavy ponte floral knit for the pinafore and an awesome two-sided jersey knit for the freya sweater. The combination felt very "Spring" to me, which is what I was going for.

The pinafore sewed up nice and easy. The instructions were well written and easy to understand. I had it done front to back in about an hour and a half. The only thing I noticed after wearing it for a day, was that my straps loosened up quite a bit. I think I will need to go back in and shorten them up.

As for the Freya sweater, the knit I picked up was two-sided. One side had a black-and-white stripe and the other side had a polka dot. So I opted to try and use a flat felled seam on my serger so I could wear it on either side. This was a first for me, but thankfully for YouTube, I had it figured out in no time. The only modification I made was to cut the mock neck in half and sew one polka dot side to one striped side together so I could have the correct pattern on the mock neck match up with the correct pattern on the front. I had the shirt done in about an hour.

Overall, I loved sewing both of these pieces. They were so quick and easy to sew, great for any beginning seamstresses out there. I think I may need to revisit these patterns again, and I definitely want to try some of the other patterns in the book!

Don’t be scared to sew with knits. It does take a bit of a learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, sewing knits is a breeze… and super comfortable too! Plus, knits are a lot easier to fit than wovens. Give knits a try!