Welcome to my first October post, my Birthday month and the start of the best sewing season – spring/summer. Today I’m bringing you all the florals, all the knits, all the sleeves and of course all the love from these bodysuits. When Megan Nielsen contacted me saying that they were re-releasing the Rowen pattern in extended sizing and would I be interested in reviewing the pattern for them, of course I said yes. I’m always happy to see pattern companies become more inclusive, so my review is based on the Rowan curve sizes.

The Pattern

Megan Nielsen describes the pattern as follows: “Rowan is the ultimate wardrobe builder fitted tee and bodysuit. Pattern features figure hugging close fit, three neckline options, three sleeve lengths and tee or bodysuit versions.” Guys I mean, the variations that one can create from this pattern are limitless, the hacking opportunities to this pattern are endless. I love a good T-shirt but I had never made a bodysuit before and this looked like a good challenge to exercise all my creativity.

Fabrics

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Guys, I’ve put myself on a fabric buying ban for October and November, I need to find my inner happiness, shopping only provide temporary happiness. So I’m working on myself. So when I started this whole process, I shopped my stash and found some pink viscose lycra and after making it, I realised the fabric was too thin and wasn’t giving me the vibes. So off we went to Pinterest for some inspiration and back to the fabric stash to get creative:

• Bodysuit A: Made with Floral mash fabric and body lined with viscose lycra
• Bodysuit B: made with stretch lace
• Bodysuit C: body and sleeve cuffs made with velvet and and sleeves made with organza.

Sewing

Sewing knits is no longer daunting for me, once I got my overlocker, I’ve really enjoyed sewing knits and they usually come together very quickly. This project, I would say you can do about 95% on you overlocker, the only thing I did with my sewing machine was adding the elastic to the legs, adding the facings and closing up the elastic raw edges. My sewing machine hates knits, but we managed, slow as it was, we managed. Guys, when I get all creative, it tends to mean sometimes I will add unnecessary complexity to things, I must say all these bodysuit I tried not to over think things and just did them, some things turned out better than expected some not so good but overall, I think I managed to show how versatile this pattern really is. My measurements are B: 107cm, W: 90, and H:120 and I am a true D cup. The pattern I cut a size 16 for the bust and graded to a size 18 at the waist and hip. I made no other adjustment, I am 160cm tall. Below I will break down each bodysuit and how it came together.

Bodysuit A: is a view D crew neck and view F long sleeve. I’m so happy with this one, it came out exactly as I imaged it and the most complex thing was making sure I baste two fabrics (mesh and viscose lycra) together before sewing the bodysuit together. So super easy. I liked this bodysuit because I got to play with 2 very lightweight knits and got the result I was looking for. I would definitely recommend using a rotary cutter and pattern weights when cutting mesh fabric, you will suffer trying to use scissors, the fabric is just too slinky and shifty.

Bodysuit B: is a view D, crew neck and short sleeve. After making Bodysuit A, I was feeling myself at my success, and was ready to do a little bit of hacking. I had the bright idea to do a puff sleeve using stretch lace that has a lot of drape, what a bright idea Tino😔😅. As you can see, my puff sleeve is more of a droopy sleeve but hey, it still cute right. For the puff sleeve, I lengthen the short sleeve by about 5cm, slash the pattern right through and spread the panels by 3cm between each panel. I raised the sleeve head by about 2.5cm. I really need to do this sleeve hack on Ankara, I’m sure the effect will have the desired drama I was going for.

Bodysuit C: is view E V-neck and view F long sleeve. Third time is the charm right, Bodysuit C is definitely my favourite and I love my bell sleeve hack. Firstly this velvet fabric was a dream to work with as it was so stable compared to the slinky fabric from the previous 2, all I had to remember was to pay attention to the direction of the velvet nap when cutting the pattern pieces, other than that, this was very easy to sew. I used the slash and spread method for the bell sleeve, just not slashing all the way through. The panels were spread approximately 7 – 10cm apart. I was scared that the organza sleeve wouldn’t fit with the velvet knit but I had no problems and sewed it up like the previous 2 bodysuits.

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Overall, I loved that I didn’t have to do a full bust adjustment, a full boodie adjustment or a full this and that adjustment. For me, because I can draft my own patterns, I get patterns because I want to lesson my workload and get right into sewing. When I have to do too many adjustments, I get annoyed because I was hoping for something quick and easy. The Rowan curve pattern was definitely easy, any mistakes that I made was because I hate reading instructions🤣. I love that it has so many variations that it inspired me to get creative with fabrics and sleeve hacks. Maybe next time we can do some cutouts in the body. I cannot believe the different types of fabrics I have in my stash that I don’t even remember buying, I have about 5m of this organza fabric and after working with it, I’m thinking full organza shirt dress. I’m actually excited to shop my stash and continue sewing because it really does make me happy. Which bodysuit did you like best of the 3?