Hi Friends! Hope you are all safe in your neck of the woods. In my neck of the woods we just got into autumn, and therefore I can feel winter approaching (the best fashion, but the worst season), the days are slowly getting shorter and there’s are definite chill in the air in the mornings. Even though the seasons are changing, we’ve been having some really good weather lately, around 26 degrees Celsius during the day. I’m still on my short dresses, skirts and shorts making trip, as I’m still wearing a lot of those items. I figured I will start on the winter wardrobe in May. Megan Nielsen gave me an advance copy of this pattern as of their community of makers for the pattern re-release and I thought I would share my thoughts and impressions of the pattern.

Pattern

Megan Nielsen Patterns has re-released the Reef set in their updated size range 0 – 20 and have included it in their curve size range size 14 – 30. I always fall in between the 2 size ranges, so I always appreciate it when pattern companies have the overlapping sizes. Just to recap on my measurements: B – 102 – 104cm (depending on where I am in my cycle), W – 90cm and H – 118 and my height is 160cm. As you can see my hips always hit the very end of most “normal/miss” size charts. Also because of my measurements, I normally have to grade between 3 sizes but with most curve sizes I just need to grade between 2 sizes. I worked with the curvy 14 – 30 pattern. For the cami, I made a straight size 14 as it’s cut on the bias so I only considered my bust measurements. For the shorts, I made a size 18, because they have an elastic waistband, I only considered my hip measurements. The shorts are high waisted, but I found they were too high, I could have reduced the crotch by 3 – 5cm, they fall too high for me and my short torso.

Fabric

So last month was wear/sew happy colour and when it came to green week, I realised my wardrobe was seriously lacking in green, especially for a person that loves colour like me. The Fabric Studio was advertising their new Tencel Linen fabric range and I was drawn to this beautiful rust colour that they had, but this bottle green also caught my eye, I decided to get both colours. I got 3 meters of each colour and when they arrived, I must say, they looked even better in real life and quality of the fabric was so lux, I was excited to cut into the fabric. After pre-washing the fabric, it has a beautiful subtle sheen and drapes beautifully. It frays just like a linen and needs a very hot iron when pressing. It retain many of the characteristics of a linen but has the subtle sheen from a Tencel. I really like the fabric really easy to work with, try and overlocker the pattern pieces in advance to prevent a lot of the fraying issues.

Sewing

Overall this set was really easy to sew, because the fabric is a bit on the light weight side, I used a size 70 universal needle and a 2.5 mm stitch length and that worked really well with the machine. The camisole is cut on the bias, I made sure not to handle the pattern pieces until I needed to start sewing them, I was afraid of them stretching out. I must say, I worked quickly and efficiently on this and it took no time at all to sew. I let it hang for 24 hours before hemming it and I had zero stretch out. For the shorts I decided on view B, the curved hem shorts. These took longer than expected because I sewed the curved hem extension pieces the wrong way round for both front and back pattern pieces, so I had to unpick all 4. Once I refocused, I managed to get the shorts done. The only “hard” part was making sure that’s the seams aligned properly which I’m really proud that they do. Overall I love the set and actually would love to make a satin pjs set with view c. The curved hem gave a facing so the insides had clean neat finishes. Though the set is fairly easily to make, it has small details that are unique and interesting to make the project fun but challenging. I would definitely recommend this to beginners, to learn skills such as cutting fabric on a bias and working with fabric cut on a bias, making simple basic pants and stitching and the ditch as there’s plenty of that to achieve the clean finishes. Let me know what you guys think of the bottle green, is green my colour or maybe I should try a brighter green like Chartreuse?

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