Sheath Dress the Sure Fit Designs Way

I have been thinking about all the garments I have made with Sure Fit Designs and realized I had not included my sheath dresses in my blog. They became a staple in my wardrobe last summer, and I'm sure will be a repeat this summer. Hopefully, with weight loss, I'll need to take them in. This was my favorite dress. I loved the fabric from Sawyer Brooks. It was my first order from them, and I hate to admit how many times I have ordered since. I used the dress kit from Sure Fit Designs with the instructions to make it into a princess seam design without sleeves. The instructions that Glenda provides for drafting designs alone is worth the amount paid for the kit. The fit for everything I have drafted has come out perfect.

Here is the second dress I made. Again the fabric was from Sawyer Brook. This looked great under a black jacket. If you want to know more about Sure Fit Designs, you can find their website here: Sure Fit Designs

Yoga Pants - The Most Comfortable Pants on Earth!

I have made 5 pairs of yoga pants since fall. These have to be the most comfortable pair of pants I've worn since maternity pants 28 years ago! They can be worn for work or dressy occasions as well as for running errands, or just hanging out around the house. It just depends on how you style them. Four of my pairs have been from ponte knit fabrics, a type of double knit. Some have complained that the fabric wears out to soon, but I have not found that to be the case. Below, you can see my gray pair. The fabric is from Fabricmart. I normally would not wear these tucked in, but wanted you to get a better idea about the band. Can you tell that my sewing assistant, Sammi is just as proud of the pants as I am?I had made some yoga pants last year, but didn't care for the snug fit. No matter how I tried, I couldn't get rid of that dreaded panty line. So this year, I pulled out my Sure Fit Designs blue print along with the wonderful new book Glenda has written on pants. Her last pant in the book is a yoga pant. Not only does she give you directions for drafting your own, she provides ways to vary the styles. You can find Sure fit Designs at this link: Sure Fit Designs

As always, they came out perfect!

I am now trying to lose weight (3 down and 26 to go!) I didn't want to invest in a new pair of jeans or take the time to make a pair that would become too big soon (keep your fingers crossed!) Peggy Sagers from Silhouette patterns provided the idea of making a pair of yoga pants out of stretch denim. So using the yoga pants pattern I drafted from Sure Fit Designs, I proceeded. I made the fit more snug because of the fabric, but lengthened the waistband a little because the stretch isn't as great as the ponte knit. I included pockets that were topstitched to give it a jeans appearance as well as topstitched the inner seam. I loved them! Here's the back side of the jeans, along with my sewing assistant again. Click on the picture for a better view.
Here's a detailed picture of the front. I used 2" elastic in the band. These jeans took about 2 hours to make, including redrafting the front to include pockets. Again, click on the picture for a full view.

And last but not least, the front of the jeans. I am wearing them with a cardigan made from a beautiful knit I purchased from Emma One Sock. The pattern is a combination of Pamela's perfect T'shirt changed into a cardigan, with the side dart moved to a french dart, and the front redrawn from the Loes Hinse Cardigan. I love the shape of the front of that pattern.