Kate Dress – Love to Sew Learn to Sew

How to Sew a Circular Patch Pocket

Published on May 23, 2019July 8, 2019 by Sew Me SomethingLeave a comment

Patch pockets are traditionally square-ish or rectangular in shape, but that doesn’t have to be so!

You can make a real feature of a pocket by making it circular.

Where you want to place your pocket will determine the size you want to make it. It could look very sweet as a small top pocket on a blouse or larger as a proper hand-sized pocket if you wanted to add your own twist to the Viola Skirt.

This is how we made ours:

We wanted a hand sized pocket so used a side plate as a template. You could use anything circular as your own template or even a pair of compasses (from your old school geometry set).

Draw around the template on some paper to create your pattern. To find the grain line just fold the circle in half, and the crease will be your grain line. You can then decide the angle you would like for the faux flap and draw that in too.

Make sure the interfacing extend over the fold line for the faux flap.

Cut out a pair of circles using the template and also a small piece of interfacing the size of the faux flap but just extended past the fold line slightly. This will help to support the folded over flap when you sew on the button later.

Attach the interfacing to the wrong side of one of the circles over the flap area. And then pin the two circles with the right sides together.

Sew around the circles starting and finishing at the bottom, but remember to leave a gap so you can turn the pocket through to the right side.

The closer the V shapes the better curve you’ll get

Snip out small V shapes all around the seam allowance. Leave the seam allowance un-snipped across the gap to make sure the snips don’t go too far.

You’ll sew the gap closed when you sew around the pocket on the garment.

Turn the pocket through to the right side and carefully press out the circle shape. Tucking in the seam allowance across the gap.

Fold over the faux flap and attach a button as decoration.

Edge stitch the pocket in place onto your garment making sure to secure the top corners.

This would look great as a hack on the Viola Skirt or Kate Dress.

Have a look at our Pinterest Board for some more Patch Pocket Inspiration.

Sewing Quarter – 26th July 2018 Cordelia, Kate and Little Katie

Several people have asked where they can watch the episodes of the Sewing Quarter that feature Jules and the Sew Me Something Patterns, so we have decided to add them as pages to our Blog so you can find them more easily.

Click on the image and it’ll take you to the Sewing Quarter You Tube Chanel. So you can watch Jules in action.

The Cordelia Dress starts 8.30.00 and the Little Katie Dress starts at 3.10.11.

You can order your own Cordelia Dress, Kate Dress and Little Katie Dress from our online store.

Happy Watching!

Making More of Your Patterns : A Sleeveless Kate

Published on July 6, 2018April 17, 2019 by Sew Me SomethingLeave a comment

Kate is just the most perfect dress for hot weather as it’s infinitely hackable.

This is how you can adapt the pattern to make a sleeveless version just right for the long hot Summer days.

Pattern alterations

The pattern needs a little bit of tweaking as the armholes are designed to take a sleeve.

First of all a I drew on the seam allowances around the armholes and across the shoulders. This makes it easier to see where and how the alterations need to be made.

The shoulder point on the pattern needs to be brought in slightly so the arm hole sits better over the ball of the shoulder.

As the Kate Dress has a visible binding to finish the neckline this works well around the armhole too. But it means that the edge of the paper pattern will be the finished edge of the dress, with the binding wrapping itself around the cut edge of the fabric. Something to bare in mind!

First I matched up the shoulder seams to make sure that both the armhole and neckline alterations were nice smooth flowing curves.

For this dress I wanted to widen the neckline slightly too. So I made a mark 1.5cm in from the neck edge and then redrew the neckline curve blending it in to the original line.

The shoulder point was moved in by 3cm and as it is going to be an open armhole I wanted to raise the underarm point a bit too so it would be too gapey.

I raised the underarm point by 1.5cm so it was level with the cut edge of the pattern piece, then re-drew the armhole from the raised armhole point on the front to the new shoulder point, and around to the back underarm point.

I cut the pattern through the new armhole and neckline while the paper was still pinned together to make sure the lines followed true.

I also lengthen the pattern by 10cm to make it more dress length than tunic length. I did this directly on to the fabric as I pinned out the pattern pieces.

Making it up

The Kate Dress has two options for the front of the dress. Plain and simple or with a bit of gathering at the centre front neckline.

As I am more than amply catered for in the bosom department I usually opt to go for the version with a bit of extra gathers just to make everything a bit more comfortable around the bust. You can do a Full Bust Adjustment too if you prefer.

Gathers are a form of ‘suppression’ and like their confederates; pleats, tucks and darts, basically just suppress the extra fabric to create a 3D shape. They can be interchangeable too.

For this dress I wanted a flatter finish at the neckline but to keep that bit of extra fullness in the fabric. So I turned the gathers into an inverted box pleat, a bit like the one I created in the Woven Peaseblossom Hack

An inverted box pleat on the woven Peaseblossom

The additional fabric is marked on the Front pattern piece and I marked this onto the fabric.

Kate Sleeveless pattern hack front inverted box pleat pleat

I measured down 20cm as I wanted the opening of the pleat to be just below bust level, and marked this as the base of the pleat. I stitched along the new pleat line and then pressed the pleat open evenly to create the inverted box shape.

It can be a little bit fiddly doing it on one this little but it’s worth getting it neat.

The rest of the dress was made up in exactly the same way as a normal Kate Dress. The pockets were bound across the top edge and sewn in place.

I know you can hardly see the pockets here, no contrasting top-stitching this time.

The armholes were finished in the same way as the neckline. I measured the armhole first to work out how much bias binding I would need.

I used a visible binding finish, to matched the neckline. And it was sewn in exactly the same way as the neckline and pockets.

This is a simple and easy pattern hack to do. I hope you give it a go and make several Kates for the Summer.

Happy Sewing!

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