Back in February I saw a call for pattern testers from a new pattern company, The Sewn Edge. Then known as Savannah and Skye, it was a small company run by Abigail Kavanagh who made beautiful children’s clothes and she was planning to release her first PDF pattern; a children’s pinafore.
It looked gorgeous. I loved the clean lined modern aesthetic and delightful bright strong colour palate of her handmade clothes and this pattern had that same beautiful character. It came with two options, with or without a big oversized front pocket, and a few testers were needed to try it out.
She had also mentioned that the pinafores, version A in particular, would suit adornment with appliqué, which is kinda my thing these days… That, along with the lovely design, grabbed my interest so I decided to apply. I was delighted to be selected to join a small team of testers and got stuck straight in.
The first pinafore I made was Version A – without pocket. I used some lovely laundered linen from Marchant and Mills as the main fabric and combined it with a contrasting paprika corduroy also from Merchant and Mills! I had some lemon yellow French terry from See You At Six in my stash that contrasted beautifully with the orange-red corduroy and wondered what appliqué design might work. What yellow animals are there? The colours for some reason made me think of the Chinese New Year which was being celebrated around that time and there was lots of talk about it, and Chinese dragons, in my children’s creche. All this somehow morphed into the idea of drawing an albino Burmese python.
No.3 was a little scared of the snake when she first saw it; I’m not surprised – that snake looks to me like it’s out on the hunt! I ran out of time, but reckon a having a little mouse stuffy pinned to the strap could be a lovely way to play with that idea!
There is so much to love about this pattern! The seams are all enclosed which makes for such a neat and satisfying sewing project. I love it when a garment looks as good on the inside as on the outside!
All pieces came together really well and the fit was pretty much bang on. The pattern tutorial is very clearly written walking you through each step and construction of the pinafore is really enjoyable.
Now for that pocket!
When making my second version I sized up one size to give a little more growing room, without being too big. I knew this next Treasure Hunter was going to be a special one, so wanted to make sure No.3 would get plenty of wear out of it.
The pattern tells you what length to cut the elastic for each size, but also gives you a formula to use your child’s exact measurement to determine the elastic length. I found this really useful as it meant I could confidently size up but still cut the elastic the right size for a neat fit at the waist.
One of my most favourite pieces of fabric I have in my stash is a beautiful and soft cotton/linen canvas by nani IRO bought from Metermeter about a year or so ago. It is precious and I haven’t seen it available anywhere since. Oh I wish I could get my hands on more! I would love to make something for myself from it, but I knew it would make a stunning Treasure Hunter and couldn’t resist cutting into it.
You know you like a pattern when you’re prepared to sacrifice some of your most special fabric to make it!
The front pocket on this pinafore is one of my favourite pattern features in anything I’ve made. It is gorgeously generously proportioned and just brilliant for carrying around all sorts of bits ‘n’ pieces. No.3 had a great time filling it up with shells and emptying it out again, and again, and again. Every time she wears it it gets filled up with all sorts of interesting and important goodies.
I’m so very happy I got the chance to test this pattern. There is something very special about being involved at this stage of a new pattern, even more exciting when it’s the debut pattern of a new company, and a pretty special one too. I love that pattern testing gives me a chance to expand my sewing community and love that it gives just a little bit of help to those brave designers who work so hard to get their patterns out to the world.
We live in a very small world…
On a bit of a side note here…
At the start of testing I asked Abigail, that talented boss at The Sewn Edge, if it would be possible to get an A0 test pattern file, explaining that I am an architect and very lucky to sit beside an A0 plotter in the office. (To be honest, I have become very spoilt and have come to resent having to cut and stick together A4 pages.)
It was at that point that I realised how small a sewing world we live in. It turns out that Abi is also an architect, is also Irish and moved to the UK a number of years ago. She worked previously with Grafton Architects, one of the best architectural practices in Ireland and run by two amazing women, one of whom was my final year tutor in college. It doesn’t surprise me that Abi comes from such a superb architectural design background; it is written all over the Treasure Hunter Pinafore design.
What next?
I’ve loved the sneak peeks that The Sewn Edge has given us over the past couple of weeks of their next pattern coming our way. Looks like its gonna have some great options!! And some more great pockets… I sense a running theme here!
And finally – a Giveaway!
When I told Abi that I had finally gotten around to writing a blog post about testing the Treasure Hunter Pinafore pattern she asked if I’d like to give away a copy of the pattern as part of the post going live! So over on Instagram (@incompletestitches) today to celebrate getting round to writing and publishing this post (13th April 2019) I’m hosting a giveaway of one copy of the Treasure Hunter Pattern! Go, go, go!!
Thank you so much for reading! If you’d like to stay in touch and be notified of my latest posts you can subscribe so that you get an email notifying you when they are released! xx Sarah.