Designer Stitch Callie Pinafore

I finally made a pinafore!!! I have two to show you today: one that I made and videod for the Fabric Wholesale Direct blog, and the other one I made for the Alter It August challenge on Instagram.

I have wanted to make the Callie Pinafore by Designer Stitch ever since it released earlier this summer, and I am so glad I finally did!! Even though I wished I could have been wearing this pinafore all summer, I still think it will be the perfect transition piece from summer to fall.

I have a full VIDEO tutorial where you can see me step by step sewing this pinafore! You can find it on the Fabric Wholesale Direct blog HERE. This is the perfect project for someone who has wanted to sew bibs but may be intimidated by all the steps or may just want a little more detail. I am such a visual learner and am excited that I got the chance to film myself making this one! Filming myself while sewing has been quite the learning curve for me, but I hope that it is worth it because it is helpful to YOU. Do you find sewing videos helpful?

I used Fabric Wholesale Direct’s gold linen fabric, which is really soft and easy to work with. It was really hard to decide on color because they have so many pretty linen colors to choose from so I ordered a few swatches first. I decided on the gold because it will go with so many different colors in my wardrobe.

I also had a really tough time deciding which shirt I wanted to wear under my Callie. I was surprised by just how many looked good! I narrowed it down to a plain black and plain pink and took photos with both. Which do you like better?

The tank I am wearing underneath is a Greenstyle Staple tank in cotton lycra. It is my favorite basic tank.

Let’s Upcycle

Now, let’s talk about the Alter It August challenge!!! I normally do not like to alter or upcycle clothes very much because I have access to a bustling fabric district, and usually would rather just create a new item than mend or patch something that is really old. BUT when I wanted to make a trial version of the Callie to check fit before cutting into my linen fabric, I really had my heart set on a corduroy pinafore for this fall. I had no corduroy whatsoever in my stash and really did not feel like running out to find some or waiting to order from online. It was a muslin after all, so it needed to be cheap fabric. So, I asked my husband if he had any old clothes that were corduroy. He just so happened to have an old heavy shirt that a coworker had given him that he had no plans of ever wearing!! It was PERFECT for what I wanted.

I  had to get creative with how to get everything I needed out of this large mens shirt. I left the button up front and chest pocket as is and used the current hem. I only had strings left so I couldn’t add any other pockets like I wanted to. I used the buttons from the original cuffs for the buttons on the pinafore’s side button placket.

I removed 3 inches from the straps and sewed these as fixed as opposed to the knot straps in my linen pinafore. I feel that these land a little higher on me than the knot pinafore so maybe I removed too much? The nice thing about the knot style strap is you can easily adjust it after the fact, and you aren’t stuck with what you thought was the right length when trying it on in the middle of the project.

To do my front facings, I cut the pattern piece longer so that I could wrap it around the button placket, sew it down the front top, and turned it to the inside so that I could get a clean edge at the very top of the button placket where the facing met the placket.

I love the button up front to make it easy to nurse in, and I think this corduroy pinafore will be a fall staple over some leggings! The corduroy is really thick and heavy so I will not be wearing this pinafore until the weather turns cooler.

Finishing the Raw Edges

I noticed in the pattern that there were not instructions as to when to finish the raw edges. This means it is up to you to decide which edges to finish, how to finish them, and after which steps to do this.

I made sure to tell you at each step in my video where to finish an edge so that you aren’t stuck with a sewn product with raw edges that will fray or that you don’t accidentally do them too late (or early) in the project

Resources

• You can watch the video on how to sew the Callie HERE.
• You can find the Callie Pinafore HERE. The tween and teen pattern is available HERE.
• You can find the gold linen fabric HERE.

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Disclosures

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I receive a small compensation when you purchase via my link. This does not cost you anything, and I genuinely appreciate the support. Any and all opinions expressed are still my own.