For today’s post I am talking all about the two patterns that jumped in front of me and just had to be made and also talking to you about this fun oranges fabric I received from Zenith and Quasar!

The Made for Mermaids Felicity

When the Made for Mermaids Felicity pattern released, I saw a post from a fellow seamstress on Instagram showing off her beautiful Felicity made out of a lemon print fabric, and I just have not been able to shake how much I loved her dress. She was twinning with her toddler, and it was just adorable! So, of course when I saw these oranges, it reminded me of her Felicity, and I had to make one. I only had a yard, so I made a top!

The pattern went together beautifully and was a rather quick sew. I printed and taped it early one afternoon and finished sewing all of it during naptime! Whew! It was much quicker than I expected! I didn’t make any adjustments to the pattern, and I will definitely need to buy the girls one next so I can twin with my daughters.

Fabric for the Felicity Top

By now you are probably thinking, “what’s with the oranges?” Have you seen the hashtag #postingwithproduce? I swore I wouldn’t do that, but this oranges fabric from Zenith and Quasar begged me to… and, I have to admit, I had a lot of fun! Do you like my oranges? They are Cara Cara (my fave!), and they were eaten rather quickly after this photoshoot!

Ok, now to the serious stuff. The fabric base is an athletic brushed poly. I really like this base because it is super soft, breathes well, and has great recovery. It has a lot of uses in garments and holds up well over time. I have shirts I have made with it that are now at least 2 years old, and the colors are still just as vibrant, and the fabric looks nice still. I like to dry my clothes in the dryer (I know, it is tough on them, but I still do it!)

True Bias Lander Shorts

I have been eyeing the Lander Shorts Pattern for quite some time now, but I didn’t think I really needed the pattern until a few weeks ago. I had nothing to wear one day because a lot of my woven shorts from last year are too big on me, and when I thought about what shorts I wanted to try next, I knew it needed to be the Landers!

I chose this soft medium weight tencel twill fabric for my test pair. I only had a yard, so I really had no room to recut or make mistakes. Everything went together great UNTIL I got to the waistband. I had to stretch it a lot to get it to fit, which is really hard to do on an interfaced woven. The waistband is just a rectangle, and the part of my body where these shorts are meant to sit is NOT a rectangle. My lower back is one of the curviest areas on my body so needless to say, it just gaped out.

I reached out on stories to say “HELP!,” and I had so many wonderful seamstresses message me! I was so grateful for the sewing community and the support. The consensus seems to be that this happens on a lot of people on this pattern, and they drafted their own curved waistband. When they mentioned this, I instantly remembered sewing woven shorts last summer. I made the Taylor shorts and the Linden shorts, and remembered that they BOTH had curved waistbands and that I never had this issue with them.

Unfortunately, since I didn’t have enough of this white fabric left, I seam ripped the waistband off and tried to take out a dart in the back, but when I did this, they were super uncomfortable to sit in. So, I just went with how the pattern was originally drafted, and I know to draft a different waistband for next time.

Despite my frustrations with the waistband, I can’t tell you enough how happy I am with these shorts. I really don’t think anyone would ever know the issues I had unless they read this post, except for that I think the rise now sits lower on me than intended. They do feel great on and are easy to sit in. A lot of woven shorts can feel pretty restrictive when you are sitting down, and I hate that feeling of needing to undo the top button!!

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Resources

• The oranges fabric is on preorder at Zenith and Quasar through August 17th.
• I used the Made for Mermaids Felicity for my top.
• I used the True Bias Landers pattern for my shorts.
• My buttons on my shorts are Dritz 11/16 Jeans buttons that I bought at Joann!

Disclosures

I received the oranges fabric for free so that I could provide feedback and sample photos of it. I also received the white shorts fabric for free. It was a scrap from my sweet friend Aimee Wilson!

There was some guy in a delivery van just watching me like…. “what are you doing lady!!”