Make Nine 2020 – Complete!

I made a muslin version for each of the three views of this pattern, and ended up making two finished versions (both shown here.) I really love them in general. I find myself wearing the wide leg version more often and still have a bit of trouble styling the more straight legged pair without looking frumpy. I do want to eventually make a few pairs of the shorts because I loved the muslin of those and I think I would wear them a lot in the warmer months. Maybe this summer! Overall I like this pattern and I think it has a lot of fun and creative construction to it.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this bra pattern. I had never made a bra or any undergarment prior to 2020, but this beautiful bra pattern had caught my eye and I couldn’t resist trying my hand at an underwire bra. I’m going to do a full post sometime in the next month or two about this pattern specially because I really love it, but for the sake of this post let me just say that I adore the black beauty bra, the PERFECT instructions from Erin, and finally having bras that fit, are supportive, and look nice all at the same time. As you can see, I made four over the course of the year!

This was a relatively quick and simple project and I love the way it turned out. I wear it both casually at home and dressed up a bit more for work. I really liked the method of construction for the side tie and I think it makes for a durable and professional looking finish. I would like to make this pattern again at some point and definitely want to try the hack with a peplum bottom. My only gripe is that there could have been a bit more guidance to give the neck binding more even tensions and I’ll use my own sewing knowledge next time to perfect this a bit more.

I was really nervous about this project. I made a muslin because I knew my large bust and muscular arms/shoulders would present fitting issues. This assumption was correct and it took a couple rounds of fitting adjustments to my muslins before I found a fit I was happy with. However, once I got the fit I wanted, this project was a pretty straightforward and highly gratifying make. I adore the fabric I chose, a laundered linen gingham in golden yellow and pale pink. I hope to eventually make more Archer shirts because this is an excellent wardrobe staple.

The Calvin wrap dress is such a fun and pleasurable sewing project. I am so thrilled that I was able to snag one of the kits from the launch of this pattern with the large floral deadstock fabric seen in the photos here. I have gotten so much wear out of this dress, both for at home and outdoor patio date nights during the pandemic. I still have one more kit in an emerald green that I hope to sew up soon. I did muslin it as a top just to check the fit and I don’t think the top looks good on my body type at all, but thankfully I adore the dress.

This pattern was a fantastic learning experience for me. I learned a bit about fitting pants in the process of making my muslins. While I certainly don’t know everything about it, I feel much more comfortable with some of the common adjustments and made use of them here. For my first go with this pattern, I made a pair of button front shorts in a navy cotton stretch twill. I like them a lot, but am never a huge fan of button fronts so I decided to go again with white denim and using the zipper fly expansion. I LOVE the zip fly version and they are great in denim! I made a final pair of zip fly pants in cotton wool twill which I like, but I think I may use a bit of the scrap fabric to add a cuff at the bottom for a bit more length so I will wear them more often. I am sure there are more lander pants in my future. This is such an excellent pattern!

This shirt looked so complicated to me for some reason but it was actually one of my easiest makes of the year. I did make a muslin but didn’t need to make any fit adjustments thanks to the looser silhouette. This was my first time making anything out of the Breaking the Pattern book and I think the entire concept is SO cool. I can’t wait to make more versions of this pattern. I have more Liberty fabric that I am planning to make into a Saraste dress with the band collar and ruffles as seen here, hopefully for spring. I can’t wait to play around with this more!

I had really high hopes for this project and as a result, I spent more than half of last year looking for just the right fabric. Finally I found this red dot viscose that I loved and decided to go for it. I was really nervous about getting the fit of this right but thankfully the muslin fit me beautifully and I didn’t need to make any major changes to the pattern. I made a few small changes of my own more for nicer finishes in some parts but overall it’s a good pattern and I hope to make another eventually.

The Kenzie skirt was my final project to complete the Make Nine challenge. I had originally planned to make it earlier in the year for spring/summer but then I thought of making it in a slightly heavier weight plaid for winter and I couldn’t get the idea out of my head so that’s what I did! I absolutely love the finished version. I made a few small errors in making this pattern which I attribute to my holiday exhaustion and in no way to the pattern itself. Even so, I was able to finish it beautifully and I just love it. I did take off several inches of length and this will be the length I continue to make going forward. I’ll definitely make this pattern again.