MingMakes Newsletter

June 2021

Pattern matching

Edit - Sorry, the last link for the pattern matching tutorial was incorrect, this has now been changed.

Hello all you wonderful subscribers and welcome to my June newsletter. I'm working on the Lilou Dress from the book Love At First Stitch, deciding to use a lovely soft checked linen from Merchant & Mills. Having been pleased with my pattern matching efforts on my Clemence Skirt from the same book, I felt ready to tackle another pattern matching project with a few more seams on this dress.

This was my first time sewing anything with lines on, and I hadn't fully anticipated the challenge of trying to match horizontal and vertical lines, and particularly where darts are involved. I made it through though, and put a blog post together as seen below with what I did and my thought processes.

In case you're sewing the same pattern and wondering why the neckline looks high, I decided to make it more like a boat neckline, as I wasn't sure if the scoop would suit me.

Another challenge I am trying is to line the skirt. The pattern describes how to line the bodice only, and the way you turn it inside out makes for a very neat finish inside. I will cut the skirt lining to match the waist and hem measurements without the pleats, and sew to the bodice lining in the same way as the main dress. As ever, I will try to document my process and share this with you, along with any hiccups I encountered along the way.

New blog posts

Here is a tutorial on how to pattern match a seam, with step-by-step photos and a video. It's worth reading to the end of the article where I describe two steps that tripped me up.