Hariito Patterns, Hibou Bodysuit

In 2023, I discovered my new favourite part of Christmas. The 12 days of Christmas advent giveaways on Instagram! There seems to be loads of profiles getting involed at the end of 2023- I had a lucky feeling and threw my hat into the ring for a few. I actually ended up with a few prizes! 

I've been eyeing up Hariito Patterns Hibou Bodysuit ever since it landed in 2020. The mesh panels resonate with the lingering Simon Preen fan-girl in me (who reached her height in the 2014 Tumblr era), and any excuse to play with velvet and picot elastic gets me excited, as we already know. 

So imagine my joy when I entered Hariito's advent competition and won the pattern! Yay! I downloaded stright away and was very impressed with the pattern package. It features the PDF for 13 sizes (with the option to change cupsizes), and something I've never seen before - the function to turn other layers off so that when you print you only have the lines you need (am I late to the party here guys 😗). The instructions are thorough, walking you through measuring, printing, assembling, cutting and sewing, with tips along the way for elastic variations. There are instructions for adding the gusset in one piece as well as splitting it in two and adding snap closures, and then another helpful file to guide you through fit alterations. 

I measured myself to be a size 36, A/B cup size. You'll see once you select your size that some of the pattern pages are redundant, so it's a lot easier to assemble the PDF than you may think at first glance. Obviously you only need to cut the front top cups to your size so again, there are some pattern pieces that print out that you won't need. 

Once I'd cut out the pieces from my toile velvet, I did think the body looked a bit short for me - I am maybe a little taller than average, so this made sense. The gusset piece does add some more length to the front body (it kind of sits a little further forward than the gusset in the Simplicty 8513 Bodysuit I'm used to, so the extra length here is added to the front but not really the back). I was lazy when I made my toile and decided to do the 1-piece gusset. This made it quick to try on once I'd put all my pieces together, and I could easily assess the size. After a little sensible thinking I realised that going for a wee would be a massive pain in the bum if I didn't make the snap closure version. Initially I was annoyed that I would have to fiddle around with the pattern piece to split it into two, however the instructions are really clear what to do, and this minor alteration does give you a sene of accomplishment! 

I was right in that the bodysuit was a little short on me. My toile fabric wasn't the stretchiest lengthways, but it was clear that the underbust seam was too low. I was very happy with the waist and hip fit though. I thought the waistline looked a little to defined on the pattern to match with my body, but it sits really nicely. This made it easy to identify where I needed to add the length in the pattern (ie, above the waistline). I added an inch into the front and back pieces (very easy alteration - just make sure you slice the pattern at a right angle to the centre front/back fold line and add the inch all the way accross). 

My favourite part of sewing any project is that moment when 2D becomes 3D. With this in mind I was stoked that the first step in sewing the pattern was making the cups. After literally ONE line of stitching the cup pieces become curved and well, cup-shaped. SO satisfying. The line of top stitching along this seam really adds to the professional finish. My new sewing machine has made it sew easy to line up top stitching. I used 3 stitch length and 2 stitch width for both the seams and top stitching throughout the pattern. 

I think anyone who has made this bodysuit would agree that the hardest part is attaching the top front (ie, the mesh M-Shape piece), top the top of the cups. There are a lot of opposing angles to match here. I found it particularly difficult to sew the points - the pattern says to sew to the top of the cup, keep the needle down, snip the mesh at the pinnacle and then sew down the other side. Did anyone else find it impossible to snip accurately whilst still attached to the sewing machine? Even with the presser foot up I couldn't really get in there to see what I was doing. Also, the pattern wasn't super clear about where to match the mark on the mesh to the cup seam (I aimed for the sewing line as marked on the pattern but I can't guarentee thats where it ended up!). I would recommend definitely marking these points with thread tacks so you know where to stop stitching and pivot. 

Once the top front is attached you can breathe a bit - the rest of the assembledge is intuitive. I did note that the instructions for sewing the gusset in two pieces didn't seem to quite make sense. The steps seem slightly jumbled and theres is suddenly mention of 'turning the elastic to the inside'... what elastic! We haven't used any elastic yet! Very bizarre, but as I said - Everything is quite intuitive, so I did the same to the back and front gusset pieces and successfully ended up with the seam allowance and interfacing sneakily sandwiched between the fabrics. 

Sneaky top tip for sewing velvet and other fabrics with nap- I have an old (clean!!) mascara brush (one thats a bit fuzzy rather thank comb-y) that I run over the topstitch and the seams. This helps the stitches nestle into the fabric (and also helps to hide any wobbles !!). 

There are instructions included in the pattern for adding fold over elastic or picot edge elastic as a means to finishing the raw edges. You know me, of course I used picot. I loooove that the pattern tells you where you should increase the tension on the elastic (around the bum) and by how much. The result is a really neat finish with equal fit and tension where it needs to be. 

I used a hotknife to seal the ends of my elastic (and ruined my butter knife in the process whooooops), then hand stitched three snaps into place on the gusset. 

The final step is assembling straps and attching where necessary. Or, if you're me, the final step is a trip to Primark to buy a cheap bra, butcher the straps and then attch them as you're own. The lady on the haberdashery stall once pointed out to me its more economical to buy a bra and deconstruct it fir the parts you need than to buy all the parts separately. She's not wrong. 

A slightly odd feature of the bodysuit, is the straps sort of go on back to front, with the 'doubled up' bit attaching to the front and the single strap attaching to the back. This is because the strap extends under the mesh at the back and is fixed at both the velvet/mesh seam and the picit edge, allowing for double security. I did find it hard to know exactly where to attach the straps, and whether the should be angled at all??? Essentiall though, I found as long as both sides did the same thing then we were winning. 

Voila! Ive been reading a lot of books recently about dance halls and cabaret. This bodysuit has got me feeling like I'm fresh out of the Follies 😘👙👯‍♀️ 

x
Location: Home Sweet Home
Currently listening to: King Of The Highway, Chris Isaak

Mood Sewciety, Almond Bodysuit

Do you like free stuff? Do you like to do a bit of problem solving? Do you like fitted body suits and stretch fabrics and mildly suggestive cutways? Yep Yep to all of the above. 

The Almond Bodysuit is a free pattern from Mood Sewciety. The problem solving comes in the form of maneuvering your way through the slightly sketchy instructions on the website. There's a bit of filling in the blanks needed as you work your way through, you need to really tune in to how the crossover sits at the neckline and shoulders, making room for the seam allowances where the neck band and sleeves sit. 

The pattern suggests cutting a slit down the back of the neckline, and I later saw something about adding velcro to the neck?? Let me just say, if you're using a stretchy fabric I'm sure this is all completely unneccesary. My fabric didn't even have the greatest %stretch but I had no problems in getting my head through the headhole when I'd done. 

First major problem to tackle is not stretching out that outside curve of the over lay when you hem it. Zizzag stitch was just sending the fabric a bit nuts - I didn't want to press the hem too much and add too much heat to make it stretch out, so I turned this under by 1.5cm, pressed lightly and tacked by hand before using a piece of pattern paper between the machine and the needle. The overlay doesn't really need mcuh stretch to it, so to avoid over-handling the fabric here I just used a long straight stitch to hold down the hem. 

It came to finishing the shoulder seams (slightly chunky due to the layers of the overlay but not insane), and my overloacker had a bit of a nervous breakdown. I've notitced it getting a bit jammy and fluffy around the blade for a few projects now.... And is it any wonder handing never changed the blade in 9 years! It slowed me up to mailorder new blades.. and slowed me up a bit trying to change them (queue MY nervous breakdown), but once it was done.............. Oh my my my how easy overlocking had suddenly become! I can't eve begin to epress the joy! It was like being reborn! Bulky seams no longer a problem I was able to finish edges without any more drama. 

My go-to bodysuit pattern is the Simplicity 8513, from this I knew that I would absolutely need to include a centreback seam for a close fit to my back curves. This was a bit of a winging it process- just grab the excess fabric in the centreback and effectively sew a massive dart starting somewhere between my shoulder blades (widest part) and ending at the widest part of my bum. Once happy with the fit I trimmed the dart and pressed it open which helps release the curve and fit that little bit better to my lower back curve. 

This pattern gets a lot of stick for it's superlow neckline. It doesn't offend me, and I think using a fabric with a better stretch recovery would have made me feel a bit more, er, secure, but this is something I would alter if I made the pattern again. It either needs to be not as deep or not as wide. In turn I would probably also extend the width of the overlays at the underarm where they meet at the side seam. 

Instead of just turning under the raw edge of the legholes I attached some underwear elastic with a nice picot edge. This helps with the fit and prevents any gaping around the crotch (no one wants that). 

If I'm honest there were times I almost give up on this garment. My motivation was thwarted by getting dumped mid-make, leaving the garment sat on my attic floor for two months while I tried to stick my life back together. It didn't take me long to realise the fabric could have done with being a bit more 'springy' in it's stretch and I was worried the whole thing would be a waste of time. The overlocker blades finally calling it a day almost made me do the same to be honest. Hating leaving anything unfinished though I powered on, and I was pleasantly surprised at how it turned out. Yes I would make a few changes if I made it again, but if I found the right fabric I do think I *would* make it again. 

Have you had any lucky free-pattern finds? Or any to avoid! Do you have fitting issues in the back everytime you make something fitted? What are your usual pattern hacks to aid this? Drop me a line.

x
Location: Doncaster City Centre, Multi-storey Carpark
Currently listening to: With A Woman, Tempesst

Simplicity 8513, Bodysuit

 

Some patterns just keep on giving. Sometimes the simplest designs can lend themselves to being adapted in a million ways to create something fun and diffrent every time.

Simplicity 8513 is one of those patterns. Once I'd perfected the fit of the body (not too tricky as its a pettern for knits and therefore quite forgivingm - I just had to lengthen the body a little but shorten the chest above the front armhole notch #smallbustproblems), I could make easy design alterations to the neckline and sleeve length to keep from making the same garment over and over again.

This time I was using this very cute sausage dog print kindly gifted to me from Minerva. I pounced the moment I saw it and was SO stoked that no one else had claimed the fabric before me. It has the perfect amount of stretch and recovery - making it great for vests and t-shirts (maybe a matching knicker set....), so naturally I gravitated to this bodysuit pattern that I know and love. The quirkiness of the fabric makes it appealing for children and adults alike  - I can imagine some reallllly sweet baby clothes in this fabric (yep yep, I know, I've essentially made myself a babygrow here). The fabric is available in a few different colour ways. Aside from the monochrome being my go-to, I think this helps stop the print from being tooo Ceebeebies meaning I could get away with making something for me! I've not stuck my romper through the wash yet, but the fabric feels good quality and unlikely to bobble or fade in the wash (we've all been there, spend days or weeks on a project, complete a sassy make, within two wears it's already bobbling where your handbag rubs = heartbreak). 

So how did I change the pattern this time? There are two amendments I made:
Sleeves: I had a vision and I wanted to try something new, I thought tshirt sleeves would look cutest with the fabric - to make them more exciting I did my first ever bit of 'ruching'! This is an easy and effective way of changing up a sleeve, and can also be used to make sleeves look shorter, without actually cutting anything off the hem. 
To Ruche, I first drew a line 1.5 cm away from the raw hem edge (pre-hemmed) towards shoulder point (marked by a dot on the pattern piece). I drew the line about 4 inches long, but this could be loads longer if you want more ruching or have a longer sleeve to play with. I played around with different lengths of 4mm elastic against the line, stretching it out anf letting it ruche between my fingers to get an idea of how the gathers would look. I decided the elastic should be about 6cm long for my desired ruche, but cut 8cm so I had some to hold onto. I stretched the elastic out and stiched along the line I drew. Let go of then end and Ping! You've ruched! 

Second modification was the Neckline. I couldn't decide if I wanted a turtleneck, mock turtleneck or cowl neck, so I cut one of each and pinned them on to test. Having never done one before, I loved the idea of a cowl neck, however the floppiness of it seemed to distract from the neat silhouette I had created. There was somehting a bit more official about a tall neck, an almost formality that challenged the playfulness of the dog print. I think that's one of the things I really enjoyed about this make. The sexy meets cute, feminine but bold, applicable to either situation depending what you style it with. I used the pattern piece included in the pattern but messed around with the height of the neck, making sure I'd got them pooches lined up nicely in the centre.

My fave part of making this is always putting the leg elastic on. I had a quick peek at the sewing marketstall in Sheffield and they finally had some picot elastic in stock! I bought 2 meters and have about 50cm left after going round the legs. My top tip for applying this would always be not to stretch the elastic too much as you sew, as you want the edge to hold on to your body but not squeeze it.

Now, who's for hotdogs?

x
Location: Home Sweet Home
Currently listening to: Club Cougar, Nadine Shah