Sewing, Sewing, Sewing

Today has been a busy day around here. Our eldest has a concert tonight, and we have been working most of the day to finish sewing a black skirt and white blouse that all the Chorale members are required to wear. Well, the females are required to wear black skirts; the men will be wearing black pants.

All the sewing that has been going on around here the last few days has caused me to think about a post I read the other day and some of the comments from the readers that followed. Basically, the discussion revolved around sewing clothing which fit the larger busted woman.

Now, you may wonder what the connection is between my first and second paragraph. Well, it is precisely this. Most patterns are made to fit a size B cup. This presents a problem for the woman that has a larger or smaller cup size. My daughter also has this problem when choosing patterns. The blouse pattern we were sewing for her today addresses this very problem.

This is the pattern she used -- McCall's #M5522. I'll show you a pic of her in her blouse in my next post. This blouse is very flattering. The wonderful thing about this pattern is that it not only gives a pattern piece for the standard B cup, but also individual pattern pieces for a smaller and larger cup size. (THANKS, McCall's"!!!!) This is not the only pattern, for which McCall's does this. The next time I go the fabric store, I'm going to check out some other pattern manufacturers to see if they offer a similar type of pattern. I'll let you know my findings.

The second topic I would like to address here is the topic of the price of the pattern. The price of patterns is enough to make you give up sewing if you pay full price for them. OUCH!!! For instance, the manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) for the pattern above is $15.95. (You may verify this by standing on your head and looking at the top of the pattern above. See, I told the truth.) We paid $1.99 for it on sale at JoAnn Fabrics.

Patterns are not on sale everyday, but for a few days each month JoAnn does have certain manufacturer's patterns on sale. Buy your patterns when they are on sale and you save a bundle. All it takes is a little planning.

However, there are times when you need to make something unexpectedly, and you need to get the pattern in a hurry -- no time to lose waiting for the sale days at JoAnn's. In that case, we turn to Walmart. Their patterns are always specially priced ($6.94, I think.) New Look, and Simplicity's "It's So Easy" patterns are cheaper than that.

If there's a JoAnn Fabric near you, the pattern sale dates this month are:

Thu. - Sat., May 7 - 9

Simplicity Patterns - 2 for $5 (MSRP $6.95 - $17.95 ea.) (Limit of 10)

Excludes "It's So Easy", New Look, Burda & Simplicity Books

* * * * * *

Thu. - Sat. May 14 - 16

McCall's & Butterick Patterns $1.99 each (MSRP $5.25 - $16.95 ea.) (Limit of 10)

Excludes "See & Sew" and "Easy Stitch 'N Save"

Vogue Patterns $3.99 each (MSRP $8.95 - $30.00 ea. (Limit 10)

Y Blessings,

Nanci