To celebrate her pattern company's 1-year anniversary, Kimberly of Straight Stitch Designs has put together a fun blog tour called "Remix the Stitch," in which she's asked a whole bunch of bloggers to play around with her designs and come up with their own "remixes." See the list of bloggers remixing Straight Stitch Designs at the bottom of my post... I'm excited to see what these talented ladies have come up with!
Kimberly's also got a massive sale in honor of the Straight Stitch Designs anniversary. Go check it out!
There's a huge giveaway, too... you can read more about the details on the Straight Stitch Designs blog, but feel free to enter below:
There's a huge giveaway, too... you can read more about the details on the Straight Stitch Designs blog, but feel free to enter below:
For my remix, I decided to start with the Straight Stitch Ravenna top pattern. For me, the defining feature of this fun pattern is the the party in the back: the low-cut back neckline, the zipper detail, the ruffle... however I remixed the pattern, I wanted to keep some of those playful back elements in there.
While I was considering different ways remix/change up the Ravenna pattern, another pattern with a cool back feature popped into my mind- the button-back Made by Rae Beatrix, which I recently made (and loved!).
It occurred to me that a mash-up was in order. I took a few of the details from the Beatrix, mashed them with the Ravenna and added my own twists!
Here's how my Ravenna remix went down:
I added a shirt-tail hem from Beatrix... I love that hem style.
I cut the back bodice on the fold (minus the seam allowance, of course). Less stripe matching that way! I figured it wouldn't make a difference because the Ravenna back zip is a decorative rather than functional feature.
I widened and lowered the neckline ever so slightly to make it similar to the Beatrix in the front and redrew the Ravenna back neck to meet the new, wider front.
I drafted my own neck and hem facings. Then I sewed them onto the top so that they showed on the outside, turning the edges under and topstitching. I thought the exposed facings would help draw attention to the cool back neckline.
For the back, I had the neckline facing extend all the way down the back to the hemline... kind of a racing stripe, if you will, where the seam and zipper was on the original Ravenna. I considered putting an exposed zip on there, but didn't have one in my stash that worked. I knew that if I ventured out to get a zip, I would be too tempted by fabric (getting me in trouble on my personal stash bust commitment), so I opted to leave the zip off.
My fabric is some Japanese cotton lawn I bought locally in Bangkok last year. It's got a swirly, flowery art deco style print on it. I paired it with some solid black shirting from my stash for the contrasting facings. After taking my photos, I realized you can't really see the hem facing because it blends into my black pants, so I took this photo to show it more clearly:
I am super happy with my remix/mash-up! I love the Ravenna's low cut (but not too low!) back... such a fun detail!!
Again, happy anniversary to Straight Stitch Designs and thanks to Kimberly for including me on the blog tour!
Do check out the other remixes on the agenda over the next few weeks... there are sure to be some excellent makes!:
Do check out the other remixes on the agenda over the next few weeks... there are sure to be some excellent makes!:
Tuesday, September 8th: Meg Cookin' and Craftin' | Jennifer Ginger Peach Studio
Wednesday, September 9th: Ajaire Call Ajaire | Heidi Handmade Frenzy | Stacey Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy Crafts