***Valentine & Stitch patterns are sadly no longer available in the marketplace***
Move over summer shirt dresses Angelina here! I was so excited when Helen of Valentine and Stitch told me that she and Rich were going to be releasing a new pattern. I already loved their Lotus top so I knew I would love this one too and of course it did not disappoint!
If you aren’t familiar with Valentine and Stitch they are a husband and wife pattern designing duo with two sweet children and a lovely home filled with not only lots of love but lots of funky wallpaper too! If you follow Helen on IG she’ll let you know how she feels about that pesky paper! 😉 It’s actually kind of funny so you should take a look! But enough about the wallpaper, I’ve only know Helen for a short time through Instagram but I feel like we’ve been friends for a long time. She’s warm, welcoming, inspiring and a true designer. It’s a pleasure to be able to sew up her patterns and to share them with you!
Angelina can be sewn up in 6 versions – that’s a lot of options! 🙂 Including a flutter sleeve top, sleeveless top, flutter sleeve dress, sleeveless dress, long flutter sleeve dress, long flutter sleeve blouse. When I saw the flutter sleeve dress option I was drooling over the sleeves! (Speaking of sleeves – make sure to join in on #sleevefest2017 running through August 31, 2017 co-hosted by Helen and Diane from @dream.cut.sew) Considering that reaction you would think I would’ve sewn that one up… but… then I thought about it and went for the sleeveless dress instead. I did so because I want a fun summer casual dress that I can wear with sneakers and over a bathing suit for running around in this Los Angeles heat. I think I made the right choice. 🙂
Anyway, I headed to the fabric district one Saturday morning with one of my bestest of friends and had a fantastic time not only buying fabric for Angelina but a ton of other projects too (but that’s another post!). I bought this mauve colored and slightly textured jersey knit after perusing the striped knit section and thinking to myself “Do I really want to line these up?”. That was a big NO, so solids won that trip!
Now that I had my fabric it was time to sew up Angelina! Let me just say that Angelina is such a satisfying sew! I was planning on doing one step every day and I started out like that until I got to the third day and realized that I could probably get it done in 30 minutes. So I did just that with a little help from the sweetest sewing buddy there is! (Take a look at Howard trying to eat my pins when he thought I wasn’t looking!)
Each step was easy to follow, from laying out the pattern, to cutting it out and sewing it up. It’s literally about 5 steps from sewing up the shoulder seams, to sewing on the neckband, then sewing in the armhole hem, sewing up the side seams then hemming your dress! Viola! Summer dress ready and I couldn’t be happier! 🙂