coming soon // sneak peeks and the like

Sometimes i’m never quite sure whether to tell you all about what i’m working on, or wait until i’m done, and be all like, SURPRISE!

But i’m so excited about this next pattern that i really want to talk to you about it – so helloooo epic sneak peek!

I get so many emails from beginner sewers asking me about what patterns to try when they’re starting out, and though i have a lot of fantastic beginner level patterns (see Eucalypt, Cascade, Virginia, Briar) i feel like i want to offer something more. As you know, I love beginners, and part of my goal as a pattern designer is to simplify simplify simplify to make sewing great garments more accessible. So i kept coming back to this idea of the perfect beginner pattern. One that could be used for wovens and knits, one that was stylish and classic, and that was absolutely 100% beginner friendly but still interesting enough for intermediate sewers. And then i thought, whats more beginner friendly than being FREE?! Yes i did say free, wink wink.

So my dear friends, my next pattern will be a free PDF downloadable pattern – You may remember the Chantilly skirt from my 2011 winter ready to wear collection? She’s the one!

It will be a kick ass wardrobe staple circle skirt, with two waistband options, optional (completely rad) pockets, and a woven or knit option. I’m so excited its not even funny! Right now i’m at the stage of making a zillion samples and making sure everything is perfect before sending it out for testing. The only thing i’m up in the air about is whether to change the name – as there is a lovely dress by Colette with the same name, which may be a tad confusing, thoughts?

*update* thank you so much for all of your feedback! i’m so glad that everyone is so excited! Thanks for all the feedback on the name, it was a huge help! After some thought, I’ve decided that it will be called the Veronika skirt after my lovely friend Veronika, whose blog was one of my greatest inspirations during the time i first designed this skirt (though she closed her blog Tick Tock Vintage quite some time ago, all her outfits are still available on Flickr and she is on Instagram)

If you follow me on instagram, then you’ve probably already seen a few behind the scenes snaps of me working on this particular skirt. I’m so happy with it, especially since i’ve been saving this silk crepe since we lived in Virginia, and it magically matched a vintage zip i thrifted eons ago perfectly. I mean come on! fate! fist pump!

So my darlings, what do you think? tell me tell me!

photography by Sabatomic

(Make this look)

Top: Megan Nielsen Briar crop top // Get the Pattern
Skirt: Megan Nielsen // Pattern coming soon!
Shoes: Swedish Hasbeens // Peep toe super high in “natural”