My friends I am so excited to introduce you to my two newest sewing patterns: Flint & Rowan!
As you know by now, I am all about creating wearable fashion forward pieces that fit into your daily life. These patterns are no different and as always started with the goal of filling gaps in my own handmade wardrobe.
The Flint pants are a pair of wide leg cropped pants or shorts that feature a very unique crossover closure. The pattern sits on the natural waist and features a hidden closure at the left pocket that uses buttons or elegant ties.
The inspiration for Flint came from a vintage ready to wear skirt. I loved the crossover closure and hadn’t seen anything like it before. I knew i wanted to include this interesting style of closure into a pattern at some point, but the right design never developed in my mind. That was many years ago – and last year, when my obsession with wide legged high waisted pants hit an all time high, i realised it was the perfect way to use a crossover closure.
With such an interesting and unusual closure, i wanted to add a variation that highlighted and celebrated it – which is how the variation with ties was born! And of course once i found myself wearing both the button closure and tie closure Flint pants over and over till they almost fell apart, i knew i needed to add a shorts variation too so Flint could be my best friend all year round hehe.
The Flint pants now include four variations: Pants with button closure, shorts with button closure, pants with tie closure and shorts with tie closure. Obviously you can also adapt this pattern and lengthen it to full length trousers (as some of our testers did) or shorten them to knee, or 3/4 length. It’s up to you! This one pattern has you covered for work, weekends, dropping your kids at school and nights out!
Fabric choice can really change how this pattern hangs. Using a drapey light fabric will result in a much looser flowing garment. Fabrics like wool and denim will result in more structured garments, and the hemline will appear full and more weighty. I can’t wait to show you my personal favourite pair, they are light denim and they have quickly replaced jeans as my go to pants.
Aside from the fact that these pants include some really great techniques and new skills – they’re just super fun to sew. They’re unique and special, and I find it really satisfying to put together that crossover closure and the ties especially!
Rowan is the ultimate wardrobe builder fitted tee and bodysuit. This pattern features a figure hugging close fit, three neckline options, three sleeve lengths and tee or bodysuit versions. Phew! We’ll guide you through 6 included variations in the pattern, but the options are endless when you mix and match the pattern pieces. This pattern is ideal for layering, and for everyone who loves their tops to be perfectly tucked in all the time (raising my hand here!).
Rowan came about out of my desperate need for fitted tops, especially for colder weather and for tucking in! As you’ve probably noticed in my designs – I love high waisted skirts and bottoms, and i love tucking my tops in. The problem is, nothing stays perfectly tucked in or smoothly tucked in, and that makes me crazy! That’s why bodysuits are awesome, everything stays perfectly tucked in and neat all the time.
I’m not a fan however of bodysuits that are uncomfortable and don’t stay in place, and errr, ride up, if you know what i mean. So i spent a lot of time in development perfecting the fit around the rear and crotch, and am happy to report that this bodysuit cut is crazy comfortable. The testers agree too :)
Fabric wise it’s really vital that you pay attention to the fabric requirements as this pattern includes negative ease, which means that the tee/bodysuit will measure smaller than your body measurements. I recommend at least 40% stretch – and more is always better. 4 way stretch (ie stretching width and length ways) is the ideal especially for the bodysuit.
Variations are obviously a real love of mine – it’s important to me to add lots and lots of variations and value for money into my patterns, so i kind of went nuts with Rowan. Ooops. I created a modern fit turtleneck (lower and chunkier than your 90’s style), a close crew neck and a vneckline, short sleeve, long sleeve, and 3/4 sleeve as well as the tee length and bodysuit option. PHEW. I wanted you to be able to create a massive variety of tops and build a great wardrobe with this pattern.
This pattern is also really great for learning, as we cover a lot of techniques that can seem tricky in knits (like v necks) and i created a really neat method of finishing the bodysuit snap crotch as i hate messy finishes.
I didn’t add a scoop neck option for this pattern, as my Briar tee already includes a great scoop neck and Rowan was getting huge in the number of pattern pieces. So what i’m going to do is show you how to blend the two patterns in the sewalong, and get a scoop neck Rowan!
I think my most worn variation of Rowan so far is the turtleneck bodysuit, SO warm in winter, and always neatly tucked #priorities hehe.
Since there are a lot of great techniques and skills to learn in these patterns, i thought it would be great to have a sewalong to guide you through sewing them! I’ll start with Flint first next week, and then Rowan. I’ll post the schedule after the pattern tester roundups – but if you’re feeling at all nervous about sewing up these patterns, never fear, i’ll hold your hand the whole way and add even more variations for you to try!
These patterns pair beautifully together, but also fit seamlessly into your existing handmade wardrobe and our entire catalog of patterns. As you’ll see in our product images, i’ve styled these patterns with some of our existing patterns, and the results are some pretty amazing outfits.
Together these patterns include a whopping 10 variations, and can carry you through every season and countless occasions.
I really hope you love Rowan and Flint as much as i have loved making them for you! So much love and thought has gone into these patterns, and i truly hope you enjoy all the little details!
[GET FLINT + ROWAN IN STORE HERE]
And last thing – these patterns are the first patterns to go out with our new packaging, which i’ll tell you all about in the next few days! I’m really excited about our packaging redesign but this post was too long to share about it here :)
