Please enjoy these recordings of our live sew-along with Saremy Duffy. They take you through every step of sewing your Songbird Tank Top, with plenty of tips and laughs ..read more

We all know that a perfectly fitting swim top is oh so elusive, but when you have one, it’s a treasure! So once you’ve made a Songbird top or two (to become proficient in the construction and be 100% confident in the fit!), why not hack this pattern into swimwear? That’s what Meg did! Take a look at this fabulous swim top.  The Songbird Tank Top already has a built-in shelf bra, so the internal support is already there. Lots of people prefer a little extra coverage with a foam bra cup, and that’s an easy addition! Use swim lining or power mesh for your shelf bra pieces, and source (o ..read more

Ah, choosing fabric, the most fun, and also the most difficult step when sewing a new project. And with two pieces, made of different types of fabric there is even more to discuss and think about when choosing fabrics for the Songbird Skirt and Tank Top.   Songbird Tank Top The songbird tank top is designed for knit fabrics with at least 40% stretch. Choose a soft knit with good recovery.  We recommend cotton jersey, cotton tencel jersey, and other cotton jersey blends. Avoid thicker knits like rib knits and interlock knits. Take care with slippery knits, as the gathers wil ..read more

I was recently sorting my leftover fabrics from various garments and realized I had a sizeable collection of woven fabrics that would be perfect for a patchwork garment.  Patchwork garments are popping up everywhere from home sewists to ready-to-wear.  I was a pattern tester for the Songbird Skirt and thought it would be a perfect pattern for patchwork.  This post will lay out some basic steps used to prepare the patchwork for the skirt tiers and waistband.   I gathered all my fabrics, grouped them by color and decided to use both warm and cool fabr ..read more

The Songbird Skirt is the perfect place to get creative with your pleats, lace, and edges. Have some special lace that you’ve been hanging onto or a vision of a dreamy lace-edged skirt? This is the perfect opportunity to let your bohemian dreams come true. Use vintage fabrics and lace – or new materials – to create that romantic vibe. In the pattern itself, we’ve already created View B with three tucks on the middle tier, two tucks on the bottom tier, and inset and applied lace. If you have a different vision, you can take the tiers from View A, follow the instructions below, and come up with ..read more

Charmed by the little flowers, I neglected to check the opacity of my fabric before clicking purchase. My mistake, and I think it’s likely that I won’t be the only sewist wanting to make a Songbird Skirt from a fabric that’s less-than-opaque, especially in the summer sun! Instead of sending the fabric into the cupboard for another project, I decided to get scrappy and fashion a half-lining, so I can have both the cutest floral AND the confidence to let that backlight shine on! The skirt is made of three tiers and a waistband (and pockets OF COURSE, though they don’t factor into the lining ..read more

This hack is so simple that you might have already thought about it. If wanted to be sure it really IS this easy… it is. If you’re batch sewing and want to increase the speed, have a print that doesn’t love a CF seam, or you’re out of clear elastic, this hack is intuitive and simple.  The Songbird Tank Top has a seam at the CF with a ⅜” (1 cm) seam allowance, AND some extra shaping to allow for the adorable gathers. All this hack does is eliminate that detail. You can do this same process for either length of Top. Here’s how it looks You can make a separate pattern piece or just foll ..read more

We all love how the Petrichor Pinafore has so much swing, and we need some amount of fabric width to achieve that swing. All sizes of the Petrichor Pinafore will fit onto 54″ (137 cm) wide fabric, but what about 45″ (114 cm) wide fabric? This style is appropriate in a soft cotton ikat or double gauze, and these fabrics often come in a narrower width. Fear not! If you have fallen in love with a narrow fabric, I’m here to demonstrate how you can still use it for your Pinafore. Alternative Cutting Layout for the Petrichor Pinafore For a layout with the fabric folded selvage to selvage, the width ..read more

The Petrichor Pinafore is an effortless piece that can be worn so many ways! When you choose your fabric you will want to think about how you intend to wear it most, what your styling plans are, and what your climate is. We recommend mid-weight woven fabrics with plenty of drape. Soft, washed linens, linen-rayon blends, and silk noil are all good choices. Meg and I both planning to wear ours as a jumper/dress, and we live in the humid south, so we chose 100% linen. Linen is a great choice for Petrichor because it holds the gathers and drapes very nicely for the skirt. It’s also a grea ..read more

Our newest pattern, the Petrichor Pinafore, is an easy, loose-fitting overdress with an uncomplicated style. Even so, some people might need to fine tune their fit a bit! For me – short and busty – a few simple fixes delivered a lot in terms of wearability. Even if you need none of the following adjustments, getting the straps in the right place for your body can be done while sewing. We always recommend making a muslin test garment, and in this case that might be a wearable muslin just to perfect the straps. I used quilting cotton for my wearable muslin, and while that was ideal for a bit of ..read more