Dear readers,
I'm thrilled to announce the release of not one, but two stunning patterns to add to your handmade wardrobe: the Milla Tie Top and the Lara Skirt. These designs are all about timeless elegance without compromising on comfort, and will work in every season depending on your fabric choice.
Milla Tie Top: Elevate Your Everyday T-Shirt
The Milla Tie Top is my new go-to piece. This long-sleeved, super comfortable knit top features an elegant draping tied to the right side and a face-framing funnel collar, perfect for adding a touch of interest to my daily outfits. With a variation for a regular fitted t-shirt included in the pattern, you can decided to sew a basic body with a bateau neckline or mix-and-match the collars. Whether I'm going for cozy winter vibes in Merino Wool or elevated summer chic in linen, the Milla Tie Top can do it all!
Lara Skirt: a midi skirt for every occasion
Lara is an elegant a-line skirt with clean lines. Perfect for swishing in a luxurious fabric, Lara has side panels with distinctive large pockets and partially stitched pleats, and falls to a flowy, midi hem. The skirt features an invisible zipper, and the waistband is finished with a facing. Without side seams, the side panel and pleat construction add visual interest to the minimalist design.
Fabric choices:
For the Milla Tie Top, the samples were sewn in a polyester sweater knit, cotton jersey, merino wool jersey, linen knit and bamboo jersey.
For this pattern, I recommend knit fabrics with some body, such as cotton jersey, interlock and ponte. Drapier knits such as linen knit can also work well. If you want to use the foldover collar, I suggest fusing this piece for soft knits like I did for Lilli's linen top.
The samples for Lara were made in TENCEL™, a grey wool/silk suiting blend, checkered cotton and an orange stretch poly double crepe. For this pattern, I recommend woven fabrics with drape, such as mid-weight silk crepe, noil and satin, viscose, linen, challis, wool crepe, suiting and tweed or synthetic alternatives. Fabrics with less drape such as cotton twill can be used for a more structured look especially if you add topstitching to the pocket edges and pleats.
Both patterns is drafted for a height of 5'5" (1m65) and is available in the size range: 34-60. All pattern pieces are have lengthen/shorten lines to ease the adjustments. They are both easy sews but with fun and interesting construction techniques. In case you need help, I curate a list of helpful tutorials on the resource pages!
The patterns include:
- Layered PDF pattern in 3 options (print at home for letter or A4, A0 and projector);
- a Cutter’s must (a summary table of the pattern pieces and cutting information);
- PDF layout;
- order of operations ;
- and step-by-step illustrated instructions.
As usual, the pattern features Just Patterns’ signature “order of operations” as it comes in handy for experienced sewists who like to refer quickly to steps without scrolling through pages of instructions.
I hope you will enjoy sewing Milla and Lara. Don’t forget to tag #MillaTieTop and #LaraSkirt if you post on social media!
Happy sewing!