The Craftiness In Me: Summer Surprise Anniversary Blog Tour! and GIVEAWAY!!

My very first blog tour! celebrating the 1 year anniversary of Sofilantjes! This tour is focusing on the pattern Summer Surprise, which has been freshly formatted and updated! some will sew it up straight from the pattern, some will mash it with other patterns, some will hack it, with and without tutorials! Its a great way to see how versatile this pattern really is, and how in the end you are only limited by your own imagination <3.

I have had my eye on this pattern for awhile, its been on my to do list, and this finally gave me the motivation to give it ago.... but with a twist!

I decided to do a bit of a pattern mash! between the Summer Surprise and the Brueram top and dress pattern (you can read my review on that pattern here). I decided to use the bodice from the Summer Surprise and one of the skirt options from the Brueram top and dress pattern

I must admit I'm a little bit in love with the tulip/petal/wrap kind of skirts on dresses, I think its such a sweet skirt I love it on adults, tween and little ones. I have made a few dresses with that kind of skirt lately, and I see many more in my future.

Here is my brief run down of just how I put this all together.

Firstly I printed out the Summer Surprise top, size 3 in the slim because I wanted it to be firmer fitting on the bodice, and taped and cut out the top parts. Then compared it to the Brueram bodice to give me an idea of where I wanted the bodice to end.

Comparing the Brueram bodice to the Summer Surprise top to find my bodice line

just need to slim the bodice down so its not an aline shape

All ready to go!

Next was the Skirt portion, I already had on hand the wrap skirt portion of the dress printed and taped together in a size 5 and my Miss A is quite tall for her age too. Plus I like to have the extra width for extra gathering (yes I enjoy gathering :P)

I also wanted to add flutter sleeves, so I just winged that portion and made my own pattern for them. I cut two rectangles 12 inches x 4 inches, and then just cut a curve on one edge

my flutter sleeve shape

So now I have all my bits cut out and ready to sew up!

I followed the instructions of the Summer Surprise for the bodice, and just inserted the flutter sleeves by basting them on to the bodice (after running a basting stitch along the curved side to gather) right sides together.

Next I sewed my skirt pieces together, attached the right and left sides to the back skirt piece, and then did a rolled hem all the way around the edge, one of the things I love about knits is that really you don't even need to hem them! for this dress I did a lettuce hem, which is very simple just lightly pull on the fabric as your doing a rolled hem.. has such a pretty effect

Following on from the Brueram pattern instruction I ran a basting stitch along the front and back of the skirt and did my gathering.

Then it was just a simple case of matching up side seams and serging the skirt and the bodice together.. and voila all done!

I loved the end result so much that I actually made 2 of them, this will become a staple in my girls wardrobe, even my Miss 11 year old has requested one in her size!

Now for the awesome part! the GIVEAWAY!

The Summer Surprise Pattern will be on sale from the start of the tour until the 30th of May. All you need to do is use the code: anniversary and you will get 25% off the Summer Surprise Pattern when you visit the website www.sofilantjes.com! and not only that, but during the tour there will be a new give away EVER DAY!, and we are talking bundles of patterns from other designers, with different ones for each day of the Tour!

Today the first day of the tour you can win these patterns!

E+M Patterns - Winners Choice

Izzy & Ivy - Winners Choice

Mandy K Designs - Winners Choice

Paisley Roots - Saffron Twirl

Rose & Lee Designs - Winners Choice

Aivilo Charlotte - Winners Choice

Funktional Threads - Winners Choice

Sofilantjes - Winners Choice

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