Hanami Tester's Blog Tour

 I had the pleasure of being a pattern tester for the Hanami, a new mix and match pdf pattern offered by An of Straightgrain.

You can purchase the Hanami in An's shop.

 The Hanami offers many choices:

• top or dress
• without or with slim peter pan collar
• tulip or regular flutter sleeves
• crossed back or invisible zipper back

I let my daughter pick what combination she wanted and she chose:

• dress 
• collarless
• regular flutter sleeves
• zippered back

 The fabrics:

• Jay-Cyn Designs for Birch Fabrics, Mod Basics 2, Organic, Poppies Sun. I won 2 yards of this fabric and can you believe that this dress used only one yard of fabric? (so now I have 1 yard remaining for a future sewing project!)
• Bodice lining is 100% cotton voile in white, I decided to do the lining for the flutter sleeves in the main fabric, instead of the lining fabric

 The instructions include very thorough charts with everything you would need to know about the amount of fabrics needed, dimensions of the finished garment, is in both inches and centimeters.

I'm so pleased with how this dress turned out. I sewed a size 4Y and the fit is perfect. I only used 1 yard of fabric which is exactly what the chart said was needed.

 My favorite things about the pattern:

• Very nice attention to details like understitching so the lining will stay in place
• I learned a new sewing skill: how to stitch a bodice lining to the zipper tape ~ love that! And will definitely use that again in the future
• I like the way the bottom of the invisible zipper is sewn into the skirt/bodice seam

My modifications:

• I did the lining for the flutter sleeves in the main fabric (instead of lining fabric)
• I decided to do French seams for the skirt side seams
• Instead of serging the skirt and bodice seam, I did bias binding on it
• I added a hook and eye closure above the invisible zipper

Be sure to visit Straightgrain August 19-28 to see all the variations the pattern testers sewed.