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Make It Perfect

Make It Perfect, Scout

.SCOUT – a new pattern for boys and girls.

You might have noticed I released a new pattern over the weekend. With the new website up and running, I am ready to share more about this cool new design with you all today!

SCOUT – a unisex raglan sweatshirt with bonus simple skirt

Scout

 

The Scout Raglan Sweatshirt is a classic, everyday style designed for both boys and girls.

Being comfortable is important to kids and the slouchy fit of this raglan sweatshirt screams comfort and versatility. Sleeve cuffs, hem band and neckband made from ribbing make this an effortless sew with no hemming necessary!

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Sew up a cosy raglan in sweater knit or french terry knit or make it lightweight by using your favourite jersey. 

Scout

For your skirt-loving girls, why not give the Scout Skirt a whirl?  The fastest knit skirt you will ever make, the Scout Skirt features an easy-on, easy-off elastic waistband and sweet swingy shape that will easily compliment every outfit. 

Scout

While the Scout Raglan & Skirt look great as a set, when worn separately there is potential for pairing with every other item in your kid’s wardrobe!

Scout

This pattern comes in two size ranges:

Little Scout: 0-5 years and Big Scout: 6-10 years

Scout line drawings

As fun as it is to sew fancy, occasional clothing my passion is for sewing clothing which will get worn and washed and worn and washed, over and over again. For me, nothing is more satisfying than knowing that the items of clothing I have spent time sewing for my children (and myself) are actually getting a good workout. The Scout raglan and skirt are designed for that exact purpose – to be worn effortlessly day after day. Scout

I also love a good unisex pattern and the Scout sweatshirt is easily boy and girl-friendly. It looks great with a pair of jeans, casual pants, trackies or a skirt and I made sure the neckline was nice and high to keep those little ones of yours toasty and warm. The sweatshirt has a real late 80’s/early 90’s slouchy look to it and is intended to sit loosely on the body. However, if you are after a more fitted look then you can easily size down a bit and create a more snug fit. Scout

The Scout skirt is a pattern which has been on my radar for a long time now. When I designed the sweatshirt I knew it would look awesome paired with this style of skirt. I actually made my daughter a few of these skirts a long time ago and she reaches for them more than any other item in her wardrobe…she tells me that they are comfortable and swingy. The reason I keep making them for her though is because, not only do they look cute, but because they are made with knit fabric I never have to iron them! Straight from the wash and into the cupboard and they don’t get lost or forgotten in the ironing basket for months! The Scout skirt is also super quick to sew – you won’t believe how fast and easy it it to finish. The most time consuming part is sewing down the hem and a couple of my pattern testers didn’t even bother to do that making it an even faster finish! Scout

With the new branding of Make It Perfect, I am also going to go through all of my older patterns and reformat them to suit the new look (time consuming and tedious…but it will get done!!) Scout is already in the new look pattern design though so if you purchase a copy you can see the changes for yourself. I think it looks rather spiffy!

I’ll be sharing more about this pattern over the next few weeks. It truly is a wardrobe basic though and I don’t think any kid will have trouble wearing this sweatshirt – nothing worse than spending all that time sewing and those little noses screw up and say “I don’t like it!”

For now, you can see and read more about Scout in the store and the pattern will be on sale at 20% off until 10pm Saturday 25th July (AEST) – no coupon required!

Wholesalers wishing to stock this pattern in their stores can contact my distributors here.Scout

Make It Perfect

.Make It Perfect goes all shiny and new!.

Hello world!!!

Welcome to my shiny new website. What do you reckon? I’m super excited!

Behind the scenes at Make It Perfect we have been busily working away and giving MIP a whole new look. The very first Make It Perfect pattern (The Versatile Wrap – still a top seller today!) was released in March 2008. To be honest, back then I didn’t have a long-term vision for the business. I was a new Mum, staying at home with the little ones and having a bit of fun with sewing. When the owner of my local patchwork store agreed to sell my patterns in her shop, I was over the moon and didn’t anticipate that things would go much further than that.

Things really progressed quickly though and after lots of positive feedback from sewers and store owners (there were practically no Indie sewing pattern companies back then, particularly in Australia) the business started to grow bigger than I had ever imagined! I have learned so much since that very first pattern. The internet has changed immensely and the online sewing community is amazing.

7 years later, I feel like it’s time to freshen up the Make It Perfect image with a new website – including my blog and an a proper online store, a new logo and a whole new look!

I have been working with my graphic designer, Leanne (she is awesome) for the last few months and she has helped create a beautiful new logo and packaging for my patterns. I absolutely love, love, love it! I was aiming for something a little more sophisticated, while still having a fresh and fun feel about it and she has absolutely nailed it!

Sewing Patterns

With the logo change, I decided that I needed to update my blog and website to suit the new look and make them both more visually appealing and user-friendly. In the past, I have done all of the creating of my blog and website, but this time I wanted to do things properly and quickly so I got Chris from Websites Tasmania on board he worked his magic on the screen. I couldn’t be happier with what we have created, it is exactly what I had in mind and I know that it is going to be so much easier for you to use. Particularly the shop – now you can purchase multiple items in one transaction, create an account, use coupon codes for discounts, and view patterns in a much more organised way.

You know what else is cool about the new shop? I’ve added a discount for you when you purchase both the Big and Little versions of one pattern! I know it is frustrating when you want to mix and match between size ranges or you have children in both the smaller and bigger size ranges. Well now when you purchase both size ranges in the one transaction (by selecting the “Big & Little” product option) you will receive both patterns at a discounted price!

To celebrate all of the new things, I think we need to have a sale! All PDF patterns are 20% off for 2 days using the coupon code “NEWMIP” – happy shopping!

(Sale ends midnight, Monday 20th July, Australian Eastern Standard Time.)

So get clicking, check out pages and let me know if you have any questions!

Oh, and you might notice a newly released pattern…I’ll be sharing more about that tomorrow!

Make It Perfect, Waterfall Blouse

.Nani IRO Month – Waterfall Blouse.

IMG_5668Hello Nani IRO! If you haven’t heard, June is Nani IRO month over at Miss Matatabi. Frances has invited some of her sewing friends to select a favourite fabric from the Nani IRO 2015 collection and of course I accepted that invitation!  
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The fabric I choose for my project is a double gauze print called En Garden – So. I’ve got a pretty hefty Nani IRO stash but find it hard to actually cut into, so committing to participate in a celebration like this is good for me! IMG_5675

My intentions were to use this fabric to make myself a pair of pyjama pants, but when the fabric arrived in the mail and I took a look at it in person I couldn’t bring myself to use something so beautiful for a pair of PJs that no one would ever see. Instead, I decided to so a new Waterfall Blouse that I knew would get worn a lot.IMG_5672

The watercolour floral print is stunning, and there are little birds throughout the design which are a shimmery, metallic light pink. So pretty.
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SUPPLIES // Make It Perfect, Waterfall Blouse pattern // Nani IRO, En Garden – So, double gauze

To help you build your Nani IRO stash (trust me, it’s a good stash to have!) Miss Matatabi and Naomi Ito (the genius behind Nani IRO) have put together a massive giveaway…click here to enter. It’s pretty awesome!

Make It Perfect, Skippy

.Spotty Skippy.

Did you know that Make It Perfect attended the last International Quilt Market in Minneapolis? Well, I wasn’t there in person but my pattern distributors (Creative Abundance) were there showcasing my patterns along with a few other designers from Australia.

I sent over a whole heap of samples for display and it was a great excuse to sew up a few fresh ones too.

 
I have a cupboard full of Make It Perfect samples but sometimes I sneak the samples out of the cupboard and into my own wardrobe! I needed to make a new Skippy dress because nothing was sample-worthy and this is what was created…

 

I used an Art Gallery knit, and am so happy with the quality of this fabric. It’s great that the bigger fabric manufacturers are spending more time creating fabrics that are suited to sewing clothing, the variety and types of fabrics are ever increasing giving us so many more options for sewing.

I didn’t use any contrasting fabrics for this dress, just the spots all the way through and I love the effect. I’m not sure where this dress will end up yet…it should be living in the samples cupboard so I don’t have to sew up another one next time I need a sample but I can feel it making it’s way towards my own wardrobe!

SUPPLIES:

Make It Perfect, Skippy pattern

Art Gallery knit, Dotted Boulevard by Sara Lawson

Make It Perfect

.All the things in May.

Something terrible happened in May.
A month ago the hard-drive on my computer failed. And I have never backed up my 55,000 + photos from 2008-2015, like EVER. I have everything I need for the backup sitting on my desk and for months Jaron has been reminding me to do it, but it was something that I just never got around to. And then everything was all gone! May was an annoying month. It took 4 weeks for the computer to be repaired and partial recovery of the files, but I am still missing about half of my photos, all of my purchased computer programs (like everything I use for writing patterns!) and much more. Photos are priceless and they can still be recovered, it’s just going to cost an annoying amount of money but needs to be done. Lesson learned = back up regularly. (I think I’m the only person who needs this lesson, by the way!) 
Something new started in May.
Recently I have been getting lots of requests from you Make It Perfect sewers out there for a Facebook group. I’m a little anti-Facebook so didn’t really get what all the fuss was about when it came to closed group. Usually I’ll just keep an eye on my MIP page and check out posts if I am tagged or check my messages, but other than that I steer away from my newsfeed and anywhere else that will suck into my time. Long story short, I did a bit of asking around and it turns out these topic-exclusive Facebook groups are actually pretty cool, so I started one! 
If you are as naive about it all as I was, basically the Make It Perfect Sharing Group is a place where you can go to discuss anything related to MIP patterns…you might have a question about how to sew something or want to share a tip or trick or even show off photos of your MIP creations (my favourite part!) The group has been running for a week now and there are already some amazing photos shared and interesting questions and feedback to read up on. We would love to have you join our group so head on over and request a membership and get ready to be inspired!
Something inspirational happened in May.
For the month of May, I participated in my first Me Made May challenge (#mmmay15 on Instagram). I have been a spectator of this challenge in previous but this is the first time I have committed to taking part in it myself. For MMM I challenged myself to wear a piece of handmade clothing everyday and document the outfit with a photograph (documented on my Instagram account). I also challenged myself to wear something different everyday…which meant that I had to dig deep in the wardrobe and revisit a few items that I don’t wear that often. While I loved the challenge, taking a photo every day was pretty tiring! By the end of the month, I had the self-timer on my iPhone sitting on the ironing board all sorted out because my family members were sick of me getting them to take photos each day!
What I learned from the challenge is that I have a pretty versatile handmade wardrobe. I think the only thing I am really lacking are some jeans and cardigans so will make sure I tackle those in 2015. Other than that though, I feel like I have a good mix of handmade clothes…lots of comfy, everyday wearables as well as a few dressier, prettier pieces. If you missed it on Instagram or Facebook, here is a review of everything I wore for the month…
And that’s it for May!