Happy Hump Day Lovelies!

Welcome to MY stop for Day 3 of the Bella Sunshine Designs’s Birthday Blog Tour! If you’ve been following me on social media and my blog, you know that the first BSD Pattern to be released – The Bow Tie Leggings and Shorts along with the Holiday Cut Out Dress – was actually my FIRST official Blog Tour! Hard to believe that was only a year ago. I always tell Melissa that I’m so thankful that my first pattern testing experience and blog tour was with her! She was so patient, and professional and it was such a great bonus that her pattern lingo was (and still is) so very easy to follow. I don’t know if I would feel the way I feel about pattern testing had I not had such a pleasant experience with her. (I shudder to think!)

But let’s get back to the Birthday Blog Tour! (haha) So the theme of the blog tour is to hack a BSD pattern to show just how versatile the patterns can be. I was totally excited about this! Of course, I had to pick the Bow Tie Leggings and Shorts pattern, just because it was one of my firsts, and then I decided to pick something I hadn’t yet tried: The Sweet Lily Pintuck Dress & Tunic.

I’ve been hoarding this super sweet stretch denim for a while, they were perfect for the Bow Tie Leggings & Shorts pattern.

“The Bow Tie Leggings & Shorts are the perfect staple to your little girl’s wardrobe.  Add a cute bow detail, and you’ve got a winning outfit!  This pattern offers both a traditional, tighter fitting legging and a slightly looser, slim fit pant.  Four different lengths are built into the pattern giving you the option for mini shorts, knee shorts, capris, or regular pants.”  – from BellaSunshineDesigns.com

I decided to do the slim fit pant and didn’t make any major changes to the pattern, only that I decided not to add the side bows. I seriously forgot how much I love this pattern, (prolly because 90% of my sews are dresses haha).  It has NO side seams and in this stretch denim they look so posh! Total win.

Next up Sweet Lily Pin-tuck Dress and Tunic pattern.

“The Sweet Lilly Pintuck Dress has an airy, vintage feel. The fully lined, fitted bodice features pintucks, soft ruffles and button details.  The understitching on the neckline ensures that your stitching doesn’t detract from the intricate pintucks on the bodice.  The banded sleeves with small ruffles gives this dress a delicate and girly look.  The ruffled hem allows the bottom of the dress to have that same special something as the bodice without stealing the show.  A button up back with hidden continuous skirt placket is not only attractive but is also functional. Two skirt length options are available: a baby doll length that works perfectly with leggings or as a short dress, and a longer more traditional dress length”. – from BellaSunshineDesigns.com.

I thought the tunic version would work nicely with the pants, and as you can see from the original pattern, I ended up making quite a few changes using the basic blocks of the tunic.

Changes include:

• lowered neckline
• sleeveless
• did not include the waist band pattern piece
• invisible zipper closure in the back instead of buttons
• only 4 pleats on each bodice side
• side slits on the tunic

I think both patterns complimented each other so nicely, and its the perfect spring/summer outfit for a busy body like #thespiritedone. She was still under the weather and it was too cold outside so we had to resort to an indoor shoot. I spent such a long time trying to photograph the white so the pink tucks would pop, but I failed miserably! ha! But still, look how cute she is! 🙂

I did manage to get somewhat of a close up shot of the pin tucks here:

Seriously, half the fun of owning PDF patterns is being able to envision them in other ways. And you never have to worry about cutting up your pattern pieces because you can always reprint them. Next to upcycling, pattern hacking is my next favorite thing to do.

Now here’s the fun part for you! With every blog tour comes some sweet prizes and sales, check out what Bella Sunshine Design’s has lined up for their Birthday Week and be sure to enter the rafflecopter to win the sweet giveaway below! Also,  pay special attention to the featured bloggers and go check out what fantastic hacks they did too!

Bella Sunshine Designs Birthday Blog Tour

Featured Bloggers:

House of Estrela | Pattern Revolution | Pleats & Ruffles
Itch to Stitch | Fabulous Home Sewn | Sew Sophie Lynn
Sewing by Ti | Made By Sara | Candice Ayala
Seaside Notions | Pear Berry Lane | Made By Melli
Adventures With Bubbe and Bug | Crazy Crafty Haute Mama | Rebel & Malice

Sponsors:

Prize Number 1:

Bella Sunshine Designs – 2 Patterns of Choice
Once Upon A Yard / Sew It Seams Facebook Group – Grab Bag of 7 yards of fabric

Prize Number 2 (Just for the USA):

Bella Sunshine Designs – 2 Pattern of Choice
Bethany Lane – 3 Sets of “Cute as a Button” wooden buttons (30 buttons total)

Prize Number 3:

Bella Sunshine Designs – 2 Patterns of Choice
Sofilantjes Patterns – 2 Patterns of Choice
Knot Sew Normal – 1 Pattern of Choice
Muffin Head Patterns – Any 1 pattern up to $12.00
Itch To Stitch – 1 Pattern of Choice
Rachel Rossi – Squared Fashion Wrap Sewing Pattern
FABulous Home Sewn – 1 Pattern of choice
Seaside Notions – 1 pattern of choice
Laela Jeyne Patterns – Pattern of choice (excludes bundles)
Pickle Toes Patterns – 1 Pattern of choice.

Enter the giveaway:

Hurry, the giveaway ends on Sunday, February 28th at midnight!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Celebration Sales:

Mabel Madison – 10% off their website with coupon code BELLABIRTHDAY until February 29th.
Sew It Seams – 15% off their website with coupon code BELLASUN until February 29th.

And of course, you can get 40% off all Bella Sunshine Designs patterns on the website until February 29th. No coupon code needed!

Ready for one more surprise? Check the Bella Sunshine Designs’s website on Friday for a new release or two!