Making unique pieces, sharing them on your blog or Instagram and inspiring others: the combination of sewing and social media is extremely popular. And because the number of sewing blogsters in the fashion world keeps rising, Fibre Mood puts every month a Sewista in the spotlight who made an original pattern hack out of a Fibre Mood pattern. Meet Alex from Sewrendipity and her #Danika pattern hack this month. Find out more about her beautiful creation here!
Hi! I’m Alex, a 38 year old Romanian living in London for the past 10 years. I began sewing in 2009 by buying myself a sewing machine on a whim, and never looked back. Then I started my blog, Sewrendipity, in 2015, just after I was a contestant on the Great British Sewing Bee. I am very passionate about sustainability (I am a sustainability professional in my day job), so my mission is to help my readers build a meaningful, thoughtful, long lasting self-made wardrobe. I write about style, sustainability and of course, sewing.
I love a good hack and I find that my favourite Fibre Mood patterns are infinitely hackable, filling me with inspiration. As soon as I saw the Danika as part of the FM Secret Sewciety, I knew that I wanted to change the front into a v-neck. This is definitely my favourite neckline shape. Then I saw another jumpsuit on Instagram, by a lovely South African sewer called Tino, what also had an invisible zipper front closure. So, I decided that this will also be a great idea for my version of the Danika, to help with the pesky bathroom access issues.
A guide to my Danika pattern hack
My main modifications were to change the front neckline from crew neck to v-neck. I did that by copying an extra front pattern piece and drawing a line from the shoulder seam to about 12 cms down from the neckline. I then cut out the excess and made sure the front shoulder seam matches the back one. And don’t forget to also alter the front facing in the same way.
The invisible zipper insertion is pretty straightforward, just do what you normally do. Just make sure the facings are tidily finished. I prefer machine sewing them, but you can also hand sew them down as well.
I love hacking patterns. I mostly end up with what I call a ‘frankenpattern’, which is the combination between two or more patterns to achieve a look I am after. I did take a few pattern cutting courses, but I don’t enjoy that. I have so many patterns in my collection that I can find the element I am after in one of them and combine it with the base of another.
A few other examples of my Fibre Mood hacks:
I love hacking because you can get so much more mileage out of a pattern. I can make a True and Tested pattern over and over again without getting bored. I like that the hacks also require a lot of imagination and creativity and they are great ways to bring ideas to life with patterns you already have.
I’ve just completed a new hack of one of my favourite patterns, Fibre Mood Mira, it’s just waiting for pictures, but keep an eye out on the blog, as I will be posting about it soon.
Interested in making your own Danika jumpsuit? Buy the pattern here!
