Pattern hack alert: meet Katie Kortman and her #Mindy dress

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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 Katie Kortman and her #Mindy pattern hack this month. Find out more about her beautiful creation here!

Katie Kortman

Hi! I’m Katie Kortman and I am a sewist, surface designer, teacher, and painter! I love doing all the creative things! I blog over at KatieKortman.com, I dance around Instagram @katiekortmanart and I recently started a YouTube Channel! I have been sewing since college when I bought a cheap sewing machine for myself for my birthday (this was in 2001). I didn’t really up my sewing game until 2018 when I made a goal to not buy any clothing for a year. Now I feel like I can sew everything! I’ve made jackets, bras, jeans, gowns, everything. 

A guide to my Mindy pattern hack

I have hacked the Mindy Dress 3 times now and have done the same hacks each time because I just love wearing it this way! Here are the changes I made:

  1. I shortened the shoulder straps (that are attached to the sleeves) by 2.5-3” so that it raised the neckline. I felt like I didn’t need to change the bodice piece but you COULD lengthen it and drop the dart if you want.
     
  2. I didn’t do the zipper. I was in between sizes on my bust so I sized up and didn’t end up needing it. 
     
  3. I added pockets! I’m writing a quick tutorial for the Weallsew.com BERNINA blog soon on how to draft your own pockets for any dress or skirt.
     
  4. I added a bottom ruffle. I made them various widths for each dress, but my favorite was about 10” wide and then 180” long. I just sewed 3 panels of 60” wide by 10” tall fabric together, and gathered them. I then attached them to the unhemmed bottom of the dress. 

That’s it!

This is how I came to the idea to make this Mindy pattern hack. I love a big breezy dress in summer. I wanted it to be longer so I can freely move around and sit down etc and not expose anything. I always want pockets in my dresses, I wanted a higher neckline so my undergarments didn’t show, and I’m into the tiered dresses style right now!

I don’t always hack patterns, but If I love a pattern I do like to sew it in different versions so I hack the pattern a bit. It adds versatility and I feel like I’ve maximized my use of the pattern. It also adds variety so I don’t just have a bunch of the same thing in my closet. 

And I still have something on my to-do list! I have the Norma pattern in my queue as well as many other patterns I can’t wait to make! 

Interested in making your own Mindy dress? Buy the pattern here!

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