I’ll have the usual

I have a lot of patterns. I know there are people who have more, but I’ve filled a three drawer cabinet with them. I have all kinds of patterns for pants, shirts, dresses, skirts, jackets, hats, pajamas, bags, toys, kids clothes, and costumes. But I find there are just a few that I go to over and over again. They are my go-to patterns when I need something.

I recently made my 8th? (maybe more) apron from this pattern. Three of them are mine. I love it. I love the simplicity of it. I love the classic lines of it. It’s a great pattern. I’ve stuck with views A and D and haven’t seen the need to do the other two views yet.

Need pjs? This is the pattern I go to for any kind of lounging pants. And I recently lengthened the shirt and cut the collar in half to use it for Brett’s Halloween costume too.

I live in jacket weather country (which is sad news for the amazing wool coat I made myself and absolutely love). I’ve used this jacket pattern (which is a bit dated, and not quite in the good way as the apron pattern above) three times now. The first time I made it as written out of black corduroy. It’s a nice jacket. The second time I made it out of a lovely deep red corduroy and tweaked it by doing the back yolk in two pieces on the bias to form a chevron and I fitted it at the waist. I made it a third time this summer out of a khaki twill bottom weight and not only did I fit the waist but I also lengthened it past my hips and added waist pockets. I love it! If I make it a fourth time I’m doing the same but I’ll be doing the waist pockets differently so they work in a bit easier. And one of these days I’ll have a collar I’ll let people examine closely.

I’m really not a fan of sewing collars, so this shirt has been made a few times and will probably be made several more.

I really love the fit of this skirt and have a couple of it in both the flared and straight versions and with knee-length and longer versions.

And this has been a great pattern to make for Iddo. I made her coming home outfit in this pattern and it was an almost ankle length dress then. Now it hits her about mid-thigh and when it gets shorter we’ll just have it be a top. I made her a red fleece one for Christmas last year and we’ll probably be able to pull it out again this year to be at least a top as well. It goes together quick and it’s really versatile.

There are a few other patterns that are probably working their way into my standards. I used Wee Wonderfuls’ Wee Bunny Pattern to make a leopard for Iddo to go with her Halloween costume and I love the simplicity and adorableness of it (although I need to work on my satin stitch embroidery). This pattern will probably show up in a lot of varieties in the future.

One of the things I think I love about sewing is that I can take this handful of patterns and use them again and again but with slight variations every time and it looks like a very different piece. I can take the standard patterns and make them mine.