Pattern Review

Simplicity 1332A Pattern

- Jo Roberts

Jo Roberts sews for herself and her two girls. She shares all her projects on her blog Three Stories High, joeveryday19.blogspot.co.uk. We asked Jo to try out Simplicity 1332A pattern, here’s what she thought…

What would happen if you let your children, aged nine and seven, choose their own sewing pattern? Instead of wondering, I let them peruse the Minerva Website with me and what a pearler they came up with, Simplicity 1332A. The collection seemed to encompass a girl’s whole wardrobe needs within one pattern. Why had I been so apprehensive about letting them choose? The pattern includes an elasticated skirt, a long and short sleeved T-shirt, leggings and a tiered jersey cardigan. The versatility of this pattern is one of the main points for selecting it. With UK seasonal weather variations, I feel it is important to make clothes that will get constant wear rather than spending time, effort and money making one party dress that will only be worn once or twice.

It is a superb pattern for beginners, with the elasticated cotton skirt through to some beginner stretch sewing with jersey stretch knits. The pattern is on tissue paper but because it spans a wide range of sizes the pieces are split up so that not too many sizes are printed on one shape. I like this even though it means more paper cutting, each piece is more accurately cut on the curves because all the ink marks do not merge into one place. The pattern goes by chest/ waist/hip size so you are not bound by a mystery size for a particular aged child which is great for us as my girls have slim waists and chest sizes but their arm and leg length is of their age.