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Made With Harts: Ikatee Pattern—Helsinki

I’ll tell you what, as my daughter grows the need for versitile play clothes becomes ever the more important.

We juggle activities throughout the day, often coming from the playground or park and headed straight to a family dinner or activity. Sometimes it’s a huge benefit to have a garment that’s easy to play in AND presentable for grandmas to see.

I love the Helsinki pattern by Ikatee for those reasons. I chose the Nohara knit by Japanese designer Hitomi Osumi for Cotton + Steel paired with an Eggshell stretch denim from Harts selection. I just loved the whimsy of the knit print, soooo soft and cute 🥰

The pairing is great for allowing comfort and stretch while also guaranteeing a bit of durability with the denim on bottom.

The difference in fabric weight gives almost a hoop skirt affect which is just adorable on a baby (toddler 😭) Goldie’s age.

The pattern was relatively easy to work with and well explained. They had clear step by step instructions as well as the instructions for the optional alterations (like sleeveless or pocketless).

I found the sizing to run on the large side, but honestly that’s kind of to Ikatee’s benefit since kids grow like weeds!

I can’t wait to try more of their patterns!

This post is my honest opinion using fabric and a pattern I received free of charge from Harts Fabric as part of their Harts Fabric Street Team.

Made With Harts: Ikatee Pattern—Stockholm

I was so excited to be able to create this precious Ikatee Stockholm dress with Embrace Solid Double Gauze Cobalt. Read on to hear more about my experience working with this fabric and the PDF Ikatee patterns for the first time.

Lately I’ve been diving back into sewing garments for myself and I’ve found a ton of joy and purpose in being able to create quality, custom items for myself and my daughter. I’ve sewn for most of my life, but lately I’ve been trying to make conscious and deliberate choices with the items I create. I’m making meaningful swaps in my household in an attempt to waste less and keep more. A large part of that is reducing my families clothing waste. From avoiding fast fashion, to cutting up my husband’s old button up shirts for quilting, to thrifting, and to creatively cutting fabrics to get more use out the each textile, I’m doing it.

I’d been eyeing the Ikatee patterns for a while but was still going through a lot of free patterns I had stockpiled on Pinterest and my iBooks for years. Finally, the opportunity arrived to try the patterns through Harts and I jumped at it.

My experience with sewing was mostly alterations (I’m 5’11”), pegging clothes and sewing patches cuz punk’s not dead, and creating weird one of a kind items to wear to various parties and functions in my teens and twenties. I’d never had an organic style personally and so I’d never ever worked with a fabric as light and delicate as this double gauze. I love the deeply saturated cobalt color and chose it for my daughter because I thought it would just really compliment her coloring as well as the Ikatee pattern.

As expected, I struggled at first. The fabric stretched and frayed in ways I didn’t expect; found myself having to work more slowly than my regular pace. The Ikatee patterns are originally en Français so there were parts of the instructions that I had to go over a few times to make sure I understood. I wouldn’t say things got lost in translation so much as I probably should have read the instructions completely before I started to save myself some time.

In the end the project turned out sooooo cute I could just die. I tried some embroidery for the first time as well and I think the end result is just precious. The running stitch and monogram really add the handmade touch that compliments the whimsy of classic children’s garments such as the Stockholm Ikatee pattern!

This post is my honest opinion using fabric and a pattern I received free of charge from Harts Fabric.