Monthly MashUp (4) Bess Top and Lady Skater

If you're looking for the details of this monthly series you can check out the introduction post.

With Selfish Sewing Week coming up next week and Mother's Day in the U.S. less than a month away, I thought April's Monthly MashUp should be geared toward us ladies.  The patterns I chose are favorites of mine and the marriage between them makes me even more happy!  It's the Bess Top by Imagine Gnats and the Lady Skater Dress by Kitschycoo.

The Bess Top (*affiliate link) is one of Rachael from Imagine Gnats' most interesting patterns.  The pleated yoke with wrap around sleeve is such a cool feature and really makes it stand out from your average store-bought top.  Her instructions make it easy to sew with step-by-step pictures.  It's amazing how good you feel when you've put the crazy pieces together exactly how she says and then wow you've made something that looks so complicated and yet this is one of the fastest tops to make.  There's definitely some genius at work there.  The pattern has lengths for a tunic and dress as well and covers women's sizes 2-20 so odds are there's a size in there that fits you.

The Lady Skater Dress from Kitschycoo is a stylish yet comfortable knit dress that uses the high waist measurement to really flatter your figure.  The way the skirt falls over the waist and hips is great for many shapes.  The pattern includes cap, 3/4 length, and long sleeves and though Kitschycoo uses their own sizing numbers, there are 8 sizes that range from a 30" to 44" high bust and 24" to 38" high waist.  The best part of this pattern is that Amanda has extremely detailed information about how to adjust the pattern to perfectly fit your shape.  She is dedicated to perfect fit and there is almost no pattern alteration that could need to be made to her dress that she doesn't cover.

I've been wanting to MashUp these two patterns for quite some time.  The Bess top is so cool that I needed it to be a dress.  Since I wanted to use knit for the skirt I immediately had to use my favorite knit skirt shape which is of course the Lady Skater.

This MashUp was more complicated than the others I've done and not just because it's a women's pattern instead of children's.  The top was designed to be used with wovens and the skirt was designed to be used with knit so there is ease to factor in.  I have all the details and pictures, but I don't want to jam up this post so I will post next week about the specific alterations to make.

For now I recommend getting the fit for each pattern right for you.  Make a muslin of both in their true forms and then come back next week to see how to use those perfectly fitted patterns to make a perfectly matched up dress.  I honestly recommend doing this with any MashUp so that you know the fit is correct before you change anything.

I would be remiss if I didn't also mention that Imagine Gnats has a fabric shop that carries my favorite double gauze fabrics ever and Kitschycoo has a fabric shop that is basically THE place to get amazing knits with the coolest prints around.

And lets not forget about the giveaway!  Of course if you're going to be making your own MashUp, you'll need the Bess Top and the Lady Skater Dress patterns which Rachael and Amanda have generously offered to giveaway to the winner!

Just follow the instructions in the rafflecopter below to enter the giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Want to MashUp your own, but don't want to wait until the giveaway is over?  You can purchase the Bess Top pattern here (*affiliate link) and the Lady Skater Dress pattern here.

Be sure to follow the Monthly MashUp Pinterest board if you'd like some more inspiration on garments to mash.  And remember, if you do a MashUp I'd love it if you would share it in the Call Ajaire Monthly MashUp Flickr group!  There are a few great ones out there in the group already and I'll feature a few with the giveaway winner announcement next week.

<a href="http://ajaire.blogspot.com/search/label/Monthly%20MashUp" target="_blank"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1QaqRN54YV5eIpr-nbvuESs6hHOsDFaMODZGPwnVmLdGK0WCIYxnF7W4dZ8eOpKDmR7oCYL_5hvysYBodMWplhjguDoc0ZpyH9QMsGqN4sm3RHmMlUNTuok4VnzI-G48rr3O_8iweIsqZ/s1600/Monthly+MashUp+graphic+600px.png" alt="Call Ajaire Monthly MashUp" width="125" height="125" /></a>

**the patterns for the giveaway have been generously donated, but all opinions are mine and I purchased my own patterns or put in the work as a tester before contacting the designers for this giveaway.