Blog - Patterns for Pirates

Brunch Blouse|Bitty Brunch Blouse SAL day 1 (print pattern)

March 11, 2019

Welcome to the Brunch Blouse and Bitty Brunch Blouse

Sew Along!

Day One is reserved to purchasing the patterns, printing and cutting the size(s) you need. If you plan on sewing for yourself you can get the Brunch Blouse here, if you’re sewing for your little girl, the Bitty Brunch Blouse can be purchased here and if you’re sewing for both of you (just think of the mommy and me matching outfits!) you can get the bundle.

This Sew Along will take place in our M4M & P4P Sew Along group so be sure to join the group not only for the exclusive discount code available for the patterns but also to post your progress this week. As always all daily blog posts will be here on the blog but you’ll be checking in with your completed steps in the group.

Now that you purchased the pattern(s), print the size needed. In order to do that it is very important that you take your most accurate measurements. The Brunch Blouse and Bitty Brunch Blouse are drafted for woven fabric (no stretch) so if you need to grade for multiple sizes, please do not skip this step.

You will need your waist, hips and chest measurements in order to choose the correct blouse size. P4P has an amazing blog that gives you tip for accurately taking your measurements. You can read all about it here. If your measurements put you in a different size for chest/waist/hips be sure to check out our P4P University blog and grade to achieve the perfect fit.

Check out the day 1 video below and then comment “done” on the Day 1 picture of the Brunch/Bitty Brunch Blouse SAL album in the sew along group. We don’t allow pictures of the pattern pieces so this will count as your day 1 check in. Let’s get started!

Brunch Blouse|Bitty Brunch Blouse SAL day 1 (print pattern)

Brunch Blouse|Bitty Brunch Blouse SAL day 2 (cut fabric)

Brunch Blouse|Bitty Brunch Blouse SAL day 3 (darts and placket)

Brunch Blouse|Bitty Brunch Blouse SAL day 4 (pocket/waist ties/back seam)

Brunch Blouse|Bitty Brunch Blouse SAL day 5 (shoulder/side seams)

Brunch Blouse|Bitty Brunch Blouse SAL day 6 (neckband)

Brunch Blouse|Bitty Brunch Blouse SAL day 7 (finish sleeves/hem)

Brunch Blouse|Bitty Brunch Blouse SAL day 8 (winners announcement)

Heart Pouch :: Free Valentine Sewing Pattern!

February 10, 2019

Have we told you (our Pirate family) lately that we love you? We love you so much, that we are giving our hearts to you this Valentine’s Day.

Well, maybe not our actual hearts…but a Heart Pouch sewing pattern. And it’s free!! This zipper style pouch is super easy, quick, and fun to make, and takes very little fabric. (Plus maybe you have some 9″ zippers laying around from the scarfs that you never got around to making this past holiday season?? It’s a perfect way to use up that stash!)

**Stick around all the way to the bottom of this post for a video tutorial of the assembly of these sweet little pouches as well!

— Heart Pouch PDF free pattern pieces (found HERE)
— 2 – 8″x8″ pieces cotton woven for main + lining fabrics
— Lightweight Fusible Interfacing: I like Pellon SF101, or Heat & Bond 3336 (aff links)
— 1 – 9″ zipper

Recommended fabrics: quilting cotton, kona cotton, etc.

Step 1: Prepare your pieces. You will need one each of the pouch back, pouch upper front, and pouch lower front; in your main, lining and interfacing fabrics.

Step 2: Following the instructions from the manufacturer, iron the interfacing to your main fabric pieces.

Step 3: Locate the upper front piece in your main fabric, and lay it with the fabric face up.

Step 4: With the zipper face down, align it against the straight, raw edge of your pattern piece.

Step 5: With your upper front lining piece face down, align it along the straight edge, sandwiching the zipper between the two pieces of fabric. Sew with 1/4″ seam allowance.

Step 6: Flip open the upper front pieces, so they are now touching with wrong sides together, and your zipper is exposed. Press and topstitch, if desired.

Step 7: Locate your lower front piece in your main fabric, and lay it with the fabric face up.

Step 8: Lay your upper front pieces with the main fabric face down, aligning the zipper to the long straight edge of the lower piece.

Step 9: Similar to step 5, align the lower front lining pieces along the straight edge, sandwiching the zipper between the two pieces of fabric. Sew with 1/4″ seam allowance.

Step 10: Flip open the lower front pieces, so they are now touching with wrong sides together, and your zipper is exposed. Press and topstitch, if desired.

Step 11: Open up your zipper, and trim any excess length if needed.

Step 12: Clip your zipper opening together and zigzag stitch to baste the edge shut.

Step 13: Lay your completed front piece with the main fabric face up.

Step 14: Place your main back piece on top, with right sides together.

Step 15: Flip the entire group over, so that now the lining side is face up.

Step 16: Place your lining back piece on top, with right sides together.

Step 17: Pin/clip and sew entire outer edge with 1/2″ seam allowance, leaving a 2″ – 3″ opening along one of the straighter sides.

Step 18: Clip into the top point seam allowance as closely as you can, without clipping through your stitches. Trim around entire outer edge, for easy and cleaner turning.

Step 19: Turn your pouch right sides out, through the opening of the main fabric pieces.

Step 20: Press and smooth out all corners, round edges and bottom point.

Step 21: To close up your opening with no raw edges showing, pinch three of the raw edges together…treating them as one. And the fourth raw edge as it’s own.

Step 22: Tuck raw edges in and pin/clip.

Step 23: Using your favorite blind stitch, close up the opening.

Step 24: You’re finished! Go fill your new heart pouch with whatever goodies will fit in it, or gift it to someone who will do the same.

Are you someone who considers themselves to be more of a visual learner? Here’s a video that walks you through all of the same steps above. Hopefully it helps!

As always, we love when you share what you’ve made with us. Head over to the Patterns for Pirates Facebook group and show off the fabulous Heart Pouch that you’ve managed to make from our freebie pattern! Happy Valentine’s Day, friends!

The Basic Tees :: New Pattern Release!

February 8, 2019

Is there anything more fun than a pattern release day? Maybe when it’s not one pattern, but it’s THREE! We’ve got tees for the whole family, y’all!

The patterns are drafted for knit fabrics and are each packed full of options.

**Want to learn more about how to measure yourself for these pattern? We’ve got you covered with an in-depth blog HERE. And in case you’re new to Patterns for Pirates and PDF patterns in general, we have a great blog full of new user tips HERE to help you get started! And, as with all of our current releases and updates, the pdfs now include our layers feature and can be found in Letter, A4 and A0 sizes.

Let’s give a quick rundown of the options!

: Short Sleeve

: 3/4 Sleeve

: Long Sleeve

: Short Sleeve

: 3/4 Sleeve

: Long Sleeve Cuffed

NECKLINE OPTIONS

: Crew

: V Neck

: Crew

: Scoop

: V Neck

: Crew

: V Neck

HEM LENGTHS

: Shirt

: Tunic

: Dress

: Crop

: Shirt

: Tunic

: Dress

Are you ready to make your new favorite shirts for yourself and/or the family? What are you waiting for?

THE BASIC TEE – Women’s | THE BASIC TEE – Men’s | THE BASIC TEE – Youth | THE BASIC TEE – Bundle

Need more convincing? Just take a look at this pattern on all of the amazing shapes and sizes of our testers, and get a look at more examples of all the options in our albums in the P4P Facebook group! The Basic Tee: Men’s / Women’s / Youth

The release sale (no code needed) will be through Monday, February 11, 2019 (11:59PM US Central Time Zone).

Happy sewing, Pirates!

All P4P today winners

January 31, 2019

Welcome to the 2019 #allP4Ptoday winner circle! I will be adding each monthly winner here so be sure to check out the blog often. You can get the contest details here.

DECEMBER

Happy New Year! We hope everyone had a lovely holiday season. It’s time to announce our last 2019 #allp4ptoday winner:

Congratulation Kassie Jennings! Kassie is looking stunning in her Sweetheart dress and Pirate Stocking Cap. Did you know that our Stocking cap pattern is free?

Hope 2020 brings you all lots of health, happiness and full bobbins! ❤️

NOVEMBER

Happy 1st of December, pirates! November has been full of beautiful P4P makes shared in our Facebook group. Thank you for brightening our days!
It’s time to announce the November #allp4ptoday winner.

Congratulations Yvonne Johnson!!

Yvonne’s beautiful daughter is wearing one of my favorite P4P pattern combinations, the Boho and the Butterfly (Cocoon) Cardigan.

OCTOBER

Boo! 👻 The month of ghosts and ghouls couldn’t end without announcing the October #allP4Ptoday winner.

Congratulations Kristina Elyse!!

Kristina won a pattern of choice from P4P! The team absolutely loved the fall feel of this outfit. Ahoy, pirate!

We can’t wait to see what you create during turkey month.

SEPTEMBER

Blink and bam! It’s fall! Don’t get me wrong, I am looking forward to cardi weather and crisp mornings. Well till that time comes, let’s give away a free pattern of choice to our #allP4Ptoday winner for the month of September.

Congratulations Deanne Elcoate!

Deanne is absolutely adorable in her 80s Sweetheart dress! I am really inspired to make one for me too now.

See you back here in a month for our October winner!

AUGUST

Summer is almost over and most out our young ones are already heading back to school. The P4P team was “awwwing” over this teacher outfit that much that we had to choose it the August #allP4Ptoday winner.

Congratulations Jenny Sherman Richards!!

Jenny is looking adorable in he Just Write skirt, Layer Me Up shirt and Grandpa Cardi! Perfect first day of school outfit if you ask me!

We are so excited to see what you create in September!

JULY

It’s the end of the month so that means, a new #allp4ptoday winner. I have to admit, this winner’s post made me a little jealous 😉

Congratulations Jennifer Patterson!

Her Slim Fit Raglan and SOS pants look so comfortable for a night out. Thank you for sharing and inspiring!

See you back here at the end of August! In the meant time…don’t forget the #… #allp4ptoday!

JUNE

It’s that time again!! Let’s give a pattern of choice to our June #allP4Ptoday winner. Congratulations…

Lindsay Chalmers!

Doesn’t Lindsay look just radiant in her SOS pants and Tulip Tee? Absolutely gorgeous!

Remember to hashtag your posts #allP4Ptoday if you are sporting Patterns for Pirates pretties so we can enter you in the monthly pattern giveaway.

MAY

Happy Summer!!! I’m am so looking forward to dresses, tanks and shorts season. We couldn’t let May end without announcing the month’s #allP4Ptoday winner.

Congratulations Amy Logan McPherson!

You and your little lady are our May winners. Both of you look absolutely gorgeous in your matching Boundless dresses. ❤️

See you all back here in June!

APRIL

What a beautiful first full spring month we had. We have seen you glowing in P4P patterns and couldn’t be more proud!

Our April winner is Steffany Zoelle!

Steffani looks gorgeous in her Favorite Tee dress, that’s my favorite also 😉

We can’t wait to see what #allP4Ptoday you will be rocking in May.

MARCH

Woohooo!! Spring is here! I bet most of you are happy to put away the heavy coats and bring out the cardigans and dresses. Or…how about the Go To Jacket, SOS pants and the Cross my Heart Cami like Stephanie?

Our March #allP4Ptoday winner is @unicorns.and.glitter (on IG)

Stephanie looks absolutely gorgeous in her spring P4P attire. We look forward to seeing what she creates next!

I will see you back here at the end of April for our next month’s #allp4ptpday winner.

FEBRUARY

The shortest month of the year brought so many beautiful #allP4Ptoday posts both in our Facebook group as well as Instagram. Keep them coming, we see you!

February’s winner is…

Jessica Taylor!

Jessica is looking super adorable in her Slim Fit Raglan, Grandpa Cardi and pegs. Thank you for sharing and being an inspiration for other floral/stripes lovers.

JANUARY

Happy New Year! Time for a brand new blog that will feature the 2019 lucky #allP4Ptoday winners of the month. Let’s start off with an Instagram post that caught our eye this month.

Congratulations @dashtitch (Dana Shann) !

Who doesn’t need plaid SOS pants? I know I do. You won a P4P pattern of choice to add to your collection.

Keep on hashtagging (is that a verb?) your posts in the Patterns For Pirates FB group and on Instagram. We will be looking for our next winner in February!

Grandpa Cardi/Cpt Mack’s Cardigan SAL – day 7 (winners announcement)

January 22, 2019

Thank you for joining me last week for the January sew along. We absolutely loved seeing your daily progress and your finished cardigans! Don’t forget to show them off in the main Patterns for Pirates group too so everyone can ohhh and ahhhh at them 🙂

Without further ado…the SAL winner is: Christian Muffoletto

Congratulations, Christian! You won a $50 gift card to Sincerely Rylee Fabrics and a $20 store credit to Patterns for Pirates.

We picked a second winner too. Congratulations Tiffany Heinrichs! You won a $20 gift card to Made for Mermaids.

A huge thank you to our sew along sponsor, Sincerely Rylee who provided the fabric I used for the Grandpa Cardi as well as the prize.

Stay tuned for our February sew along announcement! The Mermaids have planned an amazing SAL for you in the M4M & P4P sew along group.

G randpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 1 (Print & cut pattern)

Grandpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 2 (choose and cut fabric)

Grandpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 3 (pockets and elbow patches)

Grandpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 4 (shoulder seams and add sleeves)

Grandpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 5 (finish sleeves and bottom edge)

Grandpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 6 (collar/shawl and buttons)

Grandpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 7 (winners announcements)

Grandpa Cardi/Cpt Mack’s Cardigan SAL – day 6 (add neckband/shawl and optional buttons)

January 19, 2019

Ahoy, pirates!! We made it to the last steps of this sew along. What a fantastic week! All we have left to do now is add the neckband or the shawl and the optional buttons/snaps. I am adding the shawl option to my cardigan so I will have 4 pieces vs only two for the neckband option.

If you plan on adding buttons or snaps I highly recommend interfacing the front with light weight knit interfacing. In a pinch ultra light weight woven one will work too. It’s very important that you cut the neckband or shawl according to the grainline and stretch direction. Take a look over the video below to see how I attached the shawl neckband.

I decided to add buttons to my cardigan’s front to I also did a quick video of those steps. Grab your seam ripper, marking pens and let’s get started on this last finishing touch. Our P4P University – buttons/buttonholes blog post covers a lot of useful tips to conquer this somewhat scary task.

We have some fun hacks to the Grandpa cardi and Cpt Mack’s on the blog as part of the #P4Pcardiweek we had a couple of years ago. One of these hacks shows you how to add ribbon tie closures to the cardigan instead of buttons. Read all about it here.

All done!! Great work, everyone! Remember to add a picture of your completed cardigan in the day 6 comments of the Grandpa Cardi/Cpt. Mack’s Cardigan SAL photo album in the SAL group. Tomorrow is catch up day and on Monday evening we will announce the winners here on the blog.

G randpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 1 (Print & cut pattern)

Grandpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 2 (choose and cut fabric)

Grandpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 3 (pockets and elbow patches)

Grandpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 4 (shoulder seams and add sleeves)

Grandpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 5 (finish sleeves and bottom edge)

Grandpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 6 (collar/shawl and buttons)

Grandpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 7 (winners announcements)

Grandpa Cardi/Cpt Mack’s Cardigan SAL – day 5 (finish sleeves and bottom edge)

January 18, 2019

FriYAY! One more sewing day left and we’ll be all done. Today we focus on finishing the sleeves and the bottom hem. Both the women and youth cardigans include options for a banded or hemmed bottom edge finish as well as cuffs or hemmed sleeves. My cardigan is a tunic length with hemmed sleeves.

If you are sewing a banded cardigan your waistband lengthwise, wrong sides together before you attach it, press and steam it after too!

If you went for the hemmed sleeves all you have to do is hem them 1/2″ allowance using either a zig zag stitch, a triple stretch stitch or your coverstitch. Remember that memory hem we did a few days ago? It makes hemming so easy now.

If you chose the sleeves cuffs take a look over our Knit Cuffs 101 blog post and once again, don’t forget to press. In this video I am hemming both the sleeves and the bottom edge. Once you finish, post your progress in the day 5 picture comments of the Cardigan Sew Along album in the M4M & P4P Sew Along group.

Grandpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 1 (Print & cut pattern)

Grandpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 2 (choose and cut fabric)

Grandpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 3 (pockets and elbow patches)

Grandpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 4 (shoulder seams and add sleeves)

Grandpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 5 (finish sleeves and bottom edge)

Grandpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 6 (collar/shawl and buttons)

Grandpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 7 (winners announcements)

Grandpa Cardi/Cpt Mack’s Cardigan SAL – day 4 (sew shoulder seams and add sleeves)

January 17, 2019

And just like that we made it to day 4! Today we sew the shoulder seams, add the set in sleeves and sew the side seam. By the end of today your project will look like a cardigan 😉 When attaching the sleeves it is very important to match the notch to the shoulder seam, pin in place and then match the side seams and pin in place.

TIP: If you’re doing a hemmed sleeve now would be a good time to press your memory hem. This will make it so much easier to hem later on.

The Grandpa Cardi and Cpt. Mack’s Cardigan patterns follow a 1/2″ seam allowance so be sure to not deviate from it when you sew the shoulder seams RST or when you attach the sleeves.

Watch the day 4 video below and be sure to post a picture of today’s progress in the day 4 photo comments of the Cardigan SAL album in the M4M & P4P Sew Along Group.

Grandpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 1 (Print & cut pattern)

Grandpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 2 (choose and cut fabric)

Grandpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 3 (pockets and elbow patches)

Grandpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 4 (shoulder seams and add sleeves)

Grandpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 5 (finish sleeves and bottom edge)

Grandpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 6 (collar/shawl and buttons)

Grandpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 7 (winners announcements)

Grandpa Cardi/Cpt Mack’s Cardigan SAL – day 3 (sew pocket and elbow patches)

January 16, 2019

Good morning, pirates! Today’s sew along is all about details. We are addin pockets and elbow patches. This is the time to get creative! Use some cute accent fabric, like sequins or faux leather or go classic and match the pockets with the main fabric.

The patterns include two options for the pocket, a hemmed and banded one. The banded one is a great alternative if you’re not the biggest hemming knits fan, plus it gives you the option to incorporated some more accent fabrics too. As I mentioned yesterday, the elbow patches will add a fun detail to your cardigans. Whether you’re making one for yourself and or one for your little, add a pop of color or texture to your patches! You’ll love it!

Tip: When adding the elbow patches mark the left arm and the right arm to make sure that you will not have the pockets on the inside of your arm vs the elbow.

If you have chosen to make your cardigan with sweater knits, go over our Sweater knits blog post where I am giving you some wasy tricks to work with this fabric base.

Watch the videos below and post a picture of your pockets and added elbow patches in the day 3 photo comments of the Cardigan SAL album.

Grandpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 1 (Print & cut pattern)

Grandpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 2 (choose and cut fabric)

Grandpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 3 (pockets and elbow patches)

Grandpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 4 (shoulder seams and add sleeves)

Grandpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 5 (finish sleeves and bottom edge)

Grandpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 6 (collar/shawl and buttons)

Grandpa Cardi | Cpt Mack’s Cardigan Sew along – Day 7 (winners announcements)

Grandpa Cardi/Cpt Mack’s Cardigan SAL – day 2 (pick and cut fabric)

January 15, 2019

Welcome to day 2 of our Grandpa Cardi/Cpt Mack’s Cardigan sew along. Today we will be choosing the fabric and cutting it. You should have your pattern pieces ready from yesterday.

But first let’s talk a little about the right fabric for this pattern. As you can see in the video below I am using a gorgeous rose gold sweater knit from Sincerely Rylee for my Grandpa Cardi. This my favorite knit type for this pattern. For Cpt Mack’s I like the structured look of cotton lycra. These two cardigans can be made with virtually any knit fabric since they only require 20% stretch.

Sincerely Rylee is this SAL’s sponsor too, so one of you will be getting a $50 Gift Card to their shop so you can treat your to some gorgeous sweater knits (and not only) too.

If you are unsure about which knit type will work best for your desired look, take a look over our P4P University Knit Types blog. Judy also included a cheat sheet that you can print. If you are like me and sometime are just keen on using a specific print for a specific pattern, read our Different fabric, different fit blog post before you cut your fabric.

Writing this blog brought back some memories…the set below is my first ever Grandpa cardi/Cpt Mack’s cardigan I ever made. It’s a thin sweater knit from Joann and I still wear it today. My little man wore his at school for two years. It makes an great uniform piece too.

Got some sequins fabric you absolutely love? Use them for the elbow patches. Colleen’s Grandpa cardi is to die for…afterall, who doesn’t need a fancy elbow pocket patch?

For my cardigan I decided to add bamboo lycra shoulder patches and pockets. I’m using a rose gold striped main fabric so I chose a gold and roses print for the patches. Get it Get it? 😉

The Day 2 video is posted below. Check it out and once you are done cutting your fabric post a picture of it in the comments of the Day 2 photo of the Grandpa Cardi/ Cpt Mack’s SAL album in the M4M & P4P Sew Along group.