Breaking Ground: Co Emi Jessi

Welcome to the Breaking Ground Blog Tour 2018. This week over 20 bloggers are joining together to break new ground by trying a pattern designer that is new to them, try new techniques, new styles, or whatever way they want to push themselves. The Full Tour includes all these creatives... we hope you'll visit us each day:
 Monday March 12- mahlicadesigns, Sewing Vortex, Sewing A La Carte, Little Heart Threads, The Sewing Scientist
 Tuesday March 13- Musings of A Seamstress, A Custom Clothier, Octaves of Color, Aurora Design Fabrics, Sew Altered Style
 Wednesday March 14- Flaxfield Sewing, Chook n Duck, Tales of a Tester, Sewing By Ti, Sewing Vortex, Kathy's Kwilts and More
 Thursday March 15- Very Blissful, Manning the Machine, Sew and Tell Project, Musings of a Seamstress, Stitches by Laura
 Friday March 16- Lulu & Celeste, Tenille's Thread, Sewing A La Carte, The Bear and Pea Atelier, Aurora Design Fabrics, Sprouting Jube Jube, Kathy's Kwilts and More

To make the tour even more fun, our Breaking Ground blog team member, Gail is offering 2 patterns of choice from her pattern shop Flosstyle to one lucky winner.

a Rafflecopter giveaway We'd love to see how you're Breaking Ground this month. Share with us what you're working on by using the hashtag #BreakingGround2018 across social media. Better yet, join the Sew Alongs & Sewing Contests facebook group to sew along with the Breaking Ground theme for the entire month of March. In the group you'll find support and encouragement for your projects and fun themed challenges.

As always, thanks for stopping by today.

Now to my blog post!

I LOVE participating in the Breaking Ground Tour. It always pushes me to try something new. And I need that push. I often get stuck in sewing ruts of the same old things, over and over. This year I'm going so far out of my comfort zone, even I was afraid for just a bit!

So, what was my choice? The Co Emi Jessi. Before I even get into the review, let's talk about what makes this ground breaking. #1- Co Emi is a German Designer. And by German, I mean, clearly, these patterns are originally in German. So even though I bought an "English" version, the instructions are definitely not perfect. And while normally I ignore instructions, there were a few steps that I needed to review several times before I understood the process. Thankfully there are full color photos that go with the instructions. #2- No Seam allowances! WAH. I'm not normally one to trace my patterns, but if you have no seam allowances, it is definitely a requirement to trace out your pattern pieces AND add your seam allowances. I will point out, I took some generous drafting leeway and used straight rectangular cut pieces for the wrist and hip bands.

Let's get to the next struggle in this process! Picking a pattern size. I've recently started doing something REALLY helpful when switching from one designer to the next. I've started taking patterns that I know and love and comparing them to new designers to see where adjustments might need to be made. I am SO glad I did that with this pattern, because I would have missed some serious fit issues if I hadn't. I noticed with this designer, she naturally drafts for shorter wider sleeve caps and thinner sleeves. BONUS. Because I generally need shorter armholes and thinner sleeves! And, because I compared to my favorite pattern, I noticed that I didn't need to remove length above the bust either. My bust point was very close to where the pattern bust point appeared to be.

As part of my comparisons, I also noticed the back ran wide but the front ran slim... DOH.  I needed it to go the other way. So I picked the size that matched my back pattern piece and then did a simple pivot and slide adjustment to add a little extra into the front bust. I made a straight size 40 with NO length adjustments. Please note, this is 100% the opposite of what I generally recommend. But between the exhaustion of pregnancy and the fact that my bust size seems to change every other day, I'm ok with doing some cheater adjustments. 😉

Finally, the most important part! The fabric. While it may be March, here in South Eastern Wyoming we have several weeks left of Sprinter. What is sprinter? That is when we have nice days interspersed with a generous dusting of snow. That means that the Simply By Ti Glitter French Terry was 100% an option, AND since this isn't technically a maternity item AND I included the nursing access zippers, I will be able to wear it again next year!

I will note, that my pockets ran pretty high... So, if you're going to make this, you may want to double check lengths before you cut into your good fabric. AND, as much as I like the invisible zippers for nursing access, they rub on the inside of the garment (ouch). So you may want to consider wearing a nursing tank underneath.

All in all, I REALLY like this pattern. I could spend more time with it perfecting the fit, but that'll be for a time when I don't have to worry about my shape changing 5 minutes from now. I'm so happy that the Breaking Ground Tour encouraged me to try something new because I no longer fear international patterns. Now to decide which to go for next. DasMilchMonster Martha or just browse Makerist for inspiration? Nothing a little google translate can't handle, right?