Harriet’s New Look 6493

I’m really keeping to the ‘wedding bells’ theme this month by writing this post while the Royal Wedding is on the telly in the background!

I chose to use the New Look 6493 pattern this month – a playsuit with princess seams (an unintentional link to the royal wedding now that come to think of it) and a wrapped bodice at the front and back. I’d seen the pattern all over Instagram and loved every version that I’ve come across, so I thought that it was high time to have a crack at it myself! My measurements suggested that I make the size 12, but I’d heard from a few people that the pattern came out quite a bit bigger than the picture on the pattern cover suggested, so I sized down to be on the safe side… and I’m very glad that I did!

The poplin was really lovely to work with, and coped well with unpicking, which is always a bonus when some bits of the pattern don’t go to plan. There was also a lot of pressing involved with this make, and the fabric coped well with that too – no steam was needed at all.

I’ve only made two garments with a wrap bodice in my time (including this playsuit), so I was a little bit worried about getting the princess seams to lie in the right place. I needn’t have done though, because there are lots of handy notches to make sure that you know where bits are going, and the pattern does actually suggest trying on the bodice at various points in the making process to ensure that you’re happy with everything.

I did have one minor calamity (one that I should’ve seen coming when I tried on the bodice really, but oh well) which meant that I had to undo a bit of work, but thankfully it wasn’t anything too drastic. The bodice, which is meant to join to the shorts at your natural waistline, was far too long. Like 2 ½ inches too long, and I’m not really a fan of fabric overhanging on an elasticated waist – I’m so short anyway that I need my waist highlighted or else I don’t look very in proportion! By the time I’d realised, I’d already put the elastic in, so it was quite a job unpicking everything, but I had a nice hot cup of tea and something on the telly to keep me company. I took the bodice off of the shorts, cut the bodice down by about 5cm all of the way around, and stitched it back onto the shorts again, and re-inserted the elastic.

The poplin, like I said, dealt very well with all of the unpicking – because I was keeping the shorts exactly the same and would be stitching over the same line as before, I thought it might weaken the fabric, but it all seems fine and has stayed nice and stable – which makes it the perfect fabric for a pattern that you might not be very familiar with… just in case some seam ripping needs to happen!

I’m a big fan of adding bits and bobs to my makes, so I was very excited to see the 2 metres of pink and white lace in the box too – the pink matched the centre of the blossoms of the main fabric perfectly! I think that adding a trim always makes your finished garment look just that little bit more special – especially when it looks like you’ve put lots of thought into matching the colours (and we didn’t even have to do that! Hayley did all the work for us). I incorporated my lace into the hem of my playsuit by basting it with a long machine stitch first to make sure that it was all even, and then sewing it on properly at the same time as stitching the hem.

I do really like the finished look of the garment, and think that the princess seamed bodice looks quite elegant, even if I do say so myself! I’ll definitely be using the pattern again, but might make a couple of changes; obviously, I’ll shorten the bodice, but I think I might change the width of the elastic channel too, so that I can use some slightly thicker elastic. I’m not really much of a fan of the 6mm elastic, because I find that it does lose its elasticity quite quickly and just doesn’t nip in at the waist as much as something slightly thicker – I’ll do some experimenting and see whether thicker elastic will work!

Well, until the next box my friends. I hope that you like the playsuit I made! If you’d like any pattern inspiration for this month’s fabrics, do take a look at the pattern suggestions post that I wrote – I think any of those would work beautifully!