Rowan Along - Megan Nielsen Rowan Bodysuit/Tee Review and Hacks

Back in the fall, I tried on some clothes at Express and discovered that bodysuits were a thing. It shouldn't have taken me this long, given how aware I was of the problems that a bodysuit solves -- principally: how difficult it is to keep a shirt tucked into pants.

The problem with this new revelation was, Express was selling bodysuits for the ridiculous price of $70. $&)!

Shortly after, I thought to myself:

Self: "Self, you want to wear bodysuits, balk at their price, and you know how to sew. Shouldn't you buy a bodysuit pattern and sew some bodysuits?"

I do some research and buy a Megan Nielsen pattern called the Rowan Bodysuit and Tee.

So I make the bodysuit, and I'm like:

Self: "This is cool. Cool, cool, cool. You can even lengthen the torso so it doesn't feel like you're getting a permanent wedgie."

Rowan bodysuit - it's the one I'm pointing at.

But now I'm settling into bodysuit fatigue, also known as Hedonic Adaptation: "the observed tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events or life changes."

Self: "I need another fix."

Also me: "I told myself I wasn't going to buy anymore patterns this year. I have too many already."

Self: "I want to make something new."

Tim Gunn: "Make it work!"

Me again: "But..."

Tim Gunn has no time for your nonsense excuses.

I found myself forced to work within the confines of my extremely limited collection of 3,259 patterns. And in the process, I found my muse.

Sup, girl.

I had an epiphany: A dress is just a shirt with a skirt.

In a fit of genius one night after I put my angel to sleep, I pulled out 2 yards of a double brushed poly from Fabric Mart and freakin' Made It Work big time.

Before you could say "In the world of fashion, one day you're in....and one day you're out" (admittedly a long phrase, which is played up for emotional drama while the camera pans to each anxious contestant), I had whipped up this stunning number:

Serving up some '70s realness in stripes.

I call it: The Rowan Turtle Dress

I drafted a half-circle skirt and altered the Rowan bodice by cutting at the waistline marking (plus seam allowance). I had to do some creative things with cutting on the bias to get it out of the yardage I had, but that actually made it more interesting. It was 4-way stretch fabric, thank goodness.

Boom. It literally took me less than 2 hours, including "drafting" a half circle skirt. The worst part about that was having to remember how math works.

Self: "Honestly, I'm impressed. What else can you do?"

WHAT CAN'T I DO WITH THE ROWAN?

No, seriously. I want to know.

I have another epiphany: A shift dress is just a really long shirt.

So I proceed to make a Rowan Shift Dress:

This flight of fancy was created by basically just adding a bunch of length straight from the hips of the tee pattern. I made it in a whimsical stable double knit from Fashion Fabrics Club. I did get some bunching above my bum, so I created a super hacky "swayback adjustment" dart to improve the fit.

You can see the unsewn adjustment drawn out in the below picture:

You put the line through the coconut, I mean pineapple...

And the final product:

Pineapples WERE harmed in the making of this swayback adjustment.

And here I am modeling my creation:

You can hardly tell me apart from Heidi Klum.

Even fashion geniuses have to do laundry.

Self: "Nothing can stop me now!"

To cleanse my fashion palate, next I make a regular old turtleneck Tee out of a double brushed poly from Fabric Mart:

Also pictured: Thea pants from Style Arc. 

Then: 

I have yet another epiphany: A shirt without a skirt is just a shirt.

Turns out I actually just need more shirts, so I make another Tee, but now it's almost spring so I switch things up a bit and pull out the short sleeve and put away the turtleneck.

Full disclosure: I will not be wearing this next one because it's too tight. It was made out of an ITY knit from Fabric Mart that really isn't appropriate for a garment like this. I should have sized up, but I didn't have enough fabric to do so, so instead I wasted my time making this.

Conserving fabric, wasting time.

On the same day thank goodness I had another make end up being a win, making my second Rowan with a half-circle skirt. This one has some variations from my last one, with a v-neck and short sleeves, so it needs a new name: The Rowan Skater Dress.

Rowan Sk8er Grl

So that's 6 garments from the same pattern, and I'm basically a fashion designer now. On my table upstairs, as I type this, is my 7th version, and it's a mashup of the following patterns:

• Rowan Shift Dress
• Peppermint Magazine/In the Folds Ruffle Sleeve Blouse 
• Style Arc Harmony Blouse 

Self: "It's almost like all garments are almost exactly the same and you didn't need all those patterns in the first place."

Chém Gió GIF from Friends GIFs

An Embarrassment of Camis

We live in a world of abundance. 

• Time for a movie? Go to Netflix and you can choose from thousands. 
• In the mood for cheesecake? The Cheesecake Factory presents you with a menu that's heavier than a biology textbook. 
• You want thingamabob's? Ariel's got twenty!

In the sewing world, we have a similar embarrassment of riches when it comes to pattern options. It's hard to not descend into FOMO when you scroll through Instagram and see all of the amazing projects that fellow sewists have completed (to say nothing of fabric FOMO...).

I've been trying to be more intentional with my sewing in 2019, after 2018 in which I sewed allthethings. Part of this is curating a more cohesive wardrobe, and part is honing my own personal style. I lost about 75 pounds in the last year and my body shape is different than the one I got used to dressing (and let's be honest: trying to hide).

I focused specifically on camis because I have a huge deficit of tops in my wardrobe and after perusing my Pinterest fashion board realized this was a staple piece that showed up often in my idealized wardrobe. I think once I find a great pattern I'll want to churn out a bunch in different fabrics and variations, so it seemed worth the effort to find the perfect one.

So, in the spirit of experimentation, I decided to embark on a toile-ing adventure to discover the perfect cami pattern for me. On a snowy Saturday, I looked at my own pattern library and scoured the Internet for free cami patterns -- since it's a relatively simple garment, I think it's a likely garment type for pattern makers use as a freebie.

Cami Top - free pattern from Simply Sewing Magazine

Creatively named: Cami Top pattern image.

I went down the rabbit hole on the free patterns section of Simply Sewing Magazine's website and found this pattern. Regretfully I cannot find the link to provide for you, but suffice it to say it exists out there, and you can download for free if you register on the site.

It's a one-size pattern (UK size 10 I believe?) and when I measured the pattern it it seemed like it would fit fine. I used some leftover linen-like fabric from JoAnn (previously seen in a Sonata dress for me and a Roller Skate Dress for the kid).

Ain't she cute? This is from 8 months ago and she looks like such a baby compared to now.

Here's the front - I didn't bind the neckline or armholes yet, but I did do fancy French seams on the toile...which is a terrible idea but it's what the instructions said and apparently I'm a lemming without the ability to use situational judgement in my sewing decisions.

Cami top front. Left: showing extra in the underarm area. Right: showing excess in the waist.

If I were to make this again, I'd definitely need to adjust some things - narrow the upper chest/ shoulder straps, and bring in under the bust.

I will probably let this one die as a toile, though. The front and back piece are exactly the same, and obviously there's no dart in the front. In a cami like this I'd like a more fitted shape. In the pictures below, I let it hang as it is sewn on the left, and pinched out some of the excess on the right. I think a swayback adjustment would definitely go a long way in making this more flattering.

Side view of cami top. Left: boxy as sewn. Right: pinching out excess fabric.

Cami Top Rating:

Nice try, but you've lost this time old sport (here's some champagne for your troubles)

Diana Cami - Sewloft Sewing Patterns

Diana Cami pattern pic

As I said, I was scouring the deepest corners of the Internet in this search, and I came upon the Diana Cami from Sewloft, which apparently doesn't exist anymore. The Diana Cami was a free pattern when it came out, so when I found the PDF online through another source I felt like it was fair to use. (I'm no legal scholar, though.) What Katie Sews wrote about this one in her post Camisole Crazy, which brought it to my attention.

Diana cami pattern laying atop the shirt I destroyed to make it.

For fabric, I used this beautiful crepe shirt that was in my bin of things that no longer fit but had nice fabric that I was hoping to use in something. I had to seam rip the darts on the front of the shirt and do some other shenanigans to make it work, which was a bit silly to do for a toile, but I think we've covered my seemingly endless supply of weird decisions when it comes to sewing.

Diana Cami front view. Left: French tucked. Right: Untucked.

The Diana Cami definitely works nicely in a drapey fluid fabric like the crepe, and looks nicely fitted even though there are no darts. I probably should have made the straps a bit longer, and taken the effort to make bias binding strips from the green fabric. Also maybe should have used green thread for top stitching, but...

Definitely not bra friendly, but I mostly want camisoles for layering under blazers/blazigan type garments, so I can definitely see the Diana Cami having a place in my wardrobe. The back also feels more secure/less likely to slip off my shoulders than traditional strap camis.

Diana Cami. Left: side view, untucked. Right: close up of front and neckline tuck.

As Katie did, I made a tuck in the center front neckline to reduce some minor gaping and create a more defined v-neck.

Diana Cami Rating:

I like it (saucily).

Ogden Cami - True Bias

Ogden Cami - True Bias

Unless you just started sewing yesterday (and honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if you'd know this on day 1), the Ogden Cami by True Bias is known as the BE ALL END ALL of cami sewing patterns. I made one before and honestly:

Obama is not impressed.

I was a bit worried I'd be stricken down as I stand for saying that, which is why I let my buddy Barack say it for me. Thanks, Obama.

Like, it's OKAYYYY. It's meant to be a boxy cami, and I suppose that's my biggest problem with it: I don't like boxy camis. 

This is the one cami of the bunch that I paid for (and a pretty penny at that), and I was promised a celestial experience - I expected magic in the drafting to make up for the lack of bust darts, and maybe little alteration fairies that would gracefully nip it in in all the right places until it lovingly draped over my body in the most flattering and comfortable way.

Expectations were, admittedly, high.

Ogden Cami, from left to right: 1. front tucked. 2. side tucked, 3. side untucked. I do a lot of things with accessibility at work, and so I feel compelled to do these captions consistently but I feel silly. Somebody please confirm that I'm a good person for making this effort and that it was not all in vain?

I used leftover fabric from a Willamette Shirt I made (and love) in August. 2 yards cost $10 total, and it's possible that it was the single most efficient fabric purchase I ever made, yielding 2 wearable garments with almost zero left over.

...which brings me to one of the reasons I think people love the Ogden Cami. Although this is true of almost any cami pattern, the Ogden is known for being a great scrap buster. So, if this is your tried-and-true cami pattern, it can get a lot of play by virtue of being the default for leftover bits of treasured fabric. Maybe that's the magic I was looking for?

Based on having made it before in a different size, I knew that the straps were too wide for my shoulders and too thin for my bra straps. I widened the straps by about an inch towards the center, and redrew the neckline. I also ended up taking in about 1" on each side in the underarm area.

It fits well enough where it needs to, considering there's very little shaping and this fabric is pretty stiff. I'll definitely wear this under something else. In a drapier fabric it wouldn't look quite so boxy and stand out so much in the front when untucked, so maybe I'll try that. 

It's also super fast to make, and is the only one of the bunch I toiled with a lining/facing, which negates the weirdness of bias binding finishes.

Ogden Cami Rating:

It's fine. It's what I wanted. It's fine. /sarcasm

Cami Conclusion:

I feel like the Perfect Cami (tm) for me will have a dart at the bust. Or, in a less strappy cami, perhaps even princess seams? I might take another go at the Springfield Top by Cashmerette, which is unblogged but was made back in the summer. I might also have a go at drafting my own using a bodice sloper with a dart. 

While I have some wearable garments and some patterns that I might try again, I am still on the hunt for a Tried and True cami pattern. What cami patterns do you love?