We posted about the winners in individual pattern companies on Monday (see Winners! Your Favorite Curvy Patterns of 2015, Part 1), but we have more acknowledgment to share! Read on to find out which patterns and pattern companies were your overall favorites for 2015!
Favorite Curvy Beginner Pattern: HotPatterns Fast & Fabulous Blouse-Back T (WINNER)
Through your comments and emails to us, we know that a lot of the Curvy Sewing Collective readership is just getting started on its fitting and sewing journey. To address that, we added two “beginner”-focused categories to our year-end poll to give less experienced curvy sewists some suggestions as to which patterns will give them a high chance of success.
HotPatterns aren’t necessarily known for their rigorous instructions (although they are much more detailed and better illustrated than StyleArc’s–another curve-friendly pattern company), but the HotPatterns Blouse-Back Tee is an exception in that it has a comprehensive sewalong available online with both video tutorials and more comprehensive written instructions. Between the sewalong, the top’s relaxed-but-not-oversized fit, and many design possibilities, this pattern is a great choice for those who are looking to give HotPatterns a try. 34% of you chose the HotPatterns Blouse-back Tee as your “Favorite Beginner Pattern”.
HotPatterns Blouse-Back Tees sewn and modeled by Sue of It’s Sew Suezyque and CSC reader Alison.
Favorite Curvy Beginner Pattern: Colette Moneta (RUNNER-UP)
With a pattern that was as immensely popular in its first year of release as the Colette Moneta dress, it’s little surprise that this pattern placed 2nd as the “Favorite Beginner Pattern” of 2015. Along with the Mabel skirt, the Moneta was one of the first two Colette patterns to be released with an extended size range up to 3X (54″/137cm bust, 56″/142cm hip). The Moneta is an easy sew, has comprehensive instructions, and looks great on pretty much everyone who makes it. The Colette Moneta took second place in its category with 31% of the vote.
Colette Moneta Dresses sewn and modeled by Paige of Very Paige and Libby of Creative*Curvy*Chic
Favorite Overall Curvy Pattern: HotPatterns Fast & Fabulous Shirt-tail T (WINNER)
Each of our Overall Winner and Overall Runner-up Patterns won their individual categories in our Part 1 post, so they probably look somewhat familiar to our regular readers.
Our overall “Favorite Curvy Pattern” winner was the HotPatterns Fast & Fabulous Shirt-tail tee (32% of the vote). A favorite among HotPatterns Facebook group members since its release, this instant-gratification pattern with a relaxed fit is another good choice for those who are new to HotPatterns.
HotPatterns Shirt-Tail T sewn and modeled by Donna of DucknDam.
Favorite Overall Curvy Pattern: Cashmerette Appleton Dress (RUNNER-UP)
Close behind the HotPatterns Shirt-tail Tee is the CSC’s own Jenny with her debut pattern, the Cashmerette Appleton wrap dress. The Appleton took second place with 29% of the vote. The Appleton is a new twist on a classic style. With its innovative bust cup sizing up to an H-cup and no-gape bands, it’s no wonder that curvy sewists everywhere were making up this pattern.
Cashmerette Appleton dresses sewn and modeled by Gillian of Crafting a Rainbow and Libby of Creative*Curvy*Chic
Favorite Pattern Company for Beginners: Colette Patterns (WINNER)
Sarai from Colette Patterns has built her company’s reputation on its comprehensive, user-friendly instructions. With an enthusiastic online community to help with questions, Colette Patterns are a favorite of both beginning sewists and experienced sewists looking for an easy project. With 45% of the vote, Colette Patterns was clearly the favorite pattern company for beginners, among our readers.
Favorite Pattern Company for Beginners: HotPatterns (RUNNER-UP)
While HotPatterns doesn’t have the reputation for comprehensive instructions that Colette has, HotPatterns has a dynamic Facebook group dedicated to its patterns, which its founder Trudy is very actively involved with. Have a question about sizing? Post it to the Facebook group. Are you unclear as to what you’re supposed to actually do at a certain step in the instructions? Post it to the Facebook group. In addition to the Facebook group, Trudy films tutorial videos for YouTube for many of her patterns. In the poll, readers cited both the Facebook group and YouTube videos as great reasons why beginners shouldn’t shy away from HotPatterns. HotPatterns came in 2nd in this category with 26% of the vote.
Favorite Overall Pattern Company: HotPatterns (WINNER)
Given their strong showing throughout our poll, is anyone surprised that HotPatterns won as the favorite pattern company among Curvy Sewing Collective readers? In a close vote, HotPatterns won as overall favorite with 34% of our readers’ vote. One of a few pattern companies offering its entire catalog of patterns in ever size in its range: sizes 6-26 (32″-52″ or 81.3-132cm bust). In addition to its generous size range, most HotPatterns have design and fitting features that keep a woman’s curves in mind, such as strategically placed ruching, darts, or seaming.
Favorite Overall Pattern Company: Colette Patterns (RUNNER-UP)
The other pattern company that’s been hugely popular among CSC readers is Colette Patterns, who came in 2nd place with 32% of the vote in this category. Colette expanded its size range about a year and a half ago, and now all newly-released patterns are available in sizes up to 3X or 26 (54″/137cm bust, 56″/142cm hip). In addition to their traditional “envelope/PDF” patterns, Colette launched an online magazine late last year named Seamwork, which includes 2-3 quick-to-sew patterns in each issue for subscribers. Seamwork patterns also are all available in Colette’s full size range.
Final Thoughts
I hope that you enjoyed our roundup of our readers’ favorite patterns of the past year, based on the results from our recent poll.
We have a lot planned for the CSC for 2016 to keep things exciting around here, which I’ll be talking about in an upcoming post!
Yay! Thank you to the CSC team for putting together this poll. It was super informative and fun to see the winners!
Now I want to try the HP Blouse-Back Tee! Both bloggers’ versions look polished yet comfy. It looks like a good opportunity to get creative with combining solids and patterns, color blocking, etc. Plus, I’ve become obsessed with tops that combine knits and wovens.
Colette is certainly one of my favourite pattern companies so I’m not surprised to read it rated so high! I checked out “hotpatterns” and the T that won as the most favourite pattern but when I got to its shipping costs I paused! With shipping and the USD exchange to CDN the pattern reached a whopping $43. I wrote to Trudy to ask why the shipping was $20 to Canada and I’m looking forward to her reply 🙂 Great post! Thank you for all you do to help us beginner curvey sewers out here 🙂
You could buy the PDF version. There are relatively few pages if you hate taping. I have made this one up once and my sister made 3 for her winter trip to Arizona. It looks great on both of us. In the plain version it is perfect for a wonderful panel print or digital print with a plain fabric back. Just saying.
Thank you Elaine! I did consider getting the PDF but I DO hate taping! It might be an opportunity to try sending it to our print centre to have the larger size printed.
I’m a huge fan of the blouse back tee. http://missceliespants.com/2015/06/15/hot-patterns-blouse-back-tee-woven-knit-combo/ I wore mine all summer and can’t wait to make a few more this year. Minimal fitting, super stylish and best of all: EASY
I visited your blog and your T’s are beautiful! It’s honestly that I have a problem with the T overall – I was ready to purchase the pattern on the spot. But $43 is high for any pattern 🙂
Yeah, that’s crazy high. I *think* I did it as a PDF. But, I definitely prefer a full size pattern. I don’t blame you for holding out 🙂
That’s pretty much why I haven’t tried HP yet… they do have PDF patterns too though, don’t they?
Yes they do and it would seem that’s what they encourage to be honest. The price point difference is quite significant. I’m just rather adverse to PDF – I do them occasionally when there is no other option but in general I think they are highly overpriced. If you have to print off a pattern using your own printer (or a commercial one) and piece it all together (taking usually an hr or 2) then they should be really about $5 or $6 (Colette does that with some of their PDFs).
If you keep your eyes open for a sale (and/or subscribe to the HP newsletter), they do offer free shipping to Canada once or twice a year. I know that they do that every year for Canada Day–I can’t remember if there’s another time that they do that.
Thank you for this information! VERY helpful 🙂 I will do that for sure.