Figgy's Pattern Review - Sunki

pattern: sunki by figgy's

fabric: kasbah midnight - lark by amy butler (from our sponsor www.stitchsimple.com)

when i first spotted sunki from figgy's i pinned it, drooled, daydreamed and just plain knew i had to get my hands on the pattern. it was my lucky day when the super talented shelly of figgy's asked me to review the pattern! yes please!!!!!

i knew when i saw it that i had to use amy butler's print kasbah midnight from her lark collection. i love that print and thought it would be perfect for sunki.  the only problem was that i only had a yard...eek!  thankfully i was just able to fit the 18mth size with the short sleeve option out of the 1 yard!  yipee!

do you think she likes it?  hahaha...i think she likes it as much as her momma does!  i heart this dress and love that it is modern and yet feminine at the same time.  definitely a new favorite in our house.

sunki is native american for "to catch up with" and i think that is definitely true for my little ones...lol.  always chasing those two girls that's for sure.  i fell in love with this dresses pocket lines, gorgeous pleated sleeve cap and the overlapping petal shape at the shoulder.  the details in this pattern are to die for.  the neckline has facing for both the front and the back of the dress and the back is finished with a long zipper detail. so adorable and definitely a high end boutique finish.



pattern notes:

- this pattern is definitely an intermediate pattern.  i like to think of myself as an intermediate sewer but i'm also still learning a lot of different techniques and how to's of sewing.  i think this dress stumped me more than a bit right at the start when forming that lovely pocket detail.  i think the main issue i had was that i was making an 18mth size and the illustration is probably more relateable for the sizing of a larger dress.  for some reason i just couldn't get my head around it.  i'm a very visual learner so after more than a few tries (all gone horribly wrong) i thankfully spotted this tutorial on the figgy's blog that shelly released with a how to of this portion of the dress.  definitely made a lot more sense to me and i was able to move on smoothly with the instructions for the rest of the dress.

- if you are looking for a quick one night project this dress is not it. it's more of a whole weekend or a few during the week evenings kind of dress. but it is definitely worth the extra time involved.  it's gorgeous and when complete, definitely looks like a higher end handmade garment.  i'm super happy with it and plan on making the exact same dress for mackenzie in a size 5 asap as well!  our sunki's are gonna get a lot of love and wear in this house :)

- the pattern is written in a friendly and warm manner accompanied by illustrations and step by step sewing instructions. the glossary and other helpful notes in the pattern booklet were a great asset and i found having the extra information very helpful. i would love to see shelly add the link to her tutorial for the pocket to the pattern booklet for us visual sewers. i love the pattern sizing range they covered and the added figgy's ribbon label was a super nice touch. i love how encouraging figgy's patterns are - they definitely make sewing fun!

my oopsies

now the only other problem i had making this dress was totally my own doing and nothing to do with figgy's awesome pattern.  i have never sewn a zipper before.  i know...i'm a goof..but they seriously freak me out.  i decided this year was the year for me to get over my fear of sewing zippers.  so when i spotted sunki i knew that i had to sew a zipper.  needless to say the zipper is in.  is it pretty?  nope.  does it look ok...yep.  did i put it in right...sort of...lol. but it works and that's what counts.

what were my mistakes?  promise not to laugh to hard at me?  well you know when you buy a zipper and there is half an inch at the top of the zipper?  well i got confused by this.  i thought why do i want all this sticking out or having me dress not zip up all the way?  i was so into my dress sewing that i forgot the dress would eventually have facing attached to it and that the extra half inch of zipper would actually become part of my seam allowance!  can you believe it?  so dumb of me.  worst part was i cut it off and sewed the zipper in with the zipper starting right at the top of my back neckline. then happily went about my way stitching the rest of the zipper.  i was so proud of myself until i noticed what i had done when i went to attach my facing.  i tried to make it work anyways and ended up with a shredded zipper. bah!

*zipper note: make sure you zig zag stitch (i did mine at a o length) a few times across the zipper where you are going to cut the bottom off before you cut it off.  measure accurately cause if you make a boo boo you can't make it longer again.

i had a finished dress and a busted zipper.  i had to go through the pain of ripping out that entire zipper and trying to rebaste my back seam closed again and resewing a new zipper in correctly this time with the facings already attached!  aiayayaya!  it was tricky but i did it. i had to undo a tiny bit of the facing and have a very teeny seam allowance but i think i made it work.  that was of course after i made another critical error.

*zipper note: never ever sew a zipper onto a dress in a difficult sewing situation very early in the morning when you have yet to have your coffee reach your bloodstream...lol!  not good!  

i stitched my zipper to the front and back of the dress!!!!!!!!!!!!!  duh!!!!!!!!!!!  shannon the dress is sewn together you must only sew zipper to the back!  embarrassing.  i can't believe i'm telling you all this but hey, i'm keeping it real for you folks.  the hubs is still making fun of me for it actually.  didn't help that i had to rip it all out AGAIN and then sew the zipper back on only to find that i had sewed my back shut...oops!  ripped out half of it and stitched the zipper in again. like i said before, it's not pretty but it works and i'm happy with it!  it was quite the learning experience for my first zipper but i'm thinking that i may actually be a zipper lover now that i think i've figured out how to do it...at least i hope i have :P  it really isn't as hard or scary as i thought though and i actually feel slightly silly for being so frightened of something pretty easy.  it's just one of those techniques that i think would have been easier for me to learn if someone sat with me while i did it.  i definitely would have not made the gazillion errors i made if i had done that.



pattern mods:

- due to me having a few tiny issues with the pocket details my dress was a tad smaller on the sides than i think the pattern is intended thus leading me to have a smaller sleeve opening than my sleeve.  i simply added in one box pleat in the space that your top pleat makes to bring it in a little bit.  i think it looks cute that way and added a bit more poof to the cap which i love.

overall i think the whole line of figgy's new patterns are to die for and i hope to make more.  if you are looking for quality sewn garment's for your little ones then figgy's patterns are the way to go.  the finishing details are fabulous.  two thumbs up for figgy's and one thumb down for me and my zipper stupidity..lol.

 a huge thank you to shelly for seriously providing us all in the sewing community with so much inspiration and wonderful patterns to learn from - you rock hun!  you can find all things figgy's here:

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what do you guys' think?  you likey as much as me?  have you made any of  figgy's new patterns?  which one is your fave?  do you have a fear of sewing zippers too?  any zipper tips you want to share to help us zipper challenged folks out?  let's chat sewing...coffee's on!