Recently, Liz of Elizabeth Suzann announced that she was closing her business. She does have plans to open back up and offer sewing patterns and kits in the fall, but in the meantime, she had generously offered her patterns for some of her most popular designs to the home sewing community thanks to some crowdsourced funds from the sewing community. Lucky us! Thanks to organizers (@MinimalistMachinist, @mombasics and @thestoryclubpdx for all their work on providing these. They requested that you make a donation (for non-Black and able, to a local or regional Black led organization for the amount you would have paid for access to these patterns. They offered a few suggestions: @glits_inc / @mvmnt4blklives / @thelovelandfoundation. I chose a local chef’s (Adrian Lipscombe) fundraiser, 40 Acres and a Mule. ****Lastly, in anticipation of Liz releasing her sewing patterns, the files are no longer available to the community (read the post here), but I think it will very much be worth the wait when she releases them! Plus, they’ll be accompanied with the full instructions which will be so great! I’ll try and touch base again when I hear more about her timeline for when the patterns might be available. Or sign up for her newsletter. ***

So it took me a little bit of time before I could dive into trying one of the patterns, but the Georgia Tee skipped to the top of my list once I saw other sewists making it. I spent an hour or so putting together the paper pattern and then it seemed like it took hardly any time at all the cut and sew the top itself. The last garment I made was the Archer Buttonup shirt. I had so much fun making it, even though it was more time consuming, it was totally worth the feeling of accomplishment once I finished. But the Georgia is such a lovely simple tee, it was refreshing to sew it up so quickly. I love it’s boxy shape and the fabric that I tried was really fun and easy to sew with. I cannot figure out what fabric this is! It’s been in my stash for a few years at least, but I was thinking it was a silk noil? You can find it at places like Fancy Tiger Crafts, Blackbird Fabrics, and Stonemountain & Daughter Fabrics (and probably more! if you know another shop feel free to add it to the comments below). I serged my seam allowances, too, which also helped contribute to the super speedy finish.

I checked a few sources on the patterns as far as seem allowances go,  3/8″ seam allowance was what I went with and it seemed to work great. I also checked on the neckline to see how that was constructed. @trishington on Instagram added her construction info on her caption. Here’s a rundown: I did the neckline similar to how I would do quilt binding. Sewing the short ends together first and then pressing the loop in half wrong sides together, then attaching the loop to the neckline. I actually hadn’t sewn a neckline this way before that I can think of, but it was really slick and sewed on without a hitch.

I lengthened the bodice by 1/2″ and it feels just right. I’ll wear it a bit more before I set to make any further adjustments to a second one, but it feels really nice to wear! I’m so excited to add this to my (very small) closet. I’m pretty sure I might just have to make another! P.s. you can see more versions of the upcoming patterns using the #esmadebyme)