P & M Patterns Bianca

I’ve recently been going out of my way to discover new patterns and pattern lines. Mainly because I bit the bullet and bought a printer (I have a longstanding hatred of printers, that’s a story for another day.) The printer has openned my world to PDF patterns. While I’m still mainly a fan of the printed pattern, I can’t get over how big my pattern world has just gotten. There are SO MANY GOOD patterns out there that I had no clue about.

When going down a pattern-discovery rabbit hole, I ran across P & M Patterns. According to her website, Karine Aivazian created the company in 2012. She is a French mother of two little girls with a passion for sewing and drafting patterns. Her goal is to make classic patterns with a modern twist that are easy to put together and follow. Her original patterns were for children and then she branched out into adult patterns. I’ve been following her on Instagram and am so impressed with how she manages to put a fresh spin on very classic looks.

Anyway, I love independent pattern companies and this one is no exception. Go check out her website, she’s got a couple absolutely darling coat patterns that are 100% going to be in Robby and Maria‘s closets this winter.

This adorable pinafore dress or top is available up to a size 12 and is so modular/customizable. Odds are really good Maria will have one of these soon. These banded shorts are the perfect classic short and have pockets! I know there are tons of mama’s out there looking for a good banded short pattern-this one is seriously cute.

I ended up opting to make this Bianca Dress and I could not be happier with it. I’ve not seen a pattern with a ruffle on the bottom of the bodice like this before. It was nice because it eliminated the need for piping, though you could add it if you really wanted to.

I’m sure this type of pattern is new to no one except me but I am so impressed with the quality of this PDF Pattern. She has it set up so you print the pattern out, tape the pages together in order, and then cut out the pattern. This was so much easier than trying to figure out which piece goes where after cutting each page individually.

The one snag I did run into was the sizing. I ended up sizing up to accommodate the chest measurement (I went with a size six) but all of Maria’s other measurements were a size four. I definitely think I could have stuck to the size four and it would have fit like a glove. My thinking is always that I would prefer the dress be too big and still wearable as opposed to too small and not wearable so I went with the larger size. Ah well, now I know, the next one will be a four!

Otherwise, the directions were fantastic, the pattern pieces went together perfectly and I even learned a new technique with the ruffle. The ruffle is only one layer and I finished the edge with a very tight satin stitch, trimming very close to the edge. This created a light, easy to gather and handle ruffle. I’ve seen it done many times and never tried it. I loved it.

If you’re interested in recreating this look you can find this pineapple satin batiste here. It is truly scrumptious to work with. I lined the dress with Spechler Vogel lawn, which you can find here. This is the blue and white stripe I used for the ruffle, placket, and bias binding. If you are curious about Robby’s look, I wrote a blog post on it here.

So what about you? Are you team PDF Pattern? Do you prefer the paper? Do you have a mix of both? Leave a comment below or reach out on Instagram and Facebook. I’d love to know what you think are the pros and cons of each!