Welcome back to See It/Sew It/Share It, where we look to ready-to-wear (RTW) styles for inspiration and use our favorite pdf patterns to make them our own! If you’re anything like me, you’re in that sewing limbo where you’re finishing up some summer projects but can’t stop thinking about fall. And back-to-school, that glorious time of year when exhausted moms are eternally grateful for the chance to shower in peace again. ;) My kids are still pretty young (Miss P is almost 6 and my little guy is 3) so I’m still finding my groove as chauffeur/cruise director/party planner and I’ll be honest, I’m beat. When the back-to-school catalogs started appearing in my mailbox, I was sooo excited! There’s so much inspiration and so many great ideas. As my kids have been wearing more and more handmades, I’ve been buying less for them and looking for fun designs in lots of places.

My daughter still loves wearing handmade and is proud to tell everyone that Mom made her clothes, and I’ve found that the keeping her styles consistent with RTW helps her stand out in a good way. We both love the Hanna Andersson catalog, and Miss P has had a few of their pieces over the years. Great quality, bold colors, and soft fabrics make them worth the price if you can afford it. What I love most about them is how wearable the styles are - this is pretty much the kind of thing my kids wear everyday. We’re a pretty casual family but I still like the kids to look put together, kwim?

When I looked at this season’s catalog, I recognized quite a few patterns as being very similar to some of my favorite pdfs. For this post, I decided to do my own version of their Popover top using the awesome (and FREE from sizes 18m-12y!) Izzy top pattern from Climbing the Willow. I made a few changes, since the pattern is drafted for wovens, but it was a quick sew and Miss P and I both LOVE the finished garment. The HA version uses jersey knit for the bodice and rayon challis (a super soft and drapey woven) for the skirt, so I did the same. I used the front pattern piece from the Izzy top to cut both my front and back pieces, and just raised the neckline in the back a tiny bit. To be honest, I don’t think it was necessary as it isn’t a very scooped neckline. I also lengthened the skirt portion a bit to make it more of a tunic than a top. My girl seems to be growing pretty quickly lately, and I’d love for her to get some good wear out of this!

Construction was pretty simple and straightforward, and I only needed to make a few changes for the bodice. I sewed one shoulder seam and then applied a strip of binding to fit. I sewed the second shoulder closed, wrapped the binding around to the wrong side, and topstitched in place. I hemmed the sleeves with about a ½” hem allowance. I gathered the skirts and sewed to the front and back bodices, and then sewed the side seams closed. Since I was using a mix of knit and woven, I sewed the side seams with my sewing machine and then serged to finish the edges. I hemmed the skirt, gave it all a good press, and delivered it to my customer. She loved it, and so do I. The fit is great - it’s a pretty drapey and forgiving fit, but not sloppy at all. For reference, I used a size 4 for my bodice and skirt width and Miss P’s chest measures 22”.

I found so much inspiration in this catalog and assembled a quick graphic to show you a few more of my favorite patterns that you can use to DIY your way to a Hanna-inspired look. Which one will you try first??