August/September Sewing Challenge + New Sew Busty Plans

I’m super excited to both announce our sew along and sewing challenge for August and September, as well as a few changes for the way we do sew alongs and challenges at Sew Busty!

August & September Sew Along + Challenge: The Amelie & Buttons

For August-September, we’re going to sew the Amelie dress from Untitled Thoughts as our sew along, and buttons will be the theme of our challenge! Sew any garment with buttons and post using the hashtag for a chance to win a prize!

I’ve long had my eye on the Amelie, and I just can’t get over the adorable back. The best part? The Amelie includes a DD draft at all base sizes, and there’s a way to make the open back cover a bra!

The Amelie sew along will come in three installments: August 9, August 16, and August 23. But, no new sew along will be posted in September, giving you extra time if 3 weeks isn’t enough. (And, as always, the Amelie sew along will live on this site indefinitely, so you can always come back to it at another time of year.)

The Buttons Challenge means that, if the Amelie isn’t your thing, you’ll have the months of August and September to sew up anything that features buttons – a button-up blouse, button-up pants, a cardigan, or even a bag with buttons. Post it by September 30 with #sewbustychallenge for your chance at winning a prize!

Planning Ahead for Sew Busty

Soooo, why is the Amelie sew along and buttons challenge going to span over two months instead of one? Because you asked for more time, and because this will help me not burn out!

If you follow me on insta, you know that I’ve been doing some scheming. This had two goals: First, I wanted to make sure I was giving y’all the content you want. Second, I wanted to make sure my Sew Busty workload remains (or even gets more) manageable, given that I’m one person (and a person with a full-time job and multiple chronic illnesses at that!).

Here are a few things I learned that are being implemented immediately:

Y’all like sew alongs, but you don’t need (or want) them every month.

Whew! This is soooo good to know, because sew alongs take a lot of effort. It’s a lot easier to sew something up quickly than to sew, stopping at every step to take pictures, and then write 3-4, 1500 word posts about how I did it.

So, from now on, sew alongs will happen every other month.

Y’all also like sewing challenges, but again, not necessarily every month.

This was actually a surprise to me. I honestly thought sewing challenges would be more popular than they are. Sewing challenges will span two months. They’ll start with the month of the sew along, and extend into the next month.

So, for example, as you’ll see on the handy calendar below, we’re going to start the Untitled Thoughts Amelie dress in August. You’ll then have August AND September to do a project with buttons and post it using #sewbustychallenge in order to be entered for prizes.

You want more notice on sew alongs and challenges

WISH GRANTED. I love this idea. So I’ll now be putting out a schedule, like the one you’ll see below, every quarter or so. My goal is to give you at least a month’s notice before a new sew along starts. Obviously I’m late for August, but I’ll be putting this out again in early September, ahead of the October/November sew along and challenge.

Pattern reviews are the most sought-after content.

This is honestly also a relief, because writing up my thoughts on a pattern after I sew it is SO MUCH EASIER than the full tutorials. So I’m going to be more focused on writing up every pattern I make.

After pattern reviews, sloper and FBA content is the most sought-after.

This gives me a challenge: Continue experimenting with my sloper! I can’t promise I’m going to do these posts on a particular schedule, because I honestly don’t always have the spoons to play with my sloper, as it’s a new thing for me. Same thing with FBA posts: I often opt for cup-sized patterns because that’s what I have the energy for. But! I will still make an effort to give you more of this content.

People also want more community features.

One idea someone offered was to do interview-based features on people in the community. I love this idea, and will definitely be implementing it. (Want to be featured? Ping me!)

Y’all want things in metric too.

My brain sucks at numbers and math and I didn’t grow up with metric, but I’m going to do this, because I know most of the world doesn’t think in inches 😂 In the last Roseclair sew along, I used both imperial and metric, and that will continue!

As always, thanks for trusting little old me to bring this community of busty sewists together. Y’all inspire me every day. If you ever have feedback, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. I’m all ears!