Today I’m sharing with you my first foray into sewing a couple of the sewing patterns from the Elizabeth Suzann RTW range which were made available: the Florence Pants and the Georgia Tee.

As many of you are aware, Elizabeth Suzann was a clothing company committed to doing things differently and many of us were shocked earlier this year when they announced that the strain placed on the business by the COVID-19 pandemic meant that they would be closing their doors forever.

Their founder, Liz, has spoken of eventually coming back in another form, including as an indie sewing pattern company, which would be amazing. I’ve been eyeing of a Cocoon Coat for years and would be more than happy to make my own!

Until this happens, however, Liz has very generously made a number of her patterns available free of charge. A number of other sewists in the community worked together to turn the files into a usable format, in exchange for a charitable donation. This files were only made publicly available temporarily and have now been removed, in anticipation of them eventually being made available as indie sewing patterns by Liz herself!

The hashtag #esmadebyme is also being used by sewists on instagram to track what we are sewing with the patterns generously made available by Liz and those other sewists in the community who made this happen – @minimalistmachinist @mombasics @thestoryclubpdx @luigiwu.

All in all, it’s pretty much a wonderful example of the generosity of spirit of the sewing community.

What’s it like to sew with the Elizabeth Suzann patterns?

The following is in no way a criticism. I think the spirit in which these patterns have been made available to the sewing community is wonderful.

I fully understand that these are RTW patterns which were made available in their RTW form, which means that they don’t include the bells and whistles that you get when you actually pay for a product specifically designed to be sold as a sewing pattern.

But, for the benefit of anyone thinking of trying them out, I did want to point out that the experience isn’t as a user friendly as using a pattern which was designed to be sold as a sewing pattern (unsurprisingly!)

I definitely found the print layouts are a bit confusing and it took me a bit of flipping between the files and the website to figure out which files I needed. I”m not familiar with the sizing used by Elizabeth Suzann and found it a tad perplexing to figure out what I needed (size “OSP”, I’m looking at you here!). The files are all in large-scale formats – I believe there is a way you can work with these files to make them printable at home, but I usually use a printing service anyway, so the large-scale wasn’t an issue.

The patterns aren’t laid out on the page in a way that is mindful of people having to print them (because, of course, they weren’t designed for that!). For example, the printed page will include all different lengths of the pants laid out on the same sheet, even though you likely don’t need all the length variations so you end up paying to print some pieces you will never use. On some of the patterns, different colours, rather than dots/lines, are used to distinguish between the sizes. As printing large-scale in colour is prohibitively expensive for me, I printed in black and white, thinking I’d be able to follow the lines and figure it out. And, well, it was harder then I thought! The sizes not marked on the patterns themselves. Overall, the way in which these were laid out, meant that it was by far the most expensive order I had ever sent to the printer and, in the end, there was a lot of the printed pieces that I didn’t even need.

And, of course, there are also no instructions.

Again, not a criticism, I fully understand that we have been able to access a product which was not at all designed for us to use, so it’s not going to be as easy to use as we are accustomed to. Just wanted to provide the information in case it is useful to others.

There are, also, some positive aspects about the way the patterns are laid out on the page. For example, the Georgia tee comes as the entire front and the entire back piece, rather than the typical half to cut on fold.

Whilst that takes more paper, it makes it easier to save fabric by cutting it out on a single layer of fabric. YEAH!

Also makes it much easy to use on very shifty fabric, like this viscose crepe!

They patterns also include both cutting lines and sewing lines, so no need to worry about having to add seam allowances.

So, with absolute gratitude for the chance to sew myself some of these lovely garments, I would point out to anyone thinking about it, that it is a bit of a different experience. Your hand is not being held like with a typical indie sewing pattern.

So you definitely have to be able to wade through it all and muddle through on your own. If you’re not prepared to do that, perhaps best to wait until they’re released as actual indie sewing patterns for purchase one (lovely) day in the future.

Elizabeth Suzann Florence Pants

I thought I wanted to start with a couple of the most simple patterns to test the waters.

These Florence Pants are a size XL. For functionality, I added in pockets, basing mine on the pockets from the Miller Trousers.

In order to figure out your sizing, you need to have a look over on the sizing charts on the Elizabeth Suzann website. You search for the garment in question over there and pull up the (luckily) detailed size charts accompanying each product to guide you?

It was extremely straight forward to sew, there is not even any waistband piece, it is just folded over, so all you are looking at is two pattern pieces plus any pocket you might choose to add.

I guess when producing for RTW, it’s necessary to keep everything very simple.

For sewists, that it now represents a blank canvas for us to adapt!

Elizabeth Suzann Georgia Tee

My Georgia Tee is the size “OSP” (????? apparently it stands for “One Size Plus” which seems something of a contradiction in terms!!), again based on my best guess from the size chart on the website. With the Georgia tee, I was definitely a bit confused by the sizing system used, but managed to get somewhere in the end.

To make this the perfect cropped length to wear with the Florence Pants, I ended up cropping it by 5cm.

Again, this was a super simple make, the hardest part, once again, was muddling through the pattern files and figuring out what you needed.

The Power of Photos

In all honesty, I wasn’t sure whether I really liked these when I first finished them. But I wasn’t sure if that’s because the wool jacquard I had made them with was just too heavy for these patterns, which are really designed for linen, lightweight crepe type fabrics.

I often learn so much more (both good and bad) about my garments from looking at them in photos. Even if you don’t blog or share your photos, I would highly recommend taking a few photos for your own purposes and looking at them to see if you can learn anything about fit and what you like and don’t like from reviewing them.

It has been a game changing in helping me to improve my sewing!

After seeing the photos and seeing that the basic clean lines of the garment were actually pretty good, I decided to give it another try in the right fabric.

So, I made a second Georgia tee, this time in deadstock viscose crepe from Meter Meter.

The perfect striped tee

Because, despite being a stripe aficionado, I feel that I still don’t quite have the perfect navy and white striped tee in my wardrobe.

That perfection is just so elusive!

So, I decided to try to pursue that perfection by sewing a striped version of the Georgia tee.

I like the Georgia tee A LOT better in a drapier fabric.

The only change I made from the jacquard version was to extend the sleeve by an inch, for a bit of extra arm coverage.

A couple of practical tips for the Georgia tee, on both of my versions I’ve felt that the neckband only barely fits! In fact, since the jacquard had been so close, I added an extra couple of centimeters when cutting out to the striped one. Even with those extra centimeters and considering that I French-seamed the shoulders which would have made my seam allowance there even shorter than designed, my neck band only barely fit.

I’m not sure what’s going on here. Perhaps I’ve made an error and cut out the neckband a size too small. As I said above, it wasn’t always simple figuring out the pieces.

Or perhaps, because the pattern is designed specifically for linen, the neckband can be a bit too small in a fabric that has a different weave.

Just mentioning it in case anyone else wants to cut their neckband a little longer and check the size, just to make sure! I’ll definitely be doing so on any future versions

The other thing I find, is that the sleeve sits a little funny on my body. On both Georgia tees, it creates a slight v-shape at the bicep, when viewed from the side, which I’m not digging.

For future versions, I would have to play with altering that get it to fall across my arm in a straight line.

Magic or marketing?

Prior to their closing down, I’d spent plenty of time on the Elizabeth Suzann website. Dreaming of purchasing one day. Gaining sewing inspiration. Ogling lovely linen garments.

But, often on many RTW websites, the marketing and the presentation can be a lot of what makes the impression on us.

Being able to actually sew RTW patterns presented itself as a unique opportunity. Is the hype worth it?

Of course, two measly patterns is by no means enough to make even a personal judgment call.

But, after having sewn these patterns, while liking them and having the fullest respect for their generous donation to the community, I’m not sure that they do anything which doesn’t already exist in the indie sewing community. For example, next time I want a pair of wide-legged pants or a boxy tee, there are indie sewing patterns I already own which fit the bill just as well.

At least for my body and size.

Of course, this is also because I’ve chosen some very simple patterns, this is not necessarily going to be the same for all the patterns generously made available. And, of course, this is just my own damn opinion!

Most of all, sewing these patterns really left me reflecting on what a privileged position we are in as sewists.

Elizabeth Suzann was a great RTW brand with unique and interesting products which, most importantly, shattered the prevailing norms about how things needed to be done and helped align fashion and values.

I have the fullest respect for the company and wish I owned a few of its pieces!

But, garments like the Florence Pants and the Georgia Tee are really simple garments.

For example, the Florence Pants doesn’t even have pockets. I would imagine that the lack of the pocket makes them much faster to produce on a large-scale.

But, as sewists, we don’t have to choose between buying a garment made in accordance with our values and having pockets. By doing it ourselves we can, if we choose, have both!

All in all, it was quite an eye-opening experience to see how a pattern designed for RTW production can be quite different to what us sewists are used to.

And I’m still looking forward to trying out other patterns.

And, most of all, to some of the more complex patterns in the Elizabeth Suzann range possibly becoming sewing patterns available for purchase one day!

Again, the Cocoon Coat, please, please, please…

Oh and, finally, a little P.S! If you like to get your blog hits through Bloglovin’, feel free to follow me over there: you can find me here. And you can find me on Instagram here.