‘Tis the season of being broke-ass! So I thought I’d share with you some of the free patterns I’ve discovered lately. Maybe something here works with some fabric in your stash, so you don’t have to lay out any cash to get your sew on. That’s what I call #brokeasssewing!

Jalie’s Yoko sweater – just released today! Thanks to Dawn and Mayra on That Sewing Blab for telling us about it on their show last night. I have a big pile of blush pink sweater knit and this is EXACTLY the sweater I want to make with it. And as with all Jalie patterns, it comes in an incredible range of sizes including girls and women. [Note: at the time I published this, the Jalie website appeared to be down. The link should work once they have it back up and running. Maybe everyone rushed for this free pattern at once and broke the internet!]

DIBY Club Anything But Basic Tee, Anything But Basic Leggings, and Weekender Sling Bag – make yourself a whole weekend outfit! Here’s my Weekender Sling Bag, hot off the sewing machine, which I plan to use as a beach bag on an upcoming vacation. I used two coordinating cotton fabrics from Ikea that were $7 CAD/meter, 59″ wide. Good value. I interfaced just the outer bag with fusible heavy-weight interfacing for structure.

My advice to anyone thinking of sewing this bag: be aware that the pattern, as drafted, wastes a ton of fabric. The body and long straps of the bag are cut in one piece, and those very long, thin straps eat into long lengths of fabric just to cut out a 5″ wide strap somewhere in the middle of your fabric width. So instead, I chopped the straps off and created a seam; that way I could place the pattern pieces on my fabric without too much waste. The pattern calls for 2 metres of fabric for both lining and outer fabric, but with my adjustments I managed with less than a metre. And if you want, you can place that seam in slightly different spots for the outer fabric and the lining fabric so when you put them together, you don’t get double seam bulk in one spot.

More advice: be aware that the straps and the body of the bag are very loooong. I ended up removing about 2.5 inches from the depth of the bag so I could reach to the bottom of it comfortably while it’s on my shoulder. I really can’t stand having to stop and put a bag down or balance on one knee so I can prop up the bag in order to be able to scrounge around the bottom of it. As for the straps, you can tie them to any length you want so strap length isn’t really an issue.

Milan AV-JC Zero-Waste Origami Bag  – just released on Monday! I recently sewed a zero-waste dress by this company…I haven’t blogged it yet but you can check out the pattern for the Brumer Zero-Waste Dress here. And this cute and easy bag has diagonal seams which is something I adore in a sewing pattern. You can either print out the PDF pattern or, even easier, just mark out the pieces on your fabric without printing anything, as the dimensions for the pieces are given. There’s a video tutorial for sewing it together.

Named Tie & Bow Tie – sewing a tie for your guy, or yourself, is such a satisfyingly quick sew and good scrap-buster.

Connecting Threads Cotton Kimono – no paper to print out! Mostly made of rectangles, the instructions give the dimensions of pieces to draft. And it looks like a good way to utilize that quilting cotton you couldn’t resist buying even though you don’t quilt. And by “you”, I of course mean me. 😉

Mood Fabrics Free Patterns: Maybe you’ve noticed that Mood Fabrics has been pumping out free patterns lately like a house on fire. Check out Mood’s free offerings here. I haven’t yet tried sewing any of them so I can’t vouch for the drafting or instructions.  But I’ve been eying the Xyris denim shirt dress pattern (so cool that it can be worn as a dress or a coat) and the very on-trend, “Don’t mind me I’m just a very chic auto mechanic” Cherry Jumpsuit.

Have you sewn any of Mood’s free patterns? I’m curious to know whether they’re good quality.

Have you found any good freebies lately? Please share them in the comments!

Happy broke-ass sewing!

— Lori