 Hi you guys, welcome back to another first impression video. This is the series where I take a look at an entire sewing pattern collection and we look at all the patterns together and I kind of just like give my first impression thoughts on what I think about the overall design and the fabric, fabric choices, fit including pattern ease and all of those fun things. And this video is dedicated to the new look spring patterns. So these are all the patterns that new look has released for spring 2024. So yeah, if you like sitting around and gabbing about patterns with a girlfriend that you may or may not know from the internet, this is the video for you. And new look is the brand that has all the sizes all in one. So you're not going to see multiples here. You're just going to see a bunch of sizes, usually six of them all in one envelope. That also means they are just about as limited in extended sizing as Vogue is very limited in terms of the petite side as well as the plus side. So if you're a midsize girly, this is the one for you. And they're always the same price at Joanne, they're $3.99 always. You never have to wait for a sale. It does look like they're putting them on sale at simplecity.com now so you can save a buck. So you'll probably end up just spending that again on shipping anyway. So however your sewing math works, however your girl math works to justify wherever you're shopping for them, that's how new look works right now in terms of pricing and size. All right. So this one is a Mrs. Dress with Sleeve Variations. We have a v-neck dress with a flared skirt, sleeveless or three quarter length sleeves and optional self belt dresses have invisible zipper and waist darts. Okay. Let's take a look. Wow. All right. So this is v-neck princess seam fitted through the upper bust and then a really, really long bodice. This is way too long for her. You can see where her body is naturally curving in here. So the waist seam should be way, way, way up here. There's also a lot of ease in the waist. You can kind of see how it's just like floating away from her body kind of. But we do have this really beautiful circle skirt that's attached. I love a circle skirt. This is one with seams as well. So it's like a pieced together circle skirt, a little bit of a basic sort of design, you know, it's just a princess seam bodice with a circle skirt, a fit and flared dress. We've seen these a thousand times, but if you're new to sewing or if your body size and the shape of your body has changed for not a bad idea to have some of these as just like go to staples, you can hack them in about a thousand different ways, especially when they have the sleeve piece included, that makes it super easy to make a ton of different variations of the same pattern. But yeah, so far I'm getting just really the length here in the bodice. Now keep in mind whenever you raise the bodice, the skirt's also going to get shorter. So I think this is supposed to be a knee length skirt. So again, showing that it's like below the knee barely also is indicative of the something being too long. And in this case, I do think it's the bodice. But other than that, the fit is pretty good. I mean, there's no gaping here at the neckline. Kind of hard to see the sleeve opening from here. It might be a little bit on the larger side, assuming that only one bodice is provided, no matter whether you're making the sleeved version or the sleeve less version. And inherently the sleeve less version should have a smaller circumference in the arm side, but easy enough to just pinch that out right here where that seam is already provided. Here's the back where again, we have an invisible zipper, some gaping in the back. But again, that could just be because this does feel a little bit too big on her. And I also think that you could probably, like whatever you remove from here on her, you could just remove all the way down this bodice and cinch it in all the way. But you can tell really well right about here is where her natural waist is. So this is a good two inches, maybe more, too long. And yeah, same thing with the, if the sleeve were to attach here, this would be great. All of this would be awesome whenever you have a sleeve less version. You do want this to cut away a little bit, just a little bit. And then nice pretty skirt again. All right, so I imagine we're going with light to midway woven on this one. Let's see. Cotton blends, crepeback satin, double knit, linen blends, PK, Ponty, poplin, satin. Yeah, all of those are, all of those are great. I'm trying to think. They did leave off like lightweight twills, which I guess could be a cotton blend. Chambray would be a natural option. You could really go, I mean, any of the woven fabrics on this, which is why it's such a classic silhouette because you just can make it just about out of just about anything. So, size range. What does 8 to 18 actually mean? That means a body measurement of 31 and a half to 40 inches in the bust, which for this pattern is the most important measurement. And then finish measurement wise, we have three inches in the bust of ease, which is a lot for a fitted dress. Probably want it to be around, maybe like I'd aim for two, give or take half an inch. One and a half to maybe somewhere around there. So three inches is just a little bit roomy, but that's okay. Easy enough to fix that probably just by sizing down. So for sure, sizing down and raising up that waist are going to be two things you're going to have to look at for that guy. All right, then we have this one here, Mrs. Dress with Sleeve Variations. Now correct me if I'm wrong, this looks a lot like the blue dress that I did for that sew along. Is it? I don't remember having that many buttons. I've seen this one. Somebody I know is sewing this because this is not a first impression. I've definitely seen this one before, but I haven't taken a good close look yet. Easy to sew, button front dress has short or long sleeves, fitted bodice with front midriff, back yoke and gathered skirt with side seam pockets. Okay, great. So deeper V on this one, forward shoulder with some gathers, and then you have this under bust seam also with gathers. This is the front yoke, very flattering on many, many, many different body types, and also I want to point out that if you are fuller-chested, like typically if you don't sew an AB cup, if you're C, double D, C, D, double D, and so on, this is easier to adjust for your cup size than a one-piece bodice, because you're only having to worry about the fullness of the actual cup, and then what happens above it. You don't have to worry about anything below it, which is nice. Then we have a, what's supposed to be a waist seam, again this one's really long, the length of the high point shoulder to the under bust is perfect. That's exactly what it's supposed to be, but this one's about an inch too long. Also the sleeve, did they say they were seven eighths, or did they say they were long sleeves, because they are falling a little bit short on her. Seven eighths length sleeves are so confusing to me, they don't look intentional, they just look too short, and they make her arms look so long. Look how long her arm looks. Oh my gosh, okay. And then, okay just a straight seam across the bottom, and these millions of zipper, or millions of what are they called buttons, going all the way up the top. So then we just have a couple of different sleeve variations. I don't even think there's length variations on this one. Really pretty for spring though, the length is perfect. And then okay, so we have a back yoke here with some gathers, and then your skirt attached also with gathers. Again, pretty simple silhouette, you might have something like this already. Pretty classic kind of take on a shirt, dress, colorless, but they're just really pretty, and you can wear them to lots of different occasions. It can be made for work, it can be made for brunch, a date, an event like Easter or wedding. You can really dress these up or dress them down. I think that's why they're so popular. But fabric wise, I think we're going with more lightweight fabrics on this one. So Charmous, cotton blends, crepe, lawn. Yeah, for sure you can go even lighter. You could do chalice, you could do again, chambrays a good option, satin, like a lighter weight satin. Lighter weight wovens of any kind I think would be great here on this one. All right, and then the size range was six to sixteen. So we've gained a size on the low end and lost one on the high end. So that means a bust of 30 and a half to 38 inches in the bust. That's going to give us four inches of ease, which for this one because it's kind of blousier that does make some sense. The waist here might be the more important measurement to take and ironically don't give us the finished waist, which that's like the closest fitting no-gathery type of thing. So that's interesting. Yeah, I would base this one off my waist. I can't tell you how much ease is there because they didn't provide it. So hopefully it's on the pattern pieces. Not ideal if you're shopping online, but you know we do what we can. All right, next up we have this little crossover wrap dress with this beautiful little flounce. Again, nothing new here if you've been sewing for a minute. We've seen patterns like this a thousand times. This one is described as a wrap dress in two lengths, features romantic ruffles and long sleeve or sleeveless options. Create the wrap dress that's perfect for you and the thing to look for in wrap dresses is the gaping. Okay, so obviously you can wrap this tighter to make the neck line higher, but you really have to make sure that the shape of this curve here fits that. So the right answer is actually to make this more of a curve than it is just to tie it tighter. But either way, you want to make sure that there's not a lot of gaping, which I personally think there is a lot here. I think if they untact whatever it is they did to to keep this closed, she'd be a little bit more exposed. So if it were me, I would be changing the shape of this no matter what, whether I wanted it a deep B or not, just to make it a little bit more like a contoured to the body. We also have something funky happening here, which again could be, well this is probably indicative of the shoulder length being too long, like it's trying to ride up on her neck and that's what's creating that little thing there, but kind of hard to tell too, because she is kind of tilting to that side. She's kind of got her hip popped, so maybe that's what's happening, but I don't know, I kind of see it happening over here too, so. And then again that weird sleeve length, but you do have this really pretty cascading. They called it a ruffle, but it really is a flounce, so you're going to cut this like a giant circle and then it fits into there. They're a lot of fun to sew onto the skirt, not a lot of fun to him. The hem lasts for miles and miles and miles, and you think you're never ever going to get to the end, but yeah, bodice starts, bust starts. Let's see if we can see the back. Here's the front again, and yeah we're still having this issue. Yeah, so I think it's a combination of this shape needing to be cut back from here and then filled in through here, right? The shape of this is just too straight. It needs to be more of like an S. Okay, here's the back on a completely different model. Yeah, all that fitting stuff looks okay. Did it say it had a gathered sleeve? I don't remember that. This one's also not mimicking that, so that's really interesting to see. And then the skirt, and here's the flounce added onto the skirt. Okay, yeah the back looks pretty good. I don't know what's up with that sleeve though. Yeah, for sure not a gathered sleeve. Let me make sure I'm not losing my mind. Oh no, it is gathered. Okay, hold on, I gotta see more of her. I mean that, I don't know. That could just be a construction thing. They could have been trying to fit it in, not realizing that it was gathered. It kind of looks intentional, it kind of looks like a mistake. It's hard to tell, and what's more confusing about the back is that it is so gathered here and then not at all here. So that's just throwing me off, but hopefully when you're at home and you're sewing it, you're going to do it a little bit more intentionally. Okay, so this is going to be their largest size range. I think, I don't think they have a 12 to 24. I think 10 to 22 is the largest that they go. So that does provide the most sizing on the larger end of their scale. So that's a 32 and a half up to 44 inch bust, 25 to 37 inch waist. For reference, I am like a 14 in stores, and I would be the 22 in both of these, and I would technically be at 24 in the hip if I didn't just use up the ease that they provided, which they don't give the hip ease. The bodice ease though is three inches, which again, for a blouseier kind of lighter weight fabric dress, three inches makes sense. So shally, charmeuse, cotton lawn, crepe, crepe machine, double georgette, gingham, silky types, wall. Yeah, I love all those. Oh, and then it's lined a little bit. I'm guessing the front facing is what they're talking about? The lining being because you only need, yeah, like a yard or less. So I don't, maybe it is the whole front bodice. That could be the case too, which if that's the case, that's really nice. That's a nice detail to add, and it makes finishing that neckline a little bit easier. That doesn't say partially lined or anything. So yeah, these are really pretty if you like to go out dancing, if you like to like, I don't know, twirl. Those scripts are a lot of fun to wear around. Okay, now we have a knit dress. I love a knit maxi. I don't know what it is. It feels like pajamas. It's easy to just throw on and you can go anywhere. You're comfortable the whole time. It doesn't matter what you eat. You know what I mean? Like you're ready for just whatever the day can throw at you in a knit maxi. This one is an easy to sew pullover dress with front inset elasticized waist and narrow hem. Bodice include loose fitting bias cut surplus, which is like a basically like a fake wrap like crossover or sleeveless with a scoop neck designed for moderate stretch knit. So you really are getting two dresses in one here. 10 to 22 is the size range. So you're getting this crossover bodice with a grown-on sleeve or you're getting this tank top bodice. So I mean that's a lot of bang for the buck. I know it doesn't seem like a lot, but think about all the different ways that you can hack this. So you could have this surplus dress in all the different lengths, including a top, including long sleeve if you wanted to add to the grown-on sleeve here. And then same thing with the with the tank top one. You could omit the waistband and have you know a full on tank dress. You could have tank top. You could leave the waistband and have peplums. You could have tunic, knee length, nitty length, you know what I mean? So you probably have I don't know what could you make like 10, 20, maybe 20 different dresses out of the same pattern. Not bad. We've got the gathers at the neckline. This is a really beautifully laying neckline. See how it's much flatter on her body than the other one was. And then the grown-on sleeve here is pretty long. You could even shorten that to give yourself more of like a cap sleeve type of look. You would just shorten this and then maybe even raise this up by the same amount that you shortened so it's not showing too much. Nice thick waistband too. I love that. I love nice thick elastic, especially to me like as you're as the size gets bigger the elastic to me should also get bigger just more substantial. It's about proportions I think. Yeah this one's a real winner bang for the buck for sure. Yeah I also love how it's flat in the front the elastic and then gathered in the back one. See how they made it flat here and then put all the gathers in the back that just again to the eye is much more appealing than if this were all in the front highlighting all your lumps and bumps that you have in the front. This one's great. She's simple, she's basic, but she's got options and I love options and also easy to sew. So 10 to 22 on the size range that's a 32 and a half to 44 in the bust. The waist is kind of negligible because of the elastic. The hip here it's kind of flared so 34 and a half to 46 on the hip and then no finished garment measurements to tell what the ease is. The ease on the bodice is going to be misleading anyways unless they provide it for this tank top version. This on when they give the ease on these things it's confusing because they include the entire width not just where your body is supposed to go but on this one if they had the ease written down there that should be I'm sorry the finished garment measurements if they had the finished garment measurements written down for the tank top that would also apply to this one. If it's a knit dress though this one I don't know this one's kind of blousy so this one's going to be in the two to three inch range the tank top can be less the tank version can be like zero to one and if your fabric is like really stretchy like like rib knit it can be even in the negatives so just depends on how you want it to fit do you want it to be tight fitting or do you want it to have a little bit of a blousier blousier look but yeah based on their drawings and everything it's it's pretty loose good one to have just in your arsenal for sure. All right now we've got a bodysuit I'm very picky about my bodysuits whether I make them or buy them so we'll see if this one fits the bill. Long sleeve bodysuit has either a deep v-neck wrap front or a mock neck I do love a mock neck. Bodysuits are stable for every modern wardrobe size for stretch knits only and the size range is extra small to 1x okay just for knits okay great so we've got a this again will be considered a surplus bodice I'm assuming I'd love for it to be double layered where this goes through here and is also attached on the side seam over here I don't think that's what's happening I think this is top stitched down so not the best not the worst also the shape of the leg is super important to me because I don't wear thongs sorry not my 20s and never really was into that to begin with but I don't want panty lines so there's a fine line between how you achieve that in a bodysuit for sure I do like this design though and like I said I love a mock neck again the shoulder length might be a little bit long we're getting that weird pucker again on a whole different girl so but I do think that the negative ease is working well here this has been graded beautifully for the ease of this I guess I'm thinking it's a cotton jersey fabric probably and then oh here it is cute little outfit yeah bodysuits are just they just look so clean and like I don't know chic almost all right so this one oh it's not like a bathing suit see this is a beautiful bathing suit bottom right I almost want them to like eat up my entire butt cheek I just wanted to hold all that in um I probably need to look into creating my own like short version like with a little bit of a short I'd have to get in and out of it every time which for the mock neck you couldn't do because you have to put the mock neck on and off through the crotch but this deep b1 you could probably slip on and off so you can maybe do like a bit of a short situation happening I don't know I just it's like maybe if I took a pair of my favorite underwear I could mimic the shape of that how much coverage that one has I don't know like I said I'm really really picky about body about body suits and in the stores it seems like every single one of them is a thong which it's like no what's the point just give me a top at that point you know what I mean like no thank you but that's just me um so extra small to two x so that's technically going to take us through their entire numerical size range even though the letters combined to those sizes together so six to 24 technically um that's a 30 and a half up to 46 inch bust finished garment measurements are going to be negative four inches of ease which I know sounds whack a doodle crazy but when you look at these fabrics and also when you look at the pick a knit rule I wouldn't be surprised if the stretch percentage was in the 50 to 75 percent range but you could even go as high as 100 percent stretch with like a rib knit so jersey spandex stretch lame ok stretch velvet two-way stretch and then across lining in a tree coat so so yeah you could do all your super stretchy knit so you're not going to get away with like a cotton even a cotton jersey I'm not sure would cover it you'd have to probably size up if you were doing a cotton jersey so four inches of negative ease sounds like a lot I know it sounds like whoa but if your fabric is really stretchy that's exactly what you want out of a knit top and I feel like I saw Brittany j jones make one of these um and it looked great on her I think it was her I can't remember exactly who I'm pretty sure it was pretty though and it looked really really good on her okay here is a top with sleeve variations easy to sew peplum top with front and back inverted pleats have three-quarter or short all-in-one sleeves and invisible back zipper okay so this is giving like simplicity vibes this might even be like a rework of an old simplicity pattern why do I feel like I've seen this before with this little pin tucky peplum thing recently last fall maybe did we not have something like this last fall I don't know but this has the dolman sleeve right so it's grown on sleeve high neckline and then you can shorten that sleeve if you want to bring it up to a short sleeve obviously you could lengthen it as well you could also make this whole thing a dress if we're talking about pattern hacking it's pretty I feel like I've seen this though again let's see the back yeah and the fit feels like it's pretty good to me I mean a grown on sleeve is always going to produce some extra wrinkles just because there is inherently more fabric there but the waist seam seems to be in the right place I mean it is drooping down a little bit but that and that's probably because the length of her back is shorter than this center back seam and when you put a zipper there there's really the zipper almost stabilizes this whole seam and so it really does show the length of it where it's not going to give you those a lot of those ruffles and and puckers in the center back of you normally would see that's probably what's happening here it's just about it I don't know half an inch or so too long on her the front a little bit harder to see this seam here a little bit of a droopy droop but not too bad not noticeable I don't think it's cute little top it reminds me of like um maybe banana republic or cost plus world market no not that um remember when it used to be called that um what am I thinking of white house black market it reminds me of something that they would have in like a silk or something or what looks like silk what's really called yester um 6 to 16 on the size range again it's 30 and a half to 38 and we have three and a half inches of ease in the bust again it's a little bit hard to judge ease on a grown-on sleeve because they factor in the grown-on-ness of the sleeve so it's it's a little bit less than that but not too much less than that shally charmeuse crepe de sheen double georgette matte jersey knit so you can even make it out of jersey if you did that I'd probably size down just one though and then silky types yep pretty though simple but and and been done right nothing again none of these have been like revolutionary in terms of design um but they're wearable okay this one is missus top with sleeve variations easy to sew pull-on tops have featured pleated bodice and square neckline with elastic gathers at shoulder short sleeves are either flutter or gathered I love tops like this they just I don't know they just feel so like they're they're equal parts like hippie dippy and also like little girl doll vibes I don't know I just really love them and I also love them as dresses like if you extended them to to dress link it does give a kind of a different take on a fit and flare it's not as fitted as a fit and flare is which may be why I like it so much I don't know I just think it's really flattering on a lot of different body types and because you have all these seams all these seams going all the way across you can play around with that in terms of adjusting for your bust cup size um so there's some wiggle room that you have there that you wouldn't normally be afforded if they didn't have all these seams but it is a fabric hog because all of these you know are laid out flat and then you pull them in to become darts nope pleats and um so there's a lot of fabric through here but didn't the elastic shoulder I feel like that was like having a real moment and then they kind of all went away but here's another one I do like how it's thicker than what we saw before beautiful puff sleeve in oh which sew along was it shoot I can't remember now I think it was the denim dress we made a sleeve head remember and I had never done that before it makes such a big difference so you want to add a little sleeve head into here they're so so so easy to do no so easy it would be best on this little gathered one not so much on the splutter one doesn't really matter but but yeah cute little top and again about a thousand different fabrics are going to be suitable for this one this the fit on this one looks really good these pleats are all letting out at the right place on her body right at her natural waist again the sleeve looks really great the neckline it's not puckering it would be doing a lot of weird stuff through here if it were too big but that all looks really good I also just like how wide the neckline is on these kinds of tops there's the back so cute all right 8 to 18 that's 31 and a half inch to 40 inch bust and so they're saying there's five and a half inches of ease in the bust again are they factoring in when the pleats are closed because five and a half is a lot I don't think she's got five and a half no she definitely doesn't know for sure there's not five and a half inches of ease so I think it's a little bit misleading however they're taking their measurements whether it's automated I don't know what's happening but that that feels not correct um but what you're looking for is in that two to three range again boutique shally cotton blends crepe dishing dotted swiss oh that would be so cute especially if you underlined it and then let the sleeves sheer adorable lightweight linens silky types yeah all of your lightweight woven but still have some stability shally is probably the most straightly one that they have here but um stable and lightweight I think are your best bet in terms of making it easy to sew to I mean these pleats are not for the faint of heart if your fabric is super shifty okay now we have a skirt easy to sew short or midi length pleated skirt has side zipper openings and optional ribbon trim well this is cute that's super cute why do I also feel like I've seen this one if I gotten into the fall patterns yes I think so because I remember this I remember her definitely remember these people yeah they just made it really hard to tell what's what oh my lanta I don't know which of these I've done which I haven't these are supposedly all spring but some I have done already I know for sure so I'll just do the ones that are familiar to me and or that are not familiar to me and skip the ones that are and you guys just do your best to follow along does this one look familiar yes yes yes I'll remember loving this one if I've done this whole collection and just didn't remember any of those other patterns please forgive me please forgive me it's been a weird time bias asymmetrical skirts now this I don't think I've seen before handkerchief hem starts below the knee ends at mid cap and can be made in one or contrast fabric shorter view has straight hem and falls above the knee tie can be self or contrast now you guys know I love bias cut anything bias cut anything the more curves you have the better it looks I promise I know that you guys see these dresses and you're like I could never pull that off yes you can in bias you can the other beauty about bias is that you can buy a striped fabric and then inherently you cut it on its diagonal so now you have a diagonal stripe so it just creates this really pretty design with your fabric that you don't normally you wouldn't be able to buy it like that other than that though she's pretty simple pretty straightforward not a lot going on which means you can use really fun fabrics or fabrics you probably wouldn't normally use but they even did little belt loops proportions are all off with this like try not to judge based on this outfit with between the ankle tie and the blousey shirt and the but there's a lot happening so we're just going to go with the styling on that but cotton's crate linen type silky types and rayons yeah I was definitely thinking more along the lines of like a silk like some of those really fun special occasion fabrics I could see those being really great out of a out of a bias cut and again something with stripes or directions are really fun too so 10 to 22 on the size range that gives us a bust of 32 and a half to 44 and no finished garment measurements this also looks like an older design I wonder if this is just a re print of an older pattern so maybe you guys are so good at recognizing those I am not so much this top I've seen this top I've seen and this is the unisex shirt I do remember that one as well yep okay so kind of a chaotic new look but I do think that there were some new things in here that I have not seen before pretty basic in terms of design but pretty you know if you're looking to add more pretty to your collection if you need some basics these are all great this is probably the only one that I would add just because well I probably check my stash first to see if I have anything similar but I just love how versatile this one is if you only have one knit dress pattern it could be this one and you would be good to go but let me know what you guys think about this spring collection from new look that is going to do it for me today I will see you all very soon with the new vogue