Pattern Hacking - The Journey Begins

When people ask me how I got back into sewing, I'm pretty honest about why: I started running half marathons and found a community of runners who ran in costume. My first half marathon, I planned on running as Merida from Brave, but chickened out of making a tutu and ended up wearing an orange headband and teal shirt. Now, 20+ races and hundreds of miles later, I rarely, if ever, run a race without some sort of themed dress, and usually, it's a costume.

The first "costume." I didn't even own a sewing machine at this point.

I have a half marathon coming up in a few weeks and have a plan to do a rather iconic costume, but in order to do it I need to hack a pattern. If you are unfamiliar with the concept, hacking a pattern means you take a tried and true pattern and adjust it to meet your project's goals.

I thought it might be interesting to do a step-by-step journey of me creating the costume, including what could potentially be a failure à la tutu. Therefore, you are cordially invited to join me as I transform the Sweetheart Dress from Patterns for Pirates into a running costume inspired by the very first Barbie for the Peace Love Run Half Marathon in Ventura.

Read about my journey!

Part One: The striped bodice and skirt
​Part Two: The nude top and laying it out
Part Three: Finishing it up