Reviews - Cucicucicoo

Autumn Cardigan Sewing Pattern Review: Laurelhurst and Drop Pocket

October 20, 2021 by Lisa Neri

This autumn cardigan sewing pattern review will help you choose between two cardi patterns that are perfect for layering in the fall for added warmth and style: the Laurelhurst and the Drop Pocket Cardigans.

I always feel a little sad when it starts getting too chilly to wear my summery tops, so I usually continue wearing them well into the fall with cardigans over them. So I’m going to show you a couple of my favorite DIY cardis for …

Best Magnifying Floor Lamp for Sewing and Crafting – LightView XL

September 25, 2019 by Lisa Neri

Crafters and sewists, save your eyesight! The LightView XL is the best magnifying floor lamp for sewing and other manual arts. With 225% magnification and bright built in led lights, creating has never been this easy! #brightech #sewingtools

Brightech, the online lighting specialists, contacted me recently to ask if they could send me one of their lamps in exchange for an honest review. I had heard that the LightView XL is absolutely the best magnifying floor lamp for sewing, so I happily accepted …

Clara Wrap Crop Top sewing pattern

April 11, 2019April 11, 2019 by Lisa Neri

I wrote the other day about the fantastic Sew Fab pattern bundle that my Hyacinth Moto Leggings pattern is part of. The bundle includes nine patterns in all, and I’ve really been looking to sewing a few of them in particular. There is currently a …

Sew Fab 2019 spring sewing pattern bundle

April 11, 2019April 6, 2019 by Lisa Neri

I am super excited to give you some really cool news! My latest pattern, the Hyacinth Moto Leggings for women, is part of the brand new Sew Fab spring sewing pattern bundle! Eee! The Spring 2019 Sew Fab Bundle features 9 different designers, with 9 brand …

Colette Sorbetto: a free loose tank top pattern

September 24, 2018September 24, 2018 by Lisa Neri

A few months ago, my husband and I went to a fancy wedding, the type where women wear crazy sparkly dresses and heels at least 10 inches high. I, however, never wear heels (I can’t even stand in them, never mind walk) and I had …

Jalie 3134: a flattering racerback swimsuit pattern

May 21, 2018May 21, 2018 by Lisa Neri

Le nuotatrici hanno bisogno di comfort, ma possono anche essere belle con questo cartamodello per costume intero comodo che esalta le linee femminili! #cartamodello #costumefaidate

A few weeks ago I wrote a review of a bikini pattern that my daughter and I used for our swimwear last summer. However we are a family of swimmers and I needed an appropriate one-piece bathing suit for my year-round pool swimming. I’m kind …

Jalie 2446 bikini pattern for women and girls in 9 styles

May 1, 2018May 1, 2018 by Lisa Neri

Last summer I finally started sewing something that tends to terrify sewists: bathing suits. (You can check out my 10 tips on sewing swimsuit fabric perfectly here!) I purchased various fabrics and two Jalie patterns, one for a racerback one-piece and another for two-pieces. Jalie …

Yo Mango handmade magic bag for shoplifting

January 19, 2022April 9, 2018 by Lisa Neri

A couple of years ago I was cleaning out a room and made a pile of random brochures and entrance tickets from our honeymoon for my husband to look through and give the ok to throw away. And thankfully he realized that what I’d thought …

StickerYeti custom logo stickers for any surface + DISCOUNT!

February 28, 2018February 26, 2018 by Lisa Neri

The following is a sponsored post, however all opinions expressed are 100% my own. More than a year ago, I was contacted by StickerYeti, a company that makes custom logo stickers, to test out their products and offer an exclusive discount to my readers (get …

Crochet Reusable Water Balloons – Summer Fun with No Mess!

May 14, 2023August 7, 2017 by Lisa Neri

Earlier this year, I saw the coolest thing on Pinterest. I wanted so badly to try it out. I was so curious and I knew my kids would love it. Because who in the world wouldn’t want to try their hand at DIY crochet reusable …

Ruby women’s wrap skirt pattern by Daydream Patterns (review)

April 24, 2017April 24, 2017 by Lisa Neri

I am a total skirt junkie.

I LOVE wearing skirts! I’ve never been a girly girl, but skirts are femmine without necessarily overdoing it. Even if you’re wearing a simple and casual outfit, a skirt makes it look more put together. And, unless it’s a tight pencil skirt (banned from my wardrobe), skirts are also really comfortable. And can be worn with colorful tights and leggings! If it’s cold out, I just pop some legwarmers on to keep my legs warmer. As far as I’m concerned, you can’t go wrong with skirts!

I am part of numerous pattern testing groups, and a few months ago I enviously admired lots of gorgeous Ruby Wrap Skirts for girls. So when Jo from Daydream Patterns put out a call for testers for the women’s version, I signed up right away!

About the pattern

The Ruby women’s wrap skirt pattern is a really fast and easy design that’s perfect for beginners. There are overlapping panels in the front that are secured closed with a snap and a tie on the side. An interesting feature of the Ruby Wrap skirt is that the front panel is shaped in a way to make it asymmetric and more visually interesting. There are also darts on the front and back to give it a little bit of shaping.

There are three versions:

Growing Up Handmade – sewing clothes for tweens

April 17, 2017 by Lisa Neri

Older kids can be hard to please when it comes to their clothing. The Growing Up Handmade tour shows lots of fantastic pattern options when sewing clothes for tweens and teens! Featuring the Pocket Fold Skirt by Madeit Patterns and the Butterfly Sleeve Tunic by Make It and Love It, sewn by www.cucicucicoo.com

There’s no denying it. Mothers who sew clothes just LOVE sewing clothes for their little girls.

It takes considerably less fabric to sew a child’s garment. It’s an awesome feeling when your kid is happy to wear something you made. And you feel way cool when the other parents at school ask you where you bought it and are amazed to find out that you made it yourself.

But generally when kids, especially girls, get to be around 10 years old, they start resisting wearing whatever you lay out for her. And- gasp!- they start having their own very definite opinions on what they will or will not wear. My Sofia is now 10 1/2 and will be starting middle school in September. She is still very much a child, but is also starting to become a little lady. Which means that her love for girly girl things is definitely on the wane.

So when I heard that Carrie from Beri Bee Designs was organizing a Growing Up Handmade blog tour about sewing clothes for tweens and teenagers, I signed up right away!

And guess what else? There’s also a fantastic giveaway from lots of sponsors as part of the blog tour with over $300 worth of awesome sewing materials and patterns! Continue reading to find the box to enter!

I recently discovered Olu at Needle and Ted and fell in love with her fun and modern sewing aesthetic. So when I was brainstorming what outfit to sew for this tour, I checked out the patterns in her pattern shop, Madeit Patterns, and nearly fell off my chair when I saw the Pocket Fold Skirt. I mean, a skirt with a design based on origami folding?! AMAZING.

My original plan was to draft my own flutter sleeve T-shirt, however I didn’t manage to finish the pattern in time, so I instead decided on the Butterfly Sleeve Tunic by Make It and Love It. I am a massive fan of Ashley’s, and I love what a simple yet very cool-looking top this is.

Let me tell you a little bit more about how I made this outfit.

17 Non-Electronic Games for Young Children

January 12, 2017November 21, 2016 by Lisa Neri

Are you sick of arguing with your kids over screen time? Provide them with stimulating fun without batteries! These 17 fantastic non-electronic games are perfect for young children with limited or no reading or math skills!

Nearly all parents I know these days complain about trying to limit their kids’ screen time. They’re always on their tablet, or gaming device, or smartphone. If not, they’re using the computer or zoning out in front of a TV. I can’t help thinking how different these kids’ lives are than mine was when I was growing up!

Why do kids need so much technology? (Or adults, for that matter…) Is it really good for them? Doubtful. Some studies have shown that too much screen time is harmful to children. I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that perhaps even too much time with any sort of electronic or even electric device can kill off our contact with simple pleasures in life. I already started talking about this last month when I wrote about what you can learn from making your own Halloween costume.

The holiday season is coming up and Black Friday and Cyber Monday are really just around the corner. What I would like to suggest this year is to consider what gifts you are giving to the children in your life. Do they really have anything to offer them besides the toy world’s equivalent of empty calories? This is why I decided to compile a list of my favorite non-electronic games for young children, specifically those who are still unable to read, so up to about age six.

Most of these are games that I loved as a child and still enjoy playing with my own children. Some are games that I didn’t have when I was young and discovered with my kids. ALL of them are totally manual, in the sense that they have no electric or electronic parts, no batteries, no lights or sounds. They are all much more simple than most of today’s fancy toys and games, but they offer much stimulation to kids in many ways, and many have been loved for generations.

So if you’re not sure what to give a young child this holiday season, consider one of the following Cucicucicoo-approved games!

Sticker Kid personalized name labels – 10% discount!

March 8, 2018August 30, 2016 by Lisa Neri

Two years ago I was contacted by Sticker Kid* to try out their personalized name labels for kids. I was initially skeptical but, upon trying out their products, I immediately realized that these were very special labels. Not only are they very cute and colorful, with lots of styles to choose from, but they are also incredibly resistant. They do not come off, are dishwasher safe, and do not get worn out like regular paper labels. There are even iron-on labels for clothes and fabric items. You can read my review from two years ago of three types of labels here.

Because I love these products so much, the kind folks at Sticker Kid proposed I try out some of their new products. I customized one of their value packs with various types of stickers with my son, letting him choose the colors, images and text that he preferred.

As before, our order arrived just a couple of days later! Such fast processing and shipping!

We’ve been using these stickers all summer long, and both the kids are I are so pleased with them! These labels are waterproof and sand-resistant, so they’re perfect for labelling toys and other things we bring to the pool and beach.

My daughter went away on her own for a 5-night summer camp in early June, so I made sure to label every single thing she brought with her, from snorkelling gear to bathroom supplies to cell phone, to make sure that they would come back home with her. (And they did!)

And now that my little boy is about to start 1st grade (I can’t believe it… it seems like just yesterday that he was born!), we’ve been getting all his school supplies ready, and we’ve been labelling everything… because any parent or teacher knows perfectly well how often pens and pencils and glue sticks get lost or “borrowed”!

Sticker Kid is still offering a 10% DISCOUNT on ALL of their products from ALL of their regional websites to Cucicucicoo readers! All you need to do is customize your order on www.stickerkid.com and insert the promotional code “CUCICUCICOO” during checkout.

Now let me tell you some more about the many useful ways you can use their different products so you can make the best choice for your family’s needs!

Basico: a knitting pattern for summer sweater

July 27, 2017May 2, 2016 by Lisa Neri

Last summer I knit my very first sweater.

I know that summer is generally not the preferred season for knitting, but I had the opportunity to take a course last June by my friend Maria, a designer and expert knitter (the designer of this bandana scarf and these wrist warmers that I’ve made), so I made myself a cotton short-sleeved summer sweater.

I’ll be honest: I’d never quite understood the sense of a summer sweater. When I think “summer,” I think of hot, sticky, sweaty. When I think “sweater,” I think full coverage, wool, warm. They were two totally opposite concepts in my mind.

But now I’m discovering that a summer sweater is actually quite comfortable, at least in the spring. (I’ve yet to wear it in the summer.) It’s a perfect garment to wear on warm, sunny days spent at the beach.

I created this sweater with Maria’s pattern Basico, with numerous personalizations that Maria helped me figure out. It is a top-down cardigan with saddle shoulders that requires no sewing, and is ideal to work on with circular needles. One of the optional details is the lace work on the sleeves that you can see here.

Technically, Basico isn’t really a pattern, but a knitting recipe. A recipe is a more general indication of how to create a knitted base object based on your exact measurements, and you can personalize it in many ways. It’s a wonderful way for accomplished knitters to be creative and use different techniques to create myriad effects. Let me tell you more about what I mean.

Saturn Sweater: crochet sweater pattern review

April 2, 2016March 30, 2016 by Lisa Neri

The Saturn Sweater: a crochet sweater with colorful embroidered rings. A pattern review by www.cucicucicoo.com

It was love at first sight.

I love bright colors, but sometimes I don’t want to be dressed too brightly. That’s why the Saturn Sweater, a pattern by Linda Permann, with its charcoal grey body with colorful accents, immediately caught my eye when I was searching for a crochet sweater pattern on Ravelry.

One day when I was about eight or nine, I was helping my best friend to choose her accessories. She was wearing all black and white, so I chose black and white earrings. Her mother, on the other hand, chose some huge fluorescent ones. (This was in the 80s. Everyone wore huge fluorescent things.) She explained to me the idea of using bright accessories to break up neutral colors. And ever since then, I’ve loved dark clothing (or anything else) with a few bright pops of color.

The Saturn Sweater is not only very cool-looking, but also really easy and relatively quick to work up. Let me tell you all about it.

Perfectly Imperfect: a fabric doll pattern review

September 8, 2020February 16, 2016 by Lisa Neri

The Perfectly Imperfect Play Doll: a fabric doll pattern review by www.cucicucicoo.com

Finally I’m ready to show off my Perfectly Imperfect cloth dolls. I’d been working on these dolls and posting in-progress pictures on Instagram for months. My original plan was to make a bunch for Christmas presents and the kids’ various charity Christmas markets and giveaways.

My original plan failed and I only managed to get this one doll out of the 11 I started ready in time for Christmas.

I made these little guys from a pattern by Allison from Sweater Doll called the Perfectly Imperfect Play Doll, which is currently available in the Sweater Doll Etsy shop or in Tickle the Imagination, Issue 21. I love Allison’s work (have you seen her Glovosaur tutorial which she graciously shared with Cucicucicoo readers a few months ago?) and her whimsical style, and I was immediately drawn to this cloth doll pattern when I saw it. Let me tell you a little bit why.

Tepore knit wrist warmers

January 24, 2016January 18, 2016 by Lisa Neri

My friend Maria of Maria Modeo Handmade in Italy is an amazing knitter, designer and teacher. She’s helped me numerous times with my knitting issues and is incredibly knowledgeable about all things yarn-related. I already posted last year about her bandana-style neckwarmer pattern, and will post in the springtime about a summer sweater I sewed from a course of hers. The first course of hers I took, however, was for the Tepore wrist warmer pattern. (update: which is now available also in English!)

While most wrist warmers feature a little tube for the thumb, the Tepore pattern has a simple thumb opening, which is really easy and therefore ideal for beginner knitters like myself.

Birkin Flares jeans pattern by Baste + Gather

December 14, 2015 by Lisa Neri

Sewing your own clothing is always amazing, but there are a few garments that many home sewists are afraid of attempting. Like bathing suits (which I hope to do soon with this pattern by Jalie that I bought this past summer). And bras (I’d love to learn with the Sewing Bras: Construction & Fit course* on Craftsy). And jeans.

But now I am thrilled to say that I can cross sewing jeans off my list because I had the pleasure to participate in the testing of the Birkin Flares jeans pattern by Baste + Gather, and have sewn my own gorgeous and comfortable jeans!

I mean, look at those– they’re real jeans! They don’t look homemade because of the attention to all those little details that make jeans… jeans!

Skip Skirt #22101: Girl Skirt Pattern

November 28, 2015 by Lisa Neri

The Skip Skirt for girls, pattern#22101 by Sew By Pattern Pieces: 10 sizes, 7 skirt variations, 3 leggings lengths, with the possibility to attach the leggings to the skirt. A sewing pattern review by www.cucicucicoo.com

I recently tested the Skip Skirt pattern for girls by Sew By Pattern Pieces. I was drawn to the adorable knee-length skirts in seven different styles, with matching leggings. My daughter would live in leggings if she could, and she also adores this style of skirt, so I knew that I wanted to sew some for her.

Of the 7 views, I sewed two of them, Views E and G.

There is a Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale on this pattern, so scroll down to the bottom if you’re interested! But first let me tell you a bit more about these adorable skirt/leggings sets!

About the pattern

Free sewing course

Free sewing challenge

Sew Cucicucicoo Patterns