A Busy Week, Paper Flowers and a Winner

This week promises to be a busy one for my blog.  I’m starting the week with some spring decorating and picking the winner of my Amy Butler giveaway.   Along with my usual garment post I am also planning a new tutorial for later in the week, something that will appeal to everyone whether you like to quilt, machine embroider, or any other number of crafty ventures.  Then on Friday I will wind up the week by participating in a blog tour showcasing a newly released sewing book, hot off the presses.   My blog is one of five that will be participating in this tour, sponsored by Clotilde.  Please make sure you check back regularly this week for all of the items I have planned.

For today I’ll start out with the winner of the Amy Butler sewing kit giveaway.  Congratulations to Tara who left me a comment late last night.  I used Random.org to generate the winner.  There were 14 comments but one person asked not to be included so out of the 13 eligible entries, the computer picked #13.  Tara, I hope you enjoy your new goodies, and I would love to see what you do with them. 

 

Spring officially arrived yesterday and I was motivated to change out some décor in my dining room.  For the winter holidays I love to put out a set of paper magnolias that my mother-in-law gave me years ago.  The supple paper reminds me of aged leather, and each year they darken just a bit into a warm, glowing champagne color.  I was long overdue to pack them away.  In their place I’ve added some paper blooms I recently made myself.  Clover has a clever new product called Flower Frills, templates that allows you to quickly make fabric and paper flowers in four sizes.  You simply fold your fabric or paper using the heavy weight paper template, cut and string together to make your flowers.  I used some handmade scrapbooking paper I had on hand and made seven different flowers.  These went together quickly and were very fun to make.  For each of my flowers I used about 8 petals – the weight of the paper allowed for a very full flower (the instructions suggest using 15-20 petals for fabric flowers).  One note:  both sides of the material used are visible in the finished flower so choose your fabric accordingly.  A very interesting affect might be achieved with double-sided scrapbook paper.

I’m currently displaying these on the sideboard in my dining room.  I placed the largest blooms inside two oversized brandy snifters and placed the remaining flowers on individual ceramic spoons by CB2.

I can imagine so many uses of these flowers in both fabric and paper.  You just might be seeing a lot of these on my blog in weeks to come.

Welcome spring!

Maharajah Jacket by Hot Patterns

This Hot Patterns little number is a great example of how you can love how a garment turns out but not love wearing it. 

The Maharajah Jacket by Hot Patterns was one of the earlier pattern releases for this company (NB:  some of their earlier patterns are now available in their new Etsy shop).  From their pattern description:  “A modern Jacket shape with an exotic vibe, this is designed for firm fabrics like cotton or silk jacquard, brocade or wool. Snug-fit lined Jacket has Empire waist seam, asymmetric loop & button front fastening, bust darts and slim bracelet length sleeves. Cuffs and wide, shaped neckline feature decorative topstitching. Jacket has lined patch pockets with vertical keyhole opening.”

I loved the look of this fashion-forward garment and made up my first version in charcoal gray wool flannel lined with hot pink bemburg rayon and topstitched with hot pink thread (including self-fabric covered buttons, topstitched in a circular pattern).  I took meticulous care in making this jacket despite some drafting errors in the pattern itself and bare-boned instructions (if you are interested in sewing this jacket please see my full/lengthy review on PatternReview.com).  I really loved how it looked on my mannequin but I didn’t find it flattering on my body.

For my second attempt I took the commercial pattern and I redrafted it in Pattern Master Boutique which drafts patterns to my own unique measurements.  I constructed this version from a lightweight denim and used a rayon challis bandana print for the contrast (which I block fused with interfacing to make it more stable).   I left this version unlined and topstitched with red thread.  I solved several of the drafting issues I encountered the first time around.  I like this version much better and find it more flattering as it fits closer to my body which is how I like to wear my clothes.  I still don't find it very comfortable so it doesn't get as much wear as I would like.  I guess I'll put these in the "practice makes perfect" category and chalk them up as a sewing lesson.

Amy Butler Giveaway

Look what I found!  This is a really lovely little sewing project kit from Amy Butler that includes all sorts of inspiration and supplies for creating something wonderful.  This little box had me at hello.   Reminiscent of a bento box, each compartment holds a little treasure:  15 project cards with lovely photos and instructions, illustrated instruction booklet, patterns, thread and two of Amy’s signature fabrics for creating one of the projects.  All very stylish and fresh.

And I have one of these lovelies to share with a reader.  Simply leave a comment on this post by 6 a.m. EDT on Monday, March 21^st to be eligible to win.  I will randomly draw a winner at that time.  Good luck!

Edgy Jackets

I’m featuring two jackets today, since they were created as a two-part project, which were inspired by Linda Lee’s article ”Edgy Jackets” in Threads magazine #119, page 56.  Linda’s beautiful black and white houndstooth version with lime green lining is just stunning.  The layers of fabric are quilted together and the edges are left unfinished making for quick construction.

I created the pink jacket first from a loosely woven novelty suiting and a vintage china silk fabric.  I drafted the pattern using Pattern Master Boutique software and followed the instructions in the article to complete the jacket.  This jacket turned out to be a fun, casual jacket to wear.  I even left the printed selvages of the silk for all to see.

As much as I enjoyed making and wearing this jacket I felt that it was a little more deconstructed than I like.  So, for the blue tweed version, I covered some of the jacket’s raw edges with strips of navy ultrasuede, specifically along the waist seam and along the front and neck openings.  I left raw edges at the bottom and sleeve hems.  I had originally planned another ¾-length sleeve for this jacket but didn’t like the look once it was completed.  To solve this dilemma I cut the sleeve in two pieces, fringed both ends and sewed them back together, adding another raw-edged tier at the wrist.  The blue flower pin was created specifically to wear with this jacket.

I love wearing both of these jackets as they are so comfortable.  The soft tailoring involved in their construction makes them feel like sweaters rather than jackets.  I urge you to try Linda’s technique for yourself.

Dyeing some silk

With today’s post I hope to illustrate a little something about color and fabric dyeing.  I’ve been playing around with fabric dyes this week in preparation for dyeing a large piece of fabric as the backing of a banner for my church (which I will share in a future post).  Whenever I have some dye left over, especially if it is in the green color family, I like to dye some silk pieces to use for the leaves in some of my flower creations.  The following two pictures illustrate the fact that dyeing silk fabrics with fiber reactive dyes can yield some pretty surprising and unpredictable results.

In this picture all of the fabrics were dyed with the same two dyes, one blue and one yellow, mixed at varying proportions.  All of the silk fabrics were dyed in the same container at the same time.  I was especially surprised to see how different the chiffon turned out.  The velvet, which I’ve labeled as silk, is actually a silk ground with a rayon pile.  You can see the selvedge edge of the fabric where the silk is exposed – it is almost the same color as the chiffon.  The rayon pile soaked up the rich color from the dye (fiber reactive dyes were developed, after all, to dye cotton and rayon).  The cottons were dyed with a more dilute solution of the same dye in a separate container. 

The dye mixture I started with looked much more blue than the silk fabrics turned out.  Silk fibers are notorious for unpredictable results, especially with blue dyes.  When you mix blue with another primary color to make a secondary color, my experience tells me that the resulting color of the silk will be a secondary color leaning more toward the primary other than blue.  For instance, if you mix red and blue to make purple, you will end up with a more reddish-purple, the silk responding more to the red than to the blue.  The same was true for this green (a more yellowish-green was achieved).

These next fabrics were dyed with a mixture of the same yellow from above but a different blue.  I used far less yellow this time, resulting in a more blue-toned green.  Again, all of the silks were dyed together in the same bag and the cottons were dyed with two different dilute versions of the same dye in their own containers.

I like experimenting with dyes and fabrics to see the results.  Luckily, the projects I use these fabrics in do not require a reproducible color or even very predictable results (after all, nature is full of variation).  But taking the time to learn about how different fibers react to the different dyes helps me know where to start.  I encourage you to try it yourself.