cotton voile « make something

Before I left for The Makerie, I spent almost an entire week sewing up a storm of new things to bring and wear on our trip. The Schoolhouse Tunic by Sew Liberated was one of the patterns I’ve been meaning to test out for a little while now and I thought it would be great for traveling.

I chose to make it using one of the cotton voiles from Greenfield Hill by Denyse Schmidt. It’s really graphic and a much bolder print that you would normally see me wear, but I really love it. The great thing about voile is that it is a wonderful fabric to use in clothing because it has such a soft, flowing drape. It’s also very nice to sew with.

The pattern was very easy to sew, has some great details and lots of room for variation. They suggest two different lengths (tunic or shirt) and I chose the longer tunic length for my first version. I was in a hurry and didn’t add side seam pockets, but I’ll definitely do that next time. I got to see three other interpretations of the Schoolhouse Tunic at The Makerie, as every day, one of the Fancy Tiger girls was wearing her own version. (You can see Emily’s soft plaid version on the far left) It gave me so many ideas on different fabrics and ways to style the pattern.

I’m trying to decide on fabric for my second Schoolhouse Tunic. Perhaps some Liberty of London?

Keep an eye out for this as a new class at the workroom this summer. Everyone needs to make one of these tunics!

Stylish Dress Book (available at the workroom)
Top ‘B’ : Anna Maria Horner voile ‘Berry Colouring Garden’

I really wanted to try a project out with Anna Maria Horner’s new cotton voile. When you feel it, you can hardly believe how silky smooth it is. Voile is a very lightweight fabric that is slightly sheer and has great drape. I had never sewn with it before, so I was unsure of how tricky it would be to handle.

I chose to use a tried and loved pattern from Stylish Dress Book. Style “B”, is a favourite. I’ve seen it made up in various different fabrics and on different people and the result is always really cute.

I’d like to make a note here about drafting out this pattern, that I didn’t mention in the post about my first style “B” top in nani IRO. When tracing out the pattern pieces for the sleeve you’ll notice that the two sleeve pieces (top of the sleeve & gathered bottom of the sleeve) are printed beside each other on the pattern sheet. When you trace the bottom of the sleeve, you may notice that it is the same width as the top of the sleeve. In order to create the gathering and fullness in the bottom sleeve piece, you need to split that pattern piece down the centre and spread it apart by 10cm. This is something that you can easily miss, because the only notation for this is found on the huge pattern sheet and is well, in Japanese.

Sewing with the voile was no problem. Even making bias trim was easy to manage. For any pattern that has a ‘flowy’ style, this fabric would look amazing the way it falls and drapes. This is why it is a great fabric to use for many of the Japanese Dress Book patterns, as it can make that extra fullness of some of the styles look more elegant. For sure, the best part is how it feels. Wearing this fabric will just put you in a blissful mood.

This particular print is called, ‘Colouring Garden‘ and the colour is ‘Berry’. I really appreciate how Anna Maria Horner has taken prints from her ‘Good Folks’ collection and recoloured and reprinted them in flannel and now voile. It’s exciting to have new fabrications to choose from.

Tag Archive for 'cotton voile'

SCHOOLHOUSE TUNIC

STYLISH DRESS BOOK : "B" IN VOILE

META

CATEGORIES