Stylish Dress Book 2 : available at the workroom
Liberty of London : Ebs

What can I say, I love this pattern. This is version #3. Version #1 & #2 get tons of use and I was feeling like I should add another version into the rotation. The only change I made was to add side seam pockets to this version.

This Liberty of London print is called ‘Ebs’. This soft colour palette is so incredible and the print looks like it was coloured in with pencil crayon. It has been sitting in my stash for way too long. I’m pretty happy it’s now hanging on my closet and joining me on adventures like the Sewing Summit.

Last Sunday, my patchwork was basically the opposite of improv. I’ve been wanting to make some progress on my ‘Mauvey Quilt’. This is a quilt design that was generated from the V&A Patchwork Pattern Maker last year when I uploaded a photo of one of my favourite Liberty of London prints, Mauvey.

I spent a couple weeks assigning colours & fabrics to the colour key, then cutting out squares for both the square pieces and the half square triangle components. Oh yes, this is going to be a Queen-sized quilt. So, that was a heck of a lot of cutting. The final square size is 4.25″. I’m working through the quilt in 36 square increments (6 squares x 6 squares). There are 24 sections. I have now completed 2 sections. Here is the first. This is the second section.

Piecing this pattern requires a lot of attention. I have everything marked out and I am constantly referring to the pattern at every stage, multiple times. This entire quilt is a precision moment.

Though slow going, I love working on it. I’m intrigued by the pixel-y look of it. It’s going to be so fun to watch the sections come together. Luckily I’m feeling very patient with this quilt.

I had a chance to start working on my sawtooth star centres for the Star-y Log Cabin e-course I’m taking on Sunday. I couldn’t be more excited with how these blocks turned out!

I’m in love with the contrasting and bold (for me) colour palette that I’ve chosen. Plus, I’m getting to use some of my favourite fabrics. The addition of the Liberty of London Mauvey print (leftovers from this dress) for the star points really brings together all the colours. I’ve been slipping Liberty of London into my patchwork recently and there’s something about it that really shines. The prints and colours are always just so perfect and striking and lovely. (hmm… time to order more Liberty for the shop!)

As I was working away, fussy cutting those cute buildings from City Limits, I kept thinking that this is a brilliant design for a quilt! The concept is so simple and classic, but Amanda‘s unique approach and execution are what totally makes it. Amanda has been encouraging all her students to tell their own story with their patchwork and I’m really feeling a little story of my own coming together. Her weekly pdfs have been so energetic and full of great information that I can’t wait for them to arrive in my inbox each Thursday.

This week I’ll be starting to add my logs!!

Stylish Dress Book (available at the workroom)
Dress ‘S’ : Navy Metal Blend Fabric with Liberty of London ‘Mirabelle’ detail

Finally! I’ve been wanting to share this dress with you for a while. When I first made it last year, I did something silly and made the scalloped hem detail with just 2″ of Liberty of London Mirabelle as the lining. This meant when I sat down or really even just walked, you could see past the lining. I finally re-did the hem with about 10″ of lining and I honestly don’t know why I didn’t just line the entire skirt. I’m not redoing it again, but next time I would make that modification. I had been wanting to try a scalloped hem for a while and it’s really not that hard at all. I used Liesl’s tutorial to guide me through. I like how she did the scallop detail on just the back of her skirt.

This pattern is from Stylish Dress Book. What’s unusual about this pattern is that it actually has a zipper in the back! Most Japanese Dress Book dresses just slip over your head. What’s great about having a zipper is that the pattern is actually more fitted than most of the loose tunics I usually make. The main fabric of the dress is a navy metal blend fabric that I got at the Liday Baday Designer Fabric Showroom. This is the second metal blend fabric that I’ve sewn with and it’s interesting to see the different properties that metal brings to fabric. What attracts me is the shimmer, but the fabric also has more memory and hold creases quite tightly, similar to the look of linen. I’d like to try this pattern again in a softer fabric, perhaps even a Liberty of London print.

I added side seam pockets, of course. I used the same Mirabelle print for the pockets that I used on the hem detail.

Without a doubt, Stylish Dress Book has been my favourite book to sew from. Taking a look through the pages, I’m thinking that Tunic G is going to be next!

Stylish Dress Book (available at the workroom)
Dress ‘B’ : Liberty of London ‘Mauvey’

I wanted to try making Top ‘B’ from Stylish Dress Book as a dress since I loved the pattern so much. I’ve already made this pattern twice (version 1 & 2). The pattern modifications were pretty simple. I extended the pattern pieces for the front and back and added side seam pockets.

This darker version of the ‘Mauvey’ Liberty of London print seemed so perfect for this fall. I’ve been adding purple tones to my standard grey wardrobe recently. Every time I wear one of my Liberty dresses, I always want to make more. They are so easy to wear and feel really great!

Similar to Dress ‘S’, I knew that I would be adding shirring to get the dress to fit better. This time I started my lines lower, closer to my waist and did seven lines. It is amazing what a difference this simple technique makes and now the dress fits like a glove.

I have never put pockets in a Liberty dress before, so I wasn’t sure what to use. I ended up cutting into a piece of fabric that I bought in Paris. I almost feel like a Liberty dress should be lined with more Liberty. Mostly because there really isn’t anything like the weight and feel of the Tana Lawn cotton.

As soon as the weather turns cold, I get the urge to dress only in jeans and sweaters. I’m trying to resist the urge this season and make more dresses and skirts that are suitable for colder weather with tights. So far, so good.

NOTE : Please note there is a tricky part to making the gathered sleeve on this pattern when you are tracing out the pattern. See my comments here.

There’s a shipment of Liberty of London fabrics in transit to the workroom. So, of course, I am up late looking at each of these six prints and wondering just what fun things they will become.

Mauvey, Kate Ada, Kitty Grace, Ebs, Douglas Stripe and Clemmie – we’re going to have so much fun together!

I am so excited to finally be able to check off #6 on My Crafty List of Things to Do – design a skateboard! I received my blank deck back in February and looked at it everyday, pondering just what I was going to do. I had the idea to make a piece of patchwork that I might somehow wrap around the deck. I also had triangles on my mind, inspired by the fabric bunting in the workroom’s window that I just can’t seem to bear to take down.

I decided to make use of the workroom’s laser cutter to help with all the cutting. I’ve been wanting to test this out to help doing patchwork. Every single fabric triangle was laser cut and they are all the exact same size. I knew this kind of precision would be really helpful, especially since I had it in my head that I was going to hand piece the entire thing.

Before attempting to put the real thing together. I did a little test piece. I made a small triangle patchwork sample that I tested wrapping and gluing around a piece of plywood. I had purchased a bottle of Martha Stewart’s Decoupage Glue a while ago, hoping it would do the trick. It worked perfectly. To adhere the patchwork to the wood, I applied the glue to the wood and smoothed the fabric on top. I then brushed on a layer of the glue over top the fabric. The two things I learned from doing this test were 1. the wood showed through the muslin pieces more than I liked once it was glued and 2. one layer of glue on top of the fabric was enough. More than that and the fabric started looking dull and plastic-y. To compensate for the show-through on the muslin, I decided to glue a solid piece of muslin to the skateboard deck first and then glue my patchwork on top of that.

Of course all this was started about a week before I needed to submit my finished deck. Even being short on time, I was absolutely determined to sew the entire thing by hand. After doing our Hand Work class, I love having a hand sewing project on the go. Sitting in bed and sewing is so fun! There were a couple late nights, but when I finished sewing all 200+ triangles together, I was so happy with how it turned out.

When I had finished gluing the finished patchwork to the deck, I realized that the back of the deck wasn’t so pretty. I couldn’t have that, so I found a large scrap of Liberty of London ‘Wiltshire’ (from this dress), glued it over the back and then hand embroidered a little label.

The actual auction night was super fun. Tons of people came out to see all the artwork and finished decks. All the decks were so different and lots of them were really clever. Even though Andrew bid on my deck a couple times (so sweet!), by the end of the night someone else had outbid him, so it’s gone to another home. I couldn’t resist bidding on Derrick Hodgson’s deck and I actually won it! I haven’t picked it up yet, but I’m currently trying to decide where it’s going to hang.

All my photos of my work in progress and the Disposable Artshow night are here. Thanks to Freedom Fighter Skateboards and Joey for letting me take part. I’ll admit that I’m already hatching ideas for another deck for next year’s event. Why stop at just one?

365 : my ‘little stars‘ dress

365 : liberty dress + patterned tights + hunters

Three of my favourite things together.

I got lots of brilliant gift ideas from your comments yesterday. Yesterday’s winner was comment #11 from Lark. She said, “I plan to make a few sets of bias-trimmed placemats & napkins with funky fun fabrics similar to the ones on Purl Bee, maybe with hand-stitching. Also, a canning jar pincushion filled with a notions like few buttons & thread spools for my new-to-sewing daughter”

Today is Debbie‘s Crafty Wish List!

• Bernina Aurora 440 QE – because it’s wonderful! and it makes sewing effortless.
• Pattern Drafting : The Skirt (class at the workroom) – I want to take this class because I dream about it being the first step I take in my new life as a master maker of beautiful clothes.
• Liberty of London fabric – maybe just a fat quarter or two.  For a couple of sweet projects and some textile design inspiration

Since it seems to be on everybody’s list, today’s winner will win their choice of one metre of Liberty of London fabric or a fat quarter of each of the five prints we have in stock right now. Choose from ‘My Little Star‘, ‘Mirabelle‘, ‘Zain‘, ‘Little Mari‘, and ‘Fairford‘. Just leave a comment (with your email address) letting me know if you’d like the metre or the fat quarters and what you might do with it, if you won it. Contest closes at midnight tonight. I’ll announce the winner tomorrow with our final crafty wish list!