I ordered this fabric from the Beautiful Work shop on Etsy a few months ago, and I've been just drooling over it ever since. It's double-gauze which I just love for sewing garments. It seems like good quality - just like the Heather Ross fabric that was my first foray into sewing with double gauze - here and here. Check out their selection of double gauze here. They have the same hippos in purple and some cute elephants. I would love if there would be a double-gauze trend in fabric, but I'm not going to hold my breath for that.
I love everything about this fabric; the color, the cute little hippos (my husband says they remind him of Sandra Boynton), and of course the double gauze. Usually the more I love a fabric, the harder it is to decide what to sew with it. I mean, what if I really screw it up and waste that good fabric? But then again, it's not doing much good sitting on my shelves either. I think that's the lament of many a fabric hoarder afficianado.
Needless to say, I struggled to decide what to make. I really wanted to make something from one of my new books, but nothing really quite fit the fabric. I finally went back to my older (but not really that old) books and decided that shirt J from this book
would be perfect. (I've given all my books names now that I have so many. This one is called Wasa or ISBN: 978-4-529-04767-8 - if you want to get specific.)
I thought all the little details would be fun like these pintucks at the back.
There are also a couple in the front.
(Please excuse the purple marking pen that hadn't quite faded away yet. And I guess those pintucks aren't really pressed all that nicely while I'm being critical. Oh well, I'm over it.)
I also didn't want too many gathers that might obscure the hippos. And as a bonus, it could be either long OR short sleeve thus satisfying Addie's demand for "cold" shirts.
I made the tab thingies that hold up the sleeves way too long. I think maybe I was supposed to make one and cut it in half. I was way too lazy to redo those. Plus the one thing about double-gauze is that it can be kind of hard to rip stitches out without accidentally picking up one of the fabric threads. So I ended up just kind of folding them in half on the inside and stitching that. Seemed to work out okay.
I made some capri pants to match out of some brown linen from JoAnn. I used pattern V from this book:
(I haven't figured out a name for this one yet - something like "Mellow looking girl with flower and ribbon dress"? It's ISBN 978-4-529-04816-3 if that doesn't work for you.)
The pattern is definitely one to repeat. Addie is excited about having "cold" pants now. I'm avoiding the subject that shorts are actually probably the ultimate "cold" pants. (Yeah, and I'm definitely going to avoid the subject of "hot" pants.) The little "cuff" would be cute in a contrast fabric. I was thinking about just doing the contrast on the inside cuff. I put a little scrap of hippo fabric on the inside, so she'd know which part is the back. I decided to do a little hippo tab on the outside, too.
I really should try to get some Adelaide Lemonade tags one of these days.
Thanks for reading!
Like I said in my last post, we have a big software deployment at work starting tomorrow morning at 5 a.m. I think it will go fine. Really I do. If it doesn't, I don't know when I'll see my sewing machine or blog again (not because I'll get fired or anything - just because I'll be busy). Wish me luck! Send me some good vibes.
