Finally, Some Fabric

Melissa and I headed over to the Bolt Liberty 25% off sale this morning. I have been waiting to purchase this particular Liberty fabric, Dotty, for a while now and was very excited that it was still available. I also bought this coordinating red and yellow crossweave cotton from Moda. These here fabrics are my choices for the Rooibos dress. The Liberty will be my contrast fabric and I am planning to make my own piping with it for the neckline and pocket trim. The fabric is in the wash now. I am spending some time this afternoon making a muslin of the dress bodice to determine the proper size to sew up. I want this dress to have a closer fit, so I think the size four may be a little too big for me.

PS I also ordered the yarn for the Heather Hoodie Vest. I had a hard time finding the Lamb's Pride Bulky in grey heather. It was out and backordered in all the local yarn stores that I checked, as well as online. I finally found it at KK Wools.

Loose Shirt

Loose Shirt
Originally uploaded by actionhero

After staying up late the last couple of nights working on this shirt project, I finally finished it this morning. I just had to sew the buttonholes and buttons on, but there were only five, so it didn't take too long. I like how the shirt turned out, but it is very loose-fitting, even though I made the smallest size. And since I took off a bunch of the length, it looks a bit boxy to me, especially with the dropped shoulders. I do like that I can easily pull it on. I think I'll still get a lot of wear out of it.

Give Me Liberty

I started a project using the Small Susanna Liberty fabric that I bought a couple of weekends ago. I swapped the ruffle-collared shirt pattern that I originally chose for this loose-fitting shirt that is the cover project from Machiko Kayaki's My Favorite Shirt book. I am making the smallest size and even that is huge. I altered the pattern by taking the width of the front in two inches and the width of the back one inch. I also took off about five inches from the length.

Some New Sewing Projects

I got some great fabric at the Bolt sale this past weekend. Amy gave me this Japanese pattern book a while back and I bookmarked this shirt and dress that I want to make. I bought the Liberty fabric, a print called Small Susanna, for the shirt and the cotton pinstripe and black linen is for the dress. But I'm not sold on the shirt pattern. I'm looking through my other patterns and books to see if something else jumps out at me. Maybe I should design something instead?

Liberty to be Targeted

I have three dresses that I've made from Liberty fabric, which is a nice lightweight cotton lawn. With the first dress, I remember being extremely apprehensive about cutting into the fabric because it was expensive and I didn't want to screw it up. However, the more I worked with Liberty, the more I realized how durable it was. I haven't found any other inexpensive cotton lawns at the fabric store, but in my opinion, nothing can match the fantastic Liberty prints. So, imagine my excitement when I read that Liberty may be set to collaborate on a collection with Target. Yay!

Cynthia Rowley Simplicity 2587

Cynthia Rowley Simplicity 2587
Originally uploaded by actionhero

I finished this dress last night. It was a really quick project and it turned out a lot better than I expected. I had made a muslin of this pattern and I was worried because there was too much ease. I thought I would have to make a dress that was two sizes smaller than I normally would make, but I ended up only going down one size and it was a perfect fit! Aside from the size issue, I didn't make any modifications to the pattern.

Simplicity 2587

I had been looking for a new sewing project to start when I remembered that I still had a Cynthia Rowley pattern that I hadn't tackled yet. I am going to make view B of the strappy dress, which is the shorter version. I found this awesome Liberty print, called Sydenham Place, at Bolt. I especially love all the colors. I'll use the dusty pink for the contrasting trim.

Over the Top Tunic & Liberty Fabric

Over the Top Tunic & Liberty Fabric
Originally uploaded by actionhero

After seeing this Over the Top tunic pattern over at Spool Sewing, I thought the sleeveless version would be great for spring and summer. I headed over to the Bolt sale this weekend and they had the pattern in stock. I snatched it up and looked over all the fabric about three or four times before I finally decided on this Liberty Caesar print, which happened to be 20% off. I only needed one and a half yards, so it was very affordable. There is actually a belt for the tie-back waistline, so that's why I also bought the horn buckle.