Back in January I wrote about the new seasons Liberty Art Fabrics – always an eagerly anticipated event for many fabric lovers. I mentioned that two of my favourite designs from the collection were on my shortlist of fabrics for a new lightweight summer dressing gown. Well, I finally took the plunge and bought a length a few weeks ago, and as you can see the delicate, rather Japanese-looking Ombrellino print was my winner. Just in time, too, I think as this print in this particular colourway was sold out online, and when I finally visited the store there was only just enough left on the roll.
I thought I’d document this sewing project – my first in many years, I have to admit. I was definitely spurred on and very inspired by The Great British Sewing Bee, like many others I’m sure. You can see above my trusty old Burda pattern that is definitely showing signs of age. But it still does the job, and luckily our dining table is nice and long and makes an excellent cutting table (I just need to be careful with those pins, though!)
Above: All ready to start cutting out
As it’s been so long since I’ve done any dressmaking, I can’t tell you how many times I checked and rechecked everything before I started cutting. Using Liberty print fabric is a real treat and a bit of an extravagance, as 3.5 metres for a full length robe isn’t exactly cheap. Stitching can (almost) always be unpicked, but getting it wrong at the cutting out stage is irreversible and would be quite a drama. I kept the maxim ‘measure twice, cut once’ firmly in my head, although it was probably more like ‘measure 16 times and double and triple check too’ before I finally plucked up the courage and plunged the scissors into the pristine length of fabric.
There’s quite a nice little heap of material left over, but mostly in long strips – not exactly much use for making anything very big. But I do think the scrap material may come in handy for bookbinding projects. The evening course in Beginners Bookbinding that I’m doing at City Lit has given me lots of ideas, and there are also some small notebook blocks that I’ve had for a while that would look great covered in this fabric. I’ll be asking my teacher (the lovely, infinitely patient Nesta) tonight if I need to line it before using it for book covers; being Tana Lawn it’s very fine, and probably needs some extra strengthening, I would guess.
Well, that’s all I’ve had time for so far; tune in for Part 2 next week and hopefully the finished robe. See you then!
Comments are closed.