Notions Of Fabric

My Myosotis toile was the practice for this garment! If you have seen this blog before (hi again!), then you will recognise this fabric. When ordering the fabric for my Kelly Anorak, I fell in love with the Liberty print Botanist's Diary, which was the perfect match for my outer fabric. And when ordering it, I may have *accidentally* put 5m in my cart, which was a crazy expense and wayyy more fabric than I knew I'd need - but then it came in handy! I had it in my mind to also make a dress using this fabric with what was leftover. I will, however be avoiding wearing them together as that would actually be too much! As soon as I made my first Myosotis (in black and white check cotton), I knew I would be making more. I had plans in my head about 3 others, one of which is made (this one), one which is cut out (in petrol blue double gauze), and another which currently only exists in my head (in broderie anglaise). I briefly contemplated using the other colourway of Botanists Diary (...

This fabric has been long lingering in my stash - I bought it years and years and years ago (I think I was still living in Canberra at that point, which makes it about 7 years ago?!) from Spotlight. I was drawn to the blue and white aethestic that reminded me of Delft pottery with the lovely colours and patterns, and the lightness of the lawn. However, the problem was that as it is on a white base, it was a little bit too see through for me to use at that point. So into the stash it went for a while - a long while! When I decided to try wrap dresses, there were 2 patterns I had in mind. The first was the True Bias Calvin, which is lovely but a bit of a departure of my usual style and which I have already made a top and dress with. The other was much closer to my style, but still a wrap - the By Hand London Hannah dress. I made a size 12 with no adjustments, using the regular sleeve for the toile. The fit is quite lovely - I feel like I may be between sizes and could maybe go down one, ...

Yes, it's another Ruby dress! I was browsing Minerva Fabrics for other things a while back, when I spotted this wool blend fabric. And I love a wintery plaid! When Minerva then emailed me to say that it was only available in 2 separate lengths, no problem! It was easy to fit the skirt pieces on one length and the bodice on the other. I went with my usual size (M with a dropped bust dart), but used a lining. I personally really don't like a facing so I cut 2 bodices and line it, hand sewing it to the skirt to also enclose the waist seam. For this, making the entire bodice out of wool seemed, well, inadvisable, so I lined it with some of the black sandwashed silk left in my stash. It is a bit easier to sew than some of my other liing facrics and I like the feel of it. The other thing I bought to make this project was some bias binding. I decided that for the wool it needed a bit of nice bias, so I bought some black satin bias binding to go around the hem. Every time I make a Ruby...

This garment is definitely the fastest turnaround, from fabric ordering to having a finished garment. It was less than a week! I had been seen the email for one of the Guthrie and Ghani kits, to make the Named Patterns Lahja dressing gown. I had dismissed it at first, thinking I wouldn't wear a dressing gown, but being at home more meant I wasn't rolling out of bed and straight into the shower every day and I actually would wear one in the mornings. So I had a look at patterns, then decided that the Lahja was the right pattern. But by then the kit had almost sold out (plus I did some maths and realised that buying the fabric and pattern separately were cheaper!), so I went onto the Guthrie and Ghani website itself and bought the same fabric through them directly. I picked the sage green in the waffle cotton for my dressing gown - I had thought about navy blue, but consciously made the choice to NOT add more dark blue to my wardrobe. The fabric arrived in just a few days, I had ...