"Practice" Fabric

So, I purchased this fabric about 2 weeks ago when Fabric Depot was having a 40% off all fabrics sale. Usually when I purchase fabric, I don't have a specific project in mind. However, that is not the case with this particular purchase. After purchasing an amazing fabric at Mill End the week before (which will be the subject of another post), I was inspired to make a halter dress. Now, normally I am not a fan of wearing a halter anything. You see, I am...ample-chested. Halters really work best on smaller women (think A or B cup), because the deep V is not quite as scandalous on them, and the pressure on the back of the neck is less. When purchasing a halter top or dress in a store, there often isn't enough room for bigger than size C breasts, which makes the item sit funny,a nd it's just all sorts of bad. Trust me on this one. But! Halters can look sooooo cute if fitted properly. Custom sewing to the rescue!

Anyways, so I had this fabric, and a pattern that I wanted to try. But I knew that I was going to want to make alterations to the pattern, and I didn't want to try those alterations out on the final (amazing) fabric. Which means that I had to purchase a practice fabric. Now, if I had been smart, I would have just looked through my fabric stash and found something that would look cute if it worked out, but that I would be devastated if the dress turned out to be all wrong. However, at that point my Stash was in such a state of disarray, that I decided to take advantage of a good clearance section instead.

This fabric is a lightweight cotton, 45 inches wide, and I purchased the last of the bolt, which I believe was about 4 and 1/4 yards. It was 50% of of about $10.50, so you do the math. I chose it with this specific project in mind as a fabric that I like enough to wear a dress made out of it if the mock up turns out well, but that I am not too emotionally attached to the fabric if it has to become spare scraps instead.

Lesson of the week: Sometimes purchasing one fabric will necessitate the purchase of another. Fabric begets fabric. Kind of like bunnies.

Velvet Fantasy

So, apparently Easter Triduum and a birthday means that I don't post for a full week. Whoops! Today's fabric is from a fitted jacket that was given to me by a friend's mom about 3 years ago. I adore the jacket, but the fabric plus the style makes it a bit fancy for most of my daily activities. I often wear it interviews and the like. I included so many photos this time because I think it is necessary to try to fully capture the impressiveness of this fabric over the internet. The first shot gives you a good idea of the scale of the design of the fabric. the coin in the corner is a quarter. The fabric is a 70% acetate/30% nylon burn-out velvet in rich deep jewel tones. It has a variegated abstract geometric design that has about a foot between repeats. One of my favorite things about this fabric is its texture. Not only is a velvet (which means Soft!), but the gold lines are actually a permanent glitter glue that rests on top of the velvety pile (which creates fun hard bumps, much like braille). If you look at the second and third pictures, you will notice two subtle images of flowers amongst the colors. Those are scattered liberally throughout the fabric, and are caused by the nap in the pile being reversed. This makes it a not-quite-true-burn-out-velvet, but I imagine that the method used to create this effect would be much the same (what exactly that method is, I am not sure. Any audience information would be much appreciated). In other terms, the flower images are created because the velvet has been shaped so that the light hits it differently in different parts. The fourth image is a bit blurry, but it shows almost the entirety of the the pattern in the fabric before it repeats.

Abstract Quadrangles!

Ok, so those who know me in person know that I have a...thing...for fabric. An I-do-so-love-it, an I-adore-the-fun-colors-and-feel-and-movement-and-daydreaming-
about-what-I-can-make-with-it sort of thing for fabric. Now, this is not uncommon among those who like to sew, or like fashion, or are heavily kinetic. But I do SO love fabric, and I thought it would be a great topic for a blog. So here goes!

This is a fabric that I bought back in Fall at Bolt Fabric Boutique in Portland. It was in their remnants sections for $5.67 a yard, and I believe I was able to purchase 2 yards of it. I was drawn to it by its use of slightly abstracted shapes and the layering of the colored squares and rectangles. I also happen to like pink and purple when they are together is such a way that is not TOO early nineties. The coin in the picture is a quarter, placed their to give you some concept of scale. Most of the inspiration for the projects that I make comes from the fabric. I paired this with some solid black and purple fabric to make some fun patchwork purses, and some solid black and bright pink fabric for similar projects. Both colorways seemed to work really well. I also paired it with some lighter pink to less success.