After I finished making Dress ‘W’ with the Pocho nani IRO, I looked at my leftover fabric and thought I could squeeze out a simple tank top. I remembered that there was a tank dress in the Colourful Fabric Dress Book. I just traced out the two top pieces for the dress.

I don’t know why I don’t make more tank tops! It is the perfect thing to do with leftover fabric. I think you’re going to see a lot more of them from me. I wanted to try a couple finishing details with this. I made facing pieces for the armholes, rather than do bias binding. Sometimes I just prefer a more elegant invisible finish. I also tried doing a silk bias binding on the neckline, with the raw edges facing out. I have a box full of beautiful shades of vintage silk charmeuse. A bit fancy for everyday, but so incredibly beautiful. I’ve been wanting to use them, so this is a good start. It’s a simple way to add a little bling to a basic piece.

I also made a matching silk tank top to wear underneath. I wanted this to also have raw edges, so I sewed the seams on the outside to emphasize this. I need to perfect this pattern a bit more before I show it to you, but it’s a good start for a layering piece.

The day I took these photos it was WAY too hot to be wearing jeans. Even today, the first day of September is going to be a scorcher. I’m a bit confused about what I should make next – a sleeveless summery dress or something more autumn appropriate.

This nani IRO double gauze fabric was one of those bolts that arrived at the shop one morning and by the time the shop closed that night, it was all gone. I’ve ordered more, of course. These huge polka dots are just too cute!

I envisioned a dress made from this fabric with a little gathered sleeve, so I went back and pulled out my pattern for Dress ‘W’ from Stylish Dress book 3. Instead of cutting out a yoke, I just put the two front pattern pieces together and cut a single front bodice piece. The rest of the dress is pretty simple. For the pockets, I used a lovely tiny stars prints. I think it goes perfectly.

One detail that I’m really happy with is that if you look at the sleeves, the polka dot colours match on each side. Love!

This is the first dress that I’ve made of the double gauze, I’ve mostly made tops. The one thing I’ve noticed is that with the fabric being so soft, if I have anything heavy in my pocket (ie. my iPhone) then the side seams pulls down a bit. Nothing major, just something I’ll keep in mind for the future.

I had cut two metres of this fabric and after making the dress, there was a little bit left. I didn’t want any of it to go unused, so I was able to make something else with the leftovers. I’ll share that project with you tomorrow!

Look at how awesome all the Amish Bars Quilts turned out! Everyone in the class got to the point where they had attached their binding to the front and were starting to work on hand stitching it to the back side. Yay! What a fun way to spend the week.

I’ll be finishing up my binding, adding a hand embroidered label and maybe doing a tiny bit more quilting before posting a final photo of my quilt.

We made lots of progress on Day 3 with our Amish Bars. We spent the day happily machine quilting. The excitement of the day was watching a tv film crew shooting a chase scene (stunt doubles included) right out front of the workroom, over and over again. For about 5 hours.

All the Amish Bars quilt tops were finished in the early part of day two. How wonderful to make such a simple quilt top. We spent the rest of the class working together to layer and baste each of the seven quilts. The great thing about group basting is that with all that practice, you get really good at the process.

With all our quilts ready to go, we attached walking feet to the sewing machines and started to machine quilt. Many of us got some preliminary ’stitch in the ditch’ quilting done. Today we’ll look at doing some additional quilting and cut out our binding fabric. I think this quilt will actually be finished tomorrow!

ALSO – the new Liberty of London fabric arrived!

This week is the Amish Bars Quilt day camp. Since I get to be a student in this day camp, I thought I’d document each day.

I changed up the fabric selections that I had posted a few weeks ago. I finally decided who the quilt was for and that helped to finalize it. Some friends recently had their second baby boy down in Austin, Texas. I’ve chosen to make them this quilt in an aqua blue/brown/cream palette.

We put together our quilt tops today. I can’t wait to show you all the wonderful fabric choices that everyone made. Tomorrow we’ll be getting the quilt back ready and basting the top, batting and backing fabric together. The goal is completed quilts for Friday!

This Built by Wendy dress pattern (Simplicity 3825) was lent to me ages ago by Angelune. I had been wanting to make it with the little sleeve ties and was waiting to find the perfect fabric for it. A few weeks ago Karin dropped by the shop with the pattern and bought this green echino fabric for it. I realized I had both that pattern and the green echino fabric at home already. I decided to be a bit of a copy cat. Thanks for the inspiration, Karin!

This echino print is so wonderful, the pattern has such a large repeat which is oriented along the crosswise grain, rather than the usual straight grain. Cutting the pattern along the the crosswise grain means that you usually need a bit less fabric for clothing. Though the print comes in a couple other colours, I went for the bright green to match my green Repetto shoes. I’ve seen this fabric made up into an Aline skirt by Kathleen and it’s awesome.

Since the echino fabric is a heavier cotton/linen blend, I went with doing a simple short sleeve rather than those cute ties. The stiff drape just wasn’t right for it. It’s been a while since I’ve made a dress with an invisible zipper. All my Japanese Dress Book frocks slip right over my head! Thankfully, I actually enjoy putting zippers in. Maybe that’s weird, but it’s so satisfying.

I had cut out the neck yoke, but when I sewed it on, I felt a bit claustrophobic in the dress. I decided to do bias trim around the gathered neckline instead. I’m much happier with it.

For my pockets, I used the new techniques that I learned in the Pocket Clinic class. I chose the green Filigree fabric by Anna Maria Horner which matches perfectly.

If anything, this dress makes me feel bright and cheery. Perfect for summer days, but perhaps even better when fall starts to creep in.

I designed the Handy Apron shortly after opening the workroom. At the time, I was the only one working in the shop and often found myself trying to find my one tape measure or remember where my pair of scissors was. I decided to take a crack at creating my own utility apron that could double as a gardening apron or just a generally handy apron with pockets and loops.

I’ve made a few of these and love wearing them. All the little pockets are great to stash all kinds of things you might want to have quick access to. When I saw this French botanical fabric (the writing is in French, but the fabric is Japanese), I knew I needed to make myself a gardening apron. I used contrasting fabrics for the first time, choosing a plain linen for the ties and for the tool loops. When the apron was finished, I thought it would be fun to add some texture to the natural linen. During the India Flint workshop, India talked about a technique she would often do called hapa-zome. Essentially, you hammer or smash plant material (leaves or flowers) into fabric to create an imprint. I really wanted to try this simple technique out. I snipped some leaves from the garden and set about smashing them into the linen ties. Some things worked better than others, but I was amazed at the clarity of the images this technique left behind. When reading up on other people’s experiences with hapa-zome on the internet, I found that most people would layer the plant material in between two pieces of fabric before smashing. I used a metal hammer and carefully tapped directly onto the leaves that lay on my fabric, which was laid out on top of a piece of template plastic on top of patio stones. This is an incredibly satisfying process, as you can imagine.

To set the imprints, I just used my iron to steam the fabric. I’ve also read about using salt water to set the prints. To test the fastness, I threw the apron in the washer and dryer. There was a bit fading. I think it was mostly all the smashed plant material being washed away, but I quite like the faded look. This method is not super permanent, but apparently it can be extended by pre-mordanting the fabric and also by waiting as long as possible before washing it.

One note. I used organic cotton canvas as a sew-in interfacing inside the apron. This is something I’ve been using as a substitute for interfacing in my bags and other projects. I didn’t pre-wash the canvas before using it and it shrunk a fair amount when I washed the apron. I ended up taking part of the apron apart to adjust for the shrinkage. I hadn’t run into this problem before, since I don’t usually wash my bags. I will pre-wash the cotton canvas going forward, just in case.

It’s taken me a while to tell you about this project. I made Amy Butler’s Liverpool shirtdress back in June, but needed to make some further adjustments on it and I ended up starting another project instead. You know how it is.

The fabric I chose is from B&J in New York and is a lovely cotton shirting fabric. The buttons I found in my collection from my New York days. They are absolutely perfect with this fabric! Since I worked in the garment district, I would often wander through the fabric and trim shops after work purchasing random bits and bobs. It’s so satisfying when those odd purchases make perfect sense nine year later.

I made a couple adjustments to the pattern right from the start. I adjusted the shape of the collar and made it more square. Amy’s collar was a bit too flared out for me. I also made the dress less a-lined and added side seam pockets. The pattern calls for ties that are sewn into the side seam and can be tied either in the front or the back of the dress. I decided to create the tie as a separate piece. I also made it extra long, so that it wraps around twice and gives me options with the type of knot or bow I might want to do.

Because I make so many Japanese dress book patterns these days, I sometimes forget to read the instructions when I’m doing an English pattern! I didn’t realize until I was almost done the dress that I had cut the back piece of the dress as one panel instead of two pieces. Oops! This meant that I had an extra inch in the body of the dress which actually made a big difference in the fit. I went back, removed the collar, cut the back in half and put in the french seam that was meant to be there. Depending on your print choice for this pattern you may want to omit doing the french seam and opt for cutting out the back as one piece. To do this you simply need to remove half an inch (the seam allowance) from the centre back line of the pattern piece. For plaids or ginghams or stripes, this would allow the print to flow uninterrupted across the back.

I got stuck when I was doing the cuffs. I just couldn’t seem to figure out her instructions no matter how many times I read them. I finally googled this problem and discovered several people posting about having this same issue. If you ever get stuck on a pattern, I recommend doing a search on the internet. You’ll probably discover an answer to your question. Amy has posted an addendum to the Liverpool pattern here that elaborates on how to do the cuff.

Another note on the sleeves. They are long. I did the 3/4 length sleeve and they come very close to my wrists. It would be wise to measure your arms versus the sleeve pieces to figure out the right length for you. I plan on wearing the sleeves rolled up, so I didn’t fix this.

This is also the pattern we did in our Shirtdress Day Camp. We had a really fun week, sewing, chatting and working together. Everyone’s Liverpool turned out fantastic! Here’s our class photo. We have one more day camp coming up this summer and I’m looking forward to being a student this time and spending the entire week sewing and quilting.

I’ve been thinking about my fabric choices for the upcoming Amish Bars quilt camp. It should be easier to pick, since I really only need two fabric choices, but I can’t decide. I thought it would be fun to mock up some options and see what this quilt could look like. These were done rather crudely in Photoshop, but it helps to get a visual. Sometimes with quilts it’s hard to imagine how all those fabrics will look together. I still haven’t quite settled on a combination, but luckily I have a couple more weeks to play around with it and get it just right. I love the graphic simplicity of this design so much.

Fabric selections : 1. Karyn (Blue Geo Print with Cream Text) 2. Jerisse (Black Dressmaker’s Form with Mauve Bramble & Vintage Lady Illustrations) 3. Rosalyn (Nectarine Mini Check with French General Plaid) 4. Debbie (Ash Grey Fusions with Aqua French General)