make something

I really wanted to try a project out with Anna Maria Horner’s new cotton voile. When you feel it, you can hardly believe how silky smooth it is. Voile is a very lightweight fabric that is slightly sheer and has great drape. I had never sewn with it before, so I was unsure of how tricky it would be to handle.

I chose to use a tried and loved pattern from Stylish Dress Book. Style “B”, is a favourite. I’ve seen it made up in various different fabrics and on different people and the result is always really cute.

I’d like to make a note here about drafting out this pattern, that I didn’t mention in the post about my first style “B” top in nani IRO. When tracing out the pattern pieces for the sleeve you’ll notice that the two sleeve pieces (top of the sleeve & gathered bottom of the sleeve) are printed beside each other on the pattern sheet. When you trace the bottom of the sleeve, you may notice that it is the same width as the top of the sleeve. In order to create the gathering and fullness in the bottom sleeve piece, you need to split that pattern piece down the centre and spread it apart by 10cm. This is something that you can easily miss, because the only notation for this is found on the huge pattern sheet and is well, in Japanese.

Sewing with the voile was no problem. Even making bias trim was easy to manage. For any pattern that has a ‘flowy’ style, this fabric would look amazing the way it falls and drapes. This is why it is a great fabric to use for many of the Japanese Dress Book patterns, as it can make that extra fullness of some of the styles look more elegant. For sure, the best part is how it feels. Wearing this fabric will just put you in a blissful mood.

This particular print is called, ‘Colouring Garden‘ and the colour is ‘Berry’. I really appreciate how Anna Maria Horner has taken prints from her ‘Good Folks’ collection and recoloured and reprinted them in flannel and now voile. It’s exciting to have new fabrications to choose from.

p.s. I just ordered a copy of Stylish Dress Book 3!!! from Pomadour on etsy. Thank you Marilou for the special alert!