Firstly, I was absolutely flabbergasted when Sew Me Sunshine asked me, yes me to write a blog for them using fabric from their collection. It's no secret that Sew Me Sunshine is one of my favourite online shops and yes, most shopped at!
So when I narrowed it down to this deadstock designer viscose satin I had a vague idea of what I wanted to make with it. But that changed when I received the viscose satin as originally I wanted to make the caladium jumpsuit by caramiya Maui but all I could imagine was a hungry bum with this fabric being so light.
Freet not as I did have a very quick rethink. I'm super chuffed with the result even though I was almost pulling my hair out as this sew was ultra slow because I was so worried about the fabric showing stress lines at the buttonholes.
My backup plan was the Cocowawa Honeycomb Dress. The Honeycomb was one of the first few testers that I had ever done. I'm thankful to Ana for giving me a great experience in the testing period. Oh yes, the Honeycomb was the first time I had ever done a burrito and snaps. I learnt so much from that garment and I knew I have wanted to revisit the pattern but I've always seemed to jump on to the next new hot pattern!
However, the Honeycomb Dress is aimed at beginners; make sure your fabric choice is matched to that because using viscose satin is no easy make, even for an experienced sewist like me. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, right?
Viscose Satin is a fairly new fabric for me to work with but rather than bowing at the challenge and opting out I put my head down and got on with it. Cutting the fabric out had its challenges as I used all the weights I could get my hands to stop this fabric from shifting.
Next came overlocking. I know viscose has a tendency to fray like nobody's business and this is how I normally finish the insides of garments. It may seem lazy to some but this works for me and it's fine as I'm wearing the garments.
Right, the actual sewing - woohoo! My sewing machine handled this beautifully. I made sure I had a fresh microtex needle - which I highly recommend for sewing viscose of any kind. A walking foot is also said to be really good as it helps both layers be feed through the feed dogs evenly but I've not yet tried my walking foot with any of my makes to date.
When it came to the burrito method on the yoke, I had to pause for a moment. There's something about the whole thing that makes my brain go all spaghetti-like, even though this is my fourth or fifth burrito to date. Fortunately, Ana has a youtube channel where she talks you right through the honeycomb. I must have spent about 30 mins going over the burrito method until it clicked, for this make!
Once I had got the burrito method, the rest of the make was fairly straightforward. I knew with this fabric, I just had to use some of my pigeon wishes buttons that I've been collecting. I used the botanical shirting buttons, which just compliments the pink in the fabric beautifully. Now, with most buttonholes I do use fray check, It's great stuff and prolongs your garments' life.
I do like animal print and this is the next level for me. The pink in this fabric has just upped the game and I feel I can get away with wearing trainers for this although if I can find the same shade of pink in small heels or wedges, I'll be hitting that "BUY" button so fast!
It's definitely been a challenge but for me, it's been good. I knew this fabric had a bit of wildness with sass to it and that it does!
*Emma was provided the fabric of her choice and pattern free of charge for her blog post & she was provided with a £50 voucher as payment for her time*
It's definitely been a challenge but for me, it's been good. I knew this fabric had a bit of wildness with sass to it and that it does!
*Emma was provided the fabric of her choice and pattern free of charge for her blog post & she was provided with a £50 voucher as payment for her time*
You can shop all of our deadstock fabric here.
What a gorgeous make – I love your choices, they just look so made for each other and it all looks so pretty. Inspired :)