Hi there sew-me-sunshiners!
So I have to admit that as my sewing skills have increased so has my preference to sew with drapey luxurious fabrics, but, time and time again Sew Me Sunshine's cottons just knock me down. The colours, the prints, the weight, all of it is perfect! And this Strawberry fields cotton is no exception. Now I feel there is a slight 'thing' in the sewing world that quilting weight cottons aren't fab for sewing highly professional looking garments (but I could be completely wrong here). But where's the with fun with sticking to the rules?
I set myself the task to take 2m of this amazing cotton, gifted from the lovely Harriet to me, and turn it into something that I can wear time and time again as a fashion-loving grownup (well, as grownup as a recent graduate still living at home can be). I scoured through my patterns and realised that I had a slight problem, I desperately wanted to make a dress but as my loving boyfriend pointed out, my 5ft stature plus this darling print would make me look 12. So I changed my approach, I thought, what pattern would make my woman-ly features standout? And then it hit me - the By Hand London Flora Dress hacked into a top!
So I got working, and I quickly realised that I wanted to add a hint of another era to this top and decided to opt out of the invisible zip and opt in with some big ol' self covered buttons. So after a bit of hard work and head scratching all came together like a dream and in no time at all I was prancing around my sewing room wearing this top.
If you're interested in switching out a zip for buttons then here where the steps I did:
- Sew the lining together as normal
- Once turned inside out you can then kinda half-turn it back out so that the right sides of the back edges are facing. One one side make sure to sandwich in your rouleau loops.
- Pin then sew with SA
- Turn right side out, you should end up with one plain side and one side with loops sticking out.
- Sew buttons to plain side.
I am completely in love with this fabric and I am so happy with how well it matched my pattern that I chose - I can definitely see me wearing this throughout summer with jeans and a pair of pumps.
I honestly can't rave about this fabric enough - I think it lends it's self beautifully for this style of top, doesn't look at all 'homemade' and is most importantly a bit of FUN! My advice is; if you see a lovely cotton from Harriet then snap it up quick, or I might get it myself!
Anyway, that's all for now,
Maddie a.k.a Thimblebee
Iove the buttons on the back
This is lovely Maddie – I’m so in love with all of your makes and those buttons are just gorgeous!