Cute plaid top with back tie detail

Hi, I am Lucia. I am a fabricholic.
I still buy and buy but a sewn wardrobe is beginning to materialize, yay! Here is to keeping that up.

I have been a good girl lately and have been making good progress on all those UFO's you saw in my New Year's resolutions post. Two of the dresses are already finished. Hooray! By contrast, I have made very little progress on blogging the considerable backlog of garments from last year. Ug! My bottleneck is definitely the photo-making. The indoor photos are just appallingly bad and I don't get home early enough from work to still catch the daylight outside. Which leaves only the weekends. At least until the days get longer. Maybe I'll just have to do multiple garments in each photo session...

Anyway, today I want to show you a simple top in a pretty plaid print that I made last summer.

The pattern is Burda 08-2012-122. It is a very simple top, it doesn't even have darts! The only thing that makes it special is that scarf on the neckline that ties at back.

I made mine with french seams and bias binding at the armholes and it still went together very quickly. It does take a lot of fabric because of the scarf on the bias. I pieced the scarf differently from the pattern, with a diagonal seam to save fabric. I still made the scarf as long as I could. I always do this, as I love looooong scarves. But in this case I think it was a mistake because the scarf is heavy and it pulls the facing out. I had to take a few stitches to hold the facing in.

The fabric is a polyester georgette with a satin stripe and it does not wrinkle no matter what I do to it. Perfect for work! I do love the top, and I feel all chic walking around with that scarf at my back. But I have to tell you it is only for summer. That knot at the back is somewhat uncomfortable under a jacket and even a little when leaning back on a chair. But, come summer I'll wear it as much as I can.

My review of Burda 08-2012-122 is at Pattern Review.

A new temptation: Vlisco!

Hi, I am Lucia, I am a fabricholic.
I still buy and buy but a sewn wardrobe is beginning to materialize, yay! Here is to keeping that up!

Over the weekend I picked up this book at one of my favorite bookstores. It is in Dutch, so it is slow going, but so far I've gathered that Vlisco is the latest name of a company that has been producing wax printed cottons for 210 years and has been a leader in the African fabrics market for a few decades. In 2006 Vlisco made the conscious decision to become a "fashion label" and has been setting up flagship stores all over African capitals.

"Yeah, yeah, very interesting... I wonder if they have a web shop?" Google Vlisco, bingo! OMG! Run to the Vlisco webshop right this minute! (Photos courtesy of Vlisco)

Still here? OK, let me tell you there are good news and there are bad news. The good news is that they have upwards of 700 gorgeous, outrageous, colorful and totally scrumptious prints to choose from. Now the bad news... did you think I was going to say price? Well, you'd be kinda right... The thing is that their prices are not too bad, around €10 per meter. The trouble is that they sell only in 6 meter increments! This is apparently the traditional African way of buying and selling fabric. Every African woman needs 6 meters for a full outfit. Hmpf!!

They do seem to have a limited selection of prints that they sell in 2m and 4m quantities. I think I might try something from that group first.

There are two other things that "give me pause" (if that was ever the case with me in the vicinity of beautiful fabric). I cannot find anywhere how wide their fabrics are. So they could be a full 150cm but they could also be 90cm, cannot tell. And, I think that all their pattern photos are showing a full width of fabric, because I can see the printing on the selvedge on both the top and the bottom of the image. This means that their print motifs are even bigger than I expected!!

Anyway, if nothing else, head over there for a jolt of color and design that will have you dreaming for a couple of days.

Be sure to check out their "inspiration" photos. And if you do order something from them, do tell!