‘Death Fabric’
you know what I’m talking about here, don’t you?
A fellow seamstress goes to the Land of Eternal Sewing and Crafting (where the pattern you want is always in stock, there are no lines at the cutting table and you never knock over a pot of pins). When the closets and drawers are cleaned out, the bags of fabric discovered find their way to you. When my great-aunt Julia passed on, Aunt Ruth made sure to give me her sewing table (which means far more to me than the opals and amythest jewellery I also got). Together we went through the enormous amount of fabric, cut out but never made up outfits and sewing notions in Ju-Ju’s sewing room. I took it all and quite a bit of it still sits in the attic of Applebrook Farm. I take a little of it back home to Scotland each trip to visit the farm where I grew up. I’m sure Mom wishes I visited more often….
This crepe-like fabric was a little, er, loud when I first looked at it but it has grown on me. And it actually goes with quite a few other tops I already have as well as a pair of bright green capris I found when we were home last month. Three or so yards of it came to HK in the box of fabric destined for AYWOC. At fist I thought of using it with one of my Gap camisoles to make a dress
but – meh. I quite like that wrap skirt pattern I used with the black and white duvet cover so think I’ll make another skirt that style but in a length between the two options on the pattern.
There will be plenty for a simple camisole too, so while I am at it I’ll make one of those and have a couple flexible pieces for travel. When I did the ‘crunch test’ on this fabric (i.e. wadded up a piece of it overnight, then hung it up in the bathroom for 2 showers-worth of steam) it bounced back really well. Ever notice the nicer the hotel the worse the iron/ironing board? I love staying at the Imperial in Tokyo, the Fullerton in Singapore et al, but places like that must assume their guests are beyond ironing their own clothes….
I’ve never used the camisole pieces from this pattern (bought in the late 80s – can you tell?) but it has a front and a back and front and back facings. How hard can it be? I’ll likely go for wider straps.
