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Category: DKNY Blocks

  • New fabric additions

    Wednesday I met Mary in NYC.  The fabrics I purchased at Mood and B&J arrived yesterday.  Today my fabrics arrived from Sawyer Brook.

    Aprilbj These are the B&J fabrics:  the blue and violet are cotton poplin that I will use for some casual summer suits.  The white with green dots is a really lovely Swiss cotton dotted Swiss voile, which I purchased primarily because of the green dots.  I love dotted swiss and I love green, how could I go wrong? On the far left the rose pink tweed will be a jacket and I have a lot of things that will go with it. 

    The purple wool, 2nd from left, is my only non-summer fabric and was purchased because I wanted to make a skirt with feathers on the bottom after seeing a photo of one by Marni in the new May Vogue Magazine.   I went to  M&J Trims and purchased the feathers first as I figured that would be the hardest part for me as I get really picky about that kind of thing.  Then I looked a couple of places before finding the fabric I wanted.  My skirt will not look at all like the Marni skirt and is more fall oriented.  Still, I can’t wait to make it:  Here is a picture of the fabric and the trims:Purplewooldetail

    I am really eager to make this even though I might not wear it right away.  If I don’t get it made this week, I will be going to San Francisco for one of Sandra Betzina’s Power Sewing weeks and I will take it with me.  Who knows, I might even be able to wear it.

    I started looking for the tweed at Mood, but didn’t find anything I wanted for the skirt.  I bought silks this trip, mostly for linings.

    Aprilmood2_2 The black with the paperweight design was just pretty.  The other three were purchased to go with specific fabrics and you will see them in the near future.  The peachy fabric on the far right can be seen in more detail below with the cotton from Sawyer Brook.

    Aprilmood3 I am planning on taking this combination with me to work on in San Francisco.  I am stil planning on making the fairly straight DKNY jacket; It will be a very casual jacket, purposely minimally structured and I think it will be a lot of fun.

  • Summer Roses

    Since I spent a good bit of time "resting" this past weekend, I had plenty of opportunity to get into trouble.    A packet of swatches arrived from Sawyer Brook while I was away and now I have succumbed to the lure of new fabric:

    Rosefabric   This rose cotton/lycra sateen caught my eye right away.  I immediately thought of it for this suit:   Valentino Suit courtesy Bergdorfgoodman.com

    Valentino2_1

    I originally thought of making this in a stretch poplin or perhaps a cotton/linen with a little bit of texture or cross/dye interest.  But I really like the rose cotton.  However, the suit in rose strikes me as being a little TOO feminine and flirty for me.  I would like the very feminine shape in a color like gray more than pink.

    I think the pintucked and tied jacket idea would work beautifully over a pair of pants however, something like this pattern from voguepatterns.com, Vogue 7685, V7685photo courtesy of my scanner as I have had this pattern for about 8 or 9 months but haven’t made it yet.  It is still available however.

    The jacket could be made sort of like a cross between a blouse and a jacket, something without all the tailoring and interfacing.    Kathryn at Sewing World posted this pattern a couple of months ago and I ran right out and purcV2789chased it:

    Of course here it looks too light and blouse-like.  I would probably put together some cross between this pattern and a jacket pattern.  I know I have several suitable options but have not yet looked through the pattern file for likely candidates.

    I also ordered this kind of interesting striped cotton:

    Stripe_1 which I am thinking of using for a jacket to wear over the pants, possibly over the blouse as well, depending on how I make the rose blouse/jacket.  I am thinking of using this pattern, Vogue 2738:

    V2738pdf

    A DKNY now OOP.  I think this combination will make a nice casual, fun summer jacket.  Of course, there is always the possibility that the fabric will arrive and I will wonder what I was thinking.

    Well, the fabric is on its way and only time will tell.