What I Got (photo heavy post)

The package arrived from Metro Textiles late yesterday afternoon. The box was rather large and DH rolled his eyeballs; I could see he was about to open his mouth as well when I sent him a rather withering glance. He wanted to see what was in the box, but the price was that he had to check his tongue at the door.

Once I had gotten home Wednesday night, and throughout Thursday, the thrill of the hunt had worn off a little bit and I feared that I had been over-exuberant.  Well, I was, but I love all the fabrics I purchased.  I really indulged in cottons, especially cotton eyelets, but I have no regrets.    Although I really wanted brown eyelet, and didn’t buy it, I am pretty happy with the eyelets I did get.

But first, the non-summer fabric.  This is a really beautiful Teal/Gray tweed with the embroidery along one edge of the fabric.  It is perfect for  a simple straight skirt, one which is sure to get lots of wear.  Although it is not a summer fabric, there is still plenty of time to wear it this spring before it has to be put away for next fall.

But then, on to the cottons:

This is a beautiful lightweight cotton print that I just love.  I am not sure what it will be yet.  It may be a bit "much" for a dress for me but it would certainly make a lovely blouse or skirt.   

For me, this was my most daring purchase.  This is not so much because it is bright, which it surely is, I love color, but at first I was uncertain about the combinations of the yellows and yellow-olives, but it seems to look really good.  I also love prints, but this is not the kind of print I usually wear, it is almost too bright — unlike the other prints I purchased, which you can see below.  When I opened the box this print still brought a big smile to my face, and I couldn’t wait to pull it out, a sure sign that it is not a mistake.  I think I just have to look at it a bit, have it floating around the edges of the sewing room, until I decide what it wants to become.

These two prints are eyelet fabrics and I love both of them.  The top one was love at first sight and the second one had to grow on me a little bit.  Both are destined to become summer dresses.

I might have purchased too much yardage, especially of the lower one, but as I am not sure what kind of dress I am making, and the price was very good, I am not worried.  When I first think "summer dress" I tend to think of sundresses with long full skirts, the kind of thing that tends to eat yardage.  I love the coolness, and the romantic way I feel in a long soft skirt.  And I don’t fret as much about my pale legs in long skirts with sandals.  But in recent years I have made more close fitting summer dresses as well, often shorter, only about knee length.  For that kind of dress there is too much yardage.  We shall see, what materializes but for me these exuberant prints still call for exuberant dresses, not calm, cool, tailored dresses.

Then I got this wonderful lightweight polka-dot cotton with the embroidered border!  It looked black to me, but Kashi said it was navy.  At home it still looks black, and if it is navy it is such a dark dark navy that it is virtually indistinguishable from black; but then there are so many blacks out there it hardly matters.

For me this screams feminine floaty dress and so it shall be.  I have the perfect shoes already.

Of course there were more eyelets.  The black and blue one is going to become a skirt, probably from that same pleated skirt pattern I used several times last summer.  The white one will be a blouse of some sort.

Both of these fabrics are destined to be summer skirts as well. The darker blue fabric with the cut out embroidery will be a pleated, knee length skirt, probably again using the Simplicity 4186 pattern that I used last summer, but perhaps I will try something else.

The fabric on the right is actually a bit more muted than it appears in this photo.  It consists of strips of different fabrics and textures in the same color, including some embroidery and some lace.  This will be cut on the bias and made into a longer skirt. I am planning along the lines of this skirt from the new March 2007 Burda WOF:

I think I have enough yardage, although I guessed when I was at the store as I hadn’t really "planned" on looking for something for this skirt.   If this doesn’t quite work, I have no fears about finding something that will work, and will yield a skirt with a similar feel.

All in all, although I have a lot of fabric here, I am not feeling particularly guilty about these two fabric buying excursions , to Leandro and Metro Textile.  I had been feeling the need to sew new pretty clothes and there is little that fits right now (except evening clothes in black) aside from my basic day-to-day chinos and a few tees. Even including the Leandro fabrics, I have spent less than I usually spend on spring clothing shopping and I haven’t shopped for any clothes this spring.  I might yet, but I am not very inclined to do so, even though I have never wanted to be a person who sewed ALL my clothes.  And although it is true that I could have probably shopped my stash for a good bit of my spring sewing, I am still excited about these new spring treats, and I know, having looked already, that there were no eyelets hiding in the stash.

When I get these things made up I will have a lovely spring/summer wardrobe.  And if I don’t get them made up I will have nothing to wear.  I don’t intend to put these away in the fabric closet.  They are sitting right out on the end of my cutting table, inspiring me to make them up.  They won’t all sit there for very long.