lara kindly bought and posted me some fabric from dcf that wasn't available online after we both liked the fabric on instagram. when talking over email about this purchase i asked lara if she would like to do a dcf seasonal challenge, where each season we collectively choose a fabric, make it into whatever we want and then post on our blogs.
so here's our first challenge - spring 2014. lara bought the fabric as i haven't been down to melbourne for a few months. the plan was for lara to take a few pictures of fabrics she liked, sms them to me and we would choose the challenge fabric. unfortunately lara's phone battery went flat at dcf (i totally know the feeling - it happened to me when i was looking at some merino for kirsty one time) so lara chose the fabric and i decided to wait til it arrived in the post to find out what it was.
lara chose 2 fabrics, but i decided to go with the knit and make a matching top (simplicity 1366) and skirt (new look 6228) both of which i have made before here and here. am sure lara will have better details on the exact fabric type/content on her post - she has great fabric knowledge, needless to say i love her selection.
there is not much to add about construction and fit for these versions. i made an 8 in the top, added 2 1/4" to the length and shortened the sleeves the same as my previous version. i made the skirt with 1 piece for the front and 1 piece for the back, rather than cutting it in panels, as per the pattern. to do this i cut out the panels using an old sheet, sewed them together so i had 1 piece for the front and 1 piece for the back and then used this as my pattern. i also added 4 1/2 inches to the length.
i'm pretty happy with how it turned out, the one thing i am a bit disappointed with is the way the top pools near the hem at the back - you can kind of see it in the photo above left. none of my other versions have done this, but they are made from heavier knits.
i am planning on wearing the skirt and top together at times, but will also get a lot of wear from the pieces as separates too. below is how i wore the top to work today.
here's another pic showing the pooling at the lower back.
i had to cut the waistband across the stretch as i didn't have enough fabric to cut it with the stretch, so i didn't need to use any elastic in this version. i can't remember how much fabric there was but i think it was around 1/1.5m or so, so am very happy i was able to get 2 pieces from it.
finally if you got this far, the lucky winner of the fabric from my giveaway is Christy - whose name was pulled out of a hat by the other mr flagg. congratulations!! i will send you a message on instagram to get your postal details.
thanks for sharing the fun of the challenge lara!
emma
