darn cheap fabrics seasonal challenge - spring 2014 (+ giveaway winner)

in august i took a trip to melbourne and went to lunch, drinks and fabric shopping with a bunch of melbourne bloggers.  i got to meet lara from thornberry. i've always admired lara's style, envied her output, but best of all we both share a love for darn cheap fabrics.  even though lara lives in melbourne and i live in sydney and we have always shopped at dcf separately we have actually bought quite of few of the same fabrics in the past.

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.

i'm really looking forward to seeing what lara has made, i have seen a few progress shots on instagram - but am looking forward to seeing the final product.

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