Oakshott Lipari blog hop

Welcome to the first stop on this month's blog hop to show off Oakshott's newest line of gorgeous shot cottons, Lipari. I'm so happy that Lynne and Michael let me join in! These colors - oh my goodness - they are so rich and yummy. I had the hardest time deciding which was my favorite. I have this thing where too many choices are a bad thing. So I'll just take a yard of everything! I finally decided on Salina for my main color.

Lipari is made up of 18 colors woven with black thread on the warp and a color on the weft. It makes them shimmery and iridescent. You can see close-ups of each on the Oakshott site  and find out more about the inspiration for this collection here.

These fabrics definitely have a shimmer that makes them look different when they are turned different ways. If you're having trouble figuring out which color is which (the differences in some are very subtle!) here's a trick I learned - the bundle picture above shows them top to bottom in the same order as you'll find them here.

All the heart eyes for those weft colors!

I expect that you'll see some pretty wonderful quilts over the next few weeks from some amazing quilters. I love making quilts too but when Lynne mentioned the 54" width of fabric, the first thing that came to mind was apparel. It just so happens that we're getting in the swing of Me Made May right now too so, a Washi dress it is!

I've been wanting to try a woven Washi with a patchwork band around the hem and this was the perfect opportunity. I drafted this outlined plus block and went to town.

Maybe you'd like to make something similar? Here's how I did it.

Start with a pattern you've already adjusted and fitted if needed. There's nothing worse than wasting time and good fabric on a garment that does not fit you when you're done! Prewash your fabric while you're at it so there will not be any shrinkage surprises. When I prewash my wovens I like to serge the edges beforehand to keep them from fraying in the wash.

Now measure the width of your hem, remembering to double the measurement for anything cut on the fold. My dress hem length was 32" in the back and 36" in the front. My block finishes at 4.5" and I'll be adding some sashing so I divided the measurements by 6" to calculate how many blocks to make (11 total). It doesn't have to be exact as we will square up the pattern later.

Make your blocks. Take advantage of strip piecing where you can. Measurements can be printed out from here. I was able to make all 11 blocks with 2 fat eighths and some of the main fabric for background but you could also mix and match the colors.

On each seam, I went back and stitched a second line in the seam allowance to make sure there would not be any unwanted fraying. Zig-zag stitching would also work but I'm using my straight-stitch-only Juki. Once you have all your blocks, sew them into strips for the back and front, adding 2" x 5" sashing pieces between each block and on the ends of the rows.

Next up, cut your dress pattern pieces from your main fabric. On both the front and back, cut it 8" shorter than you normally would. I simply folded that part of my pattern up out of the way so I would not need to cut and tape it back together.

Cut 4 more pieces from your main fabric - 2 that are 5" by length of your patchwork sections and 2 that are 4" by just a little longer than the patchwork sections.

Lay out the folded front pattern piece with the patchwork strip (folded in half) below it and the additional 5" plain strip below that. We're going to sandwich the seam so the raw patchwork edges will be enclosed all the way around.

Matching the center of the dress to the center of the patchwork, pin them right sides together. Pin the plain strip to the wrong side of the dress piece. So your sandwich is: plain piece right side up, dress piece right side up, patchwork piece wrong side up.

Sew these together, adding a second seam as before. Press the patchwork and the plain piece away from the dress, hiding all of those pesky raw edges.

Pin the 4" strip right sides together with the patchwork section. Make sure you're also catching the plain strip in this seam so as to completely hide all patchwork raw edges on the inside of the dress. Sew or serge - this seam will be exposed on the inside of the dress so you'll want to finish it with a zig zag stitch if you don't have a serger. Press the strip down away from the patchwork. The thickness of it will naturally go that way anyhow. Your front dress piece is complete, you just need to even up the sides to where they should be.

Carefully fold the front dress piece in half and get your pattern piece back out. Line the pattern up carefully with the part you've already cut out and then go ahead and finish cutting the along the pattern.

Repeat these same steps for the back of the dress.

Finish sewing the dress and hem as you usually would. Voila! I love the way the Oakshott gives the dress a little body in the way it drapes.

Whew, you made it to the end! You still with me?

Make sure to visit all of the other stops on the tour - I am definitely looking forward to seeing what they've made! Until then, I'll just be twirling around in my pretty new dress.

5 May     Allison Dutton       that's me!
10 May   Nicholas Ball         quiltsfromtheattic.wordpress.com 
12 May   Helen Purvis          archiethewonderdog.blogspot.com
17 May   Lynn Harris            thelittleredhen.typepad.com
24 May   Jessica Skultety      www.quiltyhabit.com 
26 May   Karin Jordan           www.leighlaurelstudios.com
31 May   Elisabeth Vaughan  sharksdinner.com
2 June     Kitty Wilkin           nightquilter.com

I almost forgot - this was also on my finish along list for the quarter. Oakshott dress: check!