Hi, have you ever had a fabric just hanging out in your stash for years and then you forgot about it? Well, I’ve had this Ikea linen fabric in my closet for a long time. I’m guessing more than six years.
I remember using it as a backdrop for this photo I took for my blog when it first launched in November 2011. You can sort of see the dots in the background.
It’s a heavyweight linen that’s a bit stiff – even after I washed it in the washing machine and put it in the dryer. As you can see the dots vary in size and they are equidistant from each other. Choosing a sewing pattern for this fabric was a bit of a challenge because the dots are large and their placement is symmetrical. I’ve got about 3 meters or 3 1/3 yards of this 35″/88 cm wide fabric.
Here’s a shot of the fabric against my body (please excuse the dirty bathroom mirror and bad lighting!).
I posted an image on my @csews Instagram account and asked what should I make with it – a jacket, pants – and asked for pattern suggestions. I received many responses, including that I made a jacket, circle skirt, dress, tote bag or a shower curtain. Here were the pattern suggestions:
- The Ulysses Trench by Victory Patterns
- Dress patterns by Ann Normandy, which are designed for heavy linen fabric (check out this shift dress and this lovely maxi dress – or this tunic dress)
- The Wiksten Kimono Jacket by Jenny Gordon
- The Oversized Kimono Jacket from Issue 4 of Making Magazine also designed by Jenny Gordon, which Heather Lou of Closet Case patterns blogged about here.
I hadn’t heard of Ann Normandy before so I was happy to learn that her patterns were aimed at heavier weight linen fabric. I like the clean lines of her designs. The suggestions also spurred me to consider other patterns – the Sapporo Coat by Papercut Patterns, (which I’ve made in wool melton and with a cotton sheet) and The Strand, an unlined coat by Merchant & Mills.
I was really taken by the Oversized Kimono Jacket so I went ahead and ordered a copy. I decided I really wanted to make a jacket because it would get a lot of wear. I don’t wear dresses that often and I couldn’t really see this fabric as a skirt. But I still wasn’t sure about the Oversized Kimono pattern for this fabric so I also searched the jacket patterns in my stash for possible candidates.
Here are the finalists
Anne Klein Vogue, V1098, which is in my stash and out-of-print (OOP) – the lines in this jacket could make for an interesting design with the dots, breaking up the symmetry.
New Look 6532, which I mentioned last year in my blog post about new fall patterns. I bought this pattern but haven’t made it yet. The seam lines here would also let me play with dot placement. My idea would be to deliberately misalign the dots across the pattern pieces.
Marcy Tilton Vogue pattern (V8620, OOP) – I think the heavyweight linen would work well with this pattern and the seam lines would also be fun to experiment with.
The Oversized Kimono Jacket by Jenny Gordy, which could be color blocked. Here’s my photo taken from Making Magazine of this pattern.
I used MyBodyModel custom croquis (fashion sketch template) to play around with how the fabric would look in the different designs. I’ll be doing a guest blog post for the MyBodyModel blog later this month so you can see all of my sketches. 🙂 Here’s a sneak preview of one of my sketches for the Oversized Kimono Jacket.
Sketching out how the fabric will look with different designs was really helpful! I don’t usually sketch out my fabric choices. I can usually visualize in my head how I think something will work with a particular pattern. But I was having trouble seeing how these big dots would look in a jacket. I was afraid the big dots would give the garment a clown-like appearance.
I thought the color blocking would look better. So I’m glad I sketched this combination. I’ve sketched a couple of other variations, which you can see on the MyBodyModel blog later this month. I’ll have picked my final choice by then. I’m hoping I’ll have enough scraps leftover to make a tote bag!
What pattern would you choose?
Chuleenan, I’m admiring your determination to use this fabric! Have you sketched that same kimono jacket putting the black contrast down the CF panels, leaving the sleeves dotty, and maybe making the sleeve cuff hem/facing black, so that down, the sleeve is dots and turned up you get the black contrast for party on the inside? Or, even offsetting that same bit to be about half an inch of black on the outside, sleeves down, and more black when cuffed, rolled up? Just thoughts!
Hi Marilyn! I have sketched the Oversized Kimono Jacket with black around the front edge and with black sleeve cuffs – keeping main body and sleeve dotty. I also sketched it with the sleeves black and the rest of the jacket dotty.
I thought about cutting on the bias but my fabric is 35″ wide, so that eliminates the Kimono Jacket – the front and back pieces are too big to cut on the bias. Decisions, decisions!
If it was were me I would probably make a shift dress or dress no 1. But I really like that oversized kimono jacket, especially the idea of using black for the sleeves.
Hi Claire – I still can’t quite decide. I don’t know if I really want that much “dot” on a garment. They are a bit much for an oversized jacket. I feel like I need to break them up a bit more. Decisions, decisions!