Falling Down the Rabbit Hole

Well, it all started with the two dress patterns I bought... then one lot of dress fabric purchased... which wasn't even cut out yet (I don't know that I had even opened the pattern yet), and I bought five more patterns through an online download provider... yes, FIVE patterns, on top of the TWO patterns I had already bought, and another two lots of fabric!

The two fabrics matched with these two patterns...

Now... if you've been reading about my blogging adventures for while, you'll know that I don't really sew clothing, or bags, or other things that aren't quilts.  Like many people, I used to, back in my late teenage years (I probably had a half and half mix of handmade and purchased clothing); and again when my kids were young I made polar fleece tops and pants to supplement their wardrobes.

Oh crap... what have I got myself into.

On Thursday, I figured I had put it off long enough, opened the first pattern, unwrapped the lunchpaper to trace off the pattern pieces (not required but something I wanted to do to keep the integrity of the original pattern), did my body measurements... and started tracing.  Friday I pinned out the pattern pieces and cut the bits out... only three pattern pieces so it's not like it took an enormously long time, but I wanted to do it carefully... so I took my time.  I sewed the shoulder seams and finished the neckline, then put it aside for Saturday, when I sewed the sleeves in, sewed the side seams, and finished the hems.  So I now have ONE whole finished dress!!!

On a bit of a roll (and while I still had the stretch fabric needle and normal sewing foot on the machine), I though I'd print out one of the downloaded patterns, and spent probably a couple of hours printing, cutting and sellotaping the pieces together.  Laid out the fabric to position the pattern pieces and realised that the fabric I THOUGHT was 60" wide was really only 42" wide... so there was NO WAY the tunic pattern pieces were going to fit.  GAH!  I suppose this is a bit of a warning about the Birch organic interlock knit fabric... although I am sure that I checked the measurements on the bolt and it was the wider width.  Oh well, lesson learned.  And check out this enormously wide selvedge!

That's almost 2" wide!

Enough fabric for the back, not the front or sleeve

Just a plain black denim to make the short pinafore pattern

 Righto... back to patchwork mode.

After selecting a mix of green scraps to make the largest block of this RSC quilt, I decided in the end to reduce the variety of tone in the scraps for such a large and important block.  I wanted it to read strongly as green... so swapped out the teal toned fabrics, and found more that were olive in tone to match what I had already found.

Sewn together and laid out with the other blocks... along with the rest of the carnage from the weekend.  I sewed another small green unit with 2.5" cut squares... and have another in the pipeline.

I don't think I showed a close up of the little Tillies Lane applique block for this month.  The large circle fabric was the border fabric from Nadia's first bed quilt.  It's fun to find some of these old scraps and get sentimental about them :o)  I think the other fabrics are from the Avalon Quilt that is laying dormant with the blocks pieced, but not sewn together.

I made a more neutral toned hourglass block, and relaid out the centre panel.

I ended up with Version One:

Or Version Two:

Do you have a preference???