Hello,
Last spring I was busy painting some watercolor patterns for Cloud9 Fabrics. They had contacted me after seeing some of my work online and I was thrilled to work with them. They were interested in printing some of my watercolors on an organic cotton voile. Voile is a very light and very soft fabric. It is also slightly sheer which works nicely with a watercolor pattern. Voile is beautiful for blouses, summery dresses, light weight pajamas and anything else you can dream up that needs a lighter, softer touch. When thinking about these qualities I could'nt help but be inspired by where I used to live in California, Palos Verdes inspired the collection and each pattern is named after places in P.V. The fabrics are now available in stores and we got to have some fun with them!
When the bolts of fabric arrived I couldnt believe how soft it was. I started imagining all the wonderful things that needed to be made! I am not that great of a sewer on my best days. I am ok at quilts and better at napkins! Since I wanted to branch out from the napkin, I asked some friends if they knew anyone who could help me sew some pieces. The next thing I knew I was meeting an extraordinary seamstress, Alice Hawes. Wow. This woman can sew beautifully and she is lovely to work with. I feel really lucky to have met her and she is inspiring me to roll up my sleaves and get back to my little machine. Alice has meticulously sewn everything you see here today. Thank you Alice!
Above is a little sun dress for my daughter. The dress pattern in Burda Kids 9468. We decided on "La Venta" for the dress with "Miraleste" for the trim and then we decided to line the dress with "Warm White" so that it was not too see through.
These two little friends were made using the pattern from Simplicity 1549. The bunny's body is in "Warm White", her shirt is made with "Malaga Cove" and her ears are accented with "Miraleste". For the fox we used a plain salmon colored cotton for the body and "Miraleste" for the shirt.
These cute pajama bottoms are made using a pattern from McCalls M6225. We decided on "Miraleste" with "La Venta" for the decorative bow and the wide accent cuff (which we added as it is not in the pattern).
In the same flavour I found this pattern by McCalls M6249 for some women's pj bottoms. They could easily be paired with a simple gray tshirt or tank top. We used "Malaga Cove" with "Lunada Bay" for the cuff and bow. With the voile being so lightweight these pj's are perfect for spring and summer.
Finally, we thought it would fun to try some cosmetic bags. We used a pattern out of Amy Butler's Style Stitches book. For this pattern you get to use three co-ordinating fabrics, so we chose "Malaga Cove" and "Abolone Cove" on the outside and then "Wayfarers" to line them both.
I hope you have enjoyed this post, I have been having fun thinking about a few more projects to do with these fabrics and I will share them back here soon when they are finished. You can visit here to see where my fabrics are being sold. Many of the online shops ship internationally if you are not in the US, Canada or the UK.
Thank you Michelle at Cloud9 Fabrics!
xoleslie
