Cotton and Dresses at Saints and Pinners

In my recent List post, I mentioned a blog I had been following, Lucky Lucille and as luck would have it there is a sew along with a vintage theme just about to start up:

What's not to like?  I love vintage and I love cotton and this  looks like a friendly informal sew along. Almost all of my dressmaking is cotton.  I have sensitive skin and cotton suits me best (along with a little silk and cashmere) plus it is by far the easiest fabric to sew with.  I am happy with all weights- voile, lawn, quilting, chambray, denim: I love them all!  So, I am ready to join in and this is my first choice of pattern (I think, I have a Cambie as back up)

This is a Vogue vintage reprint which I first spotted sewn up here.  It includes shoulder pads to give a little form to the kimono sleeve line and I am rather taken with the French darts (diagonal darts combined bust/waist darts which start at the side seam.  I have a plaid that I thought would be perfect but there isn't enough- I need 3 metres and I have a 1/2 metre short fall and it was a remnant so I will have to see what else I can find or make the Cambie instead.  The sew along includes vintage and vintage inspired so Sewaholic and Colette are great indie pattern designers that have used vintage influences to create modern patterns. Meanwhile, I thought the cotton theme and the patterns could take me to my monthly trip to Saints and Pinners.  Jo and Fran have a good selection of cottons for dressmaking all discounted by 20% when you buy more than £10 and there are vintage inspired patterns available too so lets browse...

There is a range of organic bamboo/cotton blend prints and plains which are aimed at the dress maker (each photo is a direct link to the fabric details so click the pic)

You can get a good idea of the scale of the spots here:

These fabrics are all shirt weight so a little lighter and softer than quilting fabric, great for soft styles- e.g. gathers and soft pleats rather than a tailored more formal look and also lovely for children's clothes. Colette's Chantilly dress is ideal for these soft fabrics, though do consider that you may need to line the dress too.

Colette's Negroni men's shirt would also work well- I do like the idea of this, definitely a challenge

And a the Jasmine shirt would be pretty and a good way to use two prints with a contrasting collar or sleeve cuffs.

For cotton fabric with a little more body, there are the cotton crossweaves in blue and pinky red

I made a Deer and Doe Bleuet dress with the blue and it is one of my favourite makes, I have worn it countless times this summer and felt like a cross between Alice in Wonderland and a 1960s nurse.  Jo made a lovely bib style skirt with the pink see here for pics.  This fabric definitely needs a prewash, it does shrink and is a little wider than the standard 44" to allow for this.  

You can find other organic choices here at Saints and Pinners and 20 % discount will be taken off at checkout.   Let me know if you are going to join in with the sew along, it's nice to have company!