Sixth Challenge: Fabric of OUR Choice

For this week's challenge we sent the designers another surprise.

Each designer receive 2 panels of a striped poly chiffon. 

Additional materials could be used to line the garment or to add detailing. 

However the panels must make up a majority of the piece. 

The winner will receive (3) patterns of THEIR choice from our online store.

This is the panel the contestants received. They received two panels to create their garment. 

Buy a panel now! VERY limited quantities available. Panels available have a slight flaw, but able to work around. We really wanted you to have the opportunity to be inspired by our contestants and create your own garment!

Shams from Communing with Fabric

I used the poly chiffon panels from Fabric Mart to make the top from Vogue 1333, a Sandra Betzina pattern. As I was sewing the top, I realized that that the sleeves were very unflattering on my busty figure with my large upper arms, so I had to make some changes after the pattern was cut out and partially sewn. This resulted in more hems than were originally planned, because I now had slits in the sleeves, and the sleeves themselves became flutter sleeves with circle hems (with lots of bias).

I added bust darts for the fit and I added a shirttail hem - I like the casual feel of a shirttail hem. I used tiny 1/16" hems thoughout the top - on the sleeve slits, the flutter sleeve hems, and the shirttail hem.

I experimented using iDye in Kelly Green on a piece of the chiffon. I really liked the resulting green fabric and I used it for the front bands. (I replaced the front facings with narrow front bands and I finished the neckline with a bias strip of the striped chiffon.)

I was originally going to close the top with hammer-on snaps but I felt that they overwhelmed the narrow green bands so, instead, I used sew-on snaps that are invisible from the outside.

I matched the stripe across the center front. I matched it as well as possible at the side seams, but with the bust darts and the fact that the stripes morph - they meander a bit, and change width throughout the panel, so they can't be perfectly matched.

Cold weather has arrived in San Francisco. It's as if we skipped our usually-warm October and went straight to winter. It was very chilly today when I was photographing my spring-like poly chiffon top in the damp fog! This will be a useful top to wear in warm summer weather, over a tank top, as I am wearing it in these pics.

More on my blog:  http://communingwithfabric.blogspot.com

Diane from Gatorbunny Sews

Well….when I opened the envelope and found this fabric, I didn't know what to think.  I love the colors and the stripes look like maypole ribbons, but it's a large print with a busy border and it's not yardage but two scarf panels.  It can be challenging to make a large print flattering and even more challenging trying to make a border print work so deciding on the design was definitely the hardest part.   I started thinking about what Stacy and Clinton would say (from "What Not To Wear") and knew they'd say large prints are good in a simple design and…. keep the stripes vertical.  So that's what I did.  I loosely based the pattern on a top I love that my mom gave me a few years ago (thanks mom!) and put the border print at the hem so the stripes would be vertical.  I rolled the hem on the sleeve and bottom and added a wide smocked bottom which added shape to flatter but kept the blouse flowy. I added pleats and bias binding to the neckline and finished the neck with hand-rolled bias tubing.  I love this blouse and hope Stacy and Clinton approve.  I'm hoping to wear it to a nice dinner very soon….hint, hint.

For more details and pictures, check out my blog, Gatorbunnysews.

Kathy from Kathy Sews

To work with the soft look chiffon creates I made this dress with an ethereal overlay, a blouson bodice and gathered skirt that's a little Studio 54-ish.  I started with a bright but warm cream lining to enhance the delicately muted colors of the sheer fabric. I played with the vertical lines of this art deco style pattern by crisscrossing it over one another on the back bodice and the overlay.  I included a couture hand picked lapped zipper in back, a carefully machine rolled hem along with other hand sewn elements throughout the dress.  I'd wear this adorable little dress to an casually elegant affair on the beachfront or a night out with the girls!  

Audrey from Sew Tawdrey

The fabric for this challenge was chiffon,  a lovely light fabric, but not the easiest to sew.  A “pretty chiffon panel print”  was what we received.  The print was actually stripes with a border print at the bottom of the panel.  I like to wear chiffon tunics over cami’s and leggings or skinny pants. So comfortable and pretty. And that is what I decided to sew from this fabric. The pattern for the tunic is from Mrs. Stylebook pattern magazine. Published quarterly in Japan, the magazine contains pattern drafting instructions for women’s garments.   Tunics are pretty basic, but this one had two layers of shaped flounces sewn to the bottom edges, a button placket extending from hem to upper edge of the collar, and the collar is a rectangle shape gathered to the neckline edge. I cut the garment and sleeves from the stripes and the flounces from the border area.  Chiffon can be prone to raveling. To control that tendency, the flounces were finished with a serged rolled hem, which is a great way to put a narrow hem on a light weight fabric.  All straight garment seams were French seams, which encloses the raw edges, and other, curved, internal seams were serged.  The front button placket and collar was made from a coordinating ombre  poly organza to give the eye somewhere to rest when viewing this busy print and drawing it upward to the face. Silk organza was used as interfacing in the front button placket. This tunic is fun to wear, comfortable, light weight and the flounces “swish” when I walk.

Shannon from Shanni Loves

For this challenge I chose to use my fabric to create something comfortable to lounge around the house in.  I wanted something I wouldn't be embarrassed to answer the door in when the mail man came knocking with a big box of fabric.  I first considered shorts and a tank, nah too easy.  Then I thought about a jumpsuit pattern I have but I thought the stripes of the fabric might be a little too much.  After browsing Pinterest, I discovered quite a few striped chiffon jumpsuits so I decided to give it a go after all.  I guess you never know until you try, right?!  I used two different patterns to get my look.  For the top I used Grainline's Scout Tee.  I thought it would be nice to have a solid color around the neckline so I added the solid white fabric on the front and back.  I also added an invisible zipper to the center back.  For the pants I used the bottoms out of McCall's 6083 jumpsuit pattern.  I shortened and tapered them in so they wouldn't as be as full as the pattern intends.  Since the waistband is elastic I decided to also add elastic around the leg hems.  I then added faux ties to the waist and pant legs.  The jumpsuit is fully lined.  The outfit has served it's lounge purpose and I'm still waiting on that mail man to show up with that box of fabric!   As always, check out my blog for more details. 

Were you inspired by what these ladies did? Well you can try it out yourself! We have a limited supply of these panels so head on over to our website to get your panel now! (Please note that the panels for sale ended up having a tiny flaw in them. We did not realize this literally until Monday morning when getting it together for the website. The flaw is hardly noticeable and should be able to be worked around. Sorry for the inconvenience!)

Voting ends on Wednesday at midnight. 

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