Adventures at Sewtropolis

Today I got to Sewtropolis! I was excited to buy some Colette Patterns (Sencha is finally mine, and I got Crepe for Gertie's December Sew-along, since I passed on participating on Lady Grey (even though it's named after my favorite tea ever).

Oh the fabrics at Sewtropolis, and the space! It's a terrific environment. The sewing stations are neat and well-placed, and there are great examples of any multitude of projects to complete with the patterns and fabric provided. I got to meet Patty and talk about projects, and I got to see first hand just how cozy and lush that double gauze she's cutting out for Crepe is! I felt like a kid in a candy store for sure. The fabric there is like a feast of color, pattern, and texture- and I could've been there for hours. I couldn't limit myself to just buying patterns though, so I bought some of the lovely new knits that just came in.

As if the lovely hand and juicy colors weren't enough, my favorite thing about these Oliver + S fabrics is that the wovens and the knits match perfectly.   I bought the above to make two tops, the yellow for Spring, and the persimmon polka dots for my immediate gratification to go with the plaid skirt below.

Okay, it's not an actual skirt yet, it's more of a wild hair of inspiration still.  I got the new Anthropologie catalog, and amongst its considerably whimsical styling was, of course, inspiration worth obsessing over.

What you unfortunately can't tell so much from this picture, is that the skirt hem is lined with a great bold floral.  I don't know that I'm going to line the entire skirt with a print, because I'm pretty cheap, but I figured I could at least put a good four inch facing on the hem and use horsehair braid. I am not a fan of asymmetrical hems really, but this one is fairly subtle, so I'll toy with the idea.  I bought my wool without having the catalog as reference and managed to match it as exactly as you can for $5.99 a yard wool from Mill End.  I really just went with my gut, and I am already wishing I had gone for colors less staid and more out of character for me (perhaps gray with peacock), but this will pretty much go with a large chunk of my wardrobe.  I feel like I want to find a larger print for the facing too, but I'm going to cut and sew it tomorrow so it can hang for a while to accommodate the bias stretch. I figure if I have to look for the lining/facing accent fabric still it'll help me be less antsy as the skirt hangs.  I'm very devoted to instant sewing gratification you must know.

 I'm also toying with the idea of making the back of the skirt fuller to mask my somewhat flat behind and accentuate the lower hem as well.  I like the idea of adding gathers like in the dress pattern here, which also reminds me of one of my first inspirations for Fall wardrobe from the Louis Vuitton Fall show.What do you guys think?