Readers,
How often do you come across a print that stops you in your tracks?
For me, hardly ever.
And when I browse online fabric vendors, I look at a lot of prints.
As with other fashion products, prints are subject to trends–in colors, color combinations, pattern density, degree of contrast, and motifs.
Right now a lot of the prints I’m seeing are too busy, too bright, and too dense for me.
But that’s okay. The trend will eventually change, and something else will show up in the fabric marketplace.
I first saw this Liberty print on the Emma One Sock website in the fall of 2020. The copy read,
“The Liberty Art Prints limited edition seasonal designs are so wonderful, we always bring in a few each season. This one is from the Fall 2020 seasonal collection of Liberty Arts Fabrics, a Tana Lawn weight cotton print, imported from England.”
“The print is called “Amherst” (11.5″ repeat), and it shows a gorgeous display of feathers in earth tones with pops of red and green on a henna ground.”“The cloth is an exquisite quality cotton lawn, lightweight, semi-opaque, soft with a cottony drape, and it is perfect for blouses, shirts, skirts, etc.!”
Everything about this fabric grabbed my attention: the feather motif, the flattering warm neutrals with pops of red, the russet background, the scale of the pattern.
In no time I was calculating yardage for a blouse (Vogue 8772) and putting in my order to Emma One Sock.
Looking back, I don’t recall whether Emma One Sock carried this other colorway–with the beautiful, warm, blue-gray background–as well.
I do know that when it showed up on the B & J Fabrics website I ordered a swatch, wondering whether this colorway would be good for a shirt for Jack.
Again, I was won over by the richness and complexity of the colors. The background wasn’t exactly gray or blue but a complex mix similar to Pantone’s Ombre Blue, 19-4014 TPG
Soon I was calculating yardage–for Jack’s shirt this time. I used McCall’s 6044.
This shirt pattern doesn’t have a yoke, so the print isn’t interrupted by unnecessary seamlines.
This very fine, smooth fabric reminded me how much I appreciate the relative coarseness of linen and the beefiness of flannel to hide small imperfections.
This fabric doesn’t hide imperfections. Sometimes seams rippled, and I took out stitches and re-stitched–but only where the rippling was noticeable.
A wonderful thing about this fabric is that the weight is perfect for spring and summer, but the colors transition well to those days in the fall that are still warm.
Aren’t feathers little masterpieces of art? I wonder, what species do these feathers come from? Any guesses?
Photos by Cynthia DeGrand Photographer, Actor headshots, Columbus, Ohio
You may also like A Flamingo Shirt for Jack – Getting Things Sewn