Verity Vintage Studio

Blog Tour of House & Home Fabric: Wall Quilt with Poppie Cotton

 

I've been working on something special with some new Poppie Cotton fabric, and get to show it off today as I kick off the blog tour for House and Home!

 

This has to be one of my top loved of their collections so far. It has a wide color range, so it can have many different looks. I chose to use only the pastels and picked my top favorite 5 prints to use for a softly shaded wall quilt in some of my very favorite colors.

 

I used Gigi's Thimble free pattern for her 2 Stars a Day quilt; though I couldn't participate on the quilt along she hosted, I loved her idea & mockup, and made a smaller version for myself with 2 stars in each fabric for a total of 20 stars, divided with 10 on each background color.

 

This was my first time making flying geese units, believe it or not... Her tip to press the seams open was very helpful, though I quickly gave up on matching the star points. (I'm definitely going to invest in a quarter inch machine foot so I can be more precise in the future - but luckily I'm not a perfectionist.)

 

It was fun from start to finish. I've found I really love making smaller quilts. You still get to play with a variety of fabrics and blocks, but without so many you get tired of making them. They are so much easier to wrangle when piecing the top, pressing, and quilting. And allover a much faster finish, which suits my instant-gratification urge very well!

Mine finished out at 34 x 42 inches, so it's a good size for a wall hanging, but could totally be used as a baby quilt too. 

Star blocks ready to sew together.

The finished quilt top!

 

I have a spot on my kitchen wall where a window was taken out and badly patched...too big for a picture to cover well, so a quilted wall hanging is the perfect option. I have one that's been up year-round, but have been wanting to make one for every season (probably will end up with one per month! :-)  - so this was the ideal project to quickly finish and hang up to enjoy while it's still spring! 

I love getting to look at it every day. 

 

I just adore the periwinkle floral and all the little toile and sprig prints. I had enough of the pink toile to use as a background, and I have to say I love the alternating block background colors in Amber's pattern. I will definitely utilize this feature again! The only change I made to her pattern was to add the sashing to the outside edge to finish the pattern, instead of the solid border she sketched.

A small quilt in a big world.

 

The 6" stars are small enough to be dainty, but large enough to show off a lot of the fabric. 

 

I hand quilted it - an easy project that went pleasantly fast - and added a couple of hanging loops to the top under the binding.

 

 

To bind it, I cut two strips each from 4 of the green color way fat quarters and stitched them end to end. This makes a subtly scrappy binding - a great option for someone who doesn't have enough of one coordinating fabric for binding, or who doesn't like a more obvious scrappy binding.

 

It was such a fun project, each step of the way. Thanks to Amber for a great pattern, and to Poppie Cotton for giving me the opportunity to create with such dreamy fabric! I hope this inspires you to sew your own version.

 

Check out the other makers on this blog tour:

Monday, May 23	https://verityvintagestudio.typepad.com/my-blog/
Wednesday, May 25	[email protected]
Friday, May 27	http://happylittlecottage.blogspot.com/
Monday, May 30	http://neverlandstitches.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, June 1	[email protected]
Friday, June 3	Instagram: @emmas_crafternoons
Monday, June 6	http://prettybyhand.com/
Wednesday, June 8	[email protected]
Friday, June 10th	http://www.linenbouquet.com
Monday, June 13th	https://www.goodvibesquiltshop.com/blog
Wednesday, June 15th	www.freshdewdrops.com

 

 

1950s Gray Floral Blouse

I splurged on this lovely piece of vintage cotton from https://makethislook.com during the launch of their new website. It was just a perfect length for a blouse, and I loved the larger scattered print and the unusual combo of gray & yellow colors together.

 

 

Instead of stashing it on my shelf when it arrived, I cut into it right away.

 

I wanted something simple to let the print have center stage, so I chose a 1950s blouse overblouse pattern that had a wide wing collar and raglan cap sleeves.

 

It had a front seam, though, so I did a simple alteration to make it open down the front instead. 

 

I made it in one day; definitely nice to have a quick and easy pattern like this. I had to alter it somewhat after the initial try on, and tweaked it again after taking these photos. But I just love the fabric!

 

It's a cool and comfortable summer blouse that can work well for casual too. Here I paired it with a navy pencil skirt from a 1950s pattern, and a new to me 1950s hat I got recently. 

 

Isn't that polka dot veil the cutest?

 

I can't splurge on vintage fabric very often, but I'm glad I got this one - and also enjoy supporting a new small business.

1950s Teal House Dress

I have been on a sewing spree lately, cranking out lots of quilts and garments, with multiple projects on the go at once, and a couple dozen clamoring to be next on the list. My latest finish was this dress made from a mail order 1950s pattern.

 

It was a bit more of an adventure than usual because when I went to cut it out, I found that the front bodice piece was missing. I ended up using the back piece as the front piece too, but had to rip it apart after the first trial and redo some things before it fit reasonably well.

 

This pattern reminded me of my yellow dress made a few years back, but without such a slim skirt - definitely more flattering for right now post baby 3. I really like it, but don't know if I'll ever cobble it together again since I know now the bodice piece is missing.

 

I think a gathered yoke is so flattering!

 

I top stitched it with a narrow zigzag to add a little extra interest. (Well, to be completely honest, I topstitched it with a narrow zigzag because I didn't want to change my thread color, so decided it was easier to look like a design choice instead of laziness. :-)

 

The fabric is a quilting cotton basic in a pattern now discontinued from Riley Blake Designs. But there are a lot of this type of print as a quilting basic by various fabric companies, and it really is a good fit for vintage sewing. The random scattered lines are very reminiscent of some vintage fabric I've seen. Another example of how, if you train your eye, you can find possibilities in modern fabric.

 

I also knew it would look nice with white cuffs, but the wing cuffs on the pattern are not my favorite to make, and certainly not practical for a wash-and-wear dress, often with sleeves crammed into a sweater. So I opted for a simple white band, so I still had my white sleeve trim. 

 

The raglan sleeves are very comfortable and not restricting at all.

 

The neck turned out too low, and also sitting a bit wide. Rather than tear it all apart, I tried something new - adding a tab detail at the neck, to help pull it together a little, while adding more coverage. It's sewn to the dress on one side, and snapped on the other. I think it works reasonably well. 

With all my seamstress experience, I still have not figured out the right way to do this type of skirt closure. This one is kind of cobbled together. Someday I want to learn how to do it properly from someone who knows how!

 

But regardless of all the adjustments and tweaks, I'm quite pleased with how it turned out, and love the color & print! I'm happy to cross this one off my list, and head on toward the next one, which I had cut out before this one was done.