Ok, so after certain excesses over the holiday period, I vowed that I wasn't going to buy any more fabric this year. Today I fell off the wagon. BUT! But. In my defense I'd since made another decision which was, in order to fit a couple pairs of new shoes into the budget I've decided to make all my clothes this winter. It's all about priorities people -
priorities.* I have lots of knits to work with, but I wanted some wovens as well and I just happened to be out at Spotlight looking for an ironing board cover (fits most ironing boards my ass, now I have to return it!) and I remembered that
Heleen had, out of the kindness of her heart (ahem), told me about these Liberty-like lawns they had so I had a quick look. They were nice! I could only find two prints and got 3 meters of the orange and 2 of the blue.
They're definitely not Liberty, in either print quality or feel, but jeez they're not bad. Not bad at all! I have a couple Burda blouse patterns in mind, although I have to say I'm tempted to try a dress in the orange. Just something simple with a bit of drape in the skirt, although I'd have to go and get another meter probably... Would it be too much do you think? It's not quite as bright as it appears in this photo, the orange is more muted and slightly pinker.
It would look simply smashing with these shoes
*Listen to me justify here - how am I doing? Have I convinced anyone yet?
I feel in love with those prints when I was out at Spottie last weekend - I so very very very nearly brought a set of the purples - yes Liberty "like" but NOT Liberty but lovely all the same
ReplyDeleteI like your thinking.... but given that I don't sew much, I wonder where I can trim the budget to accommodate my "need" for brown boots this winter? Even the ones at Hannahs are $200+! Go for it with the orange lawn - I'm all for colour.
ReplyDeletehehe, so glad I could help! You should visit the Wairau Park Spotlight, they have a bigger range. That is if you need another pair of shoes of course ;) Love the orange too.
ReplyDeleteYou're asking the wrong girl. I too can't seem to help myself from buying more fabric!
ReplyDeleteOoh, love those fabrics, especially the pinky/orangey one. A dress would be fab, or even a tunic style top. I bought some fabric from the charity shop yesterday - 2 meters for £2 of a pretty patterned cotton. Good luck with deciding what you are going to make. x
ReplyDeletePurples you say, hmmm...
ReplyDeleteFood? Clothes for the kids? It's funny, I just never look at brown boots,
ReplyDeletealways at the black (or in this case red). Even brown shoes are a bit of a
stretch for me and now that I think of it I have no idea why! I'll have to
think about this some more, and go and look at brown boots.
Aaagh! With the price of petrol th eway it is now do you have any idea how
ReplyDeletemuch it's going to cost me to drive over to Wairau Park now? Do you? I would
ask at the Henderson one if they have any more but you know - Spotlight
staff...
I'm trying to tell myself that I'm just buying it to make clothes, in a
ReplyDeletepurely functional way. But I don't think I'm very convincing.
The opshops around me are really not up to much, which only makes me bitter
ReplyDeletewhen I read of other people's thrifting adventures and successes! I need to
move to a neighbourhood where people donate good stuff :) I do, why doesn't
everyone else?
You did very well at convincing me! I NEED some boots this winter and we all know how expensive boots are - especially when you're a size 6-7 foot but you have size 17'000 calves (for some reason?! I'm only a size 10 in clothes, wtf?!) And then you need clothes to go with said boots, and how are you going to fit that into your budget? Make them! And to make them you need some sexy fabric.
ReplyDeleteI do like the Spotty Liberty rip-offs. Not Liberty quality but then if you want Liberty quality, pay the Liberty price for the real deal! The orangey-salmony would be great as a dress, especially with those shoes...
Holly
Well considering that real Liberty is about 4 times the price and is not
ReplyDeletefour times nicer than this fabric I think it's a pretty good deal indeed!
Actually Spotlight does do very nice voiles and light cottons in general,
there are often prints that I like a lot. I don't use that weight very often
but they're tempting! I remember a couple years ago they had a rather nice
Liberty-"inspired" print with the strawberries and leaves, but the fabric
quality wasn't the same as these ones. I noticed they're produced in Japan
which might explain the quality?
Have you tried the Ezibuy Sara boots? They are designed for larger calves
apparently, and have the usual range of sizes.
http://www.ezibuy.com.au/brands/sara-plus-sizes.html
Hi - you could also try some Kumfs or zara or whatever they are called these days, boots. I had been trying on long boots for many many years in the hope that one day they might do up over my calves....and they did! I had to buy them then and there....
ReplyDeleteThere would be NO HOPE of me living up to that promise... but I have started banning myself from buying fabric 'just because' - I have to have a specific project in mind! don't be too hard on yourself :) I bought a pair of 'easy steps' boots last year that have elastic panels in the back - great for the 'ample-calved' :)
ReplyDeleteOh I'm definitely and completely swayed by your convincing justifications on buying fabric...then again, *ask me I can justify anything* is a forerunner for being tattooed on my forehead! lol
ReplyDeleteThe lawn is lovely, and I now feel and overwhelming urge to go and visit Spottie!!! (want me to keep an eye out for the purple and other colours?)
It IS nice stuff! I went back to Spotlight this morning to get some more orange and for awhile couldn't find it where it had been last time and was all ticked off I'd missed out and then spotted the whole range over in the 'cotton basics' area. I think I actually got the ones I like the best out of the range, someone must have got some and then the bolts were put back in the wrong place - and that person obviously had the same taste as me! There was another blue very similar to the one I got, but with a larger print which I might have got in preference but it's such a narrow difference I didn't bother getting it, but other than that I'm pretty happy with what I have. You could make a lovely quilt from them all that's for sure! A couple of the bolts said they were made by Hokkoh, but not all so I'm not sure if that's why they're good quality or not.
ReplyDelete