Oakridge & Granville

As I mentioned earlier today, I went to the fabric store to find fabric to make myself an Oakridge blouse. I love the simplicity of this pattern, and think it is great for dressing up with a pencil skirt or nice pants. It would be great under a blazer too.

At the same time, it will be fantastic with jeans too, which is pretty much what I live in about nine months of the year. I would wear skirts and dresses more often, but they're not very practical when you're out and about with the dog, or when it is raining.

This is one of the problems I have with my so-called wardrobe... it's all based on comfort and practicality, which is fine, however it is rather unexciting and dull. I can't tell you how many t-shirts I own, because the number would probably be embarrassing. They're not even interesting t-shirts.

Obviously I need something better than boring t-shirts to wear with my jeans, right?

The fabric store can be a scary place at this time of year. You still find a lot of winter fabrics, because let's face it, spring isn't here quite yet. Unfortunately, all of the autumn fabrics are either gone, or buried somewhere that I can't find them, because the warm earthy fall colours are usually what I'm after.

Upon entering the store, I was assaulted by bright greens, pinks and yellows. It was like I had stepped into the 1960's, and not in a good way. Big flowers. Bold prints. Everything I saw made me wish I could put my sunglasses on and still see well enough to find fabric that I liked. Every spring I have this kind of experience when I go fabric shopping. Lots of incredibly bright prints, and nothing that I could actually wear. I always think "ok Hazel, this is a good opportunity for you to step outside of your comfort zone and try new colours!"

Um, no. Just no. I tried to like them. There were no mirrors, so I ended up holding up fabrics by my face and using the forward-facing camera on my phone. Almost everything was terrible for me.

I had wanted a nice soft cotton for my Oakridge blouse, and I wasn't finding any that suited me. I didn't really want a plain colour, and even if I had been willing to settle for one, they were all pastels, which I don't like on myself. The prints were, in a word, loud. Buying fabric online is a crapshoot, because you don't know how the fabric is going to feel, or what the drape will be like.

After what felt like an hour (and probably was at least an hour) I finally chose two fabrics that I could live with. As I said, I'd wanted cottons, but couldn't find any that I liked, so I ended up with polyester. This one is a pretty blue, with a bit of a teal tint to it. It isn't too clingy, so it should be fine to wear while the weather is still cold. We're still dealing with a lot of static cling here! Unfortunately, I couldn't get a really good photograph of the colour, as the sunlight tends to make it look lighter than it actually is.

This second fabric is WAY outside of my comfort zone, but without being loud or obnoxious. It's a nice soft green that's a bit on the cool side for me, but it's warm enough that I can get away with it. If I hadn't had the opportunity to see it up against my face, I would not have purchased it though. This fabric was also available with a yellow background, which I would never wear. I can wear certain shades of orange, but I don't even try to wear yellow.

Now, I know I said I was only going to buy fabric for the Oakridge blouse, since I have lots of quilting cottons that I can use for the Granville blouse, but while looking for suitable fabric for Oakridge, I wandered into the clearance racks hoping to find something left over from autumn. A nice green paisley would have been right up my alley! Or a rusty orange floral! How about something, anything in eggplant or wine?

Needless to say, I didn't have any luck in the clearance section. Either they put all of those perfect autumn fabrics away for next year, someone bought them all up, or they didn't exist in the first place. I suspect that I will never know...

Fortunately, I brought the fabric requirements for the Granville blouse with me, just in case... because I'm a sucker for pretty fabric... and I found some.

It's a cotton, and it was 70% off. How could I say no? The background is black, and anyone who knows me knows how much I love to wear black... the floral pattern is bright, without being loud, and looks like a painting. I could picture this fabric as a Granville blouse, and absolutely had to have it.

In fact, I might make the Granville first, because I love this fabric so much!

Unfortunately, tomorrow I will not have any time to sew, but I will have time to print out my PDF patterns and hopefully do my FBA on at least one of them. Thursday I have a full day, so hopefully on Friday I will actually have an opportunity to do a muslin of one of these blouses, so that I can work out any bugs in the fit. I am hoping to get three blouses sewn in the next two weeks, because I need new stuff to wear!