I felt really inspired during a trip to Athens, earlier this year, and determined to print a fabric featuring some of the gold charms I’d admired in a number of museums.
This fabric uses my photos of the charms (including octopuses, birds, an owl and a flower) edited onto a black background. The most difficult part was deciding on the scale of the print; in the end I opted for a size a little larger than the original charms. I printed the fabric with Contrado and used their Cottage Cotton Slub fabric, which I think pairs quite well with this pattern. The fabric has a fairly visible weave and has body without being too stiff. The cost worked out at £65 for 2.7 metres of fabric, including postage, with a discount applied. The quality of the print is good, although a lighter colour background would probably work better with such a visible weave, and there is one line on the fabric where it didn’t print correctly. I’m sure I could have raised this with Contrado but I wanted to get the dress finished and I doubt anyone except me will notice.
I decided to make a Wilder Gown, as I’ve had the pattern printed out for a few years, and it uses less fabric than other patterns I considered.
I made a size medium, but took out a little bit of ease at the seam allowances (halved the shoulder and waist seam allowances), and reduced the width of the neck tie (by 1/4) for a narrower tie.
I haven’t worn this dress much yet, but really enjoyed wearing it on a recent trip to Palermo, and I expect I’ll be wearing it lots with tights and boots (and maybe a cardi) this winter.
I was very happy to bring this idea to life, and have plans for a few customised fabrics I want to print and sew up in the next few months.
