[Sarvi]

I’m making my first 2+2 blouse and choosing a fabric for the little patch in front is making me a little nuts. It’s so small a piece, and the rest of the blouse is a plain ivory-on-ivory plaid, that this seems like a great chance to use just a snippet of something really precious, but what? It’s almost harder to choose when everything goes with it pretty well. I have another project that’s been languishing for weeks, waiting for buttons. Down the back! Which nobody will ever really look at, anyhow!

Do you get stuck on this too?

[Jane]

All the time!!!

I will have the “perfect” fabric picked out, then just before making the first cut will start to second guess my decision. Then it’s back to the fabric stash to work through the process again. In the end I usually end up back at the beginning with the first fabrics I have chosen.

With an ivory on ivory perhaps a tan or mocha color would be pretty. I think I’d keep it pretty neutral and muted.

I love seeing people use all the cute, boutique buttons but can’t bring myself to pay for some of them. So, I usually end up with simple, basic buttons from my button box.

Good luck.

Jane

http://www.NotSewPlain.blogspot.com

[meleliza]

Yes, a the time. What about when you have fabric you like for a blouse but a big enough cut for a dress, so you don’t want to “waste” it on the blouse? Or one thing would be just perfect for a dress in retrospect, but you don’t have enough?

Sarvi, that square sounds like the perfect place for a scrap of liberty. I save even the tiniest scraps of that since its so dear, thinking I could at least make buttons from it. Would be precious for the patch, bias ties and buttons to be liberty.

[with love Heidi]

I too get stuck on fabric selection. I often have the problem of ‘there’s just not enough!” or “this would be great, what goes with it?”

Sarvi, what about using the ivory plaid cut on the diagonal for the patch and ties, as a beautiful elegant ivory plaid shirt will go with so much. I do like meleliza’s idea a just a little liberty!

[Tamara]

I think alot of us have this issue. Generally the fabric “speaks to me” and I can get a good vision of how it would look. Sometimes though, I do have doubts as to how it will turn out.

Sarvi the plaid sounds adorable. What are you planning to team it with? Does she already have an ivory on ivory top in her wardrobe? Would there be enough of the prints you have in mind to make a skirt as a set or would you rather it be a mix match plain top that goes with more than just the skirt to match, or pants to match.

I like the liberty idea but I think if it were me, I’d go for the plaid on the diagonal for the tab. It would add a subtle elegance and being so small it wouldn’t take alot. This way it would be a plain-ish top that would team with just about everything and you’d have multiple sets not just one.

[Sarvi]

Thank you for all the great suggestions, ladies! I held them all up next to it and tried to imagine how they’d look. In the end I kind of combined a lot of the suggestions … A tan rectangle for the front and liberty for the ties … I have enough of the tan for a coordinating skirt. I worry that fabric buttons would be a bit bulky for the back of a lightweight blouse. They will be lovely for the skirt though!

[Sarvi]

Well…. scratch that. Between being tired and being distracted I have managed to put two big burns into this shirt as well as sewing what feels like half of it inside out, including, incredibly, the patch! How on earth is it possible to get it wrong when you’re sewing together two small rectangles? Well, it’s possible. Not going to waste any of my extra precious stuff on trim for this one, I’m afraid. I’ll just finish it up and it’ll work for school, since it already looks like most of her clothes do by 3pm. Sigh!

[meleliza]

Oh, that’s a shame. It happens to the best of us, I think. I just sewed a piece of dolly quilt together the wrong way. Twice. And the thing couldn’t be easier. Roll eyes.

[Lightning McStitch]

I have to confess I buy a lot of fabrics becauae I like them, and have no real idea what I’ll do with them. Later on I might get an idea, often from seeing what someone else has done.

Sarvi, that’s sounds an awful accident. I feel your pain as I just made a badminton skort, and before I even took a picture, A tore it trying to climb into the chook pen. It’ll need a patch, as I just don’t have the energy to replace the torn skirt panel. Daycare wear from then on….

[meleliza]

I almost don’t even want to ask, but what is a cook pen? (even the iPad don’t know, see, it corrected!)

[mkhs]

chooks are chickens

[Sarvi]

Sorry to hear it, Lightning! Happily I’m using fabrics I wasn’t incredibly attached to, but nobody like to throw good sewing time after bad 🙁