Fabric from China

Following on from my recent post about fabric shopping in China, this is just a brief summary of what we picked up on holiday, as promised!

My first purchase was this beautiful silk from Beijing. I liked it because it’s a slightly more modern take on a traditional floral print. I suspect it is a digital print but I love the different greens in the silk. It isn’t the best photo I’m afraid because of the lighting in my sewing room but it is a gorgeous grassy green base in real life! I only bought a metre but I don’t have anything in mind for it – maybe a simple cami top or some luxury pyjamas (the Tilly and the Buttons Fifi pattern might work).

My next purchase was in Wuhan and I picked up this crisp, summery white and neon print cotton. I think this will probably be another Sewaholic Granville shirt, but this time with little sleeves? I picked it because I loved the little pop of neon orange in the print.

My final two purchases were from Shanghai. The first was this mid-weight crepe with a sort of Chinese/Japanese traditional print of flowers and lanterns. This currently destined to be a kimono type cover-up but I’m not certain how much wear that would get and I wonder if a more simple shell top like New Look 6217 might be better to make the most of the print.

The final purchase was this incredible sequinned tulle net that some of you may have already seen on my instagram posts from the Dressmakers Ball a couple of weeks ago! I saw it and I had to have it. It has a black background with beautiful turquoise blue and rust orange sequinned decoration in what I think is an underwater coral-type design. When I realised how cheap it was (£2.27 a metre – I know!!!) I snapped up 3 metres. I’d gone away with one dress in mind for the ball, and came home with another dress entirely! I’ll show you all the dress I made using it in my next post.

If you have any suggestions on what I could make with the silk, cotton and crepe I bought, let me know in the comments!

 

Advertisement