Blog tour: Maai Design and Soft Cactus

When Maike from Maai Design asked me if I would like to be part of her blog tour to promote the collection of European brand Soft Cactus fabrics I jumped at the chance, I mean I get to make something with pretty fabric? Count me in (I believe this may have been my exact response to her initial email haha.)

Maike’s shop is so well set out with gorgeous photos of both the fabric and some sample garments plus she has also included what co ordinates perfectly with the fabric. The hardest decision was by far choosing a print from the range, the prints, the colours they are all just Devine in the end I couldn’t decide I wanted them all. So I pulled out the big guns, I asked the husband to choose for me haha. His choice was the Skewed cubes in navy and some piping.

It’s not very often that I purchase fabric with out a plan in mind, let alone let my husband choose, but really since I loved everything I saw I knew he couldn’t really go wrong.

The fabric itself is gorgeous, the “skewed cube” print has a modern geometric lace look to me the feel of it is soft and almost feels cozy to touch but still has a nice light airy feel to it, even after washing it still felt just as lovely. The only thing that threw me was the colour, I didn’t realise that the fabric is actually navy and a super light Aqua color not white. It is clearly listed as navy and Aqua on the website, but obviously I missed that part when The purchase was made. So my Initial plan of a white contrast went out the window, but a quick trip to the fabric store saw me come away with some lovely mint coloured poplin to use instead.

The pattern is the now out of print Vogue 8280 and is well known for its instructions or lack there of, by sticking to the sleeveless version and referring back to my pattern notes from my wing song dress (thank you past Suzanne) I managed to avoid too much confusion and seam ripping. And the shoes, well they are just fabulous and match the dress perfectly…

Like with my Wind song  version, I pattern hacked the back of the pattern so that the contrast carried across the back of the dress instead of finishing at the shoulder and side seams Like in the original. To do is I lined up where the flange met the side seam and drew a line straight across from the bottom of the flange across the back pattern piece and then slashed and added a small seam allowance so that it old all would match up to the back.

I then added the yellow piping around the neckline and across the back where the contrast and main fabric met, I really like how this came out I just love the pop of yellow. I also stitched down the flanges to stop them from sticking out like my other versions of the pattern.

For the skirt, I used a self drafted half circle skirt, another thing I love about the soft cactus range of fabric is that it is wide! Meaning that you get a lot more bang for your buck, and you can cut a circle skirt on the fold, pure awesomeness if you ask me!

After attaching the skirt to the bodice, I thought that something was still missing. While pondering on it, the husband suggested adding piping to the hem so that the yellow wasn’t all at the top of the dress. I think he is getting pretty good at this dressmaking stuff 😉 . To attach the piping I lined up the raw edges of my hem and the piping tape then stitched as close as possible to the piping using my zipper foot. Then, I folded up my seam allowance (which was the width of the piping tape ) and stitched my hem. I would have liked to have ran it through my overlocker by with it currently out of action I couldn’t. The dress was finished off with an exposed zipper.

 

I really like how this all came together. The fabric is just to die for and definitely the star of this one. I can see myself working my way through the entire range of soft cactus fabrics, and then maybe even moving on to the knit range too (yes you heard right, there is a knit range of fabrics too ) If you would like to try out the fabric range for yourself Maai design is offering a 10% discount valid until March 26th 2016, just enter the discount code maaidesign10% at the checkout and find out for yourself how lovely this range really is.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/60932701@N02/25497914322/in/album-72157644914791453/

March 8th – Suz from Sewpony

March 9th – Caroline from UsefulBox

March 10th – Kate from Sewing With Kate

March 11th – Allison from The Tall Mama

March 12th – Suzanne from Dressed in pretty little things

March 13th – Toni from Make It Perfect

March 14th – Natalie from Sew Outnumbered

March 15th – Jenya from While she was sleeping

March 16th – Nicola from Create.nic

March 17th – Shelley from Bartacks and Singletracks

March 18th – Maaike from