Challenge - A Border Print Katie

One of the things that was different about Carriage Corner Sew Camp this time, was that we all received three yards of fabric from Fabric Mart for a sewing challenge. Prior to Camp, Gaylen presented the attendees with three choices and we voted on which fabric we liked.

The majority of us chose this Milly border print.  It was waiting for us with our other swag items from camp. We had 30 days (end of July) to come up with a garment using the challenge fabric. Honestly, the fabric was different than what I thought it would be and initially had a creative block on how I'd use it.

However, I did know I wanted to use as much of the daisy print as possible. So after thinking about it and seeing other sewing camper's garments, I went with the Katie top. Why? Because it allowed me to use most of the daisy print.

After all of the fussy cutting I ended up with just scraps of the fabric...

Supplies ~
3 yards of Milly border print from Fabric Mart
8 clear & black 5/8" buttons from Joyce Trimmings
black 'n white plaid bias binding from Home Sew
Interfacing from Steinlauf & Stoeller

Some Sewing Info ~
There are no new sewing techniques in this shirt. However, I want to emphasize the binding on the pockets. It came about because I was too lazy to change the serger thread. Seriously!  So I looked for something to bind the pockets and remembered that I'd bought hanks of bias binding back in April. It was perfect to add to the pockets and gave the innards some shuzz!

The fussy cutting of the border print added to some of the elements I like in this garment. Both the front and back facings were cut beneath the hemlines of the front and back pattern pieces.  That way the facings match the outside of the fabric perfectly ~ another aspect that thrills me. Okay I actually did the joy-joy dance when this worked out.

One more sewing thing...if you know me, you know I'm anal about changing my thread colors on my serger and during construction. I was just as deliberate about alternating the white and black threads on the sleeve as well as the facing hemlines. No one will probably even notice. That's because there's no white threads glaring against the black fade or black threads running through the white background.

I also love how the black fade plays on the sides of the top highlighting the border print. Honestly, that black fade was what stymied me when I first got the fabric, so I'm thrilled to have made it work.

This fabric plus this pattern made the perfect top! This is my fifth Katie and I'm thrilled that I've revisited this top with this fabric! 

So a few pictures ~

This was a fun challenge!  It made me think and stretched me creatively to make the best use of the fabric.  I hope you will follow my sewing sistahs to see what they did with their fabric, Gaylen, LaQuana, Cennetta, Bonnie, Andrea, Marji and Barbara. Hopefully, Gaylen will share all of the photos including the sewing sisters who don't have social media accounts. There is an amazingly creativite use of the fabric amongst my sewing sisters!

...as always more later!