Laura has made this gorgeous Liberty Vintage Pinafore using one of the recently launched quilting cottons. She’s used Lawn A from the new Winterbourne collection. It’s got a lovely vintage feel and it really showcases the use of a quilting cotton in a garment.
Here’s what Laura had to say about the project.”I have long thought that Liberty’s quilting cotton would also be suited to garment making (though the name of the fabric itself implies just the one end-use). Specifically, garments that require a little more warmth or garments that benefit from having more structure, like this pinafore. The quilting cotton does not have as much drape as the Tana Lawn does so a garment without too many frills was ideal. I also don’t own a single pinafore and have wayyyyyyyyy too many blouses I just don’t wear because I’m married to dresses the whole year around no matter the weather- guilty! I don’t know why I haven’t worn one before, pinafores are basically dresses anyway, just without the sleeves and full-coverage-on-top part of things. So this is my effort to finally dig up some pretty blouses from the back of my closet. Well, I’ll get to the blouses in a months time maybe once it is warmer, for now it’ll be strictly jumpers underneath. Bye bye winter, hello spring!”
“The new Liberty ‘Winterbourne’ Quilting Cotton collection has such a lovely colour palette of teals, navys, greys, pinks and rich berry tones, it was so so hard to choose which print to use, I wanted them all! I had to keep my ‘it has to pair well with the different light coloured blouses in my closet’ goal in mind as this led me to the darker fabrics in the collection. You can’t go wrong with pairing lights with darks, right? I was especially drawn to the hand painted flowers that dance across the fabric in this Winterbourne Lawn A print. This colour way has fine green leaves, sweet cornflower blue accents and just a sprinkle of light pink in the pointed flower petals – it is so delicate and lovely! I honestly cannot decide if the background of this colour way is black or rather an incredibly deep blue but either way, it was perfect for my needs. Liberty have also designed a dark teal and a soft grey colour way of Winterbourne Lawn which are equally as beautiful. The print Winterbourne Bouquet has similar but larger hand painted flowers collected together in bunches and would also wonderfully compliment any of the Winterbourne Lawn prints.”
“I was researching pinafores from the 1960s and 70s to help inform how I made my own. The deep V formed by the thicker straps on the front and back are a direct reference to those pinafores. This one doesn’t have a zip or button closure, instead it has elasticated sections at the sides which serve multiple purposes. Not only do they make it easier to take on and off, they also help the skirt grip as close to the body as it can even when bulkier jumpers or thinner blouses are worn underneath. These elastic sections also help create the illusion that the gathers continue the full way around the skirt, rather than just on the front and back where the straps meet the skirt section. I’m quite proud of these can you tell? For unknown reasons I got a bit grumpy-child-stamping-her-foot about not having a usual band waistband so working out how to achieve it even with the gathers was a happy moment.”
“Plain Black F Tana Lawn was used as the lining on the straps so as to conceal the wrong side of the quilting cotton, which is much lighter than its front side. Tana Lawn is of course great for linings as it has a lovely feel and the new plain range comes in such a varied rainbow of colours and shades. I’m sure you could find one to match almost every project!”
“I encourage anyone to give LIberty’s Quilting Cotton ranges a chance at more than just quilting, I think you will be pleased you did so. I can’t wait to finally give my blouses more love by pairing them with this cute pinafore. See you in spring!”
Hopefully, this will have inspired you to stay calm and sew. These are crazy times we are living in at the moment and I know that sewing will give great comfort to so many of us whilst we are less mobile and having to reign in our social gatherings! Stay healthy everyone xxx
