Sewcial Butterfly

 Last weekend I attended a meet up of local (VA, MD) bloggers and sewists.   You have probably already read about it on the blogs of other attendees.   It was organized by Lisa, another  Richmond, VA blogger.  I have read her blog for several years, but never met her in person.  We drove up to MD together and the two hour drive gave us time to get acquainted. She gave me new sources for patterns and the scarf  she was wearing ( her own design) was a wonderful holiday gift idea.   Robin hosted the get together in her home.  We had a fantastic time talking about all things sewing and  blogging.   Robin told us more about her New York Vogue magazine editor experience and we had a good laugh about the props and poses Vogue magazine has used recently in their photo shoots.  You know the ones I mean,  the giant leaves and odd poses in front of a big picture windows. I had hoped Trena would share her organizational  secrets. The ones  that enable  her to sew so many great garments, write in depth blog posts and reviews, and work a full time job.  And then I find out from cidell ( who was rockin a purple shift dress)  that Trena  also finds time to read and review books too. I am in awe. Just about everyone wore something they had sewn and we got to see and touch garments  that we had seen on blog posts.  Robin couldn’t wear her wonderful Style Arc coat indoors, but we convinced her to leave her coat closet door open so everyone could see it as they came in the door.  We all brought patterns and fabrics for a swap.  Though the piles of fabric and patterns were impressively large,  I was very good and only walked away with one length of fabric and 3 patterns.

I wore a new blouse to the meet up.   I wear a lot of blouses and decided recently to update my wardrobe with a couple of new ones. While browsing the blouses on high end Internet shops,  I was attracted to loose fitting tunics, in large scale print fabrics, with contrasting plackets and collars. 

Inspiration - Tinley blouse

Vogue pattern 1323, a Rachel Comey design,  had similar style details.

Vogue 1323

 Last year, Vogue magazine featured garments made from silk butterfly prints. I loved them.  G Street Fabrics has  several of them,  but with prices way too high for my budget.

  The butterfly prints remind me of an amazing incident that happened 20 years ago. DH and I were staying at a Bed and Breakfast in Berlin, MD. There were fig trees, the 4 ft tall variety,  growing along the side of the B&B.  As we came back from our afternoon walk, we saw the trees were covered  with hundreds of dark blue iridescent butterflies feasting on the overripe fruit, their wings slowly moving in the sunlight. It was a magical sight. I wish I had had a camera.When I saw a 1.8 yard length of silk butterfly print for sale at a very reasonable price on Etsy.com, I hit the "buy now" button.

Construction  details - I lengthened the shirt by three inches. The original length was a bit short for me.  I narrowed the shoulders about half an inch and took the side seams in about an  inch. Normal changes for me with unfitted garment styles. While I like tunic styles, they can easily overwhelm my body shape if they have too much ease. The placket collar and cuff in black fabric give the eye somewhere to focus/rest on when looking at the very busy print.

Vogue 1323 in butterfly print silk

  It is a fun top to wear and I  get  lots of comments and smiles on the butterflies.