Fabric Friday: Anna Maria Horner Festival

This lovely fabric is from Anna Maria Horner’s Good Folks range. It is called Festival in Tangerine.

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What I like about this fabric, and a lot of Anna Maria Horner’s designs, is that the pattern runs along the edges of the fabric, with a different pattern running down the centre (excuse my photos!).

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I bought a fat quarter of this fabric (about 50cm x 50cm), which was enough to make a skirt for Elora. I sewed this skirt in an hour, which is not actually very fast for making such a simple skirt, but I like to take my time to press seams and pin things carefully. Having said that, I did make a few mistakes when I was sewing, probably because I’ve not sewn for so long. For example, I didn’t realise that the centre pattern did not run evenly down the middle of the fabric, meaning that the pattern over the elastic waistband is different widths on the different sides of the skirt (nothing a t shirt won’t cover). I did not match the pattern of the fabric on my side seams (I didn’t have enough fabric and I couldn’t be bothered). I didn’t set my hem off the right spot. I did not wash the fabric prior to sewing, which is a cardinal sin of sewing! I was just too impatient to sew.

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Not only did I get to sew, but I was able to sew with Elora wide awake, thanks to a Dora DVD (I am grateful that she actually sits to watch television in small doses) and a little stool next to my sewing machine, at which she sat, watching me sew and chatting about the things on my desk (especially my pink smiggle sheep eraser) and my sewing machine and the things I was doing.

She was so excited about me making her a new skirt! As soon as I finished it, she pulled off her trousers and put the skirt on over her cumbersome cloth nappy and went to show her daddy. “Look daddy!” And she twirled around for him and smiled the biggest smile ever. And then he gave her the biggest smile ever too.