My Liberty Wardrobe
“I really love this fabric but am not quite sure what to make with it.” Does this resonate with you? If so, join us as Amy Long, Liberty fan and avid sewist, shows us her Liberty wardrobe and shares with us how she pairs the Liberty prints with sewing patterns.
Amy, can you share with us why you love working with Liberty fabrics?
There’s nothing like sewing with Tana Lawn! It’s fluid like silk, yet has all the handling ease of cotton – no fraying or slipping to worry about. It’s also perfect for our weather, since it’s both very light yet completely opaque, so there is never a need for lining. And of course, there are a million delightful colors and prints to explore. I love how the collection can be very floral and soft, but bold and geometric too.
You always seem to have the perfect fabric choice with the perfect pattern! How do you do it?
Thank you! I always keep a visual library of patterns I like to sew in my IG bookmarks and Pinterest – ideas that are looking for the right fabric (and frame of mind) to execute it. So when I see a print that piques my interest, I quickly run through this index of patterns to see what might be a good match.
I think about what feeling I want to get from the garment – is it a playful and frisky outfit? Sweet and soft, or sweet and flirty? Sophisticated? Bold? – and imagine if I’ll get the effect with the two together. Color, scale of the print, and type of print all come into play. The good thing is Tana Lawn is a team player – it’s sufficiently crisp to work for garments with clean lines, and soft enough to work for romantic garments.
Lastly, I think about if this is accretive to my wardrobe and sewing practice – is this project adding a materially new look or new skill? Do I get super excited and want to shelve my (ever-growing) queue of projects to work on this? If it makes you super excited, you know it’s a good match!
