Enter stage right – Monday – full of after school swimming lessons and general busy-ness, newly finished dresses and previous days of unpredictable rain. Enter stage left – Me – with a rushed plan to fit a photoshoot right smack in the center of it all (before it rained again!). Any guesses to how it went? Lol. Thankfully, after a bit of a rough start (followed by a few minutes of silly selfies), we all got our act together. Whew!
Today is my turn on the Art Gallery Fabrics tour for Katarina Roccella‘s recent collection – inBlue. Aside from my excitement at being asked to show off this beautiful fabric, I’m so pleased that you get a chance to win the Pollywoggles Pattern I used and lots more in the giveaway at the end of this post!
Art Gallery Fabrics provided these Katarina Roccella fabrics and sponsored this post. Pollywoggles Patterns also provided their Primrose Anne pdf dress pattern. My opinions are always my own. Thank you for reading!
First, I have to say my girls and I LOVE these dresses so much! The sweet florals and thoughtful design – I love Katarina Roccella’s design style and my girls do too.
The Bloesem Sweet floral was an instant hit with my oldest and suits her dress well as the main fabric. We used the Bloesem Royal and Chinoiserie Kobalt in the ruffles to highlight and offset it. The little one loves blue, and as we mused over (the many!) she wanted, came back to the light blue backed hot air balloons from Fly Away Laat. Two tiny florals, Weide in Blue and Rose finished it well pulling the corally-pink colour out. I had such a hard time deciding which balloons to feature on her bodice front – did you see the swan balloon?! There were fun surprises hiding throughout this print.
Fabric Quality: I am also glad to write a glowing review of these woven Art Gallery Fabrics. They provide, hands-down, the best quilting cotton to use for sewing apparel. (And I already knew this!) Lately, the trend has been to use apparel fabrics for garment sewing and leave quilting cotton for quilts and other projects. No need here – AGF woven cotton has great drape, feels amazing and behaves beautifully in garment projects.
Sewing Pattern: This is the Primrose Anne pdf pattern from Candian pattern designer Pollywoggles Patterns. I sewed her kids’ robe pattern earlier this year and was so impressed with the instructions that I asked to use this pattern when AGF emailed about their tour. (Thankfully Heidi said yes!)
I think my favorite part of the dress is the back bow and clever strap construction. Close second, though, are the tiered bottom ruffles – which I think match the spirit of Katarina Roccella’s fabric – and look so pretty on the girls. The minute they put the dresses on you could see they felt great in them. Lots of twirling to be had! And speaking of ruffles, I was super grateful for the rolled hemming foot (included with my on-loan Janome Skyline S9) when I needed to hem the 7 yards of ruffles per dress!
In fairness to Heidi’s original pattern, I did alter one dress from the intended tea length. My youngest is going through a “maxi dress please mommy, so they can’t see my shoes” phase! The elastic back bodice makes this dress really easy to fit and should allow it to fit the girls longer as well.
I’m getting long-winded, so I’ll end with the giveaway and ask you for your thoughts. (Plus, take a look through the tour links below – so much great inspiration and options for boys as well!)
What your thoughts are on the fabrics and dresses? How do you approach your garment projects? And have you ever been in a hot air balloon?
Tour Schedule
Monday
Tuesday
Coffee and Thread – Handmade Frenzy
Wednesday
Sunflower Seams – Handmade Boy
Thursday
Thread Riding Hood – Pear Berry Lane
Friday
Ammon Lane – Sew and Tell Project
Sherri, First of all those girls are so precious!!
Love the ruffles on the dresses…and thats how I approach sewing for me and my dresses. I’m adding a bias cut tulip hem to many of mine to lengthen.
Hot air balloon…..no but one of my sisters has and she was litterally over th emoon w/that ride.
The entire InBlue collection is now my favorite color combo. Chinoiserie Kobalt is so so soothing and I adore it on that ruffle! Yes you are so right, AGF cottons have that perfect drape for dresses and tops and skirts. THank you so much for all your inspiration.
Yay, thanks so much Diane. The tulip hem would be really pretty – great idea 🙂 Your sister is so lucky! I’m so glad you love the collection – it was fun to play with and now I’ve got some scraps that will be hoarded for the perfect project too!
Sherri,
Thank you so much for joining! Your detail shots were fantastic and your dresses are lovely. I know all about beating the rain as I’ve had a ton this spring.
Thanks so much for the amazing tour Cassy! It’s been so fun to join in and see what everyone has made 🙂 Your girls are gorgeous (and the outfits you made too!)
From one Sherri with an i to another!! First, these are really cute. Looks like you guys had a fun shoot. Second, seeing that size tag in the one picture reminded me I wanted to look into those! Do you have a great source for those or suggestions?
Woohoo! It’s so rare that I find someone with the same spelling #greatminds! Thanks so much 🙂 I made the tags with some twill tape and my on-loan Janome Skyline S9 machine. I’ve also used fabric pens and ribbon in the past, or rubber stamps work too!
Very cute- dresses and girls!! Thanks for sharing and the giveaway, I have never used AGFs but am willing to try.
cork@pa.rr.com
I’m glad you like them 🙂 Thank you! AGF fabric just feels amazing – you’ll love it!
Your girls are adorable. Too cute. Great photo shoot. Love the fabric line. The blues are so soft and dreamy. I have a two year old niece I would love to make this dress for. Never been in a hot air balloon but it sounds exciting.
Thanks so much Sam! I haven’t been in a hot air balloon either – but I agree with you!
The dresses are gorgeous! I also love AGF fabrics! I’ve never been in a hot air balloon and don’t think I ever will – I’m not good with heights at all.
Eeep Rebecca, heights and balloons would NOT mix! Yikes! (and Thank you!)
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Absolutely love the dresses, pattern and girls in them! Super job mom! from your mom
Thanks mom! The girls thankfully think so too! 🙂
Hi Sherri,
Love this pattern 😉 Your beautiful girls and their smiles made my day. Love the pixie cut on your wee little 😉 Did you really need 7 yds. of fabric per dress? My wee granddaughters would love this dress but the yardage, yikes!
My sewing room is in motion in our new home in Waterloo. I am making Jelly Clip Purses for the girls.
Will it ever warm up in Ontario? Take care.
Hi Ann! How’s your summer going? The new sewing room sounds lovely – glad you are finally in and using it! The youngest surprised us all at the last haircut and decided to chop it. Can’t complain – there aren’t any tears over tangles in the morning anymore 🙂 Don’t worry about the yardage – it’s only for the ruffles, so it’s cut in 4″ or 6″ heights – only a small amount, but you sew them together into a longer tube to make the ruffles. They’d love one of these for sure!