I mentioned in the last Vera post that I had bought some pink floral 100% cotton. I'd been getting advertisements from G.K. Fashion Fabrics on Facebook, and I spent A LOT of time looking at all their lightweight dress fabrics. They have one line that really caught my eye, "100% Cotton Loom Line". There are so many pattern collections in that line, and I spent forever trying to find the perfect pink floral because I have this wonderful rayon sundress I want to replicate.
I finally decided on the Candy Pink from the Wild Hibiscus group. Totally me, right?! There's a couple pictures of the Candy Pink. I did feel it wasn't as colourful as I wanted, but I couldn't find something with more colour that was affordable. Take a look at those sample pictures. In the first two, look closely along the bottom of the picture. Do you see it? No? I didn't either.
I washed the fabric, and ironed all several meters of it. Then I stretched it out on my table to start cutting. Then I saw it. There was a solid black flower, repeating across the width, and down the length!
That doesn't look right, does it? It's a single black layer, with no detail over top.
Due to the repeating nature of it, it was basically impossible to lay out the full front piece without having those black flowers showing! I was gutted! Who thought solid black flowers on a pattern of pink flowers with layers of detail, was a good idea?
I had to re-evaluate my design plans. I have the
Simplicity 2938 that I had just made as a top that I thought maybe I could alter. Not sure why I didn't think it'd work. I was also considering another one but I hadn't made it in my current size. I eventually went with the 2938, but I added extra in the middle with the plan to do gathers.
However, they were too bulky and even though I spent a GOOD amount of time folding them, and pressing and pinning, I wasn't happy once I stitched them.
I decided to do pin tucks. I think I hadn't done that before. I opted to take them down past my bust.
I'm not sure what I'm showing. I think I melted the interfacing or something dumb again.
Not sure what that's about either. This was almost two months ago! It was a lovely fabric to work with, a nice change from all the crappy fabrics I had been using. Most of it went together really well though my bottom edge was all different lengths for some reason.
Here's an actual hibiscus on the Sandals Negril resort grounds!
Here's the final dress. I made a sash with the scraps. I don't think it does anything to define my waist, since I don't have one to begin with LOL. I'm pretty happy with it, and how I was able to still make basically what I wanted even though the fabric tried to thwart me.
Speaking of thwarting....we noticed this little crab, probably the first day at Sandals Negril. He had made a little home in the grass near Brava. One day we walked by, and someone had filled in the hole! But a day or so later, he was back!
When I got back from the trip, something was wrong with my ear, which then turned into a sinus infection and it hung around for a LONG time. Like, 6+ weeks, three different antibiotics. Still not 100% better. But, I emailed GK Fashion Fabrics to express my unhappiness with the fabric print.
They answered back saying you can see the black flowers in the sample online, and other colourways have a similar spot, and it's their top selling pattern, so basically, it's me that has a problem, not the fabric. Not what I was expecting. I decided to look closer at the different colourways.
The red circles are the corresponding flowers that were black on the pink fabric. On the black fabric, they don't show up (or it was very faint). On the cream fabric, they also don't show up. On the blue and the teal, you can see the flower blobs, but they're blue, so they blend in better--but are still the only flower with no detail.
The white circles are the same flower shape (the artist uses copy and paste to create the flowers), but you can see those flowers are not a solid blob, but have a layer of a light colour with details that reveal the dark first layer.
I am 100% sure the red circles should have that same top detail layer in the second colour. Whether it's the artist's fault, or the fabric printer's fault--I can't determine that. I can just say that it created more work for me, I was disappointed with the store's response, and I will 100% make sure I go over any sample photos with a fine tooth comb in the future. I really liked the fabric! I also liked that they sent some sample swatches--some of which I'll probably be buying! They also don't include a packing slip or receipt--I couldn't find a copy of my order anywhere, so take screenshots when checking out. Of course, if you're in the Toronto area, just go to the retail location!
