The Late Night Sewist

As promised, I will give an overview of my little fabric shopping in Helsinki over the last weekend of Feburary.

As I didn’t want to overwhelm my friend Triin, I just visited the tried and tested Eurokangas in the center of the city. It is the same shop I bought the super cool Cavalli fabric from last spring. I have actually started sewing that dress too, but made a mistake with the pattern choice and now I have to work my way around it somehow, hopefully sooner than later, because it is just too beautiful. But i digress.

So, I got really lucky this time in Helsinki too.

Altogether I got four fabrics, the first one being a pale pink poodle print silk crepe. It is very lightweight and a little transparent, but I think it will make a fun blouse. I am planning to use the same Patrones pattern as for the Chain Print Blouse , but make the necktie and cuffs in black silk, which I also already got from Helsinki.

As the tag said “designer silk” or something like that, I tried to find more information online and to my big surprise stumbled upon a blog post featuring a vintage Escada top in the exact same print and shade, in silk satin. I wonder if there is a connection with my fabric.

Secondly, I bought a wonderful shade of lace print polyester (actually I am not 100% sure, I might make a burn test to reveal its true nature, since I suspect it being silk, too).

I just love this shade of green, I have several matching shoes and boots and as always, I already have a certain idea how to use this print. Just back at home I realized that I need more of this fabric, since the lace print requires special pattern placement. Luckily, I will be back in Helsinki for work this week and I hope to be able to find more of that fabric, otherwise I have to rethink the project.

The best find in my opinion was this wonderful Just Cavalli polyester print:

The print repeat for this beautiful thing is 1,55 m, and I only got one length, hoping to squeeze a blouse out of it, using the big design in front and if necessary, making the back out of a different material. This will be a challenging project and I have vowed to finish the Cavalli dress first to have a clear conscience.

There is also a fun fact about the fabric. As we visited the modern art museum Kiasma, I noticed a calendar for sale in their museum shop. What caught my attention was the wave print on the front cover (picture from calendars.com):

And this is how I learned for the first time about Katsushika Hokusai (1760 – 1849), “one of the last great artists of the Japanese Ukiyo-e tradition of the Edo period. His world famous image of the wave and other woodblock prints influenced a whole generation of modern painters because of the uniqueness of perspective and form”.

I have to admit I didn’t know anything about this world famous artist and his prints, but I think it was a great way to find out 🙂 In the first photo of this post you can see me unrolling another beautiful Hokousai-inspired Cavalli fabric, but I am not a big fan of pale yellow, so I left this one behind.

The fourth fabric is a simple dark blue ponte that will beome a skirt to match some tops I have recently made, including the Plaid Peplum Bustier and Cross Stitch Rose Top. Unfortunately the photo doesn’t do it justice, the colour  appears much lighter:

Now I am all excited to start working on the fabrics. I still haven’t touched the ones I got from Rome, either, so lots of projects in my head!

In addition to fabric shopping and modern art, we went to a classical music concert and to a tango evening with Argentinian songs, music and unbelievable tango dancers.This week’s trip will be work related, but I will have a moment to hop by the fabric shop as well.

 And I can’t wait to meet Triin again!