Oooooh the potential for a Liberty of London Tana Lawn Peacock dress.

I am dreaming of my yet uncreated - but much anticipatined - Liberty of London Tana Lawn Cotton Peacock Print Dress. That's a mouthful for a dress, but a beautiful mouthful. The fabric is just unbelievably lovely. This is my first Liberty of London fabric, and I am in love. Well, maybe what I am feeling is more like lust. The truth is that I just can't stop thinking about the fabric. I want to touch it, caress it, stare at it, and fawn all over it. I have the urge to skip work and instead spend a lovely summer's day cavorting with the fabric rather than being responsible. Also, I want to tell people about my fabric. I want to stand on a roof and shout to the world "I have Liberty Fabric, and I love it. I am in love!" Also, I can't wait to get the fabric all over my body. If that is not fabric love/lust, I don't know what is!

I purchased my first Liberty of London at a wonderful fabric store called Elfriede's in Boulder, Colorado on my last trip home a few weeks ago. The inventory at this local business surpasses anything I can find in San Antonio. I had a fabric-gasm when I walked it. Oh, it is lovely in there. Silks, cottons, and even beautiful synthetics. I have a bias against synthetics, but Elfriede had lovely synthetic fabrics and I almost became a convert. Elfriede, the owner, is an older German woman who was so amazingly helpful by encouraging me to touch everything by winding the fabric off the bolt to feel the drape and texture. She was positive and excited for me and my projects, and she helped me find fabric I truly adore.

Anyhow, I spend over two hundred dollars on Liberty fabric on this trip - much to the dismay of my husband - and now I am sitting on yards and yards of the beautiful fabric, just daydreaming about what I can make. I want to make dresses, and if not dresses at least skirts. For my first Liberty project, I want to use the peacock fabric picture above, with the solid silk/cotton blend I got to match. I am just not sure what pattern to use...? I have a feeling I will need to draft my own pattern by piecing together parts of different patterns. With that in mind, I purchased fourteen new patterns last week at JoAnne's during a sale, and I have been eying them all week trying to pick and choose my favorite elements.

However, in order to decide how to make the dress, I first have to decide how much of the peacock pattern I am comfortable wearing. I find the colors and content of the fabric very classy. However, I recognize that is is also a very busy looking pattern. At the same time, the symmetry of the feathers almost makes a stripe, which sort of tones down the busyness. To get a better idea of what I mean, view the fabric modeled on a real live women by clicking here. Granted, she is wearing pajamas, not the beautiful retro inspired dress I imagine making, but it will give you an idea for the scale and business of the fabric.

My contrast fabric is a jewel-toned blue blend of silk and cotton. I am thinking about a two-toned dress, part sold and part pattern. Look at the black and white dress on the far right of the Butterick pattern below for an example of my idea. I see creating a dress with contrast at the neck and skirt hem. But the questions is, do I put the solid color by my face and the pattern on my body? Or do I put the solid on my body and the pattern at the hem? Which will be most flattering? I bought the below Simplicity pattern as a starting point, and I may mock up my options this weekend.

Other ideas include doing this Vogue 1043 vintage reissue pattern in the peacock print, but substituting the standard hem for a large (12 inches +) hem of solid blue to look something like version B of this Butterick pattern, and perhaps creating a blue sash for the waist as well. Or maybe I should opt for a classic duro style dress that seem to be all the rage for home sewers. I am just afraid all the color blocking on the chest will make my ample rack look huge and misshapen.

I would LOVE to make a dress like this one, with a solid in the light area and the peacock pattern in the green areas. How beautiful. Alas, I will save the drafting of this pattern for a time in the future when I have much more experience.

In the meantime, does anybody have any thoughts? I am open to new pattern suggestions, combo alternatives, and general suggestions. I want my first Liberty of London Tana Lawn dress to remain as lustful and enticing in its dress form as it was on the bolt!