Cat's Cradle (+ give away)

SewingPortfolios.com gave me the opportunity to work with gorgeous Michael Miller fabric from the Cat's Cradle line.
The whole line has been fairy dusted with golden metallic details. 

Can you already see those stars reflected in the eyes of a little girl?

The Team members got to sew a few projects with full creative freedom. The only true limit to my creativity was my daughter's taste. She loved both Starbrites right away, but the Love Lines don't feature her favorite colors. 

That means I got to keep that one for myself: YAY!

I chose to work with free patterns. With these, you can make totally free projects if you are the lucky winner of the fabric give-away!
(at the end of this post)

Starbrite navy: fancy gathered skirt

I used a Dutch tutorial by Seija to make this gathered skirt. The pattern for a gathered skirt like this is pretty simple.
Cut one or 2 rectangles with the desired length (+ seam and hem allowance) and you're done! If you choose to get a full skirt like the one 1 made, you need 2 times the fabric width. All that's left is gathering, stitching it together and hemming. A very easy project, but fabric like this does not ask for fancy patterns. There is enough star quality in there to let even the most simple projects shine!

I'll posting on fancy gathered skirts in a few days, to explain how to get a non itching seam at the elastic and nicely finished hem. I finished this skirt with bias binding on the inside. My test skirt had a less prominent fabric, so I worked with piping on that one.

With all the golden bling, the skirt fits in any starlet's closet. 

My daughter is no fan of woven tops, so I added a little wink to the Love Lines on a plain white T-shirt.

I got one more starbrite sample (aqua). I'll be making a dress with that one, so stay tuned if you want to get a look at more Cat's Cradle fun. With the weather being so rainy the last few days, it looks like I missed my window for a summer dress though.

Love Lines: Fynn bag

Cat's Cradle has 2 versions of Love Lines. I got lucky and got my favorite: the blue and gold one.
I love it. My daughter did not like it, so it was ALL MINE!
Those fragile lines are pretty just the way they are, but they were challenging me to step beyond that.
I saw a chevron in my mind and looked for a pattern to match that vision.

I chose another free pattern by Fynn. She's a Belgian sewing book author (Mijn Tas & Mijn Designertas). As far as I know the books have not been translated in English, but the pictures are so detailed you probably won't even need a translation. Check out her free tutorial and pattern here for a sample of the detail.

The original Fynn-bag has a flap with rounded corners that didn't go well with the chevron, so i tweaked it a little. Cutting the chevron was more challenging than I had anticipated. Those narrow lines between the gold and the navy broad ones are the same on both sides. So it's not just mirroring the pattern piece. I took me a quite a while to figure out how to make the lines match. I went with the very scientific  methode of "trial and error". Basically you draw the line pattern on one of the paper pattern pieces and try different directions until you get the match you are looking for.
Making the incisions for the magnetic snap button in the finished flap was pretty terrifying.

I used Vilene H640 on the outer fabric for softness and Decovil light on the lining for a firmly standing purse. I added a zipper pouch on the inside to hold my phone and little lanyard for my keys.
This bag is definitely an addition to my GUTA challenge.

Did you notice the little bright stars hiding in the pocket?

Do you want to get opportunities like this one too?
Visit SewingPortfolios.com !
The website is completely free and you get so many opportunities there to show your sewing skills.

Are you more interested in this line of fabric in particular?
Hurry up and get some entries in the Rafflecopter giveaway (hosted by SewingPortofolios.com)
One lucky winner will get every print in this collection!

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a Rafflecopter giveaway

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