Poppies and Lemon Blossoms!

Friends, do you remember this lemon print cotton I purchased last August?

It's pretty fabric but I wasn't sure what to do with it -- I have two yards and it's about 44 inches wide.  It found it on eBay and it shipped directly from China.  It's isn't great quality but it's certainly usable.  Today I decided to make a shirt with it.

Since the fabric's kind of thin and I'm making a convertible collar (Aloha style) shirt with fold-back facings, I needed to make sure the print wouldn't show through the two layers.  I decided to interface the facings with a sturdy woven cotton from my stash rather than fusible, and I'll do the same with the yoke and collar.  So far it seems to be working out.  I'm hoping to finish the shirt tomorrow.

The other project I plant to start this week is a poppy print windbreaker. Here's the backstory:

I was walking through this upscale shopping mall, Brookfield Place, last week, and passed by a Louis Vuitton store, in whose window I saw this cute men's anorak made from a Wizard of Oz poppy print.

This is how the same jacket looked in the LV Spring 2019 runway show:

I looked it up online and found it on the LV website (below).  That's not a typo: it costs $3,850! Don't you think that's a bit much for a windbreaker?

I thought I might be able to find a similar fabric and knock it off.  Lo and behold, on eBay I discovered this Wizard of Oz-branded poppy-print quilting cotton by Timeless Treasures.  The design has been retired but someone was selling 2 1/2" yards of it, which I nabbed for less than 1% of the cost of the Louis Vuitton original.

I received the fabric yesterday and laundered it today. 

Now it's obviously not the same fabric but it's close enough. If I'm going to make outwear with it I'll want to underline it with something a little sturdier since it's a little on the thin side for a jacket.

Luckily the poppies didn't put Freddy and Willy to sleep!

Coincidentally, I think it coordinates nicely with my lemon print.  So maybe instead of an anorak -- I'm not a big fan of outerwear I have to pull over my head -- I'll make some sort of work jacket or jeans-style jacket I can wear over the lemon print.  We'll see.

Either way, I'll have some summery new togs to wear as the weather warms up!

Happy sewing, everybody!