A Parade of Painted Portraits

I love the Painted Portrait pattern from Anna Maria Horner. I first made it when she came to visit last August and I have now made 4 of them! It is a versatile pattern that can be made as a sleeveless or sleeved top or dress. It can have a pieced bodice or plain bodice. No matter how you make it, I promise you will love it.

My most recent Painted Portrait is done up in a Nani Iro double gauze. This soft print is classic Nani Iro style and makes a great top.

This Painted Portrait features a contrast bodice of Anna Maria Horner's Crossing Paths fabric paired with a deep indigo voile. My dream is to one day embroider over the stitch design of the bodice fabric with bright pops of color...one day.

The Painted Portrait dress is brilliant because of these huge pockets! Dresses with pockets rule and I love that these are a fun design element of the garment. Thanks Anna, for making such an awesome pattern. I'm sure I'll sew up some sleeveless ones for summertime.

Field Study Craft Crunch!

As you probably know if you're a blog reader, we just had the amazing Anna Maria Horner visit us here at Fancy Tiger Crafts. Her brand new collection, Field Study arrived a couple of days early so of course Amber and I had to whip up some new outfits.

Anna sent a trunk show for her events full of samples sewn up in her new fabrics. I might have tried on the "Painted Portrait Blouse" she sent that was sewn up as a sleeveless pocketed dress. I knew immediately that I had to make one. This pattern is awesome and I had already made another version of it, a long-sleeved blouse. There are at least 12 different ways you could sew this pattern up so this time I made exactly what she sent with the trunk show. SO CUTE!

I choose one of my favorite prints from this collection, Coordinates in Midnight. Start to finish this dress took about 5 hours - it was serious craft crunch time getting it done in time for Anna's arrival. It turned out beautifully.

 
I love it. It looks great and feels comfortable to wear. The pockets are amazing - not only do they add an interesting visual element, but I can have my lipgloss and phone on me at all times. This dress is going to look great over leggings in cooler months with a cute cardigan thrown over it so I'm looking forward to wearing this one for a while.

Amber used the fantastic "fine feathered" print from Field Study to make this Wiksten Tank "Tee". After already making four Wiksten Tanks, she changed this one up a bit by adding short sleeves and bright blue piping to it. Perfect!

To add these cutie sleeves to her tank she used both the Wiksten Tank and Wiksten Tova patterns--creating a short version of the Tova sleeve pattern piece and substituting the armhole from the Tova, drawing it over the Tank armhole.

Emily, Amber and I all took Anna's Multi-Tasker Tote class over the weekend and we love our new totes! Perfect for an evening of knitting and picnicing in the park with friends and doggies! Next time you are in the shop ask us about our totes, please. We'd love to gush about them to you!