I'm getting so excited for my first retreat!
It's a crafty escape to the farmhouse, and I'm already halfway booked up! Please feel free to email me at contact@purpleworkbench.com for more info if you are interested.
In the meantime, here's a sneak peak at one of the optional workshops I'll be teaching at the farmhouse.
For a few years now, I've been working on a pattern for a good racerback tank top. My first version was when I sewed a racerback tunic for my trip to Mexico. Since then, I've made at least half a dozen more, trying to improve the pattern each time.
If you're at all in tune with the sewing world, the Wiksten Tank has hit this world by storm. It seems everyone and their cool blogging aunt is sewing up their own Wiksten Tank. It has so many similar elements to my racerback tank, I was so proud that I was on the right trend. The most obvious difference from the Wiksten Tank (besides the absence of an ever so cute breast pocket) is the actual racerback shape of the backside.
Last week, my friend Jenn came over to test the pattern out with me. We had planned this sewing date since our trip together to New York City, where we visited the uber-whimsy Purl Soho. The fabric and yarn shop had a beautiful selection of Liberty London fabrics and Jenn and I knew we had to pick out a couple patterns for the racerback tank top.
When you get two money-conscious, Asian women contemplating how much luxury fabric we can afford to walk away with, you are sure to witness some genius moves. We decided to stretch the penny and make the tank top with a Liberty patterned front, and a solid coloured back. Somehow, it was going to work. The Robert Kaufman Cambridge Lawn is a beautiful solid coloured cotton that pairs perfectly with the Liberty Tawna Lawn fabric, at a fraction the cost.
Without getting into the mathematic details, we had to do a bit of pattern modifying to make the 1/2 yard of Liberty fabric stretch into a proper tank top. But the really fantastic outcome of such frugal thinking was how much the solid fabric accentuated the floral pop of Liberty on the front of the tank top.
And thus, a creation was born. The Liberty-accent racerback tank. Liberty front, solid back.
Farmhouse crafters are welcome to make their own Liberty-accent racerback tank, or just a regular cotton tank if they choose. I'm excited to see all the finished products!
