Orion: Fabric inspiration
Oh I love a good fabric hunt. And doing it online is so useful because I can save my favourites, look around my usual websites and choose the best option. I agree that it can be hard to guess how a fabric might feel, so I’ve made a list of the types of fabrics that I think will work best with the Orion shirt.
Double gauze
Double gauze is one of my favourite fabrics. It’s soft, squishy and lightweight. It’s a bit fiddly to work with compared to poplin, but I love the result. It gives garments a relaxed feel and comes in beautiful earthy colours. My top picks are the Seashell from The Village Haberdashery, Little Flowers in Reed from myfabrics.com and the plain Pine Green from Higgs & Higgs.
Linen / viscose blend
Crisp and soft, linen/viscose bland is a great choice for the warmer months. It’s lovely to wear, very breathable and falls gracefully. I love this Rose Metallic Stripes from The Village Haberdashery, as well as the Mint and Peach.
Shirting / lawn
Choosing shirting fabric is obviously a correct option for this pattern, and it can be a great place to start for boys, as I find that it’s hard to find prints for boys on lightweight dressmaking fabric. If you want to be more adventurous, you can look for a Liberty print at Alice Caroline. I made a shirt for my dad with Liberty and it was beautiful. Prints such as Queue for the Zoo, Tou-can Hide, Sea Myths and Children of Liberty all look wonderful.
Swiss Dot
Swiss dot is a cotton voile (a slightly sheer cotton) which can be plain or printed, and which has small “dots” embroidered on the surface. It gives the fabric a lovely texture. This season I love the By Poppy range with its pretty florals and you can find this blue one at The Village Haberdashery. For added texture, the Foiled Dobby (another name for Swiss Dot) from myfabrics.com is lovely too and comes in rosé and white. Want to go for plain? Thimble & Notch has a beautiful Spearmint.
Chambray
Chambray is a cotton fabric, but rather than being dyed or printed, it’s made from coloured yarn running vertically and white yarn running horizontally. So you get this soft texture in the colour. Traditionally, chambray comes plain or with delicate patterns. I find that Higgs and Higgs have a good selection of these, and I love the Planets that they currently sell. They also have the classic Grey Stripes which is timeless. For a bit of fun, Frumble have a cute Under the Sea chambray.
Vichy / Stripes
Timeless and a classic for baby clothes, Vichy (gingham) comes in many sizes and colours. I particularly like soft tones such as Duck Egg , Grey and Beige. You can also play with the direction of rows when cutting your yoke and collar. Note that with large checks, you might need extra fabric to align your pieces.
