Lillipution Marmalade

Now that I have finished Mrs P's dress, it's time to turn my attention towards a birthday present promised to my sister-in-law back in July! To open on her birthday I slipped inside her card, a tape measure and measuring sheet with diagram and strict instructions on how to measure. She sent the measurements back to me a couple of weeks later, but I could see in an instant that they were wrong. Upon her next visit, I found out why. She is very tall - 6ft I think - and because of that, has a longer body than the average "standard" measurement. I measured her properly, and we picked out some fabrics which I knew she would like, and discussed the design which was to be 'A-line' - she trusted the further details to me..

So today out came the two fabrics we had picked together - a creme linen/cotton blend, and green Kaffe Fasset. Then, as a pile of other fabrics fell out of the cupboard, I thought "oh what about the green linen"? ... And then I was in a quandry as to which fabrics to combine - use them all, or just two, and then which trims, and how to combine them all (or not) etc., etc., you know how it goes.

After consternating for a while by draping every co-ordinating fabric and trim I could find over Madge the material girl, I still couldn't decide upon which fabric to use but it did help with the design. I decided that a wrap-around skirt with covered buttons to fasten might be nice...

I remembered that I have some 1/4 scale blocks - I could make a mini version of the skirt and decide what looked best! Then I remembered that I have a little artists model which would be perfect for 'modelling' the design. Here she is - Mini Madge!

I drew a tiny pattern, cut out the fabric pieces and stitched them all together by hand - can you believe that this 1/4 block is actually 1/4 of a full size 12?! Hard to believe, I am only 4 times bigger than this!!

This mini experiment was a very very useful exercise because not only did I find out exactly which pattern pieces I would need to cut for a wrap around, but I could play around quite nicely with the design components to find out what would work ...

And what wouldn't work..

I think 'no' to the green linen .. don't you? Here is the cream ensemble ..

I wondered if it would work if I cut a diagonal front, in order to show off the lower fabric better ..

Hmm.... still not sure about this one .. what do you think? For now, I stuck with the more simple design, and pinned it to Mini Madge..

And then I discovered, that if you look at her side on, it is apparent that when she walks, the green Kaffe Fasset Fabric shows up a treat!

So I think I will leave Mini Madge posing on the desk for a while before I make my final decision.