Fabulous Fabric...

...because it's Friday!

Today I want to share with you some gorgeous fabric that I bought on a work trip to Zagreb last month. I was walking to a meeting and passed a couple of fabric shops, so I made a point of heading in on the way back to the hotel to see what they had!

The shop I bought this in was really small and the owner didn't speak any English. I hung around a while and browsed and another customer came in...who spoke English! They were kind enough to translate for me. Although I was hoping to get some bargains, everything was actually quite similar prices to home. But there was a WALL of silk, in every colour you could imagine (and many you probably didn't even know existed!) and I just couldn't resist. I decided to get a couple of meters of beautiful bright read shot silk which worked out at about £13 per meter (cheaper than the shops in Belfast anyway, its about £18/m here).

But the thing that made me end up choosing red was the trim that I bought to go with it. There was a cupboard jam packed with the most incredible embroidered and embellished trims...they were just stunning! I spent ages just drooling over them. I knew I had to get one (at one point it was more than one, but I talked myself out of it!) and ended up getting a beautiful one with tiny 'dirty' gold sequins and embroidered red, green and gold flowers:

The trim is about 10cm wide and it's sewn onto a fine green organza type material with a little excess folded over on the back.

The colours really lend themselves to Christmas, so I'm hoping to make a dress for the festive season with it. But I'm having real problems finding a pattern that is quite what I'm after! I think i would like to have a deep V-neck, that is open slightly between the bust (oooer!) and then use the the trim as a band just under the bust and then have either a pencil type skirt or a full skirt (depends if I have enough fabric!). Any patterns I can find the V is just not right. Plus, because it's silk, it would be nice to have some draping going on, or pleating. So I may have a play around and see if I can come up with something from a few patterns. If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to have them!

In the mean time, I'll leave you with another close-up shot of the lovely trim:

Swoon!