#SewAmalfi : Handmade Lemon Two Piece Set

At first I had no intention of designing a lemon print fabric for this project. I love designing with prints, but I am more of a graphic/computer artist than a hand drawing artist, so illustrating something so real and recognizable was daunting for me. I was actually talking to my mom about what I should draw and she was the one who suggested a lemon print. I figured I would give it a shot, since for something like this I draw on an iPad Pro with my apple pencil, which allows me to delete any mistakes as I draw.

I use the Procreate app for iPad which has tons of different drawing and painting tool options to choose from. I chose a combination of acrylic brush styles to drawing the lemons, which is better for short, choppier strokes. Step 1 was to draw out the rough placement of lemons and leaves on one separate drawing layer so that I could discard of it after I finished. Then, selecting colors was really trial by error! I spent the most time picking colors and the style I liked with the first lemon bunch (as you can see below), which made the rest of it fairly easy. The next part was sending it to photoshop to create a repeat print out of.

The entire drawing process probably took me 2 hours and both my mom and I were pleasantly surprised at how well they came out! The lemons were exact and abstract at the same time, which is due to the pop of blue on the leaves and the light (white) patches throughout.  I immediately thought this print would be the epicenter of the collection, so designed a few other prints in coordinating color schemes to go with it, and ordered the lemon print in two different scales.

Once I received the fabric, I HATED the other coordinating prints that I had designed. Compared to the time that went into the lemons, these seems like a silly afterthought, and really couldn’t be paired back with the lemons. But since I had ordered the lemon fabric in two scales, I was able to incorporate the smaller scale into the waistband of the pant and the straps and flaps of the top. It’s not quite as big of a scale difference as I was hoping for, but it does just add a little more visual interest that is hard to pinpoint.

Since I spent so much time on the fabric for this look, I decided to buy vintage patterns for the silhouette to make the sewing easier. Boy, was that a mistake. The vintage bra top was very cone shaped, as you can imagine was the trend at the time, which meant I had to go in and alter it after it was put together. If you ever have to do that to a pattern… its bound to not lay right. Other than the shape of the breast apex on the top, I actually do love it and would wear it again.

As for the pants, I found a vintage pattern for those as well and can I just say…. no WONDER stretch fabrics were widely introduced in the seventies! This pattern was made for a woman much curvier than myself, and therefore in some places the pants are much too tight, and in some they are a bit baggy and not filled out. Although it isn’t that apparent to the eye, you can feel it when wearing them. Lesson? Take the time to create your own patterns or really measure the store bought patterns and alter them before you start cutting. Also… skip the vintage unless you really think you want that vintage feel… unbreathable waistline and all.

While I am happy with the fabric and the styling of this lemon two piece set, it’s definitely not my favorite look to wear. I did learn a lot about sewing bra tops and vintage construction techniques when sewing however, so it’s not a complete loss. Plus, I think of this outfit and this shoot as an on-location photo shoot similar to a magazine shoot. Are those models comfortable? Nope. Are they really going to wear the outfits on their next vacation? Not likely. But the goal of inspiring and creating a fun look has been achieved and sometimes that’s all I going for!

Final styling of this look could not be finished better than with my lemon embroidered espadrilles from Soludos! They are SO comfortable (after you wear them in for a day or two) and yes, they came with the lemons already. I was going to return them as an extravagant purchase but my husband liked them so much he convinced me to keep them and requested his own pair!

Ok I’m dying to know- what do you think of the full #SewAmalfi series and this lemon two piece set? Please be honest. I love to create series but I also want to know how you guys feel about these projects and whether they are inspiring and interesting or totally polarizing. Please weigh in in the comments!