1950s Dress and Basket Quilt with Poppie Cotton Delightful Department Store

Time for sewing with one of my favorites ever of the new collections by Poppie Cotton! This one is all about midcentury, which of course was right up my alley. Of course I had to make several things with it. First I'll show you a 1950s dress made in my favorite print.

There are several charming color ways of this rose fabric, but naturally I gravitated toward the teal. It's so lovely! I especially like this rose print in yellow too, but unfortunately yellow is not a good color for me.

I made this from a 1950s pattern in my collection, only adding contrast piping and a tie belt in the pink gingham print. The tie belt can also double as a hair tie if preferred.

I really like the collar shape, which makes this pattern a bit more unique. Otherwise it is just a straightforward A line dress with a nice full skirt.

I had to piece the underside of the collar – that's how close I came with my yardage! But I'm so pleased to have such a pretty, wearable floral dress in my closet now for the rest of the summer.

I had to pair it with my favorite pink 1950s hat, of course.

It feels so good to be back to sewing garments!

But there were too many sweet prints that I couldn't use for a dress, so I also had to make a little wall quilt out of my FQ bundle.

I've never done basket blocks before. Normally I would say they aren't my favorite, but I had this idea to use vintage cutter embroideries for the backdrop to make it look like flowers in a basket, so I did some experimenting to come up with a basket block I liked.

It was fun to sort through my stash of stained embroideries (they are too pretty to throw away but in too bad condition to use) and find ones that would work in the baskets. Then give them new life!

I joined the blocks with basic 1" sashing, and custom quilted it on my Juki sewing machine. I was pleased with how my free motion quilting skills have improved enough that I can like the result!

I took step-by-step photos of the basket blocks, so someday I may get around to sharing the pattern. Basic piecing, with a hand appliquéd bias handle.

Each basket is unique, and I used almost all of the line in it (not the large novelty prints – I have another idea for those), so I can enjoy these favorite cheerful and old fashioned fabrics on my kitchen wall! Some of them remind me of vintage wallpaper.

If you love this fabric as much as me, it's shipping to quilt stores now, so ask at your local shops! There have been so many adorable makes in this beautiful collection, so I hope you check them all out.

Friday, July 7

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Friday, July 14

Monday, July 17

Wednesday, July 19