Tag: Latifah Saafir

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Penelope Dress with Double Dutch by Latifah Saafir

Hey Guys!  I hope your week is treating you well thus far!  Recently, I had the opportunity to sew up the adorable Penelope Dress (pattern by Violette Field Threads) in Latifah Saafir’s latest fabric collection, Double Dutch.  The prints are absolutely awesome, and I can’t wait to get my hands on the entire line once it’s released!  

Latifah had sent me the raspberry waffle cone print and the white ice cream print with some matching tulle to use as the skirt.  The ice cream print is so adorable–and detailed!  I was blown away with the attention to detail of each different kind of ice cream treat.  It took me back to my childhood and thinking about ice cream trucks and summery treats.  This print was perfection in the Penelope dress, but I can’t help but think of how amazing it would look after being fussy cut and put into a quilt project.  It’s definitely on my to-do list!!

Ice cream print-photo from Hoffman Fabrics website

 Here’s an in-progress picture of the skirt from sooooooo much tulle.  And there was a layer of glitter tulle as well.  I will have glitter on me permanently after sewing this, but it was so worth it!  


 And then a finished picture of the front and back of the dress:


The raspberry waffle cone print was used as an accent for the collar and sash, and the ice cream print was used for the bodice, sleeves, and ties.  Latifaah has a picture on her Instagram account of her gorgeous niece modelling the dress, and her adorable nephew modelling some garments embellished with the fabrics.  

The Penelope dress was a pretty straight forward pattern, and I love Violette Field Threads’ patterns.  They are always a good choice for little girl outfits and are very well written-even for a beginner sewist.  You can make the dress with tulle, or you can opt for a standard garment fabric (or even quilting cotton).  It is a little bit time consuming, but totally worth it and a great dress for spinning in 😉

Be on the lookout for Latifah’s line and make sure to snatch some up before it’s gone!  Happy sewing 🙂

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My Finished Glam Clam Quilt

I am going to talk to you today about Latifah Saafir’s “Glam Clam” quilt pattern and my journey completing the quilt.  

I’m a member of the San Antonio Modern Quilt Guild, and we were fortunate enough to have Latifah Saafir do a trunk show AND teach 2 awesome workshops!  I was super excited…the clam shell style quilt has been on my quilting bucket list since I first started sewing, so this was a great excuse to get it done.  I immediately signed up for the workshop and picked my fabrics out after I got the pattern and templates.  I painstakingly cut out all of the pieces, labeled them, and organized them all into little ziplocs, until I would  attend the workshop.  I had the finished quilt in mind for a very special friend and was excited to gift her a really cool quilt.

About a week from the workshop date, my grandmother’s health was failing.  She passed away, and the funeral was scheduled for the same time as the workshop.  I missed the workshop and didn’t touch the pieces I’d cut for a few weeks after.  Once I started the quilt, I thought about my grandmother often.  I’m not crazy about piecing curves, but I must say that it was kind of a healing feeling to sit and sew without really thinking about anything.  It gave me a chance to think about relationships and friendships and how much people can impact your life.  

Quilting the finished top was even more fun that putting it together.  After doing a little bit of research, I found that many of the clam shell quilts are quilted with just an all over design, without much attention paid to the individual blocks.  I definitely didn’t want to just do edge-to-edge quilting.  

Latifah’s pattern is seriously so simple to follow, and her templates are to die for.  They are very mindful of how curved seams should be constructed, and here’s something even more awesome–NO PINS NEEDED!!!  I won’t lie…I didn’t believe that at first, but after sewing a couple together, I tried it without pins, and–life changing.

Here is a little more of the quilting–not really anything too difficult, but I felt it gave a better effect than an all over quilting design.  

Above is the top with no quilting or binding–I absolutely love how this quilt came together.  
And then this was the finished quilt after binding.  I shipped this beauty off to my friend in California and hope she uses it until the thing falls apart!  I must say, Latifah did an amazing job on the pattern and tutorial and I can’t wait to make my next Glam Clam quilt.