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So…
So…in a recent post I told you about a new collaboration I had begun with a new fabric designer, Katia Hoffman of Sasha K Studio. I fell in love with her Reflections fabric line and many, many of you did as well! And here’s the deal, Katia was so pleased with how well the sample bag turned out AND the overwhelmingly positive reaction from the readers of this Blog, that she asked me if I might be interested in working up a bag sample in her Maple Stories line.
And here’s the deal… if you’ve been following this blog for any length of time, you’ve probably noticed right away that this color story is EXTREMELY different from the normal color palette I work with. Truth be known, I would probably never have chosen these fabric of my own volition…but that just makes it all the more important that I use it.
Because after all, as much as I would love to consistently work with my favorite colors, and ONLY my favorite colors, it’s very likely that a significant portion of my customer base prefers a completely different color palette. So occasionally making up a bag in a color combination that feels foreign to me, makes good sense, right?
So Katia let me choose the individual fabrics in her Maple Stories spoke to me and my original thinking was that I would use a portion of the panel print (at left) for the Flap to distinguish it somewhat from the bag exterior. But when the fabric arrived, I was dismayed to see that the individual areas within each panel were small… so small in fact that not one of those little rectangular prints were large enough to “fill-up” the Flap area. Hmmmm…. so this is what I decided to do.
If you look closely at the Flap in this picture (above), you should be able to notice some faint seam-lines because I decided to make my own complimentary background fabric by fussy cutting some strips from the panel I was sent. Then I appliqued some of the beautiful maple leaves into the center area to serve as a focal point.
And here’s the deal… upon even closer inspection you may also notice that the background I fabricated is not an exact match to the overall background color of the main fabric, but you know what? I still like it even though its not an exact match. This works for me. I really wanted to give my visitors one more “look” to consider for this flap, and I like what the corded trim does for this bag, AND for me, this simple applique is a nice foil for the busy bag fabric.
But of course the opinion that REALLY counts is yours!
So now… it’s YOUR turn!
Do you think the background I made for behind the maple leaf appliques is a close enough match to the overall bag exterior fabric? Does it bother YOU that it’s not an exact match?
And here’s the deal, if there’s enough interest I’ll be glad to do a little post to show you how I accomplished this look. Just register your interest in the comment box below.
And remember, we actually LOVE comments so if you’d like to share yours, please do so in the space provided below and stay tuned for our next post in this series because we’re getting oh-so close to the release!
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