Fabrics A to Z by Dana Willard Review

I went out to Boring, Oregon to hang with my family and the chickens for Easter this year – now that’s a real Easter egg hunt: hanging around a bunch of hens that have free range on a few acres!

My mom had told me she picked up a fabric reference books for me a couple weeks prior….she knows of my fabric habits. As much as I love the remnant bins, they’re not always labeled accurately, if at all, and when you’re donated a box from an attic, it’s anyone’s guess as to what is in it.

So when I got out there for Easter, had already laid out on the lawn for an hour and leafed through the book, I finally really looked at the cover….

Dana Willard
Dana Willard

Of course. It’s Dana Willard. THE Dana Willard of MADE fame. I used her shirt tutorial for the DIY baby clothes, etc. Yeah, so of course it’s great.

I love how it’s set up – it’s clean, concise, categorized by type and has little fast icons up top for what you’d use each fabric for…So often these kinds of guides are verbose, cumbersome and boooorrrring. You know what happens when I get a book like that? I skim it and miss something important or stress on something that is actually not important.

No, this book is perfect.

voile
voile

So perfect, in fact, I used it right away.

In a gifted box, I found this beauty. I didn’t do a burn test (to see if there’s a synthetic in it that melts), but I’m confident it’s cotton from the shrinkage in the wash and the feel. I love the rose, mauve and gray colorway – a muted feminine look to it.

gem
gem

I have no idea how old it is…I know it’s not particularly recent. The selvage isn’t marked with a label. It can’t be a Walmart fabric because I know it was purchased in Oregon and Walmart is too new to Oregon for this to be purchased there….I thought it might be at first because it was pretty stiff/scratchy until I washed it. It softened up quite a bit after washing. So, all of that, it remains a bit of a mystery. According to the Dana Guide (yes, I’m renaming it – my name is better), it fits well enough into the voile or lawn category for me. You can see here, held up to the light, how breezy/sheer it is:

sheer
sheer

There’s just under 3 yards – not made any better by this lovely hack job off the bolt-curve, so, I’ll have to do some creative fabric use to plan around those missing inches…

bolt abuse
bolt abuse

I decided Hazel and I need some matching spring blouses out of it, so I downloaded the free Sorbetto pattern from Colette Patterns. I have the Laurel I purchased, but after quilting so much lately, this will get me back into seamstress mode before I attack the Laurel.

Sorbetto
Sorbetto

I’ll be sharing more of course as I go. For 2 blouses, I need 3 yards, and with that missing chunk that is actually missing on both ends, it will be interesting.