How will you wear your Anna Blouse this Spring?

I had an absolute blast coming up with these design boards! They are all Spring themed and will give you a few ideas of how to wear your Anna Blouse.  Many of the  items of clothing  and shoes you probably already have in you closet but I have listed the sources for the items so you do a little shopping if you wish : )  All the Anna's are shown with current and/or fabrics that can be found in fabric shops now.

I love this Retro Feminine Look!  The Cotton + Steel Rayon print is so pretty and Springy in the Anna Blouse and looks so cute with The Lovely Gathered Clutch also in Cotton + Steel!

The Border fabric is Dottie Cousin in Bright Plum.  The "Jacks" fabric is Playroom Linen in Aqua.

I love the ease of denim and this skirt (from Anthropologie) is such a perfect basic to have in your wardrobe.

The shoes (also from Anthropologie) are adorable but this look would also be so cute with ballet flats!  I will wear this look for a few more weeks with black knee high boots since it is still a little chilly in the Pacific Northwest!

The trench from Modcloth is the icing on the cake and the perfect staple for your Spring Wardrobe.

I am always looking for ways to pull my look together for running around town doing errands.

These items combines casual clothing items that get dressed up with cute shoes and a blazer.

The Anna shown here is made with an adorable Cotton Lawn from Girl Charlee Fabrics.

I love the large floral print in the Shopper Purse from the lovely gathered purse trio.  It is extra large for your shopping excursions!

Pair these pretty printed items with a pair of cropped jeans and blazer from your closet or you can find the items pictured from ModCloth.  Add some fun colorful clogs from Lotta from Stockholm to top off the look.

If it is still chilly in your locale, you can switch out the clogs for knee high  or ankle boots - a perfect Winter to Spring transitional outfit.

The 70's are back and I couldn't be happier.  I love wide leg pants and these from Anthropologie are adorable.  I love them paired with this version of the Anna Blouse in a  chevron voile print from Cloud 9 fabrics.

Add some retro cool sandals (these are from Korkease) and a trend setting fringe bag.  A piece of modern jewelry tops off this cool look.

xo
Charise

The Anna Blouse Sew Along - Designing your Anna

This is by far my favorite part - designing your Anna!

It is a perfect style for print fabrics.  I had fun dropping this pretty Chevron Cloud 9 Palos Verdes Voile fabric into the style.

You can also make yours with a contrast trim.

A light weight chambray with a print trim would be adorable. 

Or a print with a solid trim.

You can even change the tucks to gathers

The possibilities are endless!

I have more pics on my Anna Blouse Sew Along Page on Flickr.

Stop by on Thursday for instructions on how to put you pattern together and pick your size.

xo

Charise

Liberty Past and Present

Seems I have been seeing lots of lovely Liberty fabric projects popping up.  Kerry made this lovely tea set for the Liberty Cafe  - how cool is that?  Leila made an absolutely adorable frame pouch.

I thought I would share my past experience with Liberty Fabrics.  You may or may not know this, but I have been a fashion designer for the past 23 years.  I have taken the past few years away from my career to spend time with my youngest son who goes to Kindergarten in the Fall. 

Way back when in 1999 : )  I worked as the women's woven designer for Nordstrom's Evergreen, now Halogen, line of women's clothing.  It was a wonderful job.  Halogen was a new line for Nordstrom and I was the first of two designers.  Those of you who are familiar with Nordstrom may know a bit about the different departments. At the time, Halogen was to sit in the Savvy department at Nordstrom.  The Savvy department houses young, fresh, higher end fashion.  I was lucky enough to travel to Europe for design inspiration, work with factories in Italy and even more exciting, to shop the most wonderful fabric show - Premiére Vision -  outside Paris!  We purchased fabulous Europen fabrics and that is where the connection comes to Liberty Fabrics.  I chose Liberty lawn for this little top I designed, bottom right.

I even still have the swatch booklet from the 1999 Liberty Fabrics line.

Can you tell it is well loved?  It has been travelling with me for the past 13 years : )
I love to open it and admire all the wonderful designs.

Someday I'll muster the courage to cut into it........

So... all that being said, and thanks for listening, but I couldn't resist this F8 pack of Liberty from Pink Chalk fabrics!!  I think I'll make the Rose Dream block into a zip pouch.

 

xo

Charise