Fringe and Swans...with Willow and Co

The new collection of patterns from Willow and Co have been making the internet rounds for a while now. These patterns are good, guys. Not only do the ladies of Willow and Co put out top notch patterns and directions, but they've got a unique modern aesthetic to their designs that stands out above most of the PDF pattern world (in my opinion :). Today I am sharing how I used fringe and swans to make the Antalya Dress (mines actually a tunic) and the London Backpack from their newest collection.

First up is the Antalya Dress pattern. I paired a very lightweight tencel denim chambray with some fringe trim to make this adorable top. It is airy and perfect for summer. I ended up cutting open the back and installing an invisible zip instead of the normal closure options.

Drew's shorts are these from Old Navy.

And now... the London Backpack! And swans!

I don't make many bags. In fact the only other bag I've made was Drew's first backpack for Kindergarten (see here). Making this backpack was such a fun challenge for me. It was challenging because I was using techniques I don't normally use, but it was not frustrating because the illustrations and directions are very clear and understandable. It was like, "I'm going to follow these directions exactly and hope it all turns out but I have no idea if it will." And of course it did!

So I couldn't just pick from the thousands of adorable fabric options out there already. I had to go and design what I was visioning in my head and get it printed out from Spoonflower. I bought some high-res swan images and created the black swans in a row print and paired it with the larger swan image. The back pack is lined with light blue with pops of neon yellow zippers.

I should also mention that I enlarged this bag from the original size. It is meant to be a medium sized bag, but I wanted her to be able to use it for school and be able to fit all her junk in it. so I added 3 inches of height and 1 inch to the width and just adjusted all the pieces accordingly.

And that's it!

Is it bad that summer has just begun and I am ready to load up that backpack already with fresh new school supplies and send her along to second grade? Kidding... sort of.

Thanks so much for having me as part of the tour, Willow and Co!