Saffron Craig Blog Tour

 

By now, everyone has surely heard of Saffron Craig, right? I dialed the wayback machine and realized that I've been sewing with Saffron's fabric since 2009. That's nearly as long as I've been sewing! Saffron is a Sydney based designer who brings a unique spin to her designs. She chooses unexpected themes which work quite well. Her latest collection, Wombat Wonderland is a playful, but gentle collection celebrating Australia's lovable wombats. I was lucky to see strike-offs earlier this year, and jumped at the chance when she invited me onto the blog tour.

As you know, I don't often do blog tours; but Saffron is a local, independent designer. Her designs and color palettes draw on her past experience working in clothing design, so they aren't the canned colors that come out of some of the bigger producers. I think it's important that we support and encourage independent design. Besides that, Saffron is a gem in person. She's the kind of gal who makes you laugh so hard that you snort coffee out of your nose.

Wombat Wonderland is printed on a lightweight organic cotton which has a great drape for children's clothing. I don't often get a chance to sew up kid's clothes, so I immediately jumped at the chance and made up an Oliver & S Puppet Show set using the Wombat Lovehearts and  Sunrays prints with Triangles as an accent. It was a bit of extra work to line up the triangles on the sleeve cuffs and bloomer bias, but it was very effective. That left me brewing with ideas, of course. How cute would it be to line up those triangles in a strip quilt or to use them as a bunting design in a little house block?

Kinda makes me clucky. For a brief moment, it almost made Craig clucky too...

It's easy to see this collection on little girls. I try not to get caught up in gender lines; but if you are a "blue for boys" type of person, Sunrays would be great for them too. The bursting circles remind me of gears. Being a science nerd myself, the gear perspective got me excited about a robot or science themed project. And you could easily pair Sunrays with the little blue and green bonus wombats from the Softies Panels. Too many ideas, too little time! 

Being honest, pastels and purple aren't the usual MO at Badskirt. I tend to work with really vibrant saturated tones that burst with color. Something drew me to the strikeoffs though, and I couldn't put my finger on it. Seeing them in person, I realized that I was drawn to the saturated pops of color which add balance to the prints.  The cheddar orange flowers in the loveheart print and the bright lime accents in triangles are my kind of colors. 

I thought it might be a challenge pairing things in my stash with this collection, since I don't own much in the way of purple or pastel. This stack came together surprisingly quick though. I think it's quite fresh and would make a great little string quilt interspersed with fussy cut wombat panels. Hopefully it helps you visualize how the new range may work with your own stash.

The full Wombat Wonderland range has seven prints plus the softies panel. It's available at Saffron's online shop or in person globally at many of her stockists.  

I had a lot of fun with this because it gave me an excuse to sew sweet little clothes. I had really hoped to make a matching hat, because the organic cotton would be so soft on a baby's delicate scalp. If you're looking for hat inspiration, Carmel is hosting a hat sewalong at Solomon Sewing this month. Wombat Wonderland would be a great choice and you still have time to join in.

I'm the midway point on the blog tour, and Saffron wrangled quite the creative lineup. 

Pop around to visit the others and see more prints and ideas:

Friday 31st of August - Katia of Plushka Craft
Friday 7th of September - Toni of Make it Perfect
Friday 14th of September - Amy of Badskirt
Friday 21st of September - Katy of I'm a Ginger Monkey
Friday 29th of September - Siobhan of Beaspoke Quilts

Thank you, Saffron Craig, for giving me a chance to play with your fabrics.