.A Poppy Tunic in Nani IRO.

It’s no secret that I love Nani IRO fabrics. Naomi Ito, the designer behind Nani IRO is my favourite textile designer by far. I love her style, especially for clothing sewing. Everything she produces is a careful mix of pretty and playfulness and her fabrics are one of the most luxurious textiles that I have sewn with.

My favourite place to purchase Nani IRO fabrics is from Miss Matatabi. Miss Matatabi has declared the month of June “Nani IRO Month” and has invited some of her friends to help celebrate! I didn’t need much encouragement at all to join in, another excuse to sew with Nani IRO fabrics…I’m in without hesitation!

I’ve got a looooong list of “things to sew” (mostly made up of things to sew for myself!) and a new Poppy Tunic was at the top of the list. Poppy Tunics are one of my favourite items of clothing for layering, and I especially love wearing them when it’s cold over a pair of skinny jeans or leggings with my boots. So, I thought I would kill two birds with one stone and sew a Poppy Tunic from Nani IRO fabric.

I had in my mind that I wanted to sew my Poppy Tunic from one single fabric, usually I make them with a contrasting chest piece and hem but have been wanting to try one out with no contrast fabrics for awhile now. I also had in my mind that I wanted my Poppy Tunic to be a dark colour, which narrowed my fabric choices right down and actually made it easier to decide on which fabric I wanted to use. The fabric that I decided on is Shine Many Ways B. It is completely different from fabric I would usually select, but now that I’ve sewn with it I love it. So wearable and a lovely, earthy colour palette with enough detail to stop it from being boring. If you look really closely in some of the photos, you might be able to see that the bronze colours in the fabric are actually metallic – so cool!

This fabric is a cotton sateen…I usually pick the double gauze when I purchase Nani IRO fabrics and I haven’t sewn with cotton sateen before. I wasn’t sure how it would go but it is AMAZING! Absolutely perfect for sewing clothing with. It has a heavenly feel and drape – kind of reminds me of that soft, buttery feeling of voile but has a bit more substance to it and isn’t as sheer.

Most Nani IRO fabrics are a double gauze, which I’ve sewn with lots but there are other substrates to choose from as well – such as this cotton sateen, brushed cotton, cotton canvas and even knits! I’ve got a big pile of Nani IRO fabrics in my stash, I will take a pic and share them and my previous Nani IRO projects with you later on in the month.

I know that I will get so much wear out of this Poppy Tunic. The only thing I wish I had added to this one is pockets in the side seams because I keep looking for somewhere to hide my hands! They will be easy enough to add in if I ever get around to it anyway.

Make sure you keep in contact with Miss Matatabi for the rest of this month as she shares more of her friend’s Nani IRO creations (see the list below for participants). And if you make (or have made) anything from Nani IRO – or even if you just want to share a photo of your stash, then hash-tag “ilovenaniiro” to share it with us all on social media! Thanks for having me Frances, love your store and grateful for your friendship and for doing cool things like hosting Nani IRO month!