Lovely Liberty of London

I adore Liberty of London fabrics. As a quilter/sewer, I always use every scrap of the Liberty I inherited from my mother and grandmother, until every single, teeny-tiny, scrap is sewn into/onto whatever I'm making. Like every family, my family has certain family-ethics that we all had to adhere to; don't leave books next to your bed because you will fall in the middle of the
night, no R-rated movies until it was legal, and that Liberty of
London was the end-all, be-all of fabrics, and to waste one little scrap was considered sacrilegious.

My grandmother, who is an amazing dress-maker, made us enough smocked Liberty of London dresses to last any little girl a lifetime. While cleaning out my childhood these last few years, I filled four giant plastic boxes with the dresses to pass down to our daughters. I think she must have made a dress with every Liberty pattern, ever. Between Jenny and I, no two dresses were ever the same.

For my graduation present from high school, my father took us kids to London. On the plane ride over all I could think was, "Screw Big Ben, and the Crown Jewels; to hell with the changing of the guard, I need to see the original Liberty of London store: mecca." And see we did. I think I spent over two hours just wandering the store (which, as you can see, is in itself a beyond gorgeous building). I came home with a small amount of fabric (all my eighteen year old self could afford) which I still have, saved, in its purple tissue paper.

Today, while browsing Heather Ross's adorable and intelligent blog, I came across a link she posted for Liberty of London prints done in jersey. I got so excited I nearly fell out of my chair. For as long as I knew, Liberty was made only in non-stretchable cotton, but with Lycra-jersey...think of the things I could make! Jersey dresses, skirts, summer-tops, even a bikini or two! B&J Fabrics, in Manhattan, has the fabric, but you can also order it online. Liberty, you've done it again. I can't wait to order some of the Liberty Lycra-jersey and get sewing.

Picture source for store; Picture source for fabric swatch.