This was written by Angela from Sake Puppets for the Miss Matatabi Maker series.

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Hello Miss Matatabi friends!

I have had my eye on this delicious JUBILEE fabric for months, ever since I spotted it at a Tokyo fabric event last year. Since florals aren’t always my style, I love to stumble across cool geometric prints. JUBILEE to the rescue! I love all of Yasunobu Shimizudani’s designs, but this print’s optical illusion angelfish are especially great.

The optical illusion of the print is so convincing, that it actually had me a bit fooled. When I saw it in Miss Matatabi’s shop I thought it would be great for a billowy dress. Although it is lawn, it turns out this fabric is more like a crisp cotton shirting, similar to a light-weight quilting fabric. It feels soft and luxe, but didn’t have the drape I was expecting. I wanted to make something for summer that really highlighted the print, and I’ve made a few too many Wiksten tanks, so I was left scratching my head a bit.

Off to the Internet I went and in about .027 seconds discovered April Rhodes had released a new pattern, the Riding Peplum. Win!

This fabric and pattern are such a nice duo. I love how the peplum gives this tank some swing, but doesn’t interrupt the print. I tried matching the print on the front and back center notches where the peplum attaches to the bodice, and feel pretty good about how it turned out.

I’m 5’ 7” (170 cm) and cut the size S to fit my bust, extending the bodice length to the M size and the peplum to L. The pattern directs you to attach the shoulders with french seams, which are easy and make those shoulder straps feel really durable. The remaining seams are to be finished however you like, and I chose to use my new overlocker for the first time. I may have been a little conservative with cutting my seam allowances down to size, but the inside looks nice and clean. The arm and neck holes are finished with what the pattern calls a facing, but is really a bias-tape method similar to the Wiksten. It takes patience in pinning, but is worth the work.

I will definitely get a lot of wear out of this tank come summertime. The fabric is so light and crisp! I think this fabric would also be great for kid’s clothes and accessories. I’m going use my leftover scraps to try and eek out some pouches with colorful zippers, and perhaps save a few bits for surprise pocket linings or facing.

In the meantime, I’ll just wait for warmer weather and hang out at home, like so:

Thank you Angela! Connect with Angela on her blog, instagram, facebook, pinterest.