What’s on trend this summer?
Spring is here and we’re starting to feel the urge to renew our wardrobe and prepare some summer sewing.
Fabrics, colors, materials… Here’s some inspiration to get you started on your summer projects!
The trend towards natural materials
The Première Vision show, held every year in Villepinte, sets the trends in terms of fabrics, colors and materials. This year’s show was all about natural fibers and playing with textures. Exhibitors presented glossy silk and grainy linen side by side.
For our own summer sewing, we can easily draw inspiration from this natural trend. Silk is an expensive fiber, but a well-textured linen is an excellent option for sewing a light jacket, flowing pants, top, dress… It can be chosen in natural shades that highlight its drape, or in a soft color like cloud blue.
In addition to being trendy, linen has the advantage of being very strong, resistant and thermoregulating. If it’s very hot outside, linen will absorb perspiration, so you won’t have that unpleasant feeling of dampness. This makes it a great ally for scorching summers, but it also keeps the heat in for cooler evenings. Its only drawback is that it wrinkles quite easily!
If you want to be sure that your project will be suitable for linen, you can look directly for a pattern designed for this fabric like this straight dress or these Linen patterns or the other.
The appeal of plants
The plant world will not only be found in natural fibers, but also in the prints on our dresses, jackets and pants. This summer, clothes will be adorned with foliage, branches, flowers… We’re taking inspiration from nature to design our wardrobe!
If you want to get in on this trend, you can opt for a printed cotton (e.g. this green leaf-printed cotton) or a viscose if you need a more fluid fall (e.g. this floral viscose by designer Lise Tailor).
If you don’t feel like going for the total plant look, then use these fabrics in dashes, lining a jacket or trouser pockets with leaf-printed cotton, for example, or adding a floral bias on the collar of a plain top.
Stripes stay the course
We all have stripes in our closets, whether it’s a simple blue-and-white sailor suit or a blouse with vertical stripes. It’ll be time to bring them out again this summer and sew many more, since striped fabrics will be very easy to find in the stores.
Horizontal or vertical, you can choose sober colors (white and black, white and blue, gray and white…) or dare to experiment with color. For example, combine one of the year’s great colors, peachy pink, with white or cream, to sew a dress with a vintage allure.
Fluid pants with colorful stripes will also be very fashionable this summer. You can combine them with the linen trend and choose a linen with green and white stripes to sew, for example, these pants from Burda.
How to make sewing connections on printed fabric? I explain it all here!
Embroidery and textured fabrics
Broderie anglaise was one of the big trends of 2023. We’re continuing to sew it this year, and we’re also looking at embroidered tulle and all the other wispy, textured fabrics we can use in our sewing.
Like embroidered tulle, broderie anglaise can be sewn as a yoke on a blouse or dress, or sewn over cotton to add texture and avoid transparency.
It’s also possible to sew broderie anglaise onto a garment, using a fairly simple, wide pattern like the Avel blouse from Un chat sur un fil. The oversize aspect will make the transparency less visible, but don’t hesitate to wear it with a tank top or thin t-shirt if you don’t like people to see through your clothes.
What fabrics are you looking to sew this summer? Have you spotted a fabric you’d like to work on for your summer wardrobe?
