A story of a patchwork party dress
Week 33's colours are Faded Orange, Minty, Marshmallow & Lavender
For this week’s prompt I am choosing something linked to patchwork and quilting to coincide with the launch of my 2026 collection of quilt fabrics designed for FreeSpirit Fabrics. It’s bold and very colourful and I named it COLORI!
You can read more about the collection on my latest blogpost here.
Jane Pearce could not have imagined back in 1944 that her emergency handmade patchwork dress would end up in the Victoria & Albert Museum sixty years later. The story goes that four year old Jane got invited on short notice to a party that she really wanted to go to, but had outgrown her party dress.
Her mother, Elizabeth, wasn’t able to buy her a new one because of rationing during the Second World War, but she had a plan.
The night before the party, she assembled her sewing kit and every spare scrap of fabric she could find, including parachute silk. She cut and sewed and put together this sweet little patchwork party dress, now housed at the V&A Museum in London.
I picked this week’s colours form one of the floral fabric squares on the dress
Here’s the link to the dress at the V&A in London.
“How Jane Got her Party Dress”, patchwork silk & cotton. Elizabeth Pearce, 1944
Colour Combination
The colours this week are Faded Orange, Minty, Marshmallow & Lavender. Use the colours along with a contrasting dark and neutral light colour if you wish. Create an artwork in any medium or style.
I love seeing what you’ve create. If you’re posting on Instagram, please tag #coloricombo and #estemacleod and join us in the private Facebook group Creative Prompts.
FreeSpirit Fabrics
Do you quilt or sew? Have a look at all fourteen designs in the Colori collection on FreeSpirit Fabric’s website.