Showing posts with label Fabric finds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fabric finds. Show all posts

Wednesday, 22 February 2012

Anyone for lycra??

Among the good fabric haul there was also the not so good!

Two large rolls of black self-striped nylon lycra that was destined to be bathers and leotards for a small nation (as well as my family and friends!), but which turned out to have lost its rebound.


It's 150cm wide and there's got to be over 30 metres on the roll.


If you do anything in theatre then you should grab it - it would be great for backdrops and the like, just not so good for clothing.


If you think you might be interested then pop over to ebay and have a look.

Saturday, 21 January 2012

Sharing the fabric love

Who would have ever thought I'd say I have too much fabric - but I do this time!

Now I am not one to use my blog to 'flog' things off but I consider this to be sharing the fabric love with some friends!

I found a knit factory that is closing down and got two full bolts of striped cotton/lycra, you could only buy it by the bolt, so i had no option really but to do it.

It's superior quality - has a lovely rebound, is soft and drapes beautifully.

It would be great for leggings, long and short sleeved T-shirts, dresses and skirts and also sleepwear.

The first one is very dark navy and cream stripes. (It does look black and white but it is not!)
The stripes are 1.5cm wide.

The bolt is 150cm wide. 





The next is a pink and white stripe - the pink is a real bubblegum or candy coloured pink - not salmon as it looks slightly.
These stripes are 0.5cm each and the bolt is 130cm wide.

This will be getting a good workout in my place I can tell you!!

I can't wait to make up some Oliver +s Hopscotch dresses and tops and Olivia dresses by Farbenmix.
Stripes are also great when mixed with solids for Make it Perfect long-sleeved T's.





To make things easier (for me!) I'm keeping the price on both the same, so it can be yours for $10 per metre plus postage.

I'm happy to send however you prefer - Express, registered, regular mail or pick up if you like and I will give you a price once I know how much you want.

So leave me a comment and make sure it links to your email, with how many metres you want of each or if you want to ask questions then feel free and I will email you back.

Thanks for looking.
Oh, and it's first in best-dressed of course, I'll deal with requests in the order the come.

Monday, 5 October 2009

Happiness is...

Some of this just came to live at my house.

Needless to say I am pleased, very pleased.

Pick some up for yourself here or here.

Thursday, 30 April 2009

Jane and friends

Amitie had a sale a while back.

I couldn't get there on the actual day of the sale (which is probably just as well as the lady there told me the line of fellow addicts waiting to pay for goods extended the length of the shop - not good toddler territory!), but I did pop in the day after and picked up these bargains for 50% off!!


These Dick and Jane panels are destined for library bags as birthday gifts and appliques for shirts, skirts and pants. But what to do with this??
It's actually panels to make an alphabet book for 'Tiny Tots'.

Do you think it should be made into a book?
Or panels on clothing?


Or something else entirely?

What would you do with it?
Oh, and please excuse the creases, I haven't washed it yet - therefore not ironed!

Wednesday, 25 March 2009

Show stopper

I'm almost embarassed to blog this the event was so long ago!
But what's that old cliche, I mean saying, "better late than never".

So here goes.

The Stitches and Craft show was on here in Melbourne a couple of weeks ago and I had a lovely child-free morning strolling around taking time to actually look at the things I wanted to look at and even participating in a short workshop/tutorial class.

The class, or Craft Lab as they were called, was on making rings and brooches from vintage buttons and was run by none other than the fabulous Jodie of Ric Rac fame, you know, the creative selvedge freak lady (she calls herself that not me mind you!).

I hadn't read the guide close enough when I signed up to even know it was her running it, so it was almost a bit embarassing to walk in, given that I had outed myself to her as a reader of her blog about an hour earlier.

Must have appeared very stalkerish!
To make matters more strange, Lara of Thornberry, another blog I love to read, was there with one of her daughters doing the button thing.

So I said Hi again.

As everyone always says, both ladies were incredibly friendly and neither sought a restraining order against me so I was delighted to make their acquaintance.

Blogland is proving itself time and again to be a very friendly world and I am always glad when I take the plunge and say hi.

Of course there were plenty of other crafty bloggers who I didn't 'out' myself to, but maybe next time!

So on to the goodies.


I popped over to the Kelani stand and got some Heather Ross Mendocino mermaids just because it's lovely, picked up a piece of this fun and cheerful Sprout fabric that I might use for appliques and also some babushka's, who could resist them really.

Also got some doll clothes patterns from AK Traditions, some cute robot fabric from the Amitie stand and lastly some lovely felt flowers that I plan to make into brooches or hair clips for the girls.

Definitely make the trip to the show when it's on in your state and sign up early for the workshops and classes.

Sunday, 21 December 2008

Crazy Christmas Crafting

If I got as much crafting done all year round as I do just before Christmas, I'd be able to generate enough stock for that much dreamed of market stall.

Though my lovely husband would probably leave me...

With three kids under three to care foron my own...

So then I'd get no crafting done at all...

I'll be finished with this madness soon... I promise!
That said I love every minute I spend at the sewing machine making presents and if I had the luxury of a full-time housekeeper/cook (or was happy to live in utter squalor), I'd sew the days away.

There are lots of pics to follow, so take a deep breath and dive on in!

First some stencilling
I'm loving doing these and have been learning lots of new things;

Like make sure you don't use the steam setting on your iron or the freezer paper won't stick and your image will bleed at the edges.
(aaah - thanks Hoppo Bumpo)

And the tip from Lisa to put a piece of cardboard between the layers to absorb the paint and then switch that for wax paper as it dries.

This is for my trumpet-playing 9 y.o nephew

These for my friend's 2 y.o son



and this for his 4 y.o sister

These are the Pink Fig tops I have been making, have I mentioned how much I love this pattern? Yeah I thought I had!

I made these two for friends and loved them so much I repeated the colour combos; for one for Misses L and G.



This is Miss A's - the yellow lover.


This was for a friend who saw the original one I made Miss L and loved it. No more of that fabric left unfortunately - but I will be trying to get somemore - maybe in the bluish colourway as well as I love it for this shirt.

Here's Miss G in her new shirt - and wearing jeans just like the big girls.
Thanks again Cass for the floral fabric in G's shirt, I love it It is some of what you sent me as part of the big Bulldogs vs Swans bet (just had to mention it one more time didn't I!).

And lastly another caped-T - in the reverse colour-combo to the first one.

OK - breathe out now, I'm done.
For the moment.

Friday, 31 October 2008

International goodness

Just a quick post to share some of the loveliness that has been featured at the International Quilt Fair in Houston during the last week.

I'm not a quilter - never will be I fear as I don't have the skill or patience to do it well, but there are many divine ranges of quilters cotton that are also great for kids clothes, so I always keep an eye on the goings on at Houston and the show that was on earlier in the year at Portland.

Here are a couple of my favourites;

Patty Young is a kids clothing designer who has released a line called Andalucia - her Flickr set showing it made up into clothing, cushions and bags is to die for.

This is her blog.

Check out Paula Prass and her debut line for Michael Miller - Flights of Fancy.

Gorgeous colours and get a closer look at that bird print! I will definitely be adding some of this to my fabric stash when it is released, let's hope the Aussie dollar will make it more affordable by by then!

I've seen a few girls using this fabric, Tot Town by Michael Miller and it makes me wish I had boys to sew for! So sweet.

Also, while not exactly new, there are some great bird prints around that I would love to get my hands on!

The worst part about some of these recently released fabrics is they will take a few months to get here.

Worth waiting for though I think!

While on fabric - here's some really lovely lightweight red denim I bought from Jodie at The Haby Goddess .
Destined to become summer skirts and pants - maybe some shorts.
I like a solid colour to mix with some of the busy prints I've been using of late.

She stocks a range of haberdashery and also fabric and has some great offers.

Fabulous service and price so check her out if you get a chance.

The trims were from the shopping fabric tour I took earlier this year and came from Trimmings and remnants.

Thursday, 23 October 2008

One for the little chick

It's late, and I should be sleeping rather than blogging, but I finally finished a pair of rompers that have been slowly coming together over the last week and wanted to share them with you.

(Excuse the 'flashed' photography of this shot - it's night time and I haven't ironed these either, the legs actually are even!! The colours are also richer than this shows. But you get the idea.)

Sometimes there don't seem to be enough hours in the day - a common problem I know, but it frustrates me that a somewhat simple project can take a number of short sittings over a few days to complete rather than a straight out 1-2 hours.

Regardless of how they came to be, I am really happy with the result.

Yes they're bright - but that's the way I like it!
No soft pastel pinks for my little chick, it's bright birds all the way.

The orange spot is just from Spotlight but matched perfectly with the Erin McMorris birds.

The pattern is from Ottobre 3/2007, design 5. See, they started life as pink rompers.


Wednesday, 15 October 2008

Here's the haul!

OK I've been promising for long enough, so here are a few pics of the haul!

Purchased pre-Aussie dollar crash I might add - hooray, for once I bought at the top of the downslide rather than the bottom.

These are from the Farmers Market range by Sandi Henderson as mentioned in the last post.

Destined to be more dresses and skirts and maybe some shorts???

Here they are in a pile - just 'cos they're pretty like that! (OK excessive fabric love is an illness - I know!)
These I adore, they are from the Park Slope range by Erin McMorris.

I can't begin to tell you how rich the colours of this range are - you can't begin to appreciate them til you hold them in your hands because pictures don't do it justice.


And here's all the loveliness that Cass sent me for our bet on the footy! She overpaid me - it was for 1 metre of fabric (what else would sewing girls bet on!) and she sent all this great stuff.


Looking forward to sharpening up the scissors and cutting into it all.

Tuesday, 14 October 2008

First frocks

These are the first frocks of spring!

Some lovely sunny days here have prompted me to get stuck into the spring/summer sewing.

Just as well because these dresses are already back in the washing basket.


They are made using the same pattern as this retro-styled top. The girls really like them and so do I.

This one is from the Miss Madeline pattern which was incredibly quick and easy to sew. It's made using some of the gorgeous Sandi Henderson Farmers Market fabric that I got a few weeks ago and will blog soon!

The colours in this range are so fresh and summery they are perfect for girly dresses. Stay tuned for more of these.


Friday, 3 October 2008

Cheats sometimes prosper...

There's been a bit of talk in 'blogland' of late about Denyse Schmidt's cheater quilt fabric - or any fabric that is already printed with a patchwork-style design to make it really quick and easy to make into a quilt.

This fabric is the sewing mum's equivalent!


You buy it by the metre from Spotlight pre-shirred.


That's right - no more hand-winding elastic onto the bobbin, stretching out the fabric and sewing rows of straight and hopefully even lines.

Obviously the colour range is limited - so the elastic and bobbin are in no way retired.
I know it's the lazy way of sewing, but cut me some slack, new baby and all!

3/4 of a metre gave me enough for a little 'around the house' dress each and a matching dress for dolly, of course.

Since taking these pics I removed the back shoulder ties and now tie the two front ones around their neck halter-style as I got tired of the shoulder straps slipping off busy little shoulders.

Friday, 12 September 2008

A taste of Teppanyaki


Back in May I went on a fabric shopping tour run by Anne at Designer Stitch - and yes it is as much like heaven to a fabric junkie as it sounds.

One of the places we visited was Zigu Zagu where you can buy vintage Japanese textiles such as kimono, kimono textiles, obi silks and zabuton. It's located in the Kazari warehouse where you can pick up Japanese antiquities and furniture, to complement your textiles of course!!

My father-in-law had told me about Zigu Zagu just before we went there so I decided to pick up some Obi silk to make him a set of six placemats for his birthday last week.

With all that happened between May and September I only had two done ready for his birthday but delivered the remaining four a few days later.
They are a bit like mini-quilts with a layer of cotton batting between two layers of fabric - the sik and a red cotton on the front and red cotton on the back.

I decided to keep them quite simple and not cut the silk into small pieces and 'patchwork' it so to speak, as I wanted to maximise the amount of silk that could be seen.
The colours and design in the silk are really beautiful and I am pleased to say that he was delighted with them.

Thursday, 29 May 2008

Fabric love

Today Corrie and her gorgeous little girl Keira came around for a play and a walk to see the ducks.

Corrie bought with her a humungous bag of fabric, buttons, trims and patterns that she no longer has a home for, as she culls her stash to return to Sydney.


There were lots of pieces of gorgeous Japanese fabric with cute characters from her online range which will be perfect for appliques.

I spent a wonderful afternoon sorting through and folding up all the pieces of fabric and browsing the patterns. One book includes a little girls smock which is perfect as I soon hope to make one for the girls as they are getting more into painting.

Thanks Corrie - it was very generous of you to share the fabric love! Your fabric has come to a home where it will be loved and appreciated.

Friday, 23 May 2008

Da-glumph

Come on sing along, if you've ever watched Play School you know the song, the one about the little frog!
Well here he is making an appearance on some PJ's for a friend's little boy.

As a fellow mum-of-twin-toddlers, I know my friend will be going through lots of pairs of PJs in winter so thought some frog ones would be handy to add to the collection.

I was really disappointed with the range of 'boy' flannellette in Spotlight until I saw this little fella, he's pretty cute I think.

For once I didn't cheat and put an applique on a bought top - this one was made using the Ottobre Creative Workshop 301 pattern - billed as the only T-shirt pattern you will ever need.
After using it I see why - the one pattern comes in sizes 92-170cm in wide or narrow fit!
I picked mine up at Crafty Mama's.

Now I better hop-to-it and make something for his sister.

Sunday, 13 April 2008

Things that make me smile...

Small people who think a washing basket is for 'row, row, rowing' the boat.


Gifts made by Grandma that are an instant hit.


Mum made each of the girls a little patchwork blanket using stretch scraps left over from making PJ's for her seven grandkids. The blankets were immediately wrapped around 'baby' and tucked under their arms ready for an adventure.

She also modified one large footy scarf to make two very sweet small ones. What can I say, I'm brainwashing them early to be Bulldogs fans, the same as Dad did to me!

It also goes without saying that I love fabric - perhaps even more when it's on sale!


Amitie is a lovely place to hang out and breathe in all the fabric loveliness, even if you can only take a small portion of it home with you.

Hope something in your week has made you smile.