Fabric News

Alexander Henry - Around the World

I've added a couple of new sellers to the Great Big List of UK-based Online Fabric Shops.  First up is Fancy Moon.  Fancy Moon used to be an Ebay seller (I think called Fancy Nancy) and I was really disappointed when the Ebay shop closed because I'd be a huge fan of their selection - especially of very funky Christmas fabrics.  They've  now launched as a stand alone shop and I'm just as impressed.  Having a look round at the moment the main strengths are Alexander Henry and Etsuko Furuya for Kokka (including a brilliant selection of Kokka interior weight fabrics). You can browse the fabrics in stock by designer, manufacturer or by theme (and there's a great choice of themes!) which makes finding just what you need very easy.To celebrate the launch of the new shop there is a 10% discount available on all fabrics until 31 July - just use 'launch' (without the inverted commas) as the coupon code.  


Another fantastic new shop is The Cloth Seller, which specialises in organic and fair trade fabric, and as such, is offering something rather different and new to the UK - ethical fabrics where colour and style are the priority.  The Cloth Seller states that all their fabrics ' have been grown and harvested using sustainable, organic farming practices' and that 'they are woven and dyed without the aid  of dangerous chemicals'.  Good news and definitely to be applauded and supported (an excellent excuse for buying!).  

Geo Grand by Daisy Jainie

They are the UK distributor for a new organic fabric supplier called Daisy Janie Fabrics - the brain child of designer Jan DiCinto, who has produced a lovely graphic collection in very strong colours called Geo Grand.  The Cloth Seller also stocks the lovely, and very practical Westfalenstoffe medium weight cottons and gorgeous heavyweight interior fabrics by Mod Green Pod.


Finally some news about one of my favourite sellers - Julia of Gone to Earth.  The Gone to Earth blog has moved house and you can now find it just here!  So don't forget to pop round there and make sure that you are up to date with all the news.  To celebrate (not sure if that is the right word!) the move, Julia is having a brilliant giveaway of a fab book called Small Stash Sewing... really, what more reason do you need to go and take a peek? 

A Big List of Fabric Sellers in the UK

I'm leaving this here for the time being - but the most up to date version of this list can be found on my new blog at Very Berry Handmade.  Please come round and say hello. 

A couple of friends, who know about my fabric addiction, have recently asked me to send links to good online sellers.  It made me realise that when you're starting out with sewing, it's difficult to know what the best fabric places are - and of course there seems to be new places opening up all the time.  I've also seen lots of interesting sounding shops advertised recently in Sew Hip and Selvedge magazines that I'd love to investigate in the future (hope my other half isn't reading this...), so I'd make a big list of UK based fabric sellers who have a good selection of cottons for patchwork, dressmaking and accessory-making.  Feel free to get in touch and recommend others if you know of them - and if you've used any of the shops listed here and have feedback, then I'd love to hear from you - then I can update the list with your experiences.  Btw, the fabric images are for decoration only, and not an indication that they're available in the shops listed...
  

I've tried to limit this list to those shops with really good user interface, really good stock and/or unusual fabrics.  Some sites haven't made it because I'm not particularly into their fabrics or the website is just too dreadful to use.  Sites in bold are those that I've actually bought from myself.


Abakahn
Masses of 100% cotton to choose from - but mostly fairly traditional choices.  Huge variety of other craft and dressmaking fabrics available too.


African Fabric Shop
A fabulous shop with a lovely range of fabrics that could never be described a run of the mill. Gorgeous beads and some really good kits too. 


Backstitch
Not an enormous selection of fabric, but very well chosen (Kaffe Fassett, Valori Wells, Amy Butler etc.). There is a really excellent selection of patterns including Oliver + S and Colette.


Celtic Fusion Fabrics
Another very well  chosen range with some designers & manufacturers that you don't see everywhere else, such as Saffron Craig, Naomi Ito (Nano Iro fabrics) & Westfalenstoffe.  The pictures on the website are lovely, but I find the white on blue text a little difficult to read.


The Cloth Seller
The Cloth Seller specialises in organic and fair trade fabrics.  This is a revelation if you're used to the standard organic and fair trade fabrics that are out there...  They have cottons, jerseys, lawn and velvet & furnishing fabrics in stock, and manufacturers/designers include Westfalenstoffe, Daisy Janie (they are the UK distributor for Daisy Jainie) and Mod Green Pod.


Clothaholics.com
Kimono, Genshodo and indigo fabrics.


Cotton Patch
I really like Cotton Patch - because of their enormous range of fabric, notions, patchwork and quilting gadgets, books, patterns, fabric bundles & threads they are an essential destination for quilters in the UK.  You could spend hours (and a fortune!) on this website.  If you think you are going to be a regular, it is well worth joining one of their clubs which entitles you to discounts.  There are some downsides - if you order a 1/4 metre you seem to get a skinny quarter rather than a fat quarter, the site is a bit catalogue-ish (lots of long lists), and delivery can be slow unless you pay for the expensive Express option.


Croft Mill
Lots of fun fabrics from people who are clearly very enthusiastic about their work.  Really excellent prices too.


Ditto
A lovely range of dressmaking fabrics (and some cottons that would be great for patchwork and other sewing) at good prices.  You can order online but payment is taken over the phone.


Doughty's Online
A new site to me, but has a wonderful selection of fabric at some GREAT prices. A really big range of Kaffe Fassett (always a draw for me) & other Rowan designers, and some very tempting batiks too.  They also have lots of other fabrics, yarns, threads and craft materials. The website is also very easy to navigate, and they have a pricematch feature. I shall definitely be testing them out very soon.


Emma Garry Designs
Amy Butler, Heather Bailey and more.  Not masses to choose from, but some good stuff here.  There are also patterns, kits, and some beautiful handmade items.


The Eternal Maker
There are huge quantities of lovely fabrics here (lots & lots of gorgeous Kokka stuff for example), but it's quite to find them because the menus are quite hard to locate.  11/10 for stock, but it would be so fantastic if it was just a little bit easier to navigate the site.


Fancy Moon
A really excellent range of fabric - specialising in Alexander Henry amongst others.  You can browse by designer, manufacturer and theme, which makes finding what you want very easy.  The fabrics from the various designers are very well chosen. A real bonus is a big range of interior fabrics by Etsuko Furuya for Kokka. 


Fabric*Garden (on Ebay)
Nice selection, including some lovely Japanese fabrics such as Sunny Place and Kokka. Seller has a 100% feedback rating.


Fabric Inspirations
I love the range of fabrics here, but I have to say I find the menu options on the website very limiting (thematic search only, very useful in itself, but what if you are after a particular designer or colour?), so I find it rather frustrating.


Fabric Land
This website is a total blast from the past and exhausting to use, but the prices mean that it can't be left out.  No designer fabrics here, but lots of useful stuff at good prices (if you can find them...).


Fabric Rehab
Really lovely selection of more unusual contemporary fabrics, with the emphasis on retro and funky.  A deservedly popular site, with a great design, but I would love more non-thematic menu options for browsing.


Fabrics Plus
A selection from Amy Butler, Anna Maria Horner, Heather Bailey, Dena Designs, Makower and Moda.


Gaga Fabrics 
Funky and retro fabrics with a lovely clear interface. Not a vast selection, but some very tempting things here, and the selection is a bit different.


Gone to Earth
I'm a regular at Gone to Earth - the customer service is second to none, and there is a very well chosen range of fabrics, patterns and notions which means that you're very likely to find almost everything  you want.  Delivery is always incredibly fast too.


Gossypium
Organic and fair trade fabric - not much choice at the moment but included because it's fair trade and organic.


Liberty
Lucky you if you can afford it!  But always worth a look for a bit of inspiration if nothing else.  The new season stuff at the moment is absolutely delicious.


LucyLovesFabric
Some of the standard designers here - Amy Butler, Anna Maria Horner, but also some really lovely vintage fabric finds.  Definitely worth a look.


Lymington Fabrics
They have a very good range including Moda and Freedom Fabric.  They have lots of fabric bundles, jelly rolls, charm packs on offer - which look fantastic. They also offer free delivery, which is always good.


MacCulloch & Wallis
Masses to choose from with the added bonus of huge quantities of gorgeous haberdashery.


Millie Moon
Not an enormous selection but some good fabrics including Amy Butler, Alexander Henry and Tilda.


Nerybeth Fabric and Crafts
Stocks Amy Butler, Kaffe Fassett, Anna Maria Horner, Heather Bailey and Moda.  Seems to have a very good range - sells sewing accessories & patterns too so this is a bit of a one stop shop.


Patch Fabrics
Very nice site with a good selection of fabrics, including a fair few from Michael Miller.  I particularly like the lovely fabric bundles and inspiration packs. If you are nervous about choosing fabrics then bundles are a good way to find stuff that go together.

Quality Fabrics 4U (on Ebay)
This Ebay shop has one of the widest selections I have seen in this survey - majoring in Michael Miller and Alexander Henry, with some good prices too.


Quilters Cloth
A lovely site, with a really excellent menu to allow easy browsing.  There appears to be an absolutely excellent range here, including gorgeous batiks. They have some lovely fabric bundles too.


The Quilt Room
A strangely impersonal website, but there's some lovely fabrics here, including the gorgeous French General Rouenneries, and some lovely heritage and reproduction fabrics.


Ray Stitch
A really lovely new site with a gorgeous and very different selection of fabrics including Cloud 9, Kokka, and plain organic cottons.


Saints and Pinners
A very representative collection of all the current fave designers like Heather Bailey, Tanya Whelan, Amy Butler & Erin McMorris.  Very useful browsing menu too.


Seamstar
Another shop with a really imaginative selection of fabrics, including sproutdesign from Australia, Hoodie and Lauren & Jessie Jung.  They've got some really great free project patterns on the site too - very inspirational.


So there you go - hope you find it useful.

It's a start..!

The bags of fabric bits are oppressing me... And in spite of wanting to get going with some patchwork projects, at this time of year (busy in the garden), I haven't got time to experiment with anything too complicated. So thinking of lovely strippy quilts that I've seen on Flickr and at the V&A exhibition, I decided to just start sewing little pieces of fabric into strips and think about what to do with them later. It was lovely to sit and sew in straight lines, and not worry too much about colour and design! So once I had my strip, what to do with it? Here's what I came up with..

Yes... it's another zippered pouch...  Now I've worked out how to do this kind of zipper I can't stay away from them.  This time I've made the zip look even neater by covering the ends in this lovely tidy way.  The other thing to know about this colourful little pouch is that the lovely grey linen used to be a skirt and that sophisticated grey and white lining fabric is an ex-shirt.  I do like to recycle - it gives me a real buzz not to throw things away.... but it does, of course, mean a lot more bags of fabric.  Oh dear!

Working Through My Stash

I'm busily preparing for my first ever craft fair at the moment & haven't got much time for blogging - but this place is seriously in need of an update! I'm trying hard to make use of the fabrics in my stash to create lots of loveliness to wow the public with (ha ha), and these coasters are one of the things I've come up with. I bought a charm pack of the Rouenneries collection from French General quite a while ago now - I was totally seduced by all those beautiful reds and faded creams and browns - it's a gorgeous collection. I wondered about making a bag or two, using the squares in decorative strips (an idea I'm definitely going to use at some point), but time being rather limited, I decided to do something a little more straightforward. These coasters were huge fun to make, so much so that I'm just completing some more using Amy Butler fabrics. What worries me about them is whether people buy coasters any more, and what on earth to charge for them! They take a fair bit of time to make, and I have a feeling that if I charge a realistic price for them no one will be interested. But that's so often the trouble with handmade. Ho hum - I guess all I can do is give it a go.

Before and After...

I came downstairs this morning to this terrible sight in my living room.... I've only used a tiny photo in an attempt to cover up my shame, but it's still pretty terrifying isn't it ?! This is pretty much what happens every time I put together a patchwork block. For this particular block - a Log Cabin pattern - I needed 4 co-ordinating lights & 4 co-ordinating darks, and first I had to decide which shades I had to use. Blues and greens maybe? Purples and greens? Reds & purples? Then I had to come up with enough fabric each of my chosen colours. And that, of course, meant getting out practically my entire fabric stash, unfolding it, trying different combinations, then trying more different combinations..... well, you get the picture. It's all tidied away now and, best of all - it came out happily in the end:

Christmas Stocking Prototype

I've been working hard on this prototype Christmas stocking today (with a little break when we had an unscheduled power cut!) and am now nearly done. As I've already mentioned I've got a commission from Celia to make stockings for her 2 lovely girls, and before I started cutting fabric and sewing applique I really wanted to have a go at making a trial version. I realised I was being handed the perfect opportunity to make stockings for my 2 lovely boys! I have been meaning to do this for 3 years now, and even have some fabric cut out ready to go, but they've never got finished in the Christmas rush. Poor things are always getting prototypes and rejected experiments (a misshapen owl and a turtle with no eyes are quite popular..) but this time I think they are going to pretty pleased, because this has gone really well. The main body of the stocking is lovely orange (Danny's favourite colour) corduroy which I got from Ditto Fabrics. It's the 1st time I've used this shop and I am very impressed with their selection - especially with the lovely corduroys in lots of beautiful colours - the staff were very friendly too. The fabric trim on the stocking cuff is Laurel Burch Bountiful Blessings Tress in Ivory (from a very helpful ebay retailer called Quilted Mouse Fabrics). All the applique is in 100% wool felt from my favourite Handmade Presents - not cheap, but in my opinion it's fantastic value because it's top quality. I'm pretty pleased with how it's all worked out - the only thing I'd change is the colour of thread I used for the name applique - it's too light I think. It's a bit of a work in progress photo because I haven't sewn the final seam - so you also get to see my workspace, and today's number 1 distraction - Selvedge magazine - which arrived this morning. As usual I'm totally gobsmacked by all the gorgeous work and photos of beautiful things. As someone else said - even the adverts are lovely to look at. I've already been through it twice and will have another browse tonight. It's such a treat to receive that it really was a no-brainer to fork out for a 3 year subscription recently.

A new top for me!

I had the fantastic opportunity to go to the first day of England's second Ashes Test against Australia at Lord's last week. I love cricket, so this was as a wonderful treat for me, and I felt like I needed something new to wear for the occasion. My summer wardrobe is so boring, and I didn't have anything that seemed quite right for such a fantastic event. I didn't really have the cash to go shopping, but a few weeks back I bought a Japanese pattern book - Beginner's Dress and Tunic book - from the fab Etsy seller Pomadour24, and I've been dying to have a go at one of the patterns, so it seemed like a good opportunity. I didn't really have the time to do it either, but the patterns are very straightforward (in spite of being in Japanese of course), so I thought I would give it a go. I wanted something comfy but reasonably flattering, and I also wanted to use this gorgeous Michael Miller fabric called Boho Blossoms, which I had in my stash. So here's a picture of what I came up with. It's actually nothing much like the pattern, which doesn't have the contrasting high waisted panel or the belt, and is considerably longer. But it was great to have the pattern to help me with the fitted bodice, the neckline and the arms. I really enjoyed wearing it, and thought it looked ok - the arms especially have a really flattering kimono-style fit. It's the 1st piece of clothing I have made for myself in years and it was fun to do. I started thinking about getting myself a dressmaker's dummy - a very bad sign!

Whilst I was in London I made my poor friend accompany me on my craft-related shopping activities. I couldn't buy too much because I knew that I would have to take it with me to the cricket, and wouldn't have much space for a picnic and yards of new fabric. But I wanted to get some pink ribbon for drawstring bags I'm making, and so took the opportunity to visit the brilliant VV Rouleaux in Marylebone. What a shop - it has the most fabulous array of trimmings, ribbons, cords, tassels...etc. etc.. I could have spent a fortune. I also happened upon the Button Queen, also in Marylebone Lane, which has a fantastic array of antique and vintage buttons, as well as lots of fashion buttons to buy. I hope I get to London again soon - with more bag room this time. As for the Test match? It was fabulous and, WE WON! Roll on the 3rd Test.

A Little Experiment with Patchwork and Quilting...

I didn't want to make my swap partner something crocheted for the Time for Tea Swap - Izabela is such an expert at crochet (take a look!), so I thought I would have a go at something different and make use of some fabric from my stash.

I pieced together bits of fabric in strips and then in turn sewed them together until I had a rectangular piece of patchwork. I then cut a piece of toning fabric to form the base and a piece of fusible fleece to provide the padding. I ironed this lot together then cut out 6 coaster-sized circles. Then I used some thrifted bias binding to bind the edges - I was lucky enough to find a huge box of different shades of bias binding in our local Oxfam a while back. So it was great to use different colours - I think I like the pink best, what do you think?

I am pleased with result, and it was so enjoyable to do... I think I might make a few more - if I do square ones then they might not be quite so fiddly either!

The coffee mug in the photo up at the top is from my gorgeous Cinqe Ports Rye coffee set and dates from the late 50s. That's another charity shop find - just ocassionally I get lucky and find something very lovely. Makes all that trundling round worthwhile.

Vintage cushion covers become placemats

Originally uploaded by Craft Matters

I've finally got round to creating something just for us to use. I found some fabby cushion covers in one of my regular trawls round Oxfam just after Christmas and fell on them straight away. I have a particular fondness for bright orange, bold & bright prints. They have such a 70s feel - they really remind me of my childhood, especially our great caravan holidays - the 'van had a fab orange interior. These were right up my street, but absolutely rotten as cushion covers - with atrocious white frondy trim - yuk.

Originally uploaded by Craft Matters

I've been wondering what to do with them for some time now, and suddenly had an inspiration that they would make great placemats - and as I had 3 cushion covers, I had just enough fabric to make 6 mats - a full set! I also wanted to try a little bit of quilting, so this seemed like an ideal opportunity to have a go and to further emphasise the graphic print with a bit of extra stitching.

So I chopped up the covers (disposing of the unpleasant fringing I'm afraid), found some suitable backing fabric and sandwiched a layer of fusible fleece between the 2 layers, sewed round then started up with some quilting. Even more exciting than that - I used the embroidery foot on my machine to do it. So lots of new skills there.

I am delighted by the result! Unfortunately I've only done 1, but hopefully next week, after the bunnies are done, and the Tea Swap gift is posted off, I'll have a chance to finish the other five.

I made something just for us....

And possibly for the entire neighbourhood to point and stare at, but hey! It's Christmas and you can't be low key at Christmas time..

As you can see it's a stunningly beautiful, only slightly over the top Christmas door wreath. It's made with plaited tubes of very funky Christmassy fabric. Each of the single tubes that go to make the plait is nearly 3 metres long (can you believe it?). It took me FOREVER to stuff the damn things, and I got a very sore thumb doing it, but I have to say that I am extremely pleased with the results.

The boys like it too. They were most impressed with the lovely holly wreath that our neighbours have on their door, and this spurred me to get on with this fabric version that I had been planning for a while. I got the idea from a vintage 70s craft book that I found on one of my charity shop trawls. We have a little porch over our front door so it should keep reasonably dry out there.

We are very Christmassy here now - we have the tree up and the room is decorated. We have lovely cut out snowflakes on our window and lots of home made decorations on the tree. Today we made great big cardboard stars which we covered in glitter paint - hopefully they'll be dry by tomorrow so we can stick them on our wall. And I am so proud of myself for writing a blog post amongst all this busy-ness!

Crochet Brooches...

I am so busy keeping up with custom orders & mailing orders out - it's absolutely fantastic! But what it does mean is that the Craft Matters Etsy shop is now looking rather empty. I wanted to make a few more of these crochet brooches because they've suddenly become rather popular & I really need to make a dent in my stash of 'just in case' yarn... The yarns I've used here are Rowan Wool Cotton in Bilberry Fool (gorgeous name, it sounds delicious - although how you would pick enough bilberries to make a fool I don't know), Sirdar Peru in Blanket Blue and Noro Kureyon in ....woops I lost the label. Will try and find the name. One of the things I like most about them is that you get such a different feel depending on the yarn & the embellishments used.

I am delighted to have discovered (by a complete accident when I was searching for some fabric for the Apron swap) the name of my fave Liberty tana lawn print - seen here on the cover of my needle book. It's Bourton. Phew, what a relief.

Fairy Tale Swap - Result!!

I feel so bad that I haven't had a chance yet to blog about the wonderful box of goodies I received from Lottie of Love Lottie as part of the Fairy Tale Swap. Lottie has sent this beautiful needle-felted elf. I am just so impressed by her skills - the elf's little face is absolutely gorgeous and I love the details on his clothes, especially the little wooden button.

My sons think he is one of Father Christmas's elves & I have a feeling that he is going to become part of our Christmas celebrations in a big way. I just hope they are not expecting me to make a needle-felted Santa Claus - I don't feel up to that at all!

I think the close-up pic shows what a great job Lottie has done - he has such expressive features, which must have been so hard to create. I'm not sure if I believe her when she says she hasn't done much needle-felting before!! Isn't he fantastic?? It would be good to think of a name for him - I will have to set the boys to work on that one.

And as if that wasn't enough I also got these gorgeous little lavender shoes made of felt with some very pretty embroidery. I think they are lovely & much too special to hide away in my wardrobe. I am sure that at least one of them will go on the hooks on our bedroom door (once we get round to putting the hooks up of course). What a great swap!

Although actually that isn't quite true because I haven't actually completed my half yet!! One bit is done but I have to get a couple more bits & bobs before I can start on my other bit of creating for Lottie. It's been a real challenge which is one of the things I like about these swaps - it's good to get the opportunity to do something different and have the discipline of the swap theme to contend with. I will give Lottie a hint & just say that it has been great to practise my crochet a bit...

Mee Crafty Swap
Our other swap parcel from Jill & Nature Girl in the USA arrived this morning and caused huuuge excitement. I want to get more photos taken before posting properly about it, but here is a picture of two very happy boys doing some enthusiastic jumping on the bed wearing their lovely new T-shirts. All I can say is that Jill and Nature Girl certainly got it right when it comes to the tastes of my 2 sons.

London!
One of the reasons why I am so behind with posting about our swap gifts is that I was allowed out on Friday & Saturday & went to meet up with some old friends in London. I was a bit too knackered to do as much as I wanted to do, but I did get the chance to visit a couple of fabric shops & the treasure house of a haberdashery/fabric shop MacCulloch & Wallis. I didn't get a lot of stuff because I was really aware that I would have to carry it around all evening, but was very pleased with these vintage trims and some bargain fabric that I picked up from The Cloth House in Soho. I think they will come in handy for some Christmas crafting I want to do & for some more pin cushions I am working on.

A new pincushion

I've been missing crocheting a lot over the last few weeks - it' s such a useful craft because you can pick it up & do a round or a row any time you get the opportunity, which with 2 4-year-olds running around is a real bonus. It's also great to do in front of the TV! I also wanted to experiment with using crochet & fabric together AND I have some huge great bags of stuffing material to use, so a new pincushion seemed like a good idea. I think the fabric & the cotton yarn look great together. I've just used what I think of as single crochet at the moment (I am now totally confused about the UK v USA crochet stitch names)& a scrap of gorgeous Kaffe Fassett material I had to be used up. It measures around 6cm across which I guess a lot of people would think is a bit big for a pincushion but I rather like large pincushions - nice & easy for me to find amidst all my clutter. I'll probably do the next one a little smaller if I can get my crochet under control.

UK Etsy Sellers (part 2) - Vintage Inspiration

This post has been brewing for a while but I have been so so busy lately I just haven't had time to get it finished. I have been blogging over on Seasonal Matters about my jam making activities, making a ton of biscuits whilst we've had the plumbers in & working on a new messenger-style bag & some very cute crochet & fabric pin cushions. And of course there has been the football & the tennis to distract me. Thank goodness there is a short window before the Olympics starts up.

I'll probably end up adding to this post over time - there is some lovely stuff out there and I am sure that I'm going to find more as I do more exploring. One lesson that's come out of my searches is that a lot of people don't use the tagging system on Etsy very effectively. I must confess that I didn't think to tag my stuff with 'UK' until I noticed it in someone else's shop, but it really is important if you want UK buyers to find you.

Anyway, this time my theme is folks who make use of or who sell vintage materials. First up is Pouch - I love them so much I actually bought something (a most beautiful belt - see left) from them which is totally ace. The fabric is really reminiscent of the curtains of our family caravan in the 1970s so I have a sunny holiday feeling every time I wear it. That's one of the attractions of vintage of course - different fabrics & styles have happy associations with people & places we have loved. Pouch have a great blog too which is well worth a look.

I am a huge fan of the dresses at Vintage Vacations - if only they had any in my size at the moment (I am assured that they are on their way!). I really love the way that the vintage fabrics have been used with real imagination & style. Helen says she especially loves vintage table linens & that really shows in the way she makes use of them.

Abi Bansal Designs is another shop where great use is made of vintage fabrics - primarily in bags. If I didn't make bags myself then I would definitely turn here if I wanted a new one! There are some great designs for bags (see left) & clothes here too & the shop owner also has a lovely blog that is well worth a look.

One more for now & that's Ruby C Quin's. There are some fabulous vintage buttons here & a really excellent selection of vintage sewing & knitting patterns. This doesn't really count as vintage but I wanted to include the very beautiful sea glass that the seller collects & sells. It really is gorgeous & reminds me again of family holidays. I spent vast amounts of time myself on Scottish holidays collecting sea glass. My mum & dad weren't too impressed that I filled up the car with carrier bags full of all this sandy stuff. What a really good idea to sell it.

So, that's it for now. It's taken me about 2 weeks for me to write this post. Hopefully the next one wont be quite so slooooow.

Some UK based suppliers on Etsy - Part 1

People selling pretty things... mainly for sewing with

Etsy sure is big... I love it so, but sometimes I find it so overwhelming - all that inspiration - all that beautiful stuff - so little time - so little money. It's particularly frustrating if you want to find sellers based in the UK so you can cut down your postage costs. So I've been doing a bit of searching & trawling & here are some of the fabric/buttons/other fabricky stuff suppliers that I like the look of.

OOOh! Vin Papa is fab! What a really pleasing collection of vintage buttons! And there's something about buying buttons that makes you feel like you are actually spending your money on something really useful. The ones pictured are particularly smashing I think but there is masses to choos from.

Namolio - beautiful linen fabric, cord, ribbon & tape. Love the selection of colours available - this shop is impeccably tasteful.


Pink Pearls - some very interested bits & pieces - definitely my kind of taste when it comes to fabric (see lovely pictured tweed fabric).

Tiny Island has some (just a few) very pretty fat quarters.

Big Fish has some lovely collections of buttons & felt in great colours (althoughI prefer to work with felt with a higher wool content).

So there you go - I'm going to try & do more in this series soon but by golly it makes my brain hurt (& my wallet ache).

Sadly as at Dec 31 2009 Vin Papa is no longer trading.

Some vintage fabric/textile suppliers

Lots of linkies...

I want to record of a few of the vintage fabric & textile places I've been looking at on the old interweb...

The Airing Cupboard - vintage fabric shop on Ebay. Lots of William Morris, Sanderson, Liberty and Laura Ashley. A good retro section too.


Classic Modern - site selling 50s-70s textiles, lighting, ceramics etc. Lovely place to look for inspiration.

Country House Antique Textiles - some absolutely gorgeous fabrics some of them available in much larger quantities than is usual. The prices seem a bit steep (for me anyway) but the range is very good. Ooooh, and I have just seem some lovely vintage buttons & Scottie dog ribbon...

Rag Rescue - sell bags of smaller scraps of fabric & larger pieces. The sort of site that you might have to hunt around for a real gem, but the prices are good & there are very interesting haberdashery & embellishment sections.

Meggy Magpie Fabrics - another ebay shop. Not a huge selection at the moment but there are some bargains here & definitely someone with a good eye for stuff that will appeal. Some particularly fun 70s fabrics are currently listed (e.g. picture on the right).

Fancy Nancy Fabrics - an ebay shop with lots of super-trendy Japanese imports, gorgeous Christmas fabrics & well known designers. Helpfully the fabrics are organised by style & season as well as by designer/manufacturer.

It's been a while...

Not had chance to post for a couple of weeks because we've been unexpectedly away from home. Before we disappeared off to the homelands of North Staffordshire I was getting ready to post on the bags I had completed. It feels like months ago now, but I am proud of them and hopefully posting about them will motivate me to get on with some more bags. For various reasons I feel like life is completely up in the air at the moment so it's hard to sit down to anything that takes more effort than a crochet hook and some yarn...

The first bag (left) is just a plain tote - useful for library/school/work books I would say. The fabrics are from the John Lewis furnishing fabrics department (pure heaven). Generally I am finding that furnishing fabrics make better bags because they are obviously stronger material & the designs and colours are just FAR more interesting. The only problem is that my clunky old sewing machine isn't really up to the job of working on them.

The pattern is one I have used before & I like the fact that it is straightforward to make larger or smaller versions and vary the patterns to have longer or shorter handles. This one has longer handles so that you can get them over your shoulder. I noticed that the tote bags I use most are the ones with long handles because having 2 young kids means that I don't often have hands free to carry anything.

The other bag uses the same fabrics & this time is fully lined. I got the pattern from a book I got from my local library. It's Bags, Bags, Bags by Dorothy Wood. It's a little bit dated, but has some nice patterns, tips and ideas (and is currently very good value on Amazon!). I wouldn't say that the patterns were written for a complete beginner, but it is a long time since I have done any sewing and I did ok! I am very pleased with it - I especially like the shaping round the bottom of the bag and I liked how easy it was to do the lining, which of course makes it look very smart. The buttons I managed to glean from my grandmother-in-law's old button box, so I am pleased to use them too. The best thing about completing this one is that a) I think the quality of the sewing is good enough to be part of the stock of my Etsy shop; b) I have had some much needed practice on the sewing machine and c) I have learned some really useful techniques for bag making.