Furnishing Fabrics, more than just curtains and cushions.

When it comes to using fabric I'm mainly a dressmaker, well actually a waistcoat maker. However I love finding new uses for fabrics and the skills I've picked up working in the world of textiles. I have done some furnishing projects, such as lining curtains and making cushions and even though I may have nothing in particular in mind I will grab some furnishing fabric if it's going in the sale. Often this thicker durable fabric will get turned into a stylish jacket like this one I wore to the Forbidden City in China.  This said a good stock of fabric can really be handy if you suddenly find yourself with a problem to solve.

I have been trying to redecorate my sewing room without spending too much cash. A friend donated a pair of bookcases which were solid, however the backs of them were damaged.  At first I thought I'd have to have them without the backs, which is highly  annoying as I  was planning on putting sewing bits and bobs on them, and could just imagine them getting lost or damaged as they fell behind the shelves.  Another options would be having ugly mis-matched bookcases.  The walls of my room looked very distinguished in their ox-blood red and I didn't want to spoil the over all Victorian abeyance they had given my room with tacky looking bookcases. It was then that I had an idea.

I patched up the bookcases as best as I could with Duct tape. Duct tape is like the Force from StarWars, it has a light side, a dark side and it holds the universe together. I then removed the panel from the book case and rummaged through my stock of furnishing fabric which I picked up in the sale last year. I then cut out a rectangle of fabric to fit the panel, leaving 1 cm around for seam allowance and then staple-gunned it to the panel.

All the was left to do was to use panel pins to reattach the back of the book case, and then add the shelves.

  I then repeated this with the second book case (in this case I had to use some hardboard for the back as the original back was too damaged). I also cut out a corner of the book case so it would fit into my room's support post.

And so there we have it. Furnishing fabrics used for furnishing, just in a different way than most people use them. This fabric was bought in a sale at a very reduced price. I stored it away with my other fabrics sure that I'd find a use for it one day, and I was very glad I did so. We don't need to be constrained by what we THINK a fabric should be used for. You can use a fabric for a wall hanging, or to pad a shelf, line draws or the inside of a cupboard, in fact anywhere that you just want to add a touch of luxury.

A thrifty and easy Christmas Bauble

We are now getting into November, from this point I start feeling very Christmasy. Last year I made up a Christmas Tree shaped table decoration following a pattern. I had intended to do the same for some fabric Christmas Baubles. However most commercial patterns required a polystyrene  ball of an exact size, and then limited your choice of fabrics to felts. They also required a lot of spray gluing  Spray glue and me  do not get on. As a result I sat down and created my own template and instructions for a Christmas Bauble.

 You will need:
Fabric (around 20cm by 40cm)
Needles
Pins
Scissors
Thread Snips
Small piece of ribbon
Toy Stuffing
Thread

Print out and cut out the template (click on the image to get a high quality image, and then save and print, MS paint or any other basic paint package can shrink or expand it to the size you want, this one is 15 cm long)

 Cut out 6 pattern pieces per bauble. You can make them all the same or use a mixture of fabrics. A seam allowance of half an inch (1.2cm) has been included
 Place one pattern piece on top of another, right sides together and pin and then sew along one length. Repeat this for the other sections so you have three different sections, each consisting of two of the panel pieces.

Right sides together sew one section to another, and then the final section leaving a gap to turn the bauble right side out. Clip all the seams. You should now have a ball shaped piece of fabric, turn it right side out and begin stuffing.

Close up the bauble with a ladder stitch. A ladder stitch is formed by first anchoring a stitch from within the bauble and popping the needle out at the seam allowance. Then put the needle directly into the fold of seam allowance on the opposite side of the gap. Then on the same side of the gap bring your needle OUT of the seam allowance fold a little further up and sew directly across the gap. Repeat until you are at the top of the bauble and pull the thread tight gently.

Stitch a little loop of ribbon at the top and you have a bauble.
These can be adorned with beading on the fabric or a trail of beads from the bottom, let your imagination go wild.  For me apart from being fun to make these have the advantage of letting you tailor your ornaments to your room decor and make your tree a little more personal.  The basic bauble can be made in 15 minutes or so, and then embellished at your leisure.

October is a confusing month

October can be very confusing for the sewing enthusiast. We have Halloween rapidly approaching whilst Christmas is not far behind. Taking the fact that many think Christmas needs much longer to prepare for often means our Christmas sewing is blended in with vampire costumes and stuffed pumpkins. Having covered some Halloween sewing already I thought I would  begin with some festive stitching. Christmas sewing projects take all shapes and sizes from Christmas Stockings to gifts and decorations. However the one thing we need to have prepared first in many cases is the Advent Candler. The start of December is now only 6 weeks away so I think it's OK to start getting a little excited by it.
Whilst not on the website yet the shops now have their Christmas fabrics out on display. This includes the Stockings and Advent Calendars. Home made quilted advent calendars have many uses. Not only do they give you a choice what treat to pop into the quilted pockets but they can be chosen to compliment your other decorations. Not only are they fun and rewarding to make they can also become a family heirloom. They make great gifts and if you have a large family each child could have their own calendar stuffed with their personal favorite snacks or other treats.

Making a soft toy from free online patterns

At Fabric8 we ran a  Toy Making Competition some tinme ago. I've been inspired by some of the entries to make a little stuffed toy of my own. Although I've made stage costumes, wedding dresses and other wonderful things I've never made a teddy. I decided to use a pattern thats freely available to download off the net from http://www.wyrm.org.uk/cuddly/index.html . After reading the instructions I assembled the materials needed.

Scissors and thread snips  

Pins

Toy Stuffing

Machine Needles

Hand Sewing Needles

Thread 

 and fabric 50cm x50cm 

The pattern I downloaded was the beanbag Dragon and I have to admit I'm very impressed. The instructions are very clear. I used the seam guide to find the seams are 1/4 of an inch. The first step as ever is to cut out the pattern pieces and to lay them out on the fabric. I decided to recreate the dragon from my childhood back in Wales, "Magon the Dragon".  I used red fun fur for the top of his body and pink for his underbelly and the inside of his ears. 

Some pieces such as the wings need 4 copies cut instead of two. When working with such small pattern pieces it's easy to lose a piece  when you clear out the scrap fabrics, so make sure to keep all the pieces safe including the wing and ear pieces which you had to unpin from the pattern paper so you could cut out the second copies (yes I DID accidently throw my wings in the bin when tidying away the scraps).

The head is the first piece to be assembled and I think looks very cute. I found it amazing how much shape the neck piece adds to the face. This picture was taken BEFORE the head was stuffed which I think goes some way to showing how much shaping the neck piece does. 

The wings are made next, and the lines of the wings are top-stitched on. This gives them a lot more definition. The two top sections are then tacked onto their wings and then the top sections are sewn together, leaving a small gap  for turning out. One of the two tail pieces is sewn on the top section as well. 

Next the inside of the back legs are sewn onto the bottom of the body. Care must be taken to make sure the right leg is on the right side. Here you can see that I didn't take enough care and thus the feet wouldn't not match up when sewing the top to the bottom. (never learn from mistakes, learn from someone else's :) ) 

Once the top and bottom of the dragon are sewn together you need to sew the head on. I found it easier to push the head into the neck cavity and sew along the neckline by hand. (right sides together of course). I always use a machine were possible but even I found it much quicker to do this short bit of sewing by hand. 

And there you have it, one very cute fuzzy dragon. Of course this one wont be in the toy competition as I'm a staff member. But anyone else can download a patterns and make one for the competition. You can express your creativity in many ways with these and other patterns. Try different fabrics, add embroidery, maybe use beading as well. You have 3 more weeks to get an entry into us and this little fella only took a few hours to make. Surprise us, and maybe yourselves as well. 

Colouring Your World.

Sometimes we have a new customer in the shop who is a little unsure of themselves. This is fine, we all had to start somewhere after all. Sometimes they don't realize that we  sell the whole width of the fabric, and not just cut them out a square the size they want. Other times  they may not realize fabrics come in different widths. And other times they may not understand that cotton and wool can relate to fabrics, as well as thread and knitting supplies. We always take great care to explain how things work and to reassure therm that many people don't know of such things when they  start out.  Without fail these people pick everything up very quickly and before long are even teaching me the odd new trick.

  One thing I try to explain is that it's OK to ask if they have something in a different colour (or in the case of a patterned fabric, a different colourway). Often a fabric will come in many shades and we will try to stock them all, but sometimes we can order some different ones in as well.  These are often in a simuler vein, however sometimes the colourways are markedly different and change the whole feel of the pattern. Seeing as it's raining, and hence nice weather for ducks I'll use the Cock-A-Leekie fabric as an example.

Cock-A-Leekie in Olive. This give the authentic farmhouse feel to a kitchen or indeed living room. The warm muted tonnes make it easy to blend in with traditional wood furniture. 

Cock-A-Leekie in Jewel is another traditionally styled colourway . Slightly bolder than the olive but you could still see it in a traditional farmhouse styled home.  I think already though you can see a difference in  how each bird look with the different colours. I think of this as a slightly more modern styled fabric to the olive.

 Cock-A-Leekie in Kiwi now the same pattern is starting to look very  different. Limited to   Black and lighter shades of yellow/green the fabric  has a modern but not harsh edge to it, recognizable as the same pattern as the olive but suitable for totally different surroundings.

Cock-A-Leekie in Duckegg with shades of cold light blues and greys has a distinct urban feel. It reminds me of a modern but lush mansion I was fortunate to spend time in whilst visiting Whitby. A more modern take on a traditonal look, these colours work wonderfully with wide open spaces.

Cock-A-Leekie in Denim an almost photo negative version of the duckegg. Again very modern, more suited to an urban apartment than a farmhouse styled home. Slightly warmer looking than the duckegg but still a very clean look.

Cock-A-Leekie in Cinnamon is the final colourway of this fabric. The addition of hit and spice reds are highlighted next to the more traditionally coloured  ducks. I find this pattern a fascinating  example of how just changing the colours a little, or a lot can totally change how you'd use a fabric. I'ts not just in furniture fabrics, check out the different colourways in craft and fashion fabrics. next time you see a fabric you like, but unsure of the colour don't be afraid to ask, The staff are always there to help and inspire you. And don't be afraid to pick up a colour you normally don't wear, take it to the mirror and drape it over yourself. As these examples show, even a few shades difference can totally alter how a textile looks in it's surroundings.

The Retromancers

Craft and sewing tins and cases 

Retro is huge. Ironically retro has been huge all through history. We've often looked back to the past for inspiration and sometimes accidentally (or not so accidentally) re-write it to give us a specific emotion, be it a sense of happy nostalgia, pride or hope. In the last century and a bit we saw this stepped up by the Victorian antiquarians. This group of middle classed gentlemen  would to to rekindle costumes and traditions from the past, for example Christmas day. Many of the traditions we hold dear to  for Christmas were actual re-inventions of Tudor and dark age traditions, given a Victorian twist. These enterprising gents also re-invented the role of Town Crier. When making a costume for a Town Crier I was told to remember this isn't a medieval costume, it's a Victorians idea of a medieval costume.

Retro and Modern fabrics

  Ok maybe it's time to quite the waffle and talk about WHY i'm talking about this. In recent time we've had a lot more retro. I've already blogged about polka dot weddings,  Cos play of 80's and earlier sci fi and have been to my fair share of ballroom parties where the theme was World War 2. We've selling a lot more retro fabric in the shop and have just  received some retro sewing tins. Colchester just hosted a wonderful Retro Fair . And I think I finally understand the spiritual appeal of these things. The aesthetic appeal was obvious, they're pretty! But there's a deeper meaning. The Victorians looked back because they felt a sense of achievement, proud of how far they had come with their industrial age.  We are looking back at trying times, such as the blitz and the years following the war when basic necessities were hard to time. We're not looking back at the times of excess when there were bountiful resources. In these tough days of economic gloom we're reminding ourselves, we have been through a lot worse as a country,a nd indeed as a species. We've been through hard-ship before, and yet we triumphed.