fabric – Page 31 – the long thread

February 28, 2012

Glue Batik

So it looks like I’m working on a school auction project again this year. Don’t know how this happens. Anyway, the kids in my daughter’s third grade class had already started with a glue batik project and I made some additional squares with them last week, as you can see above. We started with this tutorial. Thinking of putting these on a neutral linen background so that the colors would be appealing to most people, but not sure. I tried this glue batik technique a couple of years ago, and decided it would be better to limit the color palette. I do think that worked better and as you can see this time I went with blues and greens. I’d also suggest having the kids focus their designs and possibly even trace something. Although I love for kids to be creative and make their own work, when it’s auction time, you need to get something good from every kid and it’s not easy. It’s a time when art really is about the finished product and not the process, which kind of takes the fun out of it.

Anyway, I’ll keep you posted on this one. They have asked me to sew the kids’ designs into a quilt, so we’ll see how it comes out.

February 28, 2012February 28, 2012

Stitch by Betz White

Betz White recently sent me some of the beautiful fabric from her new line of organic cotton for Robert Kaufman. The fabric is GOTS certified organic quilting cotton. I was impressed by the thickness of the fabric and it has a great feel as well, which you don’t always find in organic quilting fabric. This fabric is perfect for quilting, apparel or home decor projects. And of course I love the geometric shapes and playful stitching motifs.

I decided to make another quick zipper pouch and really wanted to use the hexagons that were just begging to be cut and used as appliqué. I just cut 1/4″ around the shape and sewed them on by hand, overlapping them. I lined the pouch with the zig-zag fabric. If you find that you can’t get enough of chevrons lately, you’ve got to get some of this fabric. Next I plan to make some skirts for my girls. And I think the hexagons would make a fun pillow with reverse appliqué. Just place some fabric over the hexagons and hold it up to a window, trace around the shapes, stitch and cut out to reveal the pattern beneath. And of course you could make a cheater grandmother’s flower garden quilt with this fabric.

You can see all the designs and find out where to buy Stitch here. And be sure to check out some of Betz’s projects with the fabric, as shown below. Plus, you can share photos of your own creations in Betz’s Stitch Flickr group.

February 10, 2012February 10, 2012

Liberty of London

More fabric that I’ve been collecting for 1, 2, 3 Quilt. Liberty of London for me is the end all, be all of fabric. It was a massive splurge for me to buy these quarter yards from Purl, but I’m excited that my mother found some Liberty prints half-off at her local fabric shop yesterday. I can’t wait to get them in my hands. Liberty of London will turn you into a fabric preservationist, rather than a sewer. It’s just so beautiful on its own and it’s tough to cut up such gorgeous (and pricey) fabric. But I will try. You can see my love for Liberty over the years. In addition to the classic prints, I love the seasonal, modern designs as well. You can watch a video about the making of the Spring/Summer 2012 collection here.

Here are some online sources for Liberty fabric for those of us in the U.S.:

Etsy (various sellers)

Amazon even seems to be carrying it too. Note that the Liberty Art fabric is a different line printed on basic cotton fabric, rather than the flowing lawn fabric of the Tana Lawn line. See price difference. And you can often find bits and even yardage for good prices on ebay. Feel free to add any other sources of Liberty in the comments below.

I used two Liberty prints in 1, 2, 3 Sew for the Change Your Mind Skirt, which is reversible.

I think the stacked fabric before it was sewn is just as pretty as the finished result.

February 8, 2012February 8, 2012

Feedsack Fabrics

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I’ll be talking about fabric this week as I’m collecting it for my upcoming book, 1, 2, 3 Quilt.

Today I’m going to talk about vintage and feedsack fabrics. If you’re unfamiliar with feedsack fabrics, the term refers to the use of grain and livestock feed sacks used out of necessity to make clothing, from the early 1900s until around the 1950s . At first, the manufacturers of feed sacks printed plain cloth with just their company name, but as women began making these sacks into clothing, the grain companies started adding prints to the fabric. You can read a brief history of the fabrics in this post by Linzee McCray on Etsy’s blog.

What is now commonly called “feedsack fabric” often refers to the style of these prints, rather than the original fabric. But sometimes you might find an intact sack or a clue that your fabric was once used as a sack. The fabrics pictured above were purchased from here and there and I can’t be sure of their origins, but I love the style. In addition to a looser weave, feedsack fabrics used floral and geometric designs. Some of the designs can actually appear quite modern and I love the sweet florals as well. You’ll also see lots of new prints reminiscent of these feedsack designs, most notably in Denyse Schmidt’s fabric designs. And you can also find fabric manufacturers who are directly reproducing the vintage prints.

What I love about this fabric style is the reminder that people made beautiful things out of necessity, rather than as hobby. I find that incorporating vintage fabrics into a new design pulls things around full circle for me and adds meaning to a project.

Here’s the Circles Floor Pillow project from my book 1, 2, 3 Sew where I used a selection of vintage, reproduction feedsack and Liberty prints. Yes, this pillow has reverse appliqué with unfinished edges because I love the look. I do recommend in the book, however, that if you are making this project for everyday use, you should machine stitch around the perimeter of the circles for added durability.

Photo by Laura Malek.

February 7, 2012February 7, 2012

Hand Printed Fabric

Since I’ve started working on 1, 2, 3 Quilt, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking (obsessing) about fabric. While I love many of the designer fabrics on the market, I worry about using them in a book that won’t come out for another year, when the fabrics will be gone from stores and left as a distant trend memory from 2012. I’d really like to see more fabric companies put out basic lines with lasting designs. When I’m making a quilt, I don’t want to look back on it in 10 years and remember the fabric collection or designer, but rather the design and love that went into the quilt’s making. This is certainly not to knock designer fabric, especially since I have my own collection coming out in a few months! But I wonder if this is a sustainable way to market fabric. It seems to me that the market is saturated and we’re constantly inundated with new collections. I just wonder if there is a better way.

Anyway, this week I thought I’d share some of the fabrics I’m using in the book. I love hand printed fabrics. Love the texture, the imperfect quality and the hand of the maker that went into the process. Above are some fabrics from Summersville, Bespoke Uprising, one I printed myself and a few from Home Sweet (one of my new sponsors). I’m still collecting fabrics for the book and hand printed fabrics are on the top of my list, though obviously more expensive. So I cherish every scrap! My Quilt Blocks collection was definitely influenced by hand printed fabrics. Many of the designs are a single color printed on a white background and all of them have a degree of imperfection. I designed the entire collection with perfectly straight lines and symmetry, then went back and changed it all to make it imperfect, giving it a more handmade feel.

Here are some of my other Etsy favorite shops for handmade fabric, both block and screen printed:

1014 Organic Textiles

Workroom Social

Sarah Waterhouse

And I love to search Etsy for hand-printed tea towels. You can read my post here about printing your own fabrics with some basic methods that anyone can do at home.

Oh, and I also wanted to include this photo from 1, 2, 3 Sew of the Set The Table Runner. This is perhaps my favorite photo from the book. Photo by Laura Malek. Fabric by Jenny of Home Sweet. She is offering a 15% discount to readers of The Long Thread. Simply enter the code “longthread” at checkout.