Introducing: Jungle Ave Elephant Skyline

My friend Sara from Sew Sweetness has just released her first fabric line 'Jungle Ave' for Art Gallery Fabrics and it's amazing!  It's not quite yet available from shops but I believe it's imminent.  There are eight quilting cottons, two knits, and a voile.

Not only was Sara kind enough to send me some of the Elephant Skyline cotton lycra jersey to play around with but she sent me enough to make several things....

Two dorks for the price* of one!

My pics really don't do this fabric justice, not only are there elephants and psychedelic swirls, but there also really amazing doodle-y skyscrapers.

The colour palette is a fantastic petrol, light blue, turquoise, apple green, light apple green, black and white.

My dress is a pattern I've been working on for awhile.  It has a scooped V-neck and fully lined bodice, curvy waistband, and A-line skirt.

I drafted a similar but not-too-similar dress for Maia with this fabric in mind. Same V-neck fully lined bodice, but a less exaggerated and more girls'  body appropriate waistband.  I kinda love it!

Particularly the backs!

The fabric is a delight to sew- it was stable with no curling edges, smooth and soft, and it has excellent drape.  A true winner in both design and manufacture!  I wish Sara and Art Gallery fabrics success with all their collections (there are two further collections from Sew Caroline and April Rhodes) and if you want to get your hands on some fabric I suggest you do so as soon as they are released as they're limited edition.


*Actually, this fabric was sent to me as a gift.  Two dorks for free!  All opinions my own honest thoughts.

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This Just In: New Supplier Käpynen and more delights from Lillestoff

Words cannot describe how happy I am to add another supplier to my shop! Käpynen are a Finnish company supplying great prints on cotton / elastane jersey, but also on really amazing sweatshirting.  Patterned sweatshirting, how I love thee.  The two colour ways of Diamonds and the Sugar Skulls are all 150cm width 95% cotton / 5% elastane sweatshirt blends, so there is good stretch recovery, and they have a soft looped backing.  Nice and sturdy, but not at all bulky.  The Sock N' Roll (which is undoubtably one of the best named fabrics ever), is a 95% cotton / 5% elastane jersey in a massive 170cm width.  There are striped, dotty, starry, and heart-print socks arrayed in a non-directional fashion so you can flip your patterns pieces up and down.  The sweatshirting is the same!

Also crossing the threshold yesterday was a massive box from Lillestoff.  It included a lot of restocks, including Bunny Good Night (which sold out in record time so I quickly put in another order before it's gone entirely), Missing Duck, Vichy, and the ever-popular plain petrol jersey.  The Jeans Jersey that has sold out three times in blue has now been replaced with Jeans Jersey in black.  It's not an overall black because the ribbed texture softens the colour, and the backing is the same brushed texture that makes it omg-so-soft.  I've also added two skinny stripes (petrol / aqua and blue / raspberry) that measure 1/2cm tall.  And, and, AND.  Two more prints!  Hippie Day is designed by Sari Ahokainen of Bunny Good Night and Rainbowphant fame, and has camper vans, hearts, flowers, peace signs, rainbows, butterflies, and hearts in retro technicolour.  Maritime Dots is a seaside print with seagulls (some wearing crowns because obviously), anchors, and an array of multi-coloured dots.  The colours are just really, really lovely and I think it's be excellent for some grown up clothes.

January is proving very busy.  On top of the perpetual revolving door of fabric coming in and going out, I got my first Mac which I'm struggling to get to grips with.  Googling how to do even the most basic things is almost a full time job and to add to that I'm also trying to learn Illustrator before my free trial runs out and I have to decide whether to pay Adobe mega bucks in perpetuity until I die.  Over the next month I'm participating in fun series and a pattern tour and of course I also have both year-end taxes and VAT returns due because procrastination and avoidance are irresistible.  Once my commitments to others and the HMRC have settled down, I hope to have an official sew-along for the Penny Pinafore which will cover the construction in greater depth, lots of fabric and fitting advice, and some ideas to play with the pattern.  And here's a sneaky peak of a pattern I'm working on...

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This just in: Inuit Kids and Whales, Wonderfly, Dotties, and OMG BUNNY GOOD NIGHT

The first box of fabric of 2014 arrived today and it's a doozy!  We've got from left to right, top to bottom: Bunny Good Night, Wonderfly, Inuit, Inuit Whale, and Frau Holle Dotties*.   So desperate was I to get my hands on Bunny Good Night that I took my laptop down to the library after hours to sit in the car in the dark and freezing cold to use their wifi to submit my order.  I REGRET NOTHING.  It's by the designer of the most popular fabric in the world- Rainbowphant- and despite putting in a larger order than usual, I think it'll go pretty fast. Because I'm using it all for me.  Wonderfly is a large scale retro-style butterfly that would be particularly good for the ladeez, Inuit and Inuit Whales are too adorable by at least half, and Frau Holle Dotties is a great blender as well as being pretty badass on its own.  All of them are uploaded to the shop!

It's definitely 2014 now despite the fact I'll write 2013 in all correspondence for at least nine more months and with a new year, we all say 'out with the old, in with the new', amirite?  So I've discounted (by at least 30%!) twenty of my older fabrics in the sale section to make some room in the fabric vault.  Three new suppliers are on deck and I need the space.

Be back soon with a looking back / looking forward post!

*Germans- What does Frau Holle Dots mean?! Google translate makes it 'hollering woman' without the umlaut and 'Hell Woman' with.  Surely, surely not. 

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This just in: a new retailer and lots and lots of prints

I'm absolutely delighted to introduce Hilco from Germany as a new retailer!  You might recognise the designer, Hamburger Liebe, from the Simply Apples and Supahero that I have stocked in the past but she has now teamed up with Hilco and it's every more exciting to have her great designs on sweatshirting and woven babycord.  You heard me correctly, sweatshirting.   You're lucky I'm not saving all of these for me.  The three on the left are 95% cotton / 5% elastane sweatshirting and the three on the right are 100% cotton babycord.  They are slightly narrower than some of my other fabrics, coming in 145 cm / 55" width, but as they're not directional you can make the absolute most of your cut.

Also arriving yesterday was a huuuuge box from Lillestoff!  I've restocked deep turquoise plain jersey (which is just as well as I recently sold out of the very-close-shade petrol plain jersey) and the popular Light Blue Scandiflower, but also added another six prints.  We've got the top two AMAZING feather prints (my favourites), two apt-for-British-winter Rain themed prints, the gorgeous Christmassy Fall birds with holly berries, and a glorious Woodland fabric with bears, deer, rabbits, hedgehogs and squirrels.  The rabbits are giving the side-eye, guys, so despite the fact I sold out of the brown side-eye foxes this week the cosmic balance of judgmental animals is maintained.  Somebody really needs to write Phd thesis on the use of the side-eye in Scandinavian fabric design.

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It's Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day!

Today is the biannual Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day and I'm offering one metre of your choice to the winner, international entries welcome!  The giveaway closes on Friday 13 Dec at 5pm PST / 8pm EST / 1am GMT. Check out my shop for all the fabrics I have in stock and leave your entries below.
 
 a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

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This just in: Herzblatt, Girli Elephants, Rocketboy and Frogprince

Four new prints in the shop!  Herzblatt translates to either 'heart leaf' or 'adorable' but in this case I say both.  I can see this fabric being used for a lot of Christmas makes with the gorgeous greens and red!  Girli Elephant is a reprint of a fabric that sold out in it first run before I got a chance to stock it, it's a lovely large-scale print in pinks, browns and orange.  Rocketboy is another large scale print, this time with flying rockets, planets and stars in four unusual shades of blue.  And finally Frogprince, another riotous fairytale print in greens, yellow, orange and deepest chocolate brown.  The smiling lightening clouds are my favourite bit.

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The Postman Always Rings Twice

A big box of fabric from Lillestoff arrived last week with quite a few restocks as well as four new prints and two new solids.  Squirrels is a large-scale print in a delicious autumn / winter colour palette, the Owls is a gorgeous small scale print (that I believe is already out of print so swoop like an owl), Tulipa Dotties is a bright polkadot print that not only matches with Tulipa Flowers but also makes a great blender due to the number of colours included, and with the Blue and Orange stars I finally have a perfect coordinate for Pretzels, hooray!  Two new solids are available in Fuchsia and Turquoise Blue.  The range of blues that have passed through my shop (I've had bright turquoise, dark turquoise, petrol, mid blue, sky blue, royal blue, navy blue and now turquoise blue) amuses me in their nuanced-ness.  I've included a shot above with Sunny Sky, Jack and Frogfriends, and Missing Duck for comparison.

And before I could even get that first box uploaded (or my holiday announcement taken down for that matter), a second box of goodies arrived with the greatest arrangement of Squirrel Fabrics the world did see.  We've got Wintertime squirrels in three colourways of Dark Slate, Cranberry, and Petrol and two Sweetcone acorn coordinates.  Both of them make a really neat chevrony / lattice pattern from a distance:

Everything is now available in the shop!

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Panelled Pinafore 3.0 and New Fabrics

I guess that old adage threes a charm is correct because the Panelled Pinafore is oh-so-close to being ready for testing!  After the slightly too big Colour-blocked Pinafore I moved Maia back down to the 5/6 and it's slightly too small.  I'm okay with that though, she is genuinely bigger than both my standard 5/6 block and other kids her age so (semi) yay for proving myself right.  If you need me I'll be making this dress in the 7/8 because she loves it.

Having two very similar prints mixed makes it hard to notice the seam line but it's got a lovely princess curve.

And this is Maia noticing a spider on the wall, ha.  Girl will not be an entomologist. 

Fabrics don't look familiar?  They're new!

Little Forest and Forest Brown are both gorgeous autumnal prints featuring deer, rabbits, hedgehogs, snails, owls, acorns, flowers, mushrooms, leaves and trees. The colour palette is amazing with golden orangey yellow, bubblegum pink, bright pinky red, and white.  And unfortunately they photograph poorly by themselves- the background is a very deep purpley, maroony brown.  The garment shots are more accurate for colours.

Also added is Vichy Red, a small scale gingham print in red and white.  Lime green plain organic jersey has made a reappearance, and petrol and dark red have been replenished as well.  And now we're going to get nuanced!  A new organic cotton / lycra blend has arrived in Mustard.  It is a fantastic coordinate for almost all of the prints I have with a yellow element.  However.  It is nearly identical in shade to Sunflower, which I got from the supplier at a time when Mustard was unavailable.  Sunflower is currently the only jersey I have without an elastane content, and consequently it less suitable for mixing with my prints.  To make things less confusing for customers, I've put Sunflower on sale to clear it out.  It is a great organic jersey in its own right, with a lovely drape and a mahoosive 180cm wide width, just not cohesive with the other plain jerseys I offer.       


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This Just In: Preppy Puppies, Green Scooters, and lovely ribbing

An exciting order came a couple of days ago from Nosh Organics in Finland with two colourways of the spotty / striped sausage dog print Preppy Puppy, and new colourway of the ever-popular Scooters (which sold out in blue the day before!). All three are gorgeous organic cotton blends of 95% cotton and 5% elastane, very soft and stable with great stretch and recovery. I cannot wait to get them sewn up.
 

I'm also really excited about three new colours of ribbing. The red, black, petrol, and cappuccino ribbings from Lillestoff are 2x2 ribs, but these are 1x1s so they look and behave more like a thick jersey. They are a blend of 97% organic cotton / 3% elastane composition and when I did a stretch test a 4" strip yielded a 6" stretch and a bounce back to 4.25" so I think it's work even for 'load-bearing' trims like waistbands. Exciting!  Because colours are nuanced I've included some pics with existing prints so you can better see their tones.  They're all now available in the shop.

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This just in: Camping, Tattoos, Happy Suns, Scandiflower, and SWEATSHIRTING

Seems like a blue theme this time with a small-scale tattoo print, a ditsy happy sun print, and our old favourite Scandiflower in a new, brighter colourway.  Not blue but awesome is Camping, in a fantastic palette of mossy greens, petrol, turquoise, red, and dark brown.  Not colours that are often seen together but that should end at once.

Also in the box were two gorgeous organic sweatshirtings!  They're smooth on the right side and deliciously soft and snuggly on the inside.  Although they are 100% cotton (ie without elastane), due to their high quality organic nature they have surprising good stretch recovery. Although I am generally one to grasp on to and lament the end of summer, these sweatshirtings are softening the blow. 

All new fabrics (and some restocked plain jersey solids including the long-awaited return of dark red) have now been added to the shop.  While you are there you might notice that I edited every single one of the 120 listings to make the lead pictures uniform squares.  When my shop theme changed earlier this year the photo sizes changed too and it's been driving me quietly demented.  I hope this improves the visual experience of the site for fellow pedants.

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This just in: Happy Elephants are even happier, Gourds more gorgeous than imagined

Two new fabrics arrived yesterday in a stunning plum / mustard / petrol / green / dark brown / white that only the most dyed-in-the-wool-purple-haters could dislike. The rest of us are immune to their guiles.

Did you admire the cheerful nature of cherry red Happy Elephants? Now the Elephants have even more reason to be happy with a bang-on-trend folklore pattern on their backs.  For the coordinating fabric to the right, I admit I had to look up 'Kurbits' for an English translation...  Would you believe that it means 'Gourds'?!  Never has a vegetable of the Cucurbitaceae persuasion looked so appealing in fabric form.  Both have been listed in the shop for those inclined.

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This just in: Everything your heart desires

Another big box through the door and it contained extreme majesty. I've restocked Pretzels, Butterfly, and bright orange plain jersey, added five new prints, and two new colours of plain jersey. I've uploaded them all to the shop, but I'll tell you a bit about them too!

Air Balloons is down-right adorable.  It features rows of stripey air balloons with a variety of animal passengers- rabbits, pigs, foxes, and squirrels- in a bright turquoise sky with clouds, rainbows, and robins.

Happy Girls is my favourite.  It features a riotous scene with a variety of (you guessed it) happy girls, prancing speckled horses, squirrels in fedoras, and butterflies amidst apple trees, flowers and houses. I KNOW, TOO MUCH ADORABLENESS. Those horses, I die.

Missing Duck has some retro-style going on.  It features a meandering river scene of ducks, frogs, and fish with retro style suns and flowers.  I get almost as much pleasure from the names of fabrics as from the fabrics themselves.  I'm assuming they refer fairy tales outside my frame of reference but I enjoy them.  Which leads us neatly to...

Jack and Frog Friends.  Do you like your frogs with a side of hipster?  Then this is the fabric for you: a smattering of googly-eyed frogs catching flies from their lily-pads while wearing a variety of hipster glasses. Fantastic.

Last of the prints, Lemondot!  This is a large-scale citrus print in blue and green on a bright lime green background. From a distance they resemble polkadots but up close they're clearly sliced citrus.

Finally, I have a yellow plain jersey. This one is sunflower coloured to coordinate with a lot of the new prints.  For reasons unknown to me, this is a 100% organic cotton rather than a blend with elastane.  That means it's not as heavy as the other jerseys, but it has a softer handle and a really beautiful drape.  It's also 180 cm wide!

Last but not least, a jeans jersey! It has a woven texture that makes it feel a heavier weight than the plain 95% cotton / 5% elastane jerseys despite having the same fabric content. The reverse of the fabric is a soft off-white.  Can you say jeggings?

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This just in: Smila Roses, Neons stripes, Scandifly, solid jerseys, and ribbing

Another giant box of fabric recently arrived and I've wrested the computer away from the kids long enough to add them to the shop!  Three new prints include a lovely ditsy rose print, an awesome fat neon stripe, and a bright Scandi butterfly print.  I've replenished most of my plain organic jersey solids, added bright red (to replace the sold-out dark red), and introduced black and cappuccino colourways in the ribbing section.

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This just in: Cerise Stars

We're safely home in the UK and the shop is now reopen for fabric orders!  I had a package waiting for me with this lovely bright star print so there's one new choice for you :)

Because Big Cartel is a pain in the bum and doesn't allow batch editing I had to go through every single listing to set it back to live so I also took the opportunity to add more functionality to the shop- you can now filter on not only Fabric Type (which you could do before) but also by Supplier (new function).  This means that if you have previously ordered a fabric that you love the composition of, it's now easier to find the same composition.  I've had some exciting emails during my holiday so hopefully I'll be adding even more suppliers over the remainder of the year!

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Stop the press: pink Blomma Birds, new Folklore Hearts, and MOAR VIKINGS

Guys, I apologise: I jumped the gun with the sale yesterday. There was one package of fabric that was outstanding but I didn't think it would arrive until I was closed up next week. Not so, the international postage gods must have been smiling on me and it arrived today!  Sorry not sorry.

We have blue Vikings again!  Like their authentic fore-bearers, we assumed that never again would those Vikings make a surprise appearance on British soil.  But that's the thing about Vikings: they're never gone, they're just waiting for a surprise attack.  I'm so happy to see them again.

We also have a new Folklore Hearts fabric in delicious petrol, red, pink, orange and green.  And the popular Blomma Birds in tangerine, bubblegum pink, and red.

Discount codes still apply as follows:

• Save 10% on fabric orders over £50 by using the code FABRICLOVER at checkout


• Save 15% on orders over £100 by using the code FABRICJUNKIE at checkout

Because I am presumptuous I am overwhelmed  I wanted to give today and yesterday's customers the chance to see the new fabrics before shipping, I will hold off posting all sale orders until Monday.

All fabrics are still here!

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Shop News: SALE (yay!) and closing dates (boo)

Just to give plenty(ish) advanced warning but with the last day of school tomorrow and our upcoming America trip, I'll be closing the the shop up for everything except pdf patterns from early next week til sometime in late July. Is the thought of not having access to the most delicious jerseys for your summer sewing plans filling you with dread? Good news for you times two!

First up, discount codes:

• Save 10% on fabric orders over £50 by using the code FABRICLOVER at checkout
• Save 15% on orders over £100 by using the code FABRICJUNKIE at checkout

The 10% discount is available until I close up shop, but the 10% discount for bulk orders I'm going to keep up indefinitely.  I have a lot of loyal customers, and  want to show my ongoing appreciation for your custom :)

Still need some extra enabling?  When I receive a box of fabric, what I normally do is cut off a small piece for clothing making and list the remainder as per half metre cuts.  This normally works out well but I occasionally end up with odd bits and pieces once the fabric has officially sold out.  Sometimes I use them for present-making but mostly they just sit about taking up space.  I desperately need more space. So I've raided my personal stash, and resurrected some of ye olde favourites in the LAST CHANCE section.  Almost all of these are currently unavailable for reordering from the manufacturer (although sometimes they do cave to demand and reprint) so when they're gone, they're gone!

Head over to the shop if you're interested and remember to use your discount codes!

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This just in: HEAPS

The biggest box ever arrived this week filled with loads of new fabrics:

From top to bottom we have Springtime, Matryoshkas, World of Knights, Pretzels, X Daisylove, Busy Beavers, Blomma birds, and bright orange plain jersey.  All organics, all smooths as butter, all awesome.  I have also restocked Sakura and Dancing in the Rain (Drops), and Icy Blue and Green Tigers.  For the fabric-covetous, all can be found here!

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This just in: Snow White, Apples, Cats, Peacocks and more solids!

Although you might've seen the new Snow White and Apples fabrics in yesterday's post, there's a couple more new fabrics in the shop!  To the left we have Spring Cats with its menagerie of cats and birds in branches and to the right we have sheer perfection in fabric form PEACOCKS.

Four new organic solids in apple green, boysenberry, dark brown and mint!

And for the ribbing lovers, well, ribbing.  I know a lot of you have been keen for me to stop ribbing again but I've had the hardest time finding a supplier with a good colour range.  Luckily, the supplier who makes the lovely prints and solids above is branching into ribbing!  Everytime a new colour pops up I'll snag it and hopefully I'll have a broader range soon.

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This just in: Everything

It took me all day by jove but the mega haul of majestic gloriousness I received yesterday has now been added to the shop! Except the ribbons, I'll need to do that tomorrow.  Unlike previously, I'm not going to run through each one individually as there are too many and that would be tedious for you, but go have a look for yourselves!  Interesting (for me) thematic changes from previous orders:

• Greys! Not come across a lot of grey fabrics before and suddenly there's heaps. I approve.
• New palettes: Quite a few have also introduced shades of coral and seafoam green that while very popular in the American fabric world are not something I've seen a lot of in the Euro fabric world.  Other zeitgeisty things: Triangles! Pseudo-ombre! Scribbles!

Now that we have gotten our intellect-thinking out of the way, thar be dragons!

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New Fabric Alert!

Six new fabrics from Finland have just arrived and they're beautiful:

They're all splendid organic cottons split between 100% cotton interlock (airplanes and elephants) and 95% cotton / 5% elastane jerseys (mermaids, robots, skooters, and submarines).

With my trip to the States only three days away I've temporarily unlisted all of the clothing products in the shop. The fabric will stay up until Tues, after which only the PDF patterns will stay live in I return in early April!  If you want to get your mitts on any fabric I suggest doing it quickly as (sadly / frustratingly / maddeningly) Royal Mail postage rates are going up again on the 1st of April.

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