44 Reasons to Buy Fabric.....

44 reasons to buy fabric....

1. It's a great insulator for the cupboard its' stored in.

2. It's good for the economy

3. It's cheaper and more fun than a visit with a psychiatrist.

4. "???It's not for me! I'm buying it for a friend!!!“

5. My cat/dog needs new fabric every week to sleep on.

6. It was on special.

7. Okay, it's not on special but when it finally is all the good fabrics will be snapped up already.

8. Cotton crops are highly likely to become infected by pests in the next 10 years....

9. I'm taking part in a competition - whoever owns the most fabric wins.

10. Fabric doesn't require cooking, nor refrigeration. You don't need to feed it, change its' nappies, clean its' nose or go for walks with it.

11. I need more weight in my car boot so that I have more grip on icy and snowy roads.

12. Because I'm worth it.

13. It doesn't make you fat. Leading medical experts have verified that a "fat quarter" has 100% less fat than a serving of ice cream.

14. I'm working on a complete fabric collection, it'll be worth millions one day.

15. Fabric is very useful to cover and protect sensitive areas in my house, such as the ironing board, the shelves, the tables and much more...

16. It provides a medical opportunity to test whether hubby is still alive. If he is, he will complain loudly and bitterly whenever more fabric comes into the house.

17. When the big earthquake hits, it'll probably take out the fabric shops first so we need to make sure we're well stocked.

18. Because it exists.

19. It's more beautiful than salt and pepper shakers.

20. It doesn't break easily.

21. It's cheaper to cover the floor in fabric than to buy new carpet for it.

22. My inner voice made me do it...

23. In desperate times one can also use the fabric for cleaning rags...

24. Maybe one day I'll open a fabric store, then I already have my opening stock all ready.

25. I bought it so that I could keep alive the design for my descendants. Maybe one day fabric will be a rarity.

26. I can't live without it.

27. It spoke to me.

28. I am investing in cotton shares.

29. I have new shelves and if I don't fill them they'll look ridiculous.

30. They get grumpy when you steal fabric so I needed to buy it.

31. It coordinates beautifully with some fabric I bought last year.

32. It's so beautiful.

33. I'll need it one day.

34. I want to leave something for my daughter when I die.

35. It helps the little birdies to build their nests when the wind blows the thread, offcuts etc away...

36. Optometrists support sewing to strengthen their trade's economic standing.

37. Without fabric I wont have any use for my sewing machine, rotary cutter, mat, iron, needles, fabric books (time)...

38. I am a great example to my kids.

39. Buy now before the hubby retires and joins you on your shopping sprees.

40. It's not bad for your teeth.

41. It's not illegal.

42. It calmes the nerves...
43. It promotes my god-given talents and makes best use of them.

44. The health ministry suggests that a meter of fabric a day helps fight depression.

Facebook Competition

we ran a happy little facebook competition and finally today we put all the entries into a box...

and after much excitement Brian pulled out this name:


which means that Sarah wins 1/2 a meter of her fave fabric (moon dots by Amy Butler) as well as 1/2 a meter of lucky dip fabric. Congratulations!!

But wait there's more...the 8 other entrants all receive a 10% off voucher valid for the next week - until the 12th August. If you're one of the entrants simply email us and we'll send you your voucher.

Thanks again!!

June Customer Gallery Competition

Winners of June's Gallery Competition as chosen by you...

Patchwork Pillows by Vanessa!

Congratulations!

Runners-Up were Dress in Retro Rascals, both by ASQ Design (1/2 meter coming your way)

Contrary to what we first said we left the judging up to you entirely BUT we also have our personal favourite and so the Fabric Online Prize goes to Peonies in Ivory Top by Lois, we just think it's adorable (1/2 meter of fabric coming your way!).

Thank you everyone for sending us your photos. As a thank you we would like to give everyone who entered 3 meters of bias binding of your choice next time you order with us. Simply pop your preference into the notes box on checkout. Thanks again!!

How to make a super easy & reversible pinafore!

Wow, it's been waaay too long. I've been busy working on our new Talikins site, do check it out here , so no time to do important things such as sewing - but now that the site's done...here comes the sewing!

So today's how-to is a pinafore. I love this pinafore as it just looks gorgeous with jeans, or if it's still a little longer as a dress. And it's just too cute. And soooo easy. Excuse the strange clothing color combinations below and the peg.

So, first comes the hardest part - deciding which fabrics to use!! Always the most difficult part for me... You can very easily make this pinny reversible, it actually just depends on your hemming skills. So, your fabric choices do depend on that. But whatever you decide you need a lining fabric and an outer fabric. Not proper lining fabric I mean, just any fabric that you think would be fine on the inside or outside if it's to be reversible.

So...cut your pattern out. The pattern at the very bottom of this post was just right for my (almost...sniff sniff) 3 year old, so I guess make it narrower/wider/taller depending. The great thing is that an approximate shape is fine. Let me know if you need any help.
The pattern is done on the fold and you'll need 1 full pattern of each fabric and 1 half pattern (see dotted line) of each fabric. Hope it makes sense. If you print the patterns out to A4 size you should be right.
Make sure you cut 1 each of each fabric. And you should end up with something like this:

If you want to embellish or sew on a pocket, do it now.
Lie the two pieces of each fabric together, right sides together and sew like from the armpit to the hem on both sides like so..

I used my overlocker because I was being lazy ;o) but you don't have to .

Then put one dress inside the other, right sides together so they line up all round and sew together like below. The black line represents where you'll be sewing the lining pinny to the outer pinny (except that the top line isn't quite in the right position. Hope this make sense anyway). Remember to have right sides together.

Here's another photo to show this:

Then turn the whole thing right side round and iron it.
Now we're going to sew a line from one side to the other across the back only and about 2.5cm down from the top (more or less depending on your elastic). You should end up with this kind of thing:

Put your elastic on a safety pin, go between the two layers and thread the elastic from one side to the other across the back, through the channel you've just created. Sew a straight line to set it in place at each end, making sure to gather the fabric under the elastic so it's nice and scrunched, loose enough for comfort, tight enough that it will stay there. Like this:

You should end up with something like this on the back:

Now you need your trusty iron again. Fold the top of the pinafore down 1-2 cm (as you like it), iron and sew like so:

Then insert your ribbon or bias tape folded in half & sewn. I didn't think the bias tape we have here would work so well in this case (color clash!!) so I just threaded through some ribbon:

So now for the hem. You can either fold, fold and sew. Or you can finish the hem off with bias tape (reversable). Or you can sew the two layers together inside out leaving a hole and then turning and top-stitching it (also reversable). I did the latter and not very tidily at that (but it was almost midnight), but you do need to be careful you don't get yourself in a muddle with inside-outness there (I used to do that loads).
And there you have it, the other side does have a cute pocket on it but Tali got pen on it before I could take a photo so off into the wash it went..

No-Sew Fabric Cards

I had to make some cards for a few birthdays that were coming up so I decided I'd try something different... the no-sew fabric card as I shall call it. ;o) Nothing fancy, but fun anyway.

So I grabbed two random pieces of cardboard and joined them with a piece of tape. Also cut out a piece of fabric, about 2.5 cm wider all round:

Then it was time for my trusty double sided tape. I love double sided tape, it's perfect for sewing on buttons, labels...all kinds of things so I always have some handy.

I stuck some of the table all over the back of my card like so:

Then stick the card down on the wrong side of the fabric, making sure you stretch it a little so you don't get little bubbley things. Then stick more double sided tape around the outside of the fabric like so:

Then pop the fabric around. I actually found in the end that doing the top and bottom first and then folding in the sides gets the tidiest finish. It should look something like so:

Stick double sided tape around the outside again and stick two pieces of the same cardboard that you used for the actual card and stick on top of each side so you have a nice clean inside of a card (sorry, no photo).

Tadaaaaaaaaaa!! Grab some ribbon and things to pretty them up. You can use double-sided tape to stick ribbon onto it before you stick the inside card on.

Or get creative and use your sewing machine and use cutoffs to me something like this (except that it's not a no-sew card anymore of course):

Have fun with it, if you finds this helpful do let me know. ;o)

Easy Bias Tape

Well.. or sort of...this is the way I do bias tape and I'm no great sewer by any means but this works for me...;o)

Sooo...grab yourself some yummy bias tape and a piece of fabric and let's do this! If you have an iron handy (I don't iron much in my house but my iron is in constant use when I'm sewing), fold your bias tape almost in half (let the side with the wider inside fold overlap a little. Below the wider inside fold is on the top side of the photo).




2. Unfold your bias tape and sew on the shorter side (right side to fabric, so on top of right side of fabric..

3. Like so:

You can either stitch along the fold or just out, you'll figure out soon enough which you prefer.

4. Fold it back together and over and you'll end up with this on your top side:

5. Top Stich on the top side (where you have attached it) and in all theory it should come out beautifully on the other side. Yes, it does take one round of extra sewing but it usually always turns out looking good. Easy Peasy. I guess you could try it with pins too but I don't see it working out as well. The other way is that you sew it to the wrong side and then top stitch from the top side...whatever....


Let me know if this is confusing or whatever or something doesn't make sense. And comment if you find it helpful...

Right, I have a first birthday party to get ready for...exactly a year ago (to the minute !!) my 2nd little girl was born. How time flies!!

Cookietime Chocolate Chip Cookies - BUT BETTER

Cookietime cookies remind me of high school tuck shops and old school microwaves. I always thought they tasted best warm...mmm...a few years ago I came across this recipe and they're similar to the Cookietime cookies...just waaaay better. ;o)

• 200 g butter
  
• 150 g white sugar
• 110 g brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
  
• 280 g flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• salt
  
• about 350 g milk chocolate chips (you can used dark, milk or white chocolate - or try a combination or with M&Ms.

1. Preheat oven to (180 degrees C). Grease trays.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the vanilla .Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; gradually stir into the creamed mixture. Finally, fold in the chocolate chips. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets or pop the whole thing into a baking form (this is the way I do this but it takes take longer to bake).
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until light brown. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
4. EAT....yummy!!!
   

How to make an easy, super-cute Peasant Blouse

Finally!! A how-to!!! This one is for simple girls tops, I think they're called peasant tops or you can call them a blouse or whatever else. I simply don't think it matters, they're just cute!!
So this is what we're making:

Sooo...first thing is to choose your fabric, which is actually the most difficult part and takes me a looong time when I make one of these...I stand there in front of a literal mountain of fabric and just can't decide.

But in this case I had been asked by a customer to make up the blouse in this Alexander Henry print so that's what I did and not having to choose the fabric saved me at least 10 minutes...so maybe ask a friendly helper to make that choice for you - kids are great for this, bored husbands are another alternative.

You also need measurements of the lucky little lady that you intend to give this top to, it helps anyway (desired arm length, length from armpit to hip, chest measurement). But here are the rough measurements for the different ages, your own measurements will give you more of an idea.

Rough Measurement Guide (length x width)
6 m - 30 x 30.5 cm
12m - 33 x 35 cm
18-24m - 35.5 x 38cm
Size 2 - 38 x 40.5cm
Size 3 - 40.5 x 42cm
Size 4 - 42cm by x 44.5 cm
Size 5 - 45.5 x 46cm
Size 6 - 51 x 47cm

The above are just for the bodice, you'll still need the sleeves. I like to make longsleeve blouses because it saves me one lot of time fluffing around with elastic, but you can make whatever you like.
For the sleeves you just need another two rectangles.

• For the Width of Sleeve: up to you but I would recommend about 32 cm width for a Size 2 (that's what my daughter is), but depends on whether you want wide sleeves or not.
  
• For the Length of Sleeve: measure how long you want it to be from the armpit, add a few cms for hemming the cuff and then add more cms for cutting the curve (see below

Below is picture of sleeve and bodice parts.

Grab your bodice pieces and your sleeve pieces and fold all in half lengthways. Place on top of each other so that your 8 cut edges all line up at the top right so you can cut your arms. Make sure to sort out any pattern placement as you do this.

Cut a curved line for the arms - it doesn't have to be precise, but I was making a Size 2 and used a 5cm x 13cm angled cut. I add about 1.5 cm to every size increase, or grab a top that fits lucky girl and go by that. The cut only needs to be approximate, but not too sharp. There's no exact curve here, I generally just go for it. ;o) Below is what you should end up with on the bodice, the arms should look similar but narrower (sometimes they get hard to tell apart if you like wide arms).

All cuts are done - YAY!

I use an overlocker for joining the pieces, but you so don't have to. I just like my overlocker..hehe.

So, the first step is to join all pieces together by their arm holes. Grab a sleeve and a bodice, place right sides together (aligning along the curved sleeve cut, and sew along the curve you just cut. Like below. Attach the other sleeve to the other side of the bodice and then the 2nd bodice to the 1st sleeve, right round so you end up with this:

And then attach the final sleeve to the remaining bodice and you should end up with something that looks like the below.

Then line up your sleeves, making sure your armpits line up and sew a line from the sleeve opening to the bottom hem. See below, but don't sew as wonky as I drew..hehe

I've had someone point out that before they sew this line they hem the sleeves, this is a great idea if you don't have a free arm on the machine. It's still possibly to do this step later on even on a non-free-arm machine but if you find it a little tricky you can try hemming it now.

Now you have a top with a very wide neck line...so let's change that by folding and ironing the raw edge right round the neckline, then folding and ironing again so you should have something like this:

Then stitch all around the folded edge, leaving a gap for your elastic, remember to safestitch the gap. Grab your elastic and a safety pin and pop the elastic on the pin. Then push the safety pin through the opening that you've left (see below) and right along your neckline. As for the length of elastic...it's really personal preference as to how wide you like your necklines. I like mine reasonably high/tight so I can fit another top underneath to keep my bubbas warm, but do as you like.
So tack your elastic ends together and then sew the hole you left in the casing shut

The go right round repeating the steps you did (fold raw edge, iron, fold, iron, stitch) for the sleeves and the bottom hem. If you want to you can also make the arms and/or the bottom hem with the elastic (for a cute puff look) but it's up to you. I hardly ever do because I'm lazy, but it is pretty cute. For this one I cut the original bodice too short (naughty me, not measuring properly) so I had to tack a piece on so ignore that...but this is kind of what yours should look like (obviously with shorter sleeves if that's what takes your fancy).

And here are some others I've made using this same method. Obviously you can also make dresses with it and all kinds of things. You can use an a-line angled cut and whatever else happens to take your fancy. You can sew in ties at the sides, although don't use ribbon because it'll just come out.
If you have any questions or found this helpful, let me know! And do send us your photos if you make one of these, we'd love to see them and if you don't mind us posting them in our customer gallery that would be even better!

peasant top, tutorial

Super Design Website

I just happened to stumble upon "The Cool Hunter" website. A wild array of pretty funky design, do check it out. ;o)

Fabric Giveaway!

Time for another giveaway! This time we're giving away well over 1.50 meters of assorted fabric cuts. Largest cut is 60cm, one is 40cm and then are a whole bunch of 25cm cuts.

So...how do you win this? Simply introduce friends and family to our facebook page, once they "like" us, ask them to do a quick post (on our facebook wall or in response to this post or even here) to introduce themselves AND make sure they put your name in the post. Winner is whoever has the most friends "liking" us. And yes, there might just be runner up prizes as well.

Competiton closes monday evening 17th May 2010 ;o)

Amy Butler's Book - A Fresh Design Spirit for the Modern Lifestyle

We have Amy Butler's stunning book Midwest Modern -A Fresh Design Spirit for the Modern Lifestyle in store now for only $63. Beautiful photographs, great ideas and sooooo much more.

A great coffee table book in hardcover with well over 200 pages and one you'll pick up again and again....you can buy it here

Fabric Of The Week - Birdseed

This week's fabric of the week is Birdseed. It's just yummy, IMHO. Inspires me to all kinds of creativity...You can find it here