Fabrics

I recently made a trip to Bristol to see Lydia of Made my Wardrobe fame. I blogged about Lydia not so long ago, you can read about her by clicking here. She operates out of a very cool studio in Bristol – here she is in situ.

Lydia of Made my Wardrobe.JPG

She is starting to offer some textiles workshops (some fancy knickers were about to be made when I was there!), so if you are in the Bristol area, take a look at her website at: http://www.mademywardrobe.com.

Whilst in Bristol, I discovered a lovely quilt shop on the Gloucester Road, which rejoices under the name of ‘Flo-Jo Boutique’. You can just see the shop behind its scaffolding disguise:

Flo-Jo Boutique.JPG

Inside was a beautifully-presented, well-stocked shop. You can see some of the great range of haberdashery on the right of the picture below.

They stock an interesting range of patterns and kits alongside some attractive bolts of fabric.

It was hard to pick, but I purchased a collection of different fabrics for my stock, and a little scrap bag, for who can resist the lure of a lucky dip!

Fabrics from Flo-Jo Boutique.JPG

And they have the coolest publicity postcards:

And how about this one?

Flo-Jo boutique postcard.JPG

And while we are talking about images… if you would like to have a FREE March calendar page with a pretty Amanda Jane Textiles fabric design at the bottom, please fill in the contact form below. You will not only get the March page (sent to you as a PDF) but I will add you to the list to get a calendar page for each of the remaining months of 2017.

When I first started out with the whole Amanda Jane Textiles venture in 2014, I set myself a challenge to make three dresses in three days. (You can read about it here.) On that occasion the emphasis was on recycling, which I still enjoy (see, for example, the most recent quilt pattern ‘Pinstripe’where I use recycled shirts – click here to see it). I dyed and printed the three fabrics myself.

By the time the Festival of Quilts 2016 came round, I was in a position to order up four fabrics that I have designed and that Spoonflower have printed. Now designs can be printed in, and posted from, Berlin to the UK, the parcels come fairly quickly and with no customs to pay, which is great. I then made four different tops to wear on the four different days of the show. I have a filing drawer full of garment patterns which I have collected over many years. Some of these are vintage. I sometimes use these as a basis for a garment, adapting the paper patterns to suit. Here is Thursday’s top which has a wide neckline, with narrow neck and sleeve facings and reaches to mid-hip.

Cotton top made up in ‘New Hairdo’ fabric

On Friday, I wore this one, which hangs to just below the waist and has a deep scoop neckline:

Cotton top made up in ‘Ribbons and Roses’ fabric

Saturday’s garment, using one of my favourite fabric designs, is a short top with a V-neck and princess seams. The neck, armholes and hem are bound with contrast bias binding.

Cotton top made up in ‘Bees and Bumble Bees’

And on Sunday, I wore this one, which reaches to hip level and has a notched neckline and armholes bound with contrast bias binding :

You can see – and order – these fabrics by clicking here. Once designs have been selected, customers can choose whether to order from Durham, USA or from Berlin, Germany. I particularly like the Kona cotton because of the quality of the cloth, and because I like wearing natural fibres, but for any one of my designs it is possible to choose from twenty different fabrics, allowing for plenty of scope for different end uses.

Tag: Fabrics

Fabric Shop in Bristol

Tops for the Quilt Show