New Favourite Fabric Shop

I love living right next to Goldhawk Road! It saves me so much time (although also means I probably spend far too much money!)

My favourite shops are:

Goldhawk Silks & Trimmings
The other side of the tube station from all of the other shops, on the same side of the road as Shepherd's Bush Market, this shop is fairly new and is a fabulous haberdashery. It is the expanded upstairs section of A-One fabrics, run by 2 lovely, helpful ladies, and has a lot more crammed into the very tidy interior than you would imagine!

I go most often for: embroidery silks, bias binding, elastic, curtain tape, and fun trimmings.


A-One Fabrics
This is one of the biggest shops on the road, crammed full, just across the road from the tube station, and I think the cheapest shop on the road. I have found fabrics in there that are at least £1-2 less per m than identical fabrics in other shops, and they always give me discounts if I buy large lengths of fabric. They are also incredibly helpful and quick at re-ordering if I get to the end of a roll and need more. They are also one of the only shops who will give you a sample.

I go most often for: mainly work commissions, most recently pale washed denim, fabulous printed cottons, and silk chiffon for bridesmaids dresses.


Goldbrick Fabrics
And finally to the newcomer, but currently my firm favourite!! It has a very different layout inside from the others, and smells of new wood. All of the fabrics are very clearly grouped and labelled, and they have a whole rack of sample sections, which they are happy to give you a piece of. They have some amazing fabrics which you wouldn't find anything like in any of the other shops. Slightly more expensive per metre than the other shops, but totally worth it.

I go most often for: splurging on fabrics to buy for ME!! And for work commissions as it's so clear and easy to see their whole range.

All are open from 9am ish to 6pm ish (A-One closes for prayers on Friday lunchtime) and all are shut on Sundays.

Time for some sewing for ME!! #selfishsewing

I spend a lot of time in my local fabrics shops looking for a particular sort of fabric for a commission. Most recently I was looking for green, yellow and coral kite fabric, and then pale pink taffeta to make some curtains out of. 

Whilst I do enjoy browsing, it's always hard as I can easily choose what I would go for, but trying to decide what the client would choose, is a lot harder. 

I'd been browsing on about 5 separate occasions when I decided that it was about time I bought some fabric for me. I had many many options of ones I'd see that I really liked, and could imagine what I'd make out of them, but I calmed myself down and ended up buying just 2 pieces of fabric. This one was £6 per metre, and I loved the soft colours and the vintage-y style print. My boyfriend did comment that it looked like I was making a dress out of my Granny's table cloth, but what does he know?!?

I made a pattern from a dress I have which I bought in a vintage shop in Thailand 9 years ago, and have rarely been able to wear, as I can just about do it up, but can't really sit down, or eat in it, for fear of the buttons bursting apart. So I used it to make a pattern, and then enlarged it to make sure that this one would actually fit. 

The great thing about this fabric, is that the pattern has no right way up, so I could use it both ways up, to cut as many pieces as I could from the piece of fabric. I made a draft toile first out of some plain green fabric I had, made a few adjustments, and then went ahead with the real thing. 

I'd been given a self cover button set a few years ago, and had never used it, so decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to use them. I am very pleased with the finished result. 

Even more excitingly, I also had a fair bit of fabric left (I'd bought 1.5m and it was 1.5m wide) so used a very comfy summer pair of shorts that I have, to make a pattern for some comfy elasticated waist shorts. 

The pom pom trim, I'd been given for my birthday, was the perfect finishing touch for these shorts. I can't WAIT for it to be warm enough to wear them out! Preferably on holiday.....

Another New Years Resolution

Another of my new years resolutions, which I pretty much stuck to last year (I may have bought some new vest tops in August when I realised that all of mine were pretty worn out), is to not buy any clothes this year. There are many reasons why I am trying to stick to this:

• I have far too many clothes (as I rarely do a wardrobe clear out) and my wardrobe is full to bursting. This is not a bad thing, as I love wearing a dress, for example, which I bought 10 years ago, and getting compliments, and knowing that it is unlikely to see anyone wearing the same one. 
• On a similar note, our wardrobe is tiny. When we moved in, I had 2 sections and my boyfriend had 2 sections. It is now more like I have 2 3/4 sections and he has 1 1/4 so I really can't take any more space!!
• To save money; we're off on a long holiday in the summer so it would be great to have much more money to spend when I'm away, due to not spending any on clothes this year. 
• To know where my clothes have come from. I'm sure that many of the clothes available on the high street are made in terrible conditions, and I don't want to be a part of that. There are a few ethical clothing brands that I check out every now and again, but they tend to be a bit more expensive, so that ties in with my third point of trying to save money. 
• It has been a year since I quit my job and went self-employed, so I now have more time to make my own clothes (which is definitely allowed). 

So although I was trying slightly to not spend any money on new clothes/fabric, sadly for my bank balance, but very excitingly for my creative mind, a beautiful fabric shop has opened up on Goldhawk Road (my local fabric shopping street), called Goldbrick Fabrics, which is just immensely inspiring. It smells all lovely of new wood and everything is so neatly organised into sections. Now I love squeezing though the heaps of fabric rolls in the other shops on Goldhawk Road, but the space in Goldbrick is just so calming...and far too tempting. 

I went in last week to buy 1m of a fabric I'd seen when popping in recently for work....and ended up coming out with 3 different pieces of fabric, and a mind full of ideas!

Here are my fabric selections, and pictures of the creations will follow....

(On a positive note, these 3 pieces came to £34 so if I make 3 new dresses out of these that will be pretty bargainous!!)

New Years Resolution #2 - Knitting A Jumper

So another of my New Years Resolutions (for the last few years - since I learnt to knit really!) has been to knit myself a jumper. This also ties in with my other resolution this year, of not to buy any new clothes, just make them.

Well it had got to the end of April, and although I'd thought more about actually knitting myself a jumper this year, I still hadn't actually done anything. Then, for my birthday, my lovely boyfriend bought me 2 massive balls of wool (from John Lewis) and so that was it, I had to start!

After some extensive googling (it's going to take a long time so I needed to be sure!) I settled on this awesome looking pattern: http://www.craftyarncouncil.com/feb99_knit.html

I'm knitting it in Navy and Cream instead of Black and White and have only done the front so far but I LOVE IT! Here is my progress:

Check back later in the year for more updates - hopefully a back will follow next!!

An Etsy Request

I love to get requests for customs makes, as I love the challenge of creating something individula and perfectly suited to that person. So I was very excited on Thursday to receive a message from a lady in New York, saying that she was planning to buy one my my mobiles, but would love a buggy toy to coordinate with it.

She sent me an image of something similar she liked, and we worked through until we agreed on the perfectly colour and shape combinations. Here are some images of the mobile and finished toy:

Long adjustable strap with velcro - easy to attach it to a pram or cot

Conquering Crochet

One of my New Year's resolutions for the last few years, has been to learn to crochet (along with various other projects such as knitting myself a jumper), and unfortunately, in my very busy life, this has never quite happened.

So when I was collecting some post from our local delivery office on Friday, which happens to be in the same building as our local library, and I saw this book, I knew it was a sign.

I don't know what was different about this attempt to learn, other than having this fantastic book to follow, but I immediately got it. And so wondered what I'd ever found so difficult in the past. 

I've always loved Granny Square blankets so straight away, once I'd mastered the basics, I set about making some and am hooked!! My aim now is to make at least one a day, until I have enough to make a massive patchwork blanket, and then I will feel that my learning of crochet is satisfactory, for this year at least!

Knitted Swirly Stool Covers

I was very excited to receive the summer Johnnie b catalogue through the post last week, and catch a glimpse of my lovely hand knitted swirly stools, that I made just before Christmas.

To make the stools, once I'd bought the wool, I knitted a test swatch, and counted how many stitches there were per inch. Then I measured the circumference of the stools, and worked out how many stitches it would take to knit all the way round. 

I divided this by 8, as there were 4 sections of each colour, got out my circular knitting needles, and got knitting. I had 8 balls of wool, and had to keep twisting the wool between colour changes, so as not to get any holes in the knitting, so used a round tray as a sort of knitting lazy Susan, to keep the wool from getting too tangled. 

Once I knitted enough height for the edge of the stool, I then started to decrease, by one stitch, per colour section, every other row, creating this fabulous, perfect spiral, heading into the middle. 

I love them! For these, I used John Lewis Chunky Merino Blend wools, and used about 2 balls of each per stool. 

These are definitely going on the list of things to make for me in the future!! So satisfying to knit!!