Thursday, June 18, 2009

Creative Customer May Competition Winners

And the winners are......





Melinda sent me this pic of her fabulous fabric covered boxes that were a gift for her mum. I immediately loved them and I think it shows perfectly how stunning fabric can make anything just like an ordinary box beautiful. Boxes, lamps, buttons, tin cans...... the skies the limit!

Pop over to Melinda's new shops here and here. Way to go Melinda!

It is always exciting to see what our customer's make with our fabrics on the other side of the world! I just love this Japanese fabric I call 'Animal Tea Party' and thought Nicole from Texas did a marvellous job with her funky kids palazzo style pants! Visit Nicole's lovely store here.

Thank you to our customers for their inspiring entries last month and I look forward to receiving more competition entries for our June gallery comp.


We have also recently added loads of new fabrics to our store with more to come in the next few weeks so keep an eye on our 'new arrivals'.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

NEW Japanese Fabric Imports - Nina's Sewing Factory & Nani IRO 2009

A HUGE long weekend and 15 large boxes later I have finally stocked our shelves with Japanese Goodness!! Here are some of the gorgeous double gauze and linen cotton blends which I hope you enjoy as much as I have been! I would love to find out your favourites in this bunch.


I just love this unique design 'Girly & Bitter' by japanese textile designer Asuka as part of the Nina's Sewing Factory collection. An amazing watercolour design running along one selvedge with a bird on chain design running upwards on a lovely soft double gauze. This would be perfect for unique fashion pieces such as dresses, skirts and blouses for both children and adults.


Here is not a particularly good shot, but a shot none-the-less of Girly & Bitter from selvedge to selvedge.

I can't tell you how excited I was to receive the NEW Nani IRO 2009 fabrics... it was like Xmas opening these boxes! Fuccra Rakuen (above) is a gorgeous design on a linen / cotton blend perfect for home decorating items such as cushions, bags, and would even make a stunning skirt.


My absolute favourite is the same design but in a beautiful aqua. My plans for this beauty is to run the full width of this one down the centre of a king size doona cover with either white, latte or lemon on either side... mmm decisions?? Fuccra Rakeun is also available in white. Love it, Love it, Love it!


Another of my favourites is Fuukei in a colourway I like to call 'earth' for obvious reasons. Another great all-rounder but particularly well suited to homewares. Here is a shot from the Nani IRO website as a tablecloth providing a great shot of the overall design... very nice!



Below is Fuwari, which having little girls I think would be amazing made up into little quite simple style dresses.


Fuwari, Pocho, Muji and a couple of the colourways in Fuukei are a beautiful 100% cotton double gauze which is incredibly soft to the touch. For those not familiar, double gauze is simply two layers of gauze joined together providing a fabric that is not too sheer. Its open weave properties make it lovely and light to wear with the bonus ability to breathe.

Many designers I think are heading in the direction of double gauze fabric due to its versatility for clothing as well as some light homewares such as linen, cushions etc. Designers such as Etsuko Furuya and Heather Ross whose NEW fabric collections are also a double gauze are considered along with Nani IRO to be a work of art on fabric and I believe will also be popular as wall art either behind a frame or over a canvas. I cannot wait to receive the Echino and Far, Far Away double gauze collections in store soon!

Rounding up, if you are feeling inspired by the fabrics above why not pop over here for some fabulous free online patterns - only drawback is they are in Japanese but can be worked out if you are a master at following drawings! I hear there is also a fantastic pattern by Liesel that appears in the current issue of Sew Hip proving that gorgeous fabrics like Nani IRO and amazing patterns like Oliver + S = Stunning Result!


Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Aunty Cookie "NEW" Papercuts Design

Shannon's latest gorgeous 'papercut blooms' and coordinating 'papercuts' design was Hot! Hot! Hot! at the Stitches & Craft Show and I am so pleased to have it in the store.

Available in raspberry on birch and grey on black (divine!) 'papercuts' is a great all-rounder for craft, sewing and light home decorating projects. I also think this design would lend itself to lovely applique as the papercuts range in size from large to small and would suit either adult or children's apparel.






Monday, May 11, 2009

'Uptown Girl' - NEW Make it Perfect Pattern



Toni Coward for Make it Perfect has outdone herself with her latest sewing pattern NEW release Uptown Girl!

This gorgeous, reversible hooded jacket is a must have for your children to wear this winter and uses a light weight pellon between your two fabric choices for added comfort and warmth. This very stylish jacket is bound to turn heads down the street!

*NEW PATTERN SPECIAL* - We are offering 10% off this fantastic pattern for the first week only and can be purchased here for $15.75 until 10.30pm 19th May.

Happy Sewing!

Creative Customer April Competition Winners


Thank you all for your April submissons to our Handmade Inspiration Gallery!

All submissions were fantastic as usual, but there was something I just loved about the sweet little clutch that Megan made above. I am particularly fond of the japanese 'my folklore' fabric collections and just loved the style, design, gorgeous button and size of this clutch purse.

Please visit our gallery regularly for wonderful inspiration from our customers, find out about some of their businesses and to read further info on how you too can enter our monthly competition.

NEW Anna Maria Horner Sewing Patterns


NEW fresh and funky bag and clothing patterns by Anna Maria Horner now available in the shop! I am looking for some time to make a couple of these up myself and particularly like the Socialite Dress and Ruthie Clutch.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

NEW Pippijoe Sling & Mini Sling Bag + Exclusive Fabric Colourways

One of Caitlin's (Pippijoe) beautiful sling bags hung at the front of our stand at the Stitches & Craft show and I lost count of how many customers asked for a pattern to make this 'gem' of a bag!

Well the wait is over and it is now available in the shop with the pattern including pieces and instructions to make both a standard and mini size perfect for light travelling or the 'mini-mees' in your life!

A great feature of this bag is that the strap can be adjusted for comfort!

Even better, if you wish to whip one up in one of Pippijoe's fabulous hand printed textiles, fabric requirements are only a 50 x 70cm piece - great value for a beautiful bag don't you think?







Also available are two Kelani exclusive colourways of Pippijoe Orchard & Daisies. Lovely neutral colourways of charcoal grey and milk chocolate, perfect for bag making, homewares, wall art etc.



Don't forget to check here for more NEW fabric and pattern updates.