Fabric! And more Fabric!!

So the small town where my daughter had her wedding was Den Bosch, Netherlands. The actual spelling of the name is  ‘S- Hertogenbosch. It is a town about an hour south of Amsterdam. There is an adorable little town square and the actual church the wedding was held in is about 4 blocks away. It is a 14^th century cathedral and it absolutely stunning inside.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/'s-Hertogenbosch

You just don't have churches like this in the states!

Amazing!

The town square holds weekly open-air markets for all to enjoy. There was the normal stuff like cheese, bread, bags/purses and goodies. There are also several stands of fabric! Yay! In heaven! In addition to the fabric, there are stalls of lace, trims and zippers/bindings. I did not purchase anything there but you can bet I bought some fabric!

Now in Europe fabric is sold by the meter and not by the yard. (I checked with my son-in-law beforehand!) The fabric stalls had multiple bolts of fabric all out for everyone to see (and touch), and there were also some fabric hanging from the ceiling of the tents for display purposes.

The day after the wedding (Saturday) the fabric market was in full swing. So, unfortunately, was the rain. It came down for about 20 minutes like someone had turned on the faucet. I didn’t complain as I would rather had it rain the day after the wedding and not the day of! The vendors had rain-ready tarps and gear to protect their wares so this must be a regular occurrence!

I ended up purchasing 3 kinds of fabric. One was a kid print for a friend who has small children and also sews. I purchased just a meter of it, you don’t really need that much for small children. I thought it was so cute and almost wished I had little ones again so that I could make up a cute dress in the fabric. Almost.

Then other two prints I purchased 2 meters each of. They are dress/shirt weights and appear to be either 100% cotton or a blend of poly/cotton. Very pretty and perhaps might make tops out of it. Not sure yet what I am going to do with it, it would also be pretty in a skirt.

Very pretty!

Perhaps a skirt?

The total cost of all three fabrics (if memory serves correctly) was about 25 Euro. That is about $32, give or take the current conversion rate. The gentleman who waited on me was very nice but his English was limited. No matter: Fabric is a universal language! (Or it should be!) I was able to communicate with him just fine and was very happy with my purchases! I found that most Dutch people understand English at least on a basic level. If they don’t speak English very well, they tend to at least understand what you are saying. Which is good, because I have zero understanding of the Dutch language!!!

Another fun thing to mention is that my daughter's mother-in-law found out that I liked to sew and she presented me with a small amount of fabric for me to use! It is what she called "traditional Dutch scenes" and it is so adorable! I have no idea what I am going to use it for but I want to use it for something special! It is lovely!

How cute is this Dutch fabric!!

Fabric shopping in Europe! Yep, I did that!

The easiest blouse ever!

So while I am waiting to decided if I am going to SF to fabric shop and also waiting for the Oscars tonight, I decided to whip up a quick blouse!

Now like more fabric-holics, I have a fabric stash. I have a small dresser that I keep most of my fabric to be used "someday" for fabulous creations. I have more fabric than I have time at this point (and yet I buy more!). Is there an intervention for fabric buying??

I had this beautiful 100% silk print that I bought while in NYC a couple of years ago. I was there for work and our office is on Times Square, near the fashion district. I found this fabric at a retailer near the hotel I stayed at. It was so beautiful and I had been saving it for "something"!

Some things to think about when working with silk. It is really not as scary as you think. Silk is very strong and is wonderful to the touch. It drapes beautifully and can be both dressy as well as more casual. But you do have to stay focused when sewing as it can be slippery and may be hard to work with. It is necessary to use silk pins as well as a ball point needle to avoid pin marks or snags in the fabric. If you take your time and focus, there is no reason to fear using silk!

A business card from the fabric shop

100% silk: lovely

Close up view of the blue flowers

As you can see, it drapes beautifully

Now I decided that the time was right for me to do something with it. Maybe I was longing for spring. Maybe I was just wanting to feel productive. Maybe I was bored. Who knows? The end result is a blouse that I whipped up in less than 2 hours (and that includes cutting!).

Butterick pattern

The above Butterick pattern was used for the blouse. I had previously made this top out of an inexpensive red polka dot fabric that I picked up at Joanne's fabrics. I wanted to make the blouse first out of an inexpensive fabric prior to cutting into a pricier fabric. This is so that any mistakes or fitting errors can be made without sacrificing the more expensive piece. (see below for red version). It also allows me to see how I like the finished version and if I want to change anything (sleeves, facings, etc).

Red polka dot verison

I liked the way it came out so much that I decided to use the same pattern for the silk fabric. I did make some changes. I lengthened it about an inch. I am seriously long-waisted and often I have to alter the patterns to accommodate that. Also, I changed the sleeves to a non-flutter sleeve. The original pattern called for flutter sleeves (made on the red version). Now they are ok, but if I wear this with a cardigan (which I often do) then the sleeves tend to bunch up. I don't like that so I changed the silk version to a set in sleeve with pleats at the top.
Also, the silk pattern is a one way design. In order to make sure that things match up properly, you have to be careful when you cut out the pieces. That does require some planning and you have to make sure that you have a little extra fabric to work with. And since the collar is cut on the bias, make sure that you allow for that as well.

All in all, this is a very simple blouse. There are no buttons, closures or zippers of any kind. No interfacing is used and it comes together very quickly. I will use this pattern again and there are options to change it up even more. Used a different color for the collar, that will make it look completely different! If you wanted to add a placket and buttons on the front, that would change the look as well (something that I thought of for this version). It would also look good sleeveless for the summer, just use a bias fabric to create an edging of the sleeves ( which would also be great in a contrasting color to match the contrasting collar)!

So there are many ways you could change this around. I have a grey pencil skirt that I wear continuously (more often than I should!). This would work wonderfully with that!

The finished blouse!

How do you store your fabric?

A recent thought came to be concerning fabric storage. How do you store your fabric stash? Everyone has different ways to store their fabric, based on their individual circumstances.

The way I store my fabric is based on what type of sewing space I had over the years. When we lived in base housing on Camp Pendleton years ago, I only had a small table stuffed in the corner of our bedroom dedicated to sewing. So I used those plastic tubs you can get at Target to store fabric under the bed. It wasn’t really efficient, as you had to dig through the tubs when you needed something. But for the time being, it worked. When we bought our first house in Temecula, I did have a little more room, but still no dedicated sewing space. I would set up a table in the bedroom or use the dining room table if necessary.

Now I find that I have an entire bedroom upstairs to dedicate to my sewing. Yay! (Although I do have to share a closet with my husband’s military uniforms!) I have space for both my quilting fabric and my fashion fabric. So I thought I would share some of my ideas for storing that fabric stash!!

1:             Separate the fabric for quilting and the fashion fabric (also called dressmaking fabric). It is easier for me to keep them separate as they are used for such different projects.

2:             Prewash. Whenever I bring new fabric into the house, I always prewash it before I store it. If it is machine washable, it gets washed and dried and then folded and put away. Always. This way I never have an issue wondering if I have pre washed and shrunk a fabric.

3:            I always run an iron over the fabric to get the worst of the wrinkles out and then fold the fabric and put it away in the drawers.

4:            If for some reason I can’t prewash that day, I leave the fabric in the bag I brought it home in on my sewing table. This reminds me that it is unwashed.

Currently I have two “dressers” for storing fabric. The one I use for my fashion fabric is an older blue 4-drawer dresser that used to be in my son’s bedroom when he was little. It is not the prettiest thing, but it serves its purpose. All the fabric is folded and then placed in the drawers organized by type.  (And the drawers are lined with tissue paper). One drawer for wool, one for silks and silk like, one for linings and one for misc. It works out really well and it is easy to find something when I need it.

For the quilt fabric, I use a plastic 3 drawer-rolling cart (like you get at Target). I keep solid quilting fabric in one and the printed fabric in another. The top drawer is used for misc quilting stencils and perhaps some unfinished quilting blocks.

I also have a large metal shelving unit that I use for books, sewing magazines and all my notions. I use the colored printed boxes that you can get a Michael’s very inexpensively. (Perhaps 5 for $10?). They are called photo boxes and used for storing pictures for scrapbooking. I label them and it keeps everything organized. One each for thread, ribbons, sewing notions, zippers, bias tape, etc. They look really pretty sitting on the shelf and it is so easy to find what I am looking for.

So that’s my way of organizing my sewing room and fabric stash. Everyone has different needs for their sewing and is at a different place in their life. This works for me, but might not work for everyone.

So how do you store your fabric??