Archive for fabric

Nifty Thrifty: The Return of the Thrift

July 30, 2011 fabric, nifty thrifty, sewing, thrifting No comments
It’s Nifty Thrifty time again! This week is all about thrifted textiles. Sheets, curtains, pillowcases, and fabric are plentiful and cheap at thrift stores. Check out some of the neat sheets and curtains I’ve gotten:


I love the polka dots on this coupled with the bright flowers. This is definitely getting made into a skirt or dress.

I’m not even sure what this is, there’s some weird ruffly bit around the edges. I love the color and pattern though.

I think these are curtains, there are ruffles on one edge but they’re made out of what feels like lightweight canvas. I love the pattern though, it’s all gnomes and woodland creatures. I think this will make great totes and pillows.
Ha ha, remember those things that were around before mp3 players? Yeah, me neither.
If you sew, thrifted sheets are a great source of super cheap fabric. A flat sheet offers close to five yards for less than $5. Using pre-made items also give you the advantage of having finished edges, which means less time finishing seams or making hems. My ingenuity is a direct result of my laziness and hatred of hemming. I seriously hate hemming.
I’ve made several small quilts using squares cut from thrifted sheets. The white and yellow floral above is from a thrifted sheet.
The creamy orange stripe, yellow tulips, and larger scale floral on the quilt above are all thrifted. The larger scale floral was a pillowcase and one of my favorite finds; I love the grey background with the springy oranges and greens. I’ve used it to make a fabric belt too.

If you’re so inclined, you can make your own fabric belt. even if you’re not inclined, do it anyway. It’s super duper easy. You can check out the tutorial I posted here.
My skirts is made of curtains, it’s like Sound of Music up in here. I seriously love these curtains and their amazing ugly 70-ness. I have a serious soft spot for horrible seventies things. I may have scared my friend by freaking out about avocado green flocked wallpaper in a random furniture store in Gastonia, NC. (If you’ve never been to Gastonia, first of all, congratulations. Also going there is like time travel but not in a good way. But there’s an gigantamous fabric store and kitschy mini golf, so it’s pretty much worth it.)
You can also use thrifted sheets and curtains as what they were intended to be, if you want to be all boring and stuff. The curtains in my craft room are thrifted and I love the bright colors and florals. Fellow Crown Town Handmade member Amanda offers cute sets with coordinating pillowcases and sheets. You can check out the sets at Verabelle’s Attic. I love the look of coordinating but not matching linens, it’s a much more interesting and personalized look.
That’s it for this week. I’ll probably post again next Saturday or something.

Patchwork Pretties

September 13, 2009 fabric, quilting 3 comments

I’ve been making these little patchwork quilts, and they are too much fun. (If you couldn’t tell, since I made seven of them!) They are lap or baby quilt sized, 36″ by 45″. You just need 20 10″ squares (I used a 1/2″ seam allowance) and then enough for the backing. It’s a goo way to use up some smaller pieces and really cute.

The yellow floral is from some recycled pillow cases. The little alphabet print is the focus fabric, I got it from my college sewing instructor.

I got this little cowboy print from my sewing instructor too. I love the red and grey with it, and there’s also a cute star print.


The little cupcake print with this is a nice fuzzy flannel and I used it for the backing too.


The big floral and the yellow floral are both reclaimed fabrics, I totally love them. I think grey and orange and green are so pretty together.


I used a soft minty chenille for this and a cute nursery rhyme print flannel. It’s really cuddly. I love the little bias floral too, so cute!


What’s more fun that little guitars?


That yellow floral again, I wish I had more!

I have enough batting for one more quilt, but I can’t decide what fabric to use. What do you think?

Cute as a Button

September 13, 2009 fabric, Hobby Lobby, supplies No comments

Once again I have taken forever between updates and once again, here’s a mass of posts at once. Oh well.

There is a serious lack of fabric stores in and around Charlotte. I don’t get to Hobby Lobby very often, since there isn’t one really close. But when I do get there, I always find something adorable.

For example, this fabric! I love the colors, especially the shades of green and the pale blue with the dark pink.


I have been looking FOREVER for a bag of assorted buttons that doesn’t suck. I use a lot of single buttons on bags and other projects. So I was super excited to find these. I got the “pastel” bag, but there was also “nuetral” wuth browns and blacks and “bright” with deeper gemstone colors. The creamy colors on these and fabulous, and there’s a great range of sizes.


Like this teeny little flower button, how cute. I think this might have to go on a little dolly dress.

And look what I saw when I was out! There are geese all over the place this time of year, they are so cute.


I got one more thing, but that’s for the next post…

In the Garden

July 16, 2009 fabric, totes 2 comments

I’ve been a busy little bee, selecting fabric for totes and then making said totes.

I have to say that picking fabrics is pretty much my favorite part of any project. I’m a bad little fabric hoarder, and many of the fabrics I buy I have no project in mind for. I buy things because they make me happy, either with color or pattern or subject matter. I love to play with color in pattern in unexpected ways to find the combination that makes all the fabrics look better. A lot of my fabrics have some sentimental value to them too. So choosing fabrics means I not only get to play with color and pattern, but I’m reminded of good memories.

This was the last bit of this pretty bird fabric I had, I had juuuuuust enough to do the tote. I’ve also made a bead embroidered tote with this fabric. These are both from Home Fabrics but bought about two years apart. The little velvet ribbon was from an online fabric swap.


This was the last little bit of this floral as well, boo. I got this from my college sewing instructor, it was a discontinued decorator sample she had in her supply closet. She used to also go to estate sales and auctions and get huge lots of fabric to bring back to class and let us pick through and just give her a small “donation”. I have some really cute vintage bits from that.
I had the floral matched with two totally different fabrics and ready to go when I noticed the houndstooth and liked that better.


These are both decorator remnants from Hancock Fabrics. I love the textured blue that’s at the top. It has a fleecy backing on it, so it has a little stiffness for bags and doesn’t ravel when cut. I kind of wish I had gotten more, but oh well. The little crystal button is from a pair of shoes I was getting rid of.

I had the hardest time with picking the fabrics for this one. I grabbed the floral and paired the yellow with it right away, but I just could not find anything I liked with both. I was actually pulling something else out and noticed the blue houndstooth that I had forgotten about. I love it together. The houndstooth is such a traditional pattern it works with the floral, but the colors are modern enough to make it a little unexpected. I really like it with the yellow too.
If it’s not obvious, I loves me some huge gaudy florals.