Fabric Haul - Pretty Mercerie

Hello!

Hope you guys are still there?? Not that you will have been sitting at your computers waiting for the last few months, but you catch my drift!

I really don't know what happened, I guess life happened. But hopefully I can rev things back up a bit, I have a few makes to photograph, and a list as long as my arm of things I'm either planning or am in the process of making.

To kick things back off, I have been meaning to do a fabric haul video forever and a day. I enjoy Gillian and Heather's fabric haul posts, and also the Lisa's videos on the Sew Over It YouTube channel.

As I am wont to spend to much money on fabric, you know, to get free delivery and such, I wanted to share some of my hauls with you; especially if they are from some more unusual sources.

So today's offering is from Pretty Mercerie, a French online fabric/haberdashery with beautiful fashionable fabrics. I fell in love with their stuff and ordered a whole bunch!

I apologise, I hope you can bump up your speakers!! I clearly need a mic (I knew I did).

Hope you guys enjoy, let me know what you think!

Emmie x

Mr Tailor Man - The Finale!

Hey Guys!

In my blog hop post, I harked back to my series of Mr. Tailor Man posts. You know, the one's I never finished? For those of you who are having a little trouble remembering, there was a tailor in my town who was retiring, and I basically bought the bulk of his remaining stock and equipment off of him!

So, I thought maybe somebody out there would like to see the final few bits. Ironically, I've hardly touched most of it, so they are basically where I left them! But I though some of you guys might like to see!

So the first thing is some tailor's wax crayons, which are like tailor's chalk - but wax! They leave a slight mark and I think it irons out of most fabric.

The next thing I got was a bunch of silk thread for hand-stitching. You can pull a single stand out of the packets, and it's super strong so that your stitching won't break. Who doesn't hate that 'pop' sound? I picked up one of each of the colours he had.

Then there were some shoulder pads! Not sure if I'll ever get to use them, but more jackets have some sort of padding in the shoulders than I think I realised!

Then there were some anchor buttons (similar to what we saw in the JPG exhibition) and some braided cord. There was also what I think was seam binding but the picture came out a bit fuzzy!

Now these I loved (and I didn't really get these for very cheap!) - some vintage spools. I look forward to displaying these properly somewhere!

Then we have some dress shields. These can be stitched into the underarms of a dress, so as to protect the garment from any sweat/deodorant, etc. As most of us know, this can otherwise end up in a beloved piece of clothing being damaged or stained.

I got a bunch of random zip. Strangely they were mostly green!

Then I got a bunch of suit buttons. Some are really beautiful! And I have matching small and big ones for the green buttons which is nice.

Some things I got for free were remnant pieces. These are small pieces of lining. most of it doesn't appeal to me as its a bit polyester-y but the pink piece at the bottom is really lovely - I wish I had more than the smallish piece!

I also got a bunch of suiting scraps, all smallish pieces.

Then there was the bigger suiting pieces. It appears past Emmie was very productive and measured them all! They are full width and the top few pieces ranged from 44cm to 78cm in length.

Then we have the beautiful velvet remnants. I love stroking these. I have no idea what to do with them but I might make a patchwork cushion cover to stroke. I love the deep red and the grey especially.

Then there were some smaller wool remnant pieces.

This is where I keep the significant fabric lengths I got, a couple of which you have seen before(and I won't point out), but most you haven't. On the final day, when he was closing he told me I could have whatever was left in the fabric section for £50. Included in this was a bunch of stuff I didn't really want, but it was sort of an all or nothing deal! The only thing I knew was missing from the first time I came in was some Harris tweed, but it wasn't a colourway I was super fond of so thats ok!

There's more wool, wool blend, and suiting.

 The most "god knows what I'm going to do with this" piece of fabric is this 100% Silk Italian suiting. Not sure how much is there (most of the stuff is a max of about 3 yards), but it's apparently worth over £300 if I remember correctly.

Then there's this bumblebee fabric, which I think was used for butler uniforms? Some sort of uniform. Its actually quite a blue-navy and yellow up close. I think there's a couple of flaws, but he has noted the total length and unflawed length.

Then there were more wool blends.

And of course, where would you be without your own bolt of hair canvas? Everyone needs a bolt of hair canvas in their stash. Like, duh! I use this in, like, every project. All I hear every day is Mr.G saying, "God, I think you really need to think about stocking up on some more hair canvas".

I think the only thing I left behind that day was a bolt of nylon pocketing, which was ick to be honest. I actually left the hair canvas initially but then Lauren did her tailoring posts and I had to turn on my heel!

SO that's your lot. No more Tailor Man :(

But there's always more fabric :)

Emmie x

Scrap Storage...

Does anyone else feel like they are drowning in fabric? I know a lot of you will feel my pain! I seem to be constantly sewing, and the stash only seems to be getting bigger, and gaining momentum. Getting the fabric for my Minerva makes probably isn't helping matters, lol!

I'm sitting here trying to reorganise some of my sewing stuff... ( and of course trying to assimilate Christmas presents into my already full flat!). There's a decent amount to fit in, but I'm so happy I put a budget on Christmas this year! Although my sale shopping didn't do my any favours. Whoops.

In the spirit of stuffing things in spaces, I'm trying to change how I store my fabric scaps. Up until now they have been stuffed into a bag (although recently I have been sorting through all the scraps to see which bits are big enough to be useful before I store them). I have thought about giving them away, but as I'm thinking of starting some quilt blocks, I'm hesitant to. 

This evening I started putting them into empty washing tablet boxes. I kind of love how much I can stuff in, the fact I can see through to see which scraps are where, and if you keep all the right scraps together, it looks really cool! Kind of like soil levels! And you can really stuff them, as the clips are quite strong - seen as they are supposed to be child resistant and all that. although i popped a it of tape on the edges of one as it was straining!

I wish I got through washing tablets faster now! I had been using them for notions too, zips and threads and all those sorts of things before this. And I split the next box by accident, grrr. 

Well I'll leave you with my soil level scraps :) let me know if you guys have any other ideas!

Woven goodness...

Hey Guys,

So in case you didn't guess... My stress time is well and truly over! Although I didn't finish all the Christmas presents yet... I need my family to not want to spend time with me! I did finish 2 yesterday so I'm 3/5. One good session and I'll be done. Remind me to take pictures before I wrap them! 

So today my Mam brought me to our local Woolen Mill. It's literally around the corner from my house, my Mam actually worked there when I was little, and wove all the different fabric they produce on their looms. Its a really nice factory, and employs local people. It kills me to think that I don't have anything she wove, but after it was woven it was sent to finishers to be processed so here was no real way that could have happened even if she still worked there. My cousin still works there today (I saw him today while I was there, but stupidly forgot to ask for a tour - next time)

I hadn't been down there in forever, and I'm pretty sure I hadn't been in the visitors shop since I was small and the Americans were home (you know how much they like Irish things!). So my Mam decided we should take a small trip down today. They stock so many different things, it's a real shame it's in such an isolated place, but I assume they are stocked in other gift shops around the country, etc. Most of the fabric is sent out to designers be made in to garments. They even had finished garments in the shop.

 Loving the blue jacket. That's basically how I would like to refashion the men's one

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it went FAR beyond my expectations. A million miles beyond. I spent ages wandering around, and to be honest, I didn't think I would actually be able to find anything I could afford, but they had some bits on sale and clearance so I got massively lucky!!

The shop was beautiful. And I didn't know they stocked fabric on the bolt!

I was slightly over whelmed, I didn't even know where to start! The tweeds were AHmazing but at €22.50/m, I couldn't decide if I could really afford to splash out that much on one piece of fabric. But it was really really hard to walk away.

What I DID find, was blankets on sale, beautiful blankets. I got two blankets for €40. One my Mam paid for for my Christmas present. They are unbelievable. And massive!

I can't wait to snuggle up on the sofa with one of these! And I can't believe they were so cheap. I almost feel bad. The only bolt fabric that was cheap was some linen, which I think they're phasing out making. You can spot the bolts on the right of this picture. At €5/m I couldn't go wrong.

I got a couple of metres of two of the bolts. A purpley-blue and a reddish-purple colour. They both have different weaves though.

I ALSO spotted a remnant pile, and who doesn't love a remnant pile. So I managed to get. A couple of bits of the woven tweed after all! 

I got a houndstooth, with a green and black houndstooth, though it just looks regular black from afar. There's about half a metre there, more really but there's a chunk taken out on one side. I'll have to see whether I can squeeze a skirt out of the thinner or wider side.

I also picked up this Blackwatch tartan. I've been getting into it since I found out the my partners Mum loves it. Not sure if I'm going to give it to her or keep it myself. I have already got her some for Christmas, but it has a smaller pattern. I prefer the bigger one myself and I'm not sure I could make anything decent for her with this piece. I see a long midi skirt for myself though...

So there we go! More fabric I don't need, eh? 

sorry/NOT SORRY!

Mr Tailor Man Part.3 (..the saga continues..)

Hi guys!

In all my stressing last week over my Minerva make and organising a hen party (which went great by the way!) I forgot to say that I MIGHT have been to the tailor guy's shop again. MAYBE.

Ok, well, as I had said, I couldn't stop thinking about a wool blend in red that I had left behind, so I went back. 

Unfortunately, he also had the same wool blend in a beautiful purple too.

And then he pulled out this amazing 100% green wool that he was also selling. 

Needless to say, the sucker that I am, I walked out with all of it.

What I hadn't realised when I went back for the red, was the price tag. I knew it was £20 - but it had been reduced from £170!

So that was 2 of those.

And the green was reduced to £40 from £346!!

So £80 for £686 worth of fabric. Nuts. I felt horrendously guilty buying it off of him for such a low price, but that was the price that he had set. I have never tried to bargain with him, with the already low pricing, it wouldn't feel right.

How I'm ever going to cut into the fabrics, I don't know. I really wish I had never seen the 'before' price! And it has already been pre-shrunk, so no wool worries about that aspect.

The green wool was actually what they used to make officer's uniforms when they came back home from serving in the army. Tailor's used to have to buy in a specific wool from a specific supplier, and were paid to make the suits from scratch, but eventually they started to buy in standard sizes and tailor them to fit instead.

You can really see why it's so difficult to make a living from being a tailor sometimes.

He had also kept me some special buttons!

These are a couple of buttons made from Stag Horn. Pretty sweet, eh??

Kind of nutty when you think about it.

He ALSO gave me a discontinued suiting sample book, and I have started putting them together to make some patchwork cushions. I'm really happy with how the first one turned out.

And so I'm off again today, to see what treasures are in store.

He rang me last week to let me know that he had a few bags of scraps to give to me (I'm worried I have no more space!). I'm going to enjoy looking through it all and dreaming up what I could possible make out of them! He mentioned that there may even be enough velvet for something wearable!

Wish me treasures!

Emmie xx