Tete en l’Air’s Feet On The Ground Diary

Dinah93

I won't bother making a trip then. The shop in guisborough is really good for patterened materials, but as I say they're all about £10 a metre so it's heafty if you're making a long skirt or dress.

Tete_en_l'Air

I've been looking at a lot of fabric websites which always seem cheap til you realise the prices are for FQs, and I can never work out how many of them I would need!

Dinah93

They're no use though if you want a full bit of fabric for a skirt or bodice though as they're just the small lumps of fabric designed for quilt making. I haven't even found any fabric websites that aren't for curtain making or seriously bland fabrics that I can get in Boyes anyway.

Tete_en_l'Air

I think though most places if you buy 4 FQs they send you it uncut but it seems to work out more expensive than buying by the metre. This is what I've got to make my dress out of. It's a bit greener than it looks there and I kind of wished I'd got the grey version but I'm going to just go with it.

tinkerbel

I always buy my fabric from places like carboot sales and the like and odd bits i fancy from haberdasheries, I find it is really expensive to buy fabric though, shouldnt be really! Especially when just buying clothes can be so cheap!
but yeah, top tip there, look out for carboot sales, and also - I always buy / accept donations of anything random that isnt made of tiny pieces so that I can cut it up and just use it as the fabric, do this a lot with curtains and they are pretty neat, good way to use cloth and get something original!
Tete your skirt does look really good though! Especially the waistband! Is is faced at all?

Tete_en_l'Air

Do you do a lot of sewing Tink? What do you make? I know what you mean about sourcing little bits of fabric, I've got a few old tops there ready to be cut up and used for whatever, and I bought a child's dress in a charity shop the other day that I liked, over a metre of lovely fabric there for £2.50 - I'm planning on making some sort of patchwork cusion with it I think. I've been looking out for nice fabrics on clothes in sales too, esp if it's a plus size garment, but haven't seen any cheap enough yet!

Yes the waistband has iron-on interfacing, and is then folded over so double the strength really, and the whole skirt is lined with a silky lining too (the material was quite see-through!)

Dinah93

I've got a huge scraps bag, its the big bits of material I struggle with. I've done that with the charity shop items though, size 18 Atmosphere top in a lovely retro cotton, £1.49, enough fabric for me to remake it into a skirt, all I need to buy is the lining and a zip.

I've cut out another skirt this afternoon. The dress I started last week I'm still stuck on the pattern (and thanks for your offer to look at it Tink, but I don't have a working scanner) so I'm going to ask in class tomorrow. The skirt I'm making now looks like a couple of hours job, really easy, was hoping to get it finished today but I hit a snag - I don't have any thread in a vaguely similar colour!

Tete_en_l'Air

I ran out of navy thread with about 6 inches to go last night! I just used one of the cheap tacking threads to get the damn thing finished! So is it the dress you're doing for your project then?

Dinah93

Doubt it, its just a practice thing. Want to finish it by the weekend. Final project doesn't have to be done until May or something does it?

Tete_en_l'Air

June I think? But don't you have to have two? I thought you'd abandoned the massive dress? Or are you stil using it but never wearing it?