Where to buy nice/cheap/good/value for money fabric for curtains and cushion covers

MrsCluckyHen

Hi all

I just bought myself a Sewing Machine and am on my way to learn to use it. I bought with the intention of making my own curtains and cushion covers (nothing terribly complicated, just straight lines).

Now, I looked in Ikea's website for their fabrics and at £6/m the cheapest I felt they were a bit dear, particularly since I saw the next sale online and you could buy pairs of curtains for £30, so these Ikea fabrics didn't seem like good value for money.

So I ask you savvy shoppers and diy-ers, where can I buy good quality and not too dear fabrics for these kind of uses? Online or stores.

Thank you all for your help!.

paddy's_mum

Your local charity shops, especially while you are still learning to sew.

A large pair of curtains in good name fabrics such as Sanderson, Moygashel, Crowson etc can be had for something like £10 or £15, and you are doing yourself and the charity some good at the same time.

I can promise that in your sewing career, you will mess up at least half a dozen times and the frustration of wrecking fabric that cost you a fortune is beyond belief!

cattie

Do you have any markets near you? Often there will be a stall or two with good quality fabrics at £1-£2 per metre.

Or put up a want ad on Freegle or somewhere like that to see if anybody has any old curtains/fabric they want to get rid of.

rustyboy21

If you live in the North west, there are loads of fabric warehouses around. Say , for example Liverpool there is a large shop just off Islington called Abakhan fabrics. I bought fabric to recover a sofa from there and it was really cheap. Lancashire towns like Bury,preston, Blackburn will have similar places. Try googling for fabric shops in your home town, it may surprise you.

This any good?

http://www.abakhan.co.uk/

MrsCluckyHen

Thank you all for your help!.

Rustyboy, I do indeed live in the North west. I found a Bedford fabrics near my area and will try my local market, see what I can find (thanks Cattie).

Paddy's mum, unfortunately my local charity shop doesn't really stock curtains, at least not that I've seen, but I'll try the above suggestions to find fabrics to mess up until I get the hang of it.

Any more advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.

medsdemon

Try car boot sales especially for fabric for cushions..you can use dress fabric and don't need such big pieces and if you think the fabric is too delicate line each piece with lining ( an old sheet would do for this). I picked up a 60's vintage dress at the weekend for 50p that I'm making into cushions for my bedroom and it matches perfectly into my "design brief"!! ( beats the £78 a metre fabric i'm looking at longingly for my blind!!). Also sheets are great too. I have bought and used quite alot of 1970's floral sheets to make things with for pennies and you get alot of fabric and they're really trendy atm ( check out Pinterest). Do remember that generally ready made curtains like Next are made with a very poor quality lining having altered quite a few for other people.

SailorSam

If you live up this way there's a small shop just around the corner from St Helens railway station.