A Mountain of Fabric

So this month, I was lucky enough to be named Customer of the Month by the store Cheap Fabrics, somewhere I've bought a lot of fabric in the past. I wrote up a little bio for the profile about my adventures in sewing and fashion - be sure to check that out here if you're interested! 

Part of the prize was a huge bundle of fabric (I mean, enormous), so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to do a haul blog on my new treasures. 

First off, we have this awesome red and cream printed fabric. I already have some of this, which is being used to make a double breasted jacket and a dress. But, when I find a fabric I like, I really do just want to make all the things out of it, so I thought I'd get some more and likely make a pair of trousers to go with the jacket.

But why stop at red when you can have the same pattern but in yellow and blue!? I love how vibrant this colour combination is. I'm thinking of turning this into an 18th century waistcoat that could either be worn underneath the jacket for a totally insane look, or separately, for a slightly insane look.

I'm not 100% sure what I want to do with the tartan yet, but there's a very good chance they'll end up as some epic trousers.

This is some grey chiffon with velvet roses and polka dots. It turned out to be a little stiffer than I was expecting, which slightly alters my plans for it, but the rough idea would be to have it as an overlay for a 1950's dress.

I really love the square design of this printed crepe, though I'm really not sure what to do with this one. It does have really gorgeous drape, so perhaps it could work as a floaty dress such as how it's pinned on the mannequin, but maybe I'll be less imaginative and just use it for a shirt or something.

I've realised, looking through my Instagram photos of my makes, that in the year and a half I've had my account, I've never once made anything involving animal print. This is quite shocking to me, as pretty much every shop-bought item of clothing I own is either animal print, or has pictures of animals on it. But this will all change now I've got this zebra print crepe! I was originally thinking of just making a shirt out of this, but I'm feeling quite inspired by how I happened to pin it on the mannequin, and quite like the idea of a top with dolman sleeves and a great big pleat coming from the shoulder.

Continuing on the animal print theme, I also got some leopard print knit jersey type fabric. This is definitely going to be a jumper. I'm thinking a close-fitting turtleneck one, though this idea will likely change by the time I get round to making it.

This is a kind of wine-coloured paisley jacquard fabric that would make an awesome lining. I do have a red velvet trench coat on my very long list of stuff to make that I think this would work great with.

So, that was the printed fabrics, now onto the plains. I didn't bother draping my plain fabrics on the mannequin, partly because they're shinier and I'm useless at photographing satin, and partly because I got longer lengths and I didn't feel like refolding all that fabric. So here's a photo of all my haul piled on top of each other.

So in here, we also have some burgandy duchess satin, which will either be a coat or a pair of trousers, some black chiffon to make a couple of drapey tops, and some black crepe back satin to make a slinky dress. I also got some calico for interlining fabric and some cheap polycotton for making toiles.

And that's everything! I'm really looking forward to making a ton of stuff with all this new fabric, so keep your eyes peeled for them in the weeks, months, and likely years to come!