June, 2011:

I went up to Doug’s on my birthday and while he was at work on Friday popped along to my fave Bristol fabric shop – FabricLand. I’ve been going there for at least a decade since it was in its previous, smaller premises. I go because there’s such a wide variety of fabrics and the prices are quite cheap.

My mission for Friday was to find some floral prints since I hope to make several Oolong dresses. Of course I still need to finish my first one, see the blue and black polka dotted bodice, but I’m not going to let that deter me! I came away with 2 meters each of four prints, some faux satin for making petticoats since I dislike lining things, and only spent £27.

So, here’s what I picked up. (click on the image to enlarge it)

Red, blue and pink vintage roses polycotton

Pink vintage roses polycotton

Green vintage red, white and pink roses 100% cotton

Bright modern flower print 100% cotton

Chinese faux satin in black and white 100% polyester

I’m not always that keen on polycottons because while cheap, these were about £2.40 a meter, they’re also rather thin and see through so they need to be lined. As I’ve said, I really dislike lining and try and avoid it where I can. But I really liked the prints and they were cheap, so I gave in! The green print just screamed vintage to me and I couldn’t resist it. The brighter modern print was one I’d had my eye on for a while. It’s available in another colourway with the large pink flowers coloured blue instead and the orange flowers, I think, coloured yellow. I may well buy its sister print next I visit the store. I had really hoped to find some small polka prints but they only had large ones with dots about the size of a UK penny. I have too many of those already. The cotton prints were about £3.33 a meter and the Chinese faux satin £1 a meter. The cottons and polycottons were about 45″ wide and the faux satin 60″.

Not sure when these will be cut into. I’ve been busy with a big clearout of my house. I now have a tidy study as well as a tidy craft room. Hopefully I’ll finish the clearout this week so that I can start sewing again next week. I’d like to make at least one dress a week but we shall see 🙂