THE DRAPERY BLOG

The adorable Ninot jacket pattern by Pauline Alice has been calling my name for a while. When this 100% wool in 'Garnet' arrived in the shop, I'd found the perfect match.  (Long project = long blog post so grab a cup of tea!) Making a jacket can be quite a process, and I wanted to 'skill up' and take my time with this, learning some things along the way. Welt pockets and bound buttonholes were a first for me. The instructions for these were quite good, although I could have used a few more diagrams. I took my time and used a lot of hand-basting to hold things in place. The buttons, by the way, are gorgeous vintage ones from Our Beautiful Pieces on Unley Road. Quite a dangerous place to visit for the vintage button lover! The jacket has a lovely swingy back pleat. There's an optional back button tab across the pleat, which I made. To be honest I ran out of buttons so didn't attach it! I'm still toying with the idea of removing the sle...

We have some luscious boiled wools in stock at The Drapery right now, and have put together a free tutorial for possibly the easiest garment you'll ever make! Searching for boiled wool inspiration, we came across this simple and lovely shrug by Manda of Treefall Design, who was inspired by a ready-to-wear piece. We whipped up a couple of prototypes in the shop and arrived at this which takes just a 75cm cut of fabric and three straight seams. Edges can all be left raw because boiled wool does not fray! REQUIREMENTS 75cm x boiled wool , ours is 150cm wide - would also work in wool knit fabric such as this Japanese wool blend (or this one ) and this Merino Rib Gutermann Sew-All thread in matching colour Cut about 50 - 55cm in from each selvedge so you have 2 pieces approx. 50 x 75cm, each with a 75cm fluffy selvedge. The piece from the middle is spare so you can use it for another project, or perhaps to embellish your shrug. Pin your pieces together along th...

Number six in our series of Twelve (non-consecutive) Days of Handmade Christmas from The Drapery. Handmade Christmas gifts are thoughtful, cost-effective and kind to the earth. And they're just as rewarding to give as they are to receive. Today's idea is one you may choose to give, or make for your own home. Felt Ball Garland So simple. Spend a relaxing time threading these felt balls or get the kids on the job! Materials: Pure wool felt balls from The Drapery Valdani perle cotton Needle with large enough eye for the perle cotton Cut a piece of perle cotton up to around 2m in length and thread it on your needle. Any longer will become unwieldy to work with. Leave a bit of thread 'tail' for tying at the end, and make a single knot where you would like your first felt ball to be. Push the needle through a felt ball (it's easy) and slide it down to the knot. Make another knot on the other side of the felt ball to hold it in place. Then leave ...

The second in our series of Twelve (non-consecutive) Days of Handmade Christmas from The Drapery. Handmade Christmas gifts are thoughtful, cost-effective and kind to the earth. And they're just as rewarding to give as they are to receive. FELT iPAD COVER Materials: 26 x 45cm piece of thick felt (we used our new 3mm thick 100% pure new wool felt which we have in store in a range of colours) 110cm Twill Tape (also in store) Cotton thread, sewing machine, pins or clips, scissors. Method: Our iPad case was made for a tablet measuring 20 x 25cm, so measure yours up to get the right fit. This is such a quick project to make, and the thick wool felt makes the case really quite substantial. The same method with different measurements would make a great phone or camera cover, too. •  Pin 3cm of the end of the twill tape in the centre of the shortest edge of your felt piece. The rest of the twill tape should be trailing off in the opposite direction to the piece of felt. ...

Looking for crafty inspiration for the school holidays? At The Drapery we have 100% pure new wool felt in a large range of delicious colours. Our customers are using it for all kinds of creative things, and today we'd like to show you some books full of felty cuteness and fun, suitable for crafty kids. Felties by Nelly Pailloux has a bunch of critters that are palm-sized, hand-sewn and tooth-achingly sweet. Instructions are very clear, including step-by-step diagrams and a list of everything you need - mostly just felt, needle and thread and a bit of stuffing. (We have pure wool or corn fibre stuffing in store.) And a little bit of felt goes a long way with these tiny creatures! Too sweet? How about Zombie Felties! Again, the instructions are great and the examples below were sewn by 11 and 12 year old boys. We also have Big Little Felt Universe which honestly has almost an entire universe of felt objects to make, from felt fruit to felt power tools, a laptop ...

Got a chilly noggin? How about making a classic flat cap with our beautiful 100% wool tweed ? This is one of those sewing projects that seems almost magical in its ability to turn small, flat pieces of fabric into something so substantially 3-dimensional and pleasing. It rates very highly on the scale of 'seriously, did you make that?' admiration yet it's really not that hard and requires no specialist tools or materials. The pattern used here is Nicole Mallalieu's Flat Cap which is available as a pdf download. At The Drapery we also have the Sew Liberated Huck Finn Cap printed pattern, which is very similar and fits kids aged 6 months to 10 years. (Pictured below in a non-Drapery fabric!) This pattern for the littles has a clever hidden piece of elastic at the back which helps the cap fit growing heads. We also stock the template plastic that's used inside the brims, which is the only other thing you'll need besides fabric, thread, pins ...