THE DRAPERY BLOG

We're thrilled to have four colours of this beautiful 55% Hemp 45% Organic Cotton Jersey in store at the moment. Even better, it's very affordable (in the realm of hemp fabrics) and particularly sustainable because it's leftovers from a local maker. 'Rose' colourway To demonstrate the loveliness of this knit fabric I whipped up a simple sleeveless t-shirt using the Hemlock Tee pattern by Grainline Studios , a free downloadable pdf. And I really do mean 'whipped up'. A garment could barely be any simpler and this was done and dusted in between helping customers on a weekday morning in the shop. The body of the pattern is quite long, and I shortened it by about 5cm. I prewashed my fabric and it shrank in length (as can always be expected from a jersey) from 75cm to around 70cm. This was barely enough to cut the shortened tee from so I'd recommend using a little more! I also didn't have enough fabric to cut the neck band across the grain...

When New Zealand designer Jennifer Lauren put out a call for pattern reviewers to help spread the word about her designs, I shot up my hand.  I've admired many of her patterns but had not yet sewn one. And I'd recently purchased her latest, the Laneway Dress , on first sight. I'd even had it printed already, so this was the perfect incentive to make it happen. What I loved about the Laneway Dress pattern before I even made it: inclusive sizing from 6 - 24 separate bodices for B, C and D cups (yayyy!) that fabulous asymmetrical collar, plus two other options pockets flared, hip-skimming skirt without gathers bust shaping with tucks at centre front. I had some precious Gertrude Made 'Outback Wife' cotton barkcloth stashed for a summer frock. The retro floral was the perfect match for the Laneway. But first, using some old fabric from out the back of the shop, I made a muslin of the bodice and sleeves. Here's a (thankfully) very poor quality pho...

There was a great suggestion on Instagram that we do a blog post on pattern recommendations to go with the gorgeous new cotton barkcloth fabric range Outback Wife . They've been selling very quickly though so please don't hesitate to snap some up - otherwise we have plenty of other fabrics that will be equally well suited to the patterns below. From parent company Ella Blue's website: "Outback Wife is the debut collection of Cathi Bessell-Browne, the hands and heart behind Gertrude Made. Each fabric has been a labour of love and they have taken more than a year to complete. Inspired by the beautiful floral barkcloth fabrics of the 1940s and 1950s, each detail of this collection has been meticulously and sincerely considered to create a range with an authentic vintage voice. The stunning hand-painted floral designs printed on an exclusive cotton barkcloth base, tell the story of four Australian rural women. Outback Wife is an ode to the strength, passion and cou...

Welcome back to our occasional Fabric Friday series! This 'Old Navy' mid-weight 100% Linen is an absolute beauty, and since our first bolt of it sold out in no time, we nabbed all the remainder from our supplier. It's unlikely to be repeated since it's a remnant from clothing manufacture. 'Old Navy' refers to the colour  (in case you're wondering whether it's related to the US clothing store, it's not). It's really a deep blue-ish toned charcoal.  The 'right' side of it has a bit of polished sheen, while the back is matte. Old Navy Linen is a pleasure to work with. It's extremely tightly woven and stable so all your pattern pieces will match up beautifully. The thing to watch out for is that the tightly woven linen has little to no 'give'. Bear this in mind if making a garment that requires a little breathing room, e.g. with a fitted waistband! (Speaking from experience....)  This pair of Deer and Doe ...

In this Friday's Fortnightly installment of fabric goodness, we have a simple classic: navy and white striped cotton jersey that we call 'Hello Sailor' . (It may look black on your screen but it's really a very dark inky navy.) This is a 100% cotton jersey, made in New Zealand, and a lovely quality. We've had the red & white stripe 'Where's Wally' (just a metre left at time of writing!) from this manufacturer and also 'North Sea/Kalamata' and been very happy with the fabric. So although we had to wait several months for this deep navy stripe colourway to have its turn at the knitting mill, it was worth the wait. Jersey fabric has a right and a wrong side, like a tiny version of traditional plain hand-knit, as you can probably just make out below. The edges can be a bit curly so you may want to do a fair bit of pinning as you use this, especially to accurately match the stripes. You'll find that this 100% cotton jersey doesn...

Perhaps our absolute favourite fabric fibre here at The Drapery is linen . Since we opened our store in April 2013 we have had beautiful linens from Lithuania as a large proportion of our stock. We're so pleased with how our customers have taken to them and it seems every time we order, we are able to bring in larger quantities and greater variety.  As a garment fabric, linen is ideally suited to the Australian climate. It's cool and breathable, and absorbs perspiration. It's easy to wash and line-dry. Iron with plenty of heat and steam, but don't be too fussy because once you've thrown it on any residual creases will just become part of the rumpled linen elegance that we love. For fact-lovers, here's a bunch of information from the report 'Barometer of European Flax 2015' by the CELC - Confédération Europeénne Du Lin Et Du Chanvre (The European Confederation of Linen and Hemp): Flax was the very first textile developed by people, with th...

Whilst the merits of double gauze are well known to many of you, we still find ourselves introducing this wonderstuff to many customers in the shop. So we thought it worth a blog post to help demystify it some more.  Double gauze is a double-layered cotton fabric, predominantly made in Japan. It's very, very soft.  The two fine gauzy layers are woven together in a grid of spots about 1cm apart, which can be seen in some prints more easily from the back, like this one below. This stops the layers pulling apart as you're sewing, or wearing the fabric. You can cut and sew this just as you would a single-layer fabric.  Generally the top layer of fabric is printed, but some are yarn-dyed.  One of the largest manufacturers of double gauze is Japanese mill Kokka, which produces many prints including the very beautiful and popular 'Nani Iro' line by designer Naomi Ito. (Some of our current range pictured below.)  There are also many prints that are idea...