Do you know how to choose the right fabric for your project?

I don't sew much so I never really gave this topic much thought to be honest. I know what quality fabric feels like and always make sure it is 100% cotton and that's probably good enough for what I make. 

However, as one of my new year resolutions is to make 3 pieces of handmade clothing for myself, I started researching more about sewing clothes and found this great website - Nicole's classes. The article that led me to this website is about choosing the right fabric for a sewing project, you can find it here. 

I think I will start my handmade clothing adventure by making a simple top or a dress. I have a few issues of Burda Style and, after looking at their blog, I am getting more and more inspired to sew!

Do you sew your own clothes? Do you have any blogs/websites you would recommend? 

Sunday stash.... teal, blue, brown and foxes

The settled shades of green, blue and brown are so me and when these prints arrived, I must admit I stroked them and looked at them for a while. It always takes me some time to put them on the shelf and new fabrics end up hanging around my craft table for some time. Occasionally because they are out and about, I find a matching felt and the fabric gets to be used straight away. Most often through, I put them away and they are waiting to be discovered yet again when I shuffle the fabrics around during tiding up. It's fun and I love it!

From the top:

Playful foxes in blue, Timber & Leaf collection by Sarah Watts 

On point in minty, Simpatico collection by Cloud 9 fabrics, organic cotton

 Gerbera print, Timber & Leaf collection by Sarah Watts 

Ripples in aqua, Les Amis by Patty Sloniger 

These two prints are wonderful, aren't they? I have my doubts that they will be used on the toys, as the print is slightly too large, but I am sure they will find that right project eventually! 

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend!

Sunday Stash: spots and stars

These are new arrivals for my stash and small prints are always welcome here as they are great for owls and other small toys. I really like multi-coloured dots and stars as they will match so many felt colours and I cannot wait to get a few toys made with them and see which ones will suit the bear. They have the smallest bellies and are very picky. So far it's been hard to find fabrics for them. 

When new fabric arrives, I always allocate each print to a particular toy. Some of them are very versatile but it doesn't happen often. Most of the time the toy's personality and the size dictates which fabric I can use to make it with. That what I've decided so far (starting from the top): 

Vivie Sprinkle in multi blush by Alexander Henry  -hedgehog.

Starlettes in multi by Michael Miller  - rabbits.

Little sport in multi Michael Miller - penguins.

Am I over thinking it or does that make sense? 

Have a nice Sunday!

Sunday Stash #53....Sorbet colours love

These prints are all organic cotton by Cloud 9 and aren't they delightful?  Collection is called Simpatico, it's not new - was released in June, but fits perfectly with the current trends (not as I follow them really). I like the simple geometrical design and easy to work with pastels - peachy, minty and golden.

Do you like these colours too? 

Have a wonderful Sunday! 

Sunday Stash: waiting for Textured Basics by Patty Young

When I read on Mod Kid blog that this fabric was "printed with a faux canvas  texture, for the "look" of canvas but the "feel" of quilting cotton, I was intrigued and put it on my "to stash" list immediately. It's bright and happy, will match a lot of prints - a perfect fabric to have in a stash. 

I had to pick only a few for the collage but have a look at the full collection HERE, it's an explosion of colour - teal, lime, salmon, papaya, tangerine, red and my favorite MULTI!

Do you like this collection? 
Would your stash welcome these basics?

Sunday Stash.... birds and flowers #52

Flowers, flowers everywhere with little birds and love hearts, this are the prints I got from "The sweetest thing" by Zoe Pearn. They are stash fabrics only at the moment. I think tiny flowers print will be used first as they are perfect for bears and owls. 

Which prints are new in your stash? 

Flowers, dots, Japanese prints or chevrons? 

Hope you had a wonderful Sunday! 

Sunday Stash, geometrical prints #51

I am loving geometrical prints this season, starting from chevron print (ever so popular at the moment) and finishing with fun print by Anthology fabrics from their Sweet Tea collection. I didn't realize I have so many prints by this designer! Only when I went on their website, I recognized so many prints that I have in my stash. Maybe that's my new favourite?  I will certainly keep an eye on their website for their updates.

The polka dots on prettiest pink is by Zoe Pearn for Riley Blake from "The sweetest Thing" collection that I was admiring back in September and couldn't wait to get some for the stash. I like the softness of this fabric, both in colour and  texture, and have a few more prints that I bought to show you next week! 

Do you like geometrical prints? 

Any chevron prints in your stash?

P.S. Have you entered my Christmas fabric giveaway yet?
Click here to enter.

Sunday Stash...Cannot wait to stash "Les Amis" fabric collection

Dawn colourway, picture takes from Patty Sloniger blog

Arriving to the shops sometime in November, this collection asking to be a part of Plushka's stash, don't  you think? It's so pretty, forest themed and comes in 2 gorgeous colour combos - Dawn and Dusk. 

My favourite prints are Sweet Owlies, Ripples, Lil' Meadow (flowery one)... and, of cause, the star of this collection - Les Amis print with foxes under the trees (5th from the top).

This range is designed by Patty Sloniger for Michael Miller fabrics - 

see full range here. 

Visit Patty's blog too by clicking here, there are some great projects from this range there. 

What do you think? Would you stash it?

Christmas giveaway - Festive crafter's pack

November is here and Christmas preparations has officially began! I am sure every crafter out there has a few projects in mind or maybe already completed?! I certainly hope I we will get a fresh tree this year and I will get time to decorate it with handmade ornaments.

Inspired by this bright and festive time of the year, I put a little bundle of goodies for you to get creative with: ribbons, fabric and handmade white crochet ornaments. 

Here how you can win all these goodies:

There are 6 easy entry options and to enter you can do as little or as many as you wish, the more you do the more points/entries you get!

The winner will be announced on 22 of November so you will still have plenty of time to make something:)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sunday Stash...soon to be released fabric range crash

I absolutely love Riley Blake Designs fabric! The style of the print and colours are always to my liking and I yet to find a range which I didn't want to own a bundle of. 

These little Matryoshka cottons will be released in January in 3 colourways: green, cream and pink. I love all the prints in this range from dolls to flowers. Even if you are a bit over the Russian dolls, as they were everywhere and on everything recently, the stripes and polka dots from this range might be a nice addition to your stash as basics. 

See full range here.

What do you think? Would you stash it? 

Sunday Stash (is back!), Nautical...#50

It's been a long time since I shared the new fabric arrivals to the Plushka's studio, 7 months to be exact! 

The main reason is, I really cut down on purchasing. I made a little pile of fabrics that I wanted to be used before I plunge into the world of new fabric collections. Since my stash is fairly large, you can see a few pics of my stash here, it took me a while to make at least some fabric disappear. 

Anyhow,  I felt a need to some fabric shopping this week and purchased a little nautical bundle of joy in red and blue. 

Four of those prints are from Seven Seas collection by Cloud9 and are organic cotton, except the one in the middle. It's a cotton fabric by Studio E and called Deep Deep Sea.

I am proud to say that all these prints are allocated to a toy or two as I am still on a "fabric diet" and not buying to stock up. not yet anyway.

Happy Sunday!

Monday inspiration: new Liberty fabric for my stash

On this trip to the Liberty of London shop, comparing to the last year's fabric bundle, I am proud to say that I only got exactly what I was after. Purple was the main colour I was looking for and got those 2 lovely fabrics in different print size to suit a variety of projects. 

However, I particularly like these two fabrics at the moment and already started on a couple of new pincushions. I have a feeling the one with little field flowers will be used a lot in the future creations as it can be matched with so many colours!

Which one of those 4 do you like the most?

Monday inspiration....new fabric range

I love starting my week with a new fabric range crash. Nothing inspires me more then fabric as it gives not only a  new, or maybe unusual colour palate, but also a great design and style inspirations. 

I find new releases through blogs of my favourite fabric designers like Riley Blake or Heather Ross and some of the online shops have Coming soon section that is very handy for keeping a look out for a new fabric collections.

Today I am loving a new range by Zoe Pearl designs for Riley Blake, called "The Sweetest thing". Zoe is local designer from Brisbane and I love her sweet prints that should be available soon. Birds and little berries among the flowers caught my eye and the shades of green, blue and yellow colours it comes in are so pretty too! 
See all prints from this range HERE.

Is there any new fabric range that you cannot wait to get for your stash?

Happy Monday!

Sunday Stash...Sewing Storage ideas

Instead of sharing with you the pictures of my treasured fabric stash, I would like to show you a lovely space that inspired me to re-organise (yet again!) my small studio....

I love everything about it from little glass jars to sweet birds and russian dolls! 

For more pics go to Ashley's Mommy by day, Crafter by night blog, it's a wonderful space to explore! 

Happy Sunday! 

Wombat Wonderland Blog tour

Today Plushka is delighted to be the first stop on Saffron Craig's blog tour introducing her new fabric range - Wombat Wonderland. This collection is inspired by, yes you guessed it, wombats! 
Mystical white wombat among yellow and green flowers and pretty butterflies in soft pastel colours...
It is a wonderful range for girls and little boys as, although there's a few pinks in the range, the softness is offset by sky blue, garden green and fresh yellow.

For my blog tour projects I've picked 2 small scale prints: 

1. Lovely Sunrays print was destined for the robin with it's delicate, pale blue pattern of stylized flowers and sunrays on a crisp white background.

2. As soon as I spotted these Triangles, I saw bubblegum pink elephant made with this fun print in pastel green, grey and pink with mint dots.

All designs from this range are printed on great quality 100% organic fabric, it is very soft to touch and is so nice to work with. 

I will be definitely making more toys with fabric from this range! 

100% pure new wool felt from Plushka's Makery

Fabric can be purchased in Saffron's shop HERE

Keep up with the tour and get inspired:

Friday 7th of September - Toni Coward of Make it Perfect

Friday 14th of September - Amy Gunson of Badskirt

Friday 21st of September - Katy of I'm a Ginger Monkey

Friday 29th of September - Siobhan Rogers of Bespoke Quilts.

P.S. Thank you Saffron for inviting me to participate! 

Sunday Stash...

All day cleaning might sound like a boring task but not when it involves sorting out and tidying up fabric! This is my most favourite part and, trust me, I know when it's time to re-organise those shelves. It just after I a pile of fabric fell on me...twice in one day. 
In a bundle, fabric proved to be very heavy indeed. 

Anyhow, my stash is very tidy now and I might sit down for a few minutes and just look at it...

Happy Sunday! 

August Giveaway "Pastels and greens" crafter's pack

Although it is still cold and feels like Winter in the morning, I can feel sun is getting warmer during the day and Spring is not that far away! 
Inspired by this change of weather in the air, I put together a bundle of craft supplies in cream and green colours... 
The bundle includes: 
Birds and flowers linen ribbon

handmade Bambi button

4 fat quarters of fabric 
(mix of cotton and organic cotton)

2 linen handmade crochet flowers

Here is how you can win all these goodies:

There are 6 easy entry options and to enter you can do as few or as many as you wish, the more you do the more points/entries you get!
If you already a Facebook liker of Plushka's Craft, just click on the button below for an automatic entry. Plushka's lovely blog readers get extra points too (see option 6).

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Fabric stash, does size matter?

Thank you everyone who left a comment on my first Plushka’s fabric stash post. It was so interesting to hear your opinion on the importance of the stash size!

There are a few things that I certainly agree with everyone on:

* a good size stash helps you create by allowing you to start a projects straight away when the inspiration strikes.

* looking through the stash gives you ideas

* Quality over quantity - a well thought through stash will save you money in the long run! When you have all the fabric you need for a project, it means you don’t have to run back and forth to the local fabric shop and buy more then you should every time! 

Thus, I can safely define a balanced, well thought through stash as a stash that is colour coordinated, has many “basic” fabrics that can be used for the lining or bias and has different style fabrics to inspire different ideas. 

I asked a few fellow crafters about their fabric shopping styles, the size of  their stash and weither or not, in their opinion, it is important for a handmade business to have a newly released prints to offer it's customers......  

Here what creative ladies said: 

“I usually buy fabric monthly and I buy it from all over the place! There is a huge choice online and you can access fabric from all over the world. Whenever I can I also like to support my local brick and mortar quilting and sewing shops. It nice to be able to get advice and help in person and there is nothing quite like seeing and feeling fabric in a shop, it's something you can't do online. I absolutely love searching for specific prints and I usually don't stop until I find what I need.

I'm not really sure if i have a big stash or not? I've never really compared to anyone else. For me quality is far more important that quantity. Many of the cute Japanese fabrics i buy are extremely good quality and that comes with a price so i tend to buy smaller amounts of those. I have a huge variety, but i keep mainly small pieces.

I think it's nice to offer something different to what every one else is offering. I will avoid buying certain fabric if i am seeing it used by lots of other handmade businesses. Part of the attraction to handmade is the uniqueness after all”. -

Cassandra, Three kittens

“I buy my fabric in large amounts.  I buy approximately two bolts or more of each ‘main’ fabric that makes up the bulk of a collection.  I buy approx. 5 – 6 yards of ‘minor’ coordinating fabrics.  I buy all of it online from all around the world.

I think people would be surprised at how small my stash actually is.  I have two little shelves that are what I refer to as my ‘Treasure Shelves’ which basically contain very special fabrics that are for me.  then everything else I have in stock are large quantities for my Georgie Girl items.  I don’t have very much left over once I’ve finished bolts so it turns over very quickly as a general rule. 

Absolutely not!  In my experience, customers don’t care if fabrics are the ‘latest thing’ out or if they are older, discontinued collections.  As long as something is appealing to the eye and appropriate when applied to the items you are creating, that seems to be the main thing.  Quite often the newly released fabrics are being used by lots and lots of businesses and so if you can find something unique and not so easily available, you can come up with a unique looking line.  That’s half the challenge of fabric shopping and creating – searching far and wide for something different!” 
- Tina, George girl

"I buy our fabrics by the meter online and then bolt it up myself. This can be anywhere from 5-15 meters per design. Now that we have permanent linen ranges on offer I need to have a minimum in the cupboard to feel comfortable and in order! We currently have 7 ranges available, some consisting of 3 fabric designs and some 2, so we have a fairly large stash always ready and available.

Yes, I do think it's important, although it can depend on what your business specializes in. For us, since we offer our own ranges, I like to keep the customers interested by throwing in limited/new designs here and there while we still offer our usual fabric designs. I do find however most customers are after particular colours and themes rather than new prints." - Lauren, Boondie baby

"I buy my fabric whenever I am inspired and see something I have to have - online, in stores, in op shops, at markets... sometimes Im searching for a particular print or colour, other times I just see something I am drawn to and have to have it in my stash even though I might have no idea what Im going to do with it! 

I do have a rather large stash... growing by the minute!

Yes, I think its important to have newly released prints to keep your store fresh and enticing for customers!"
- Nicole, Bubby Makes Three

We would love to know what your answer to those questions would be! 

How do you buy your fabric?  

Do you have a big stash? 

Do you think it is important to own a substantial stash for a handmade business?

Plushka's fabric stash

 

A few days ago I read this post and had a good look at my stash.... 

I have to confess, I do have a serious fabric  buying addiction! I see a new print and have to have it. Fabric shopping for me is something I do weekly. How many prints I buy yearly? I am afraid it will be more then a 100! I always find a good excuse to get more prints for my stash using my handmade business as an excuse..... The voice in my head usually says something along these lines: 

"This fabric is perfect for an elephant so you have to get this one. Oh, that one matches the colour of that felt that you have. Don't forget that you can fit a few more yards in the envelope and save on postage! "

It time to stop! Now, every time I want to buy something, I will take a few pictures of my stash to get a reality check! 

Liberty fabric stash

all sort of prints, yet to be used!

love the red, navy and grey together

how can you say no to the toadstool print?

I know, from reading other blogs, that most of the handmade business owners have this problem (is it a problem though?). We stock up and this is our main business expense. However, I am wondering....

Is it vital to have a huge stash to have a successful handmade business? 

What do you think? 

My creative space...

In my creative space today, I am making progress with a few projects at the same time. 

Here are a few of them:

*Cross-stitch designs - apple and penguins, are ready to be turned into keyrings. 

*New fabric arrived that I ordered specially for my fog rattles. Cannot wait to see them done! 

Busy day ahead! 

Visit more creative spaces here.