Without wishing to put anyone off the idea of buying my organic cotton fabric, this is what it looks like when it comes out of the washing machine. In these days of synthetic fibres and “easy-iron” fabrics, this might come as a bit of a shock. Thankfully, a few minutes with a nice hot iron can [...]
Tag Archive 'organic cotton'
Oh, I have so many things that I’ve made and haven’t told you about yet… and I have a new job, and new ideas and new plans… but first of all I need to do a little bit of clearing out. It’s more than three years since my order of Bishopston Trading fabrics arrived, and [...]
Purple Organic Cotton Shoes
Posted in shoes on Aug 3rd, 2011
Laura requested that her shoes be a plain, dark colour, such as purple or red. This picture doesn’t really show the depth of colour in this lovely purple organic cotton. I used the same fabric inside and out, and was lucky enough to find a ribbon that matched almost exactly.
Organic Fabrics
Posted in fabric on May 16th, 2011
While I’ve been thinking about making lingerie and slippers, I thought I’d have another look at what’s out there in terms of organic and fair trade fabrics. I still have a lot of my Bishopston Trading organic cottons, but I wanted to find out whether there was anything new and exciting around. The samples above [...]
I spent yesterday afternoon developing the prototypes I made on Saturday – in fabrics that I’ll actually wear. The top is a pink tartan cotton and viscose blend shirting. I added sleeves, although they didn’t turn out quite how I meant them to. I was intending to make floaty butterfly sleeves, but these have come [...]
Ethical window shopping
Posted in inspiration, shopping on Jan 29th, 2010
I have to confess that I hadn’t looked at the Nomads website recently. I’d always associated Nomads with gothy dresses and plenty of tie-dye, so I sort of assumed they wouldn’t have anything I’d like these days. I can’t remember what drew me to have a look at their website today, but I was very [...]
Butterick B5317
Posted in sewing on Aug 23rd, 2009
I started making this dress last weekend, but I’ve been so busy at the Museum this week that I didn’t have time to finish it until today. It’s Butterick B5317, made in black organic cotton from Bishopston Trading. The pattern is marked as “Fast & Easy”, and for the most part it was, but inserting [...]
Here you go – the completed blue dress. I showed you the smocking yesterday, and I’ve just finished the binding and the belt. This is my usual raglan tunic dress pattern, with the neckline, sleeves and hem all finished with navy blue bias binding. I was hoping to be able to find a navy broderie [...]
Smocking on organic cotton
Posted in embroidery, sewing on Jul 6th, 2009
This is what I’ve been up to all weekend – working panels of smocking on the front, back and sleeves of one of my tunic dresses. From top to bottom, the stitches are Trellis, Wave, Honeycomb, Chevron and Van Dyke. I’m really, really pleased with how the smocking’s worked out. Unfortunately, I over-estimated how much [...]
Embroidered robin. In a hat.
Posted in embroidery on Apr 8th, 2009
This is a robin. Wearing a hat. Of course. Last week I drew some silly pictures of birds wearing hats, and then spent ages deciding what I could do with them. Ages ago I bought a whole bunch of organic cotton tote bags, with the idea of embroidering designs on them. So, I embroidered the [...]