Tag: Bishopston

Organic Cotton for Sale!

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 I still have quite a bit left. They’re colours that I was left with when people ordered half a bolt, and they don’t really fit into the scheme of the new things that I want to make. (Nope, not even the pink!)

I have approximately seven metres of green, nine metres of pink and just three metres of blue that need to go to a good home. Or several good homes. So, I’ve set up a Big Cartel shop for the purpose of selling them to you.

The price is £7 per metre, plus a little bit extra for shipping. I’ve also offered the option to buy little sample swatches, so you can see the colours and feel the fabric before you decide whether to order a bigger piece. The green in particular is very difficult to photograph, although the photo above is actually pretty accurate.

Big Cartel only allows for you to order in whole metre increments, but if you did want smaller pieces such as fat quarters, I can do that for you – just leave me a comment or drop me an email. (claire@eternalmagpie.com)

Once I’ve re-homed this little lot, I can then buy some lovely organic cotton jersey and fleece. I’ve just designed a lovely little cropped hoody, and am working on some pretty skirts and tops. Watch this space…

That’s more like it.

Wrap trousers and swing top

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 out distinctly tight. They’re not too tight to wear though, so I can change them next time. If they get too annoying, I’ll just chop them off. The fabric is 60″ wide, rather than the 45″ I used for the prototype, so the hem is much wider and the sides are much longer.

The trousers are made from my stash of Bishopston organic cotton. I made a more angled crotch seam than on the previous pair, which makes them more fitted around the waist. Because of this I didn’t make a drawstring. I used bias binding to enclose the top edge, extending it 20″ on each side to make the ties. I’m trying not to worry that the wrapped edges are a bit wobbly. One of the things about handwoven fabric is that the grain isn’t anything like as straight as something that’s been machine made. I can’t do anything about that, so I’m just going to have to live with slightly wiggly trousers.

Now i just need to hope that the weather stays nice enough for me to wear them.

Butterick B5317

Butterick B5317

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 a zipper into a side seam which also has a pocket seemed a little bit tricky! I’ve never done that before, so perhaps it’ll come out a bit more neatly next time.

I shortened the shoulder straps by about 2″ to make the empire seam sit in the right place, but the neckline was still a little bit too revealing for my personal liking. I’ve added a gathered broderie anglais trim to the inside of the neckline, which I really like the look of. I might need to run a little row of stitches through it though, to keep it from folding itself over.

I chose this pattern for the empire line and the pockets, and it’s definitely one that I’m going to make again in different fabrics. My only disappointment is that because of the width of the pleated skirt panels, it can’t be made using 44″ fabric. That’s a real shame, as I have some quilting cottons that would look lovely in this style! I might have to fiddle around with the pleats, and see whether I can take out a little bit of the fullness. Then it would be absolutely perfect!

Pintucks and pleats.

I’ve been away from the blog recently on account of a Dreaded Lurgy, so I haven’t had a great deal to show you. Fortunately I have managed to drag myself out of my sick bed *cough* for long enough to make this:

Pintucks and pleats

which is eventually going to be the front of a shirt, in organic cotton lawn.

I’ve been looking through a number of books about historical clothing, specifically men’s shirts. I’m making one from the simplest shapes possible (basically four big rectangles and a collar!), and using pleats and pintucks to create the fit and style that I’m after.

I have lots of different plans for variations on this simple shirt, and I’m hoping to find the time to make several incarnations over the next couple of months.

I’d probably better make a start by getting on with this one…

New Bishopston Fabrics!

New Bishopston swatches

Yes, it’s October, and the new Bishopston swatches have just arrived!

The most exciting thing about this is that they’ve just introduced a new fabric weight – a Fair Trade cotton lawn! They’re the swatches on the left – the colours mostly match the regular cottons, but the fabric is a much lighter weight.

The new cotton lawns can’t be formally certified as organic – the farmers’ plots are so small that they are prone to contamination by chemicals blown across from neighbouring farms. Apparently it takes one weaver a whole working day to weave just 3 metres of cloth by hand! The finished pieces are 19-20 metres long, so that’s a whole week’s work.

I’ve just sent an email to find out whether the lawn comes in black and unbleached, like the regular cottons. Once I know, I can start to work out what my next order’s going to be!

Simplicity 2927 – black and grey

Simplicity 2927

Here is incarnation number two of Simplicity 2927, this time in black and grey. This one’s for Claire, (no, not me!) who left me a comment when she saw the one I’d made for myself.

It’s made using 100% organic cotton, from Bishopston Trading. I couldn’t find any grey, so I dyed a piece myself. I used Dylon’s Antique Grey machine dye, over the unbleached cotton that I used for my own version. It came out really nicely!

We made a couple of small alterations from the original pattern – the length is slightly longer than the tunic version, and shorter than the dress. The sleeves are also an in-between length.

All that this one’s missing now is a big black button, to give it that finishing touch.