When I first began sewing and patchwork and when it first became somewhat of an obsession, I struggled to find the type of fabrics that really spoke to me. I like pastel and muted colours, and small scale florals that have a vintage feel. Whenever I would go to shows or shops I would find it difficult to find fabric I liked. I would see bold and bright colours, novelty prints or large designs. I had long admired Liberty fabrics but with their high price, I felt like they were out of reach. However I started to find places that sold fat quarters of Liberty, charm packs and jelly rolls, so bit by bit I started my collection of Liberty fabrics. If you've never felt Liberty tana lawn before, it is a fine but strong fabric that is lightweight and almost silk like to the touch. Its high thread count means it's incredibly strong and doesn't fray when cut, making it excellent for patchwork in my opinion. Because it's so fine, you don't get bulky seams and it's easily folded over ½" EPP shapes and smaller. 

When I started my online shop, selling fabric in small amounts was important to me because not everywhere does. So I sell a selection of Liberty tana lawn charm packs, which are packs of 20 different prints, all of which are 5" squares. This is the perfect way to try Liberty tana lawn if you haven't before, as it gives you a little taste of their gorgeous prints. You could sew all of the squares together to make a simple but beautiful quilt or you could get 4, 1" hexagons out of each piece if you are careful with the seam allowances. Having a variety of prints is a great way of achieving the “scrappy look” without having to buy large pieces of fabric.

I have some newly restocked charm packs in my shop now and also some Tilda fat 8th bundles which are currently in the sale section. The Tilda bundles are lovely and have such a range of colours and prints in them.

In addition to using prints, I like to use solid fabric too as it gives the eye a place to rest and also leaves a space to add embroidery! I mostly use solids from the Tilda range. They have a vast array of colours and I like their off white, sage green and pinks. It is thicker than tana lawn but I don't mind the difference, I don't find it noticeable in the finished piece and it adds to the overall scrappy nature of my makes anyway.

If you'd like to see more about using scraps or creating the scrappy look in patchwork, I have a video on my Youtube channel all about it.

 

Thank you so much for reading this email, I hope you liked hearing about Liberty fabric. If you do place an order in my shop (and I am so so grateful if you do) items will be posted out on Thursday this week and due to the Easter weekend, there might be a little delay in it arriving.

See you next week,

Take care,

Emma