Fabrics – ResinRapture

Online fabric shopping for dolls

ResinRapture — Tue, 19 Jun 2018 06:41:00 +0000

Experiences and favorite shops (EU)

Online fabric shopping and the difficulties in finding good fabric sources for doll projects

When I started sewing as a girl there was no internet. It was either upcycling old clothes or the only fabric store in town. Tearing, well-worn fabric, faded prints and a lot of remnants or spending a lot of money on fabric that never quite met my needs. I still use human clothes as a fabric source occasionally, but since I often have very specific ideas of what I want, I like to buy new fabric for my dolly sewing projects.

These days the difficulties in finding fabric for doll clothes amongst the huge selection on the web are of a different nature but nonetheless challenging. After I reorganized all my stash I decided to write something about fabric shopping and I hope it might be helpful.

The text was written, but Roux didn’t have a set of plain white underwear I wanted for this picture.
I had to make it first, so this post took longer than expected.

Sewing vocabulary: What was that pattern called again?

Like every craft sewing comes with it’s own technical terms, and if you don’t want to restrict your search to national shops you’ll want the English term. While finding the name of a fabric type is comparatively easy, it gets especially tricky when it comes to patterns.

For some I wouldn’t even know what they are called in my native language, let alone the English name. A bit like flowers and their national common names versa botanical names. A helpful glossary of fashion vocabulary can be found on the fashion blog Enerie. Or just search for ‘fashion vocabulary+patterns’ on Pinterest and you get all the pattern names you want. Another source of all things sewing related: sewguide.com

But even with the right search term you still have to find the shop that actually offers what you want and doesn’t just pop up in the results with nothing to show for.

Textile temptations everywhere – but if you don’t want to spend hours searching Ebay, Etsy and at least 10 online shops and a fortune on shipping every time it’s actually harder than it looks.

Most fabric stores cater to the needs of human sized sewing projects and sell with a minimum purchase length, which often means you have to buy a lot more fabric than you require for your small dolly project.

Fat Quarters or half metres are a perfect size for most smaller projects, but a lot of shops start at a metre minimum. Or they only sell bundles of patterns you have to buy to get that one pattern you want.

And most shops offer a large variety of fabrics, but only a very limited selection of patterns or colors in each category – the same prints you come across in every second shop. And most of the patterns come in a scale that is far too large to work for doll clothes. Since only a few pictures come with a coin or something similar as a size reference, pattern sizes can be quite surprising.

Ebay budget bargains are mostly disappointing. Fabrics with flaws in weaving, stripy fabric cut diagonally, fabric cut way below the ordered measurements or so careless that it looks like something the dog played with. Cat pee and cigarette smoke smell or faded spots from daylight storage. Flimsy misprinted material that bleeds, shrinks or is just a nuisance to work with and other mispurchases are part of the learning curve, as well as outrageously overpriced fabrics on Etsy.

So how do I find the suitable fabric for my seams, hopes and aspirations?

Choosing the suitable fabric grammage

I don’t want my fabric too lightweight or too heavy. 230-250gr/m² grammage is the perfect weight for dolly jersey-needs, and cotton poplin works best for me with 120-150gr/m².

Ultra-light, gauzy fabric is not only harder to work with, the body blush shines through, and while heavy high quality cotton would be my choice for human sized projects, doll clothes would look a bit bulky.

Using fabrics that look like the ‘real deal’ for human sized clothes but are thinner and lighter also helps.

Chambray instead of denim for jeans, baby cord for pants instead of the similar looking heavier fabric. Black foil jersey looks like PU leather and micro suede knit like suede. Polycotton might be a better choice if you hate ironing, and viscose makes for a bit of shine.

For most heavy human project fabrics you can find a similar looking lighter fabric, the summer version for doll needs, so to speak. With resin dolls stains from dark fabric are an issue, and I usually pre-wash new fabric without detergent by hand in luke-warm water. It’s a good way to spot a ‘bleeder’.

My personal favorites for most of my doll projects are cotton jersey and cotton and I am a sucker for old fashioned ditsy floral poplin. Which is actually really hard to find, most flower prints are just too large or bold for dolls.

Perfectly doll-sized pattern Mini Daisy. Fat quarter poplin from AlwaysKnitting&Sewing

My favorite shops

What I want are a few select shops with decent quality fabrics and reasonable pricing that cover all my basic requirements. And I found them.

Over the years I found my go-to sellers for haberdashery and a couple of fabric shops, one is a local real shop and these are my two favorite online shops.

My one-stop shop for all my basic fabric needs

My favorite shop for plain jersey, cotton and some other frequently used fabrics is Herberttextil. If it wasn’t for the vintage florals I would hardly need other shops. I found some lovely ditsy flower prints there, but the flowery section isn’t quite as extensive as I would like.

It’s a Dutch/German shop that often offers the exact same pattern and color for jersey as well as cotton, and if you want to combine a jersey top with a matching skirt that’s a great help. Even though they specialize in prints for kids, the basic color selection is very good – and if you are a fan of dots, stars and/or cute kid prints you’ll find plenty. Small geometrical patterns and flowers are available, too. They added other fabrics over the years and I’ve ordered chambray, cord, muslin, PU-leather and the occasional satin and lace. I have never been disappointed and frequently check the sales. In all the years I never had reason to contact them, so I can’t tell how quickly they respond.

The poplin/jersey is mostly medium or light weight, a good, tight weave that usually doesn’t shrink or bleed much. They have almost always some sort of sale going on, and the minimum purchase length is 0.5 metres.

The shop language is German/Dutch, but Google Translate helps with that. Dutch is closer to English, so you might be able to understand it even without a translation. Items arrive neatly folded, cleanly cut, often presented with a ribbon and quickly.

Extensive collection of florals in fat quarters and half metres

I’ve been looking for a good source for doll sized floral patterns for a long time, and found ditsy floral heaven. The shop is called Alwaysknittingandsewing.

It’s a UK-based shop and perfect for the small sewing project. They offer more small floral cotton prints than any other shop I’ve come across, and I just love the colors and patterns. A lot of the patterns are perfectly doll-sized and wonderfully vintage. And if you are looking for inspiration what might be a good match the fabric bundles are very helpful.

They offer fabric bundles as well as choice patterns and the selection is almost overwhelming. Most cotton fabrics can be ordered as half metre and/or fat quarter, which is very convenient. Grammage is not listed, but you can expect nice quality, soft light weight poplin, most of it Rose&Hubble fabric with 130gr/m² – a perfect fabric weight for doll clothes. A coin in most pictures helps with the pattern size.

Part 3 of the birthday haul. Lovely floral poplin from AlwaysKnittingandSewing

A word of warning though: AlwaysKnittingandSewing started out as an ebay shop, and the online shop still lacks basic functionalities you might expect. If you are looking for a way to create a customer account with an order history or wish list, tracking numbers or other options: They were still working on it when I ordered my fabrics.

Don’t let it hold you back – ordering works perfectly well and what the shop might lack in functionality they make up for in friendly customer service. Shipping costs are added during checkout, and you can create an account (even if there’s not really a way to access it afterwards, at least I haven’t found one). Orders come in a plastic bag. The fat quarters are neatly cut and folded. Rose&Hubble poplin usually doesn’t bleed at all, even darker colors wash very well. It’s very sewing machine friendly and easy to work with fabric.

Update 2021: They seem to have closed the ebay shop. And I am pretty sure the online shop functionality has much improved by now.

Happy sewing!

Inventory

ResinRapture — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 18:54:00 +0000

Birthday hauls

Today is my birthday. And while others might take inventory of the years that passed, I used my day off and took inventory of my fabrics and sewing stuff :). I had hoped for a sunny day I could spend in the garden with a book, but whoever is in charge of the weather felt it was time for some rain again.

The answer to the question ‘Do I need more fabric?’ is ‘probably not’, but since it was my birthday I bought some new fabric anyway :).
I went to a local store and found some lovely new ditsy flower poplin (which I didn’t photograph before I put it in the washing machine).

And this arrived today. I ordered it just two days ago in the hopes it would be here for my birthday, and it was. Most of my jersey and the plain cotton fabric is from my favorite online store herberttextil, and whoever is packing the fabric is doing a very good job at folding. It’s always fun to open the boxes, it almost looks like a present, tied up with a ribbon and the colors in a pleasing order.

But it didn’t fit into the box I wanted to put it in, and before I knew it I was in the middle of reorganizing everything.

I had my fabric in at least 8 different boxes, and I lost track of what I had. I even bought fabric twice because I forgot I already had the pattern.

Now I have jersey and cotton sorted neatly in one large box each, and other fabrics in smaller boxes. The yarns and buttons were already sorted, but my ribbons and laces were a mess. When I had finally untangled and sorted them I found a bag with lace trim I had completely forgotten about.

All neatly stored in IKEA SAMLA storage boxes with lid.

They fit perfectly under the bed.

And all the ideas I had for new dresses while I made piles of fabric, folded and went through my boxes with stuff! I would have loved to start sewing right away. But it was just this one day off, so it will be something to look forward to.

So does Fiona, who was looking through my treasure box with ditsy floral cotton poplin.

This was a fun inventory.

How to find the time

ResinRapture — Sat, 05 Sep 2015 08:38:00 +0000

Like most people with a demanding job I have very little time to spend on my crafting projects, and most of the time I have a lot of other things that require attention.

If I postpone sewing projects “until I find the time” to make it kind of a ritual with setting up a work table, arranging everything, brewing a nice cup of tea to get into it and doing it all at once I never get things done. But I found a way to be surprisingly productive without all that. Because I do have time, a couple of minutes every day here and there, waiting times in between appointments, slow days, 20 minutes on the train, breaks.. it all adds up.

So I figured I might as well use it instead of wasting it with whatever distraction I used to find. I started with making a nice bag for ongoing sewing projects. Just big enough to put some pre-cut fabric, yarn, scissors and some needles in it and small enough to carry it with me to work. A simple plastic bag would have done the job as well, but I am weird that way ;). I like things to look inviting to work with, so I made the bag using some left overs and very stiff canvas to prevent needles and scissors from getting stuck in the fabric.

I sew a lot by hand, jersey tops, sleeves, all the buttons and rolled invisible hems. Every time I have some spare minutes I just grab my bag and continue – a seam, a button, – it’s really surprising what you get done in 10 minutes. And it adds up. There are always a couple of pre-cut pieces in the bag, I just have to sew them together, work on a hem or add a button. Stuff that would usually end up on the I’ll-do-that-when-I-find-the-time-pile is finished when I come home. A shirt, a skirt, socks, borders..

When I work on clothes that need fringed hems I use the sewing machine, or for the parts that are done quicker with a machine – and just put it in the bag to finish whatever hand sewing is needed.

Since I started working like that I made a lot more things without really noticing the time I spend on them, and it became a habit to grab the bag as soon as I finish an appointment and have to wait for the next customer. Like the ladies in Jane Austen books who always have some needle work to keep busy ;).

So, this is the secret how I get all the stuff done. I am sure some people laugh at the thought of a tattoo artist with a skull decorated studio working on doll clothes in a flowery laced bag, but hey- I am cool with it :D.

And there’s a woman I used to see on the bus every day on my way to work, she was always playing with her cell. She sat next to me one morning and she saw me grab my bag. We started to chat, and now she has a bag as well :-). She’s making lovely embroidered pillow slips. It always makes me smile when I see her.