Tuesday, October 16, 2012

N is really for Novelty Fabrics

Sorry for the silence this past week--I've been traveling for work.  I don't know about you, but I don't always have my stuff together right before I travel!  I always admire people we are packed days before, who schedule guest bloggers, who can rest the night before confident that they've done everything that is needed! Lol.  That's definitely not me.  Despite being a very organised person, I always seem to pack the night before and then forget something crucial (like my laptop cord).  Sigh.  Trying to be better about that :)


Today's post on vintage fabrics is brought to you by the letter 'N'.  I just love vintage fabrics--especially the fabulous novelty prints from the 30s and 40s.  So I thought I would put together a post of my favourite vintage fabric and reproduction fabric sites!

1930s Art Deco Rayon Fabric, available here

One of my favourite websites is Donna Flower.com where you will find a range of vintage fabrics from  the 1920s all the way up to 1980s as well as vintage-inspired fabrics.  I love just browsing this website for inspiration and colour combinations (like the 1930s Art Deco fabric pictured above).

1960s vintage cotton floral fabric, available here

Another UK website is the Vintage Fabric Market.  This site has primarily 60s and 70s pieces of fabrics.  Not a lot of yardage but if you're working on small projects and want a bit of the vintage feel--this is a great site!

40s/50s rayon fabric (3 and 1/2 yards of it!), available here

Sharon's Antiques, Vintage Fabrics is a treasure trove of vintage fabrics.  Everything is bookmarked by era and there is also a section for vintage rayon (often with decent yardage amounts).  Great website to look at all the fun vintage prints!

Mr K's Calico Garden Green Quilting Cotton, available here

You may have heard of Fabric.com but did you know they have a special section on reproduction vintage fabrics?  Reproduction fabrics simply means it is a new fabric borrowing inspiration from a vintage print.  While most of these are in quilting cotton, there are some fantastic prints that you may recognise from your local fabric shop!

Depression era fabric, available here

Reproduction Fabrics is probably the largest and most comprehensive reproduction fabric website.  The site includes vintage prints from the 1770s through to 1950 and is a great place to locate some historical prints such as civil war fabrics.  As the name implies, all the fabrics are reproductions--so they are new with vintage prints.

Ahoy Matey, Ship Shape Clementine, fabric by Michael Miller,
available here

Another great website for vintage inspired prints is Fancy Moon Fabrics.  I used one of their prints for my Mid-century Madness dress.  They have a wide variety of fabrics and often have several prints on sale.

Tuppence Ha'Penny Reproduction Fabric, part of the 'Household Chores Feedsack' Line,
 available here

Many of you know Charlotte who blogs over at Tuppence Ha' Penny Vintage.  She's been producing reproduction fabrics at Spoonflower.  You can purchase any of her prints in a variety of different cotton weights such as voile, silk, sateen and heavy twill as well as in silk crepe de chine.  Definitely check out her reproduction pattern line--there's some amazing vintage prints!

Have you ever sewn with vintage fabrics?  Do you like novelty prints?


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11 comments

  1. These are great resources, Debi. Thanks!

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  2. Don't you just love these? I have a few pieces inherited from husbands Grandmother. I haven't cut into them because they are mostly 1  yard pieces. I think she bought them for a quilt at one point. Thanks for this series, so much fun. 

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  3. These fabrics are so beautiful! I like the one with kitties particularly, cute :)

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  4. haha - your packing habits remember me of my hubby´s. always i have to search and run for forgotten little bits :-)
    love this novelty prints. i sewed a lot with real vintage fabric, for the nice quality they often have and for the prints or patterns. 
    thanks for this links! 

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  5. These are wonderful examples! I adore vintage fabrics and always have my eye open for usable yardage. Around here "vintage" doesn't go much earlier than 70s-80s, but every once in a while I find something good at a thrift store. And then there are the endless hours of searching through ebay...

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  6. Thanks sooo much for these sites, Debi!
    Exactly what I've been looking for.

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  7. An original piece of the red tulips on green, available at Mr. K's, fell into my hands from a friend's mothers 1970s-80s stash. It is good stuff, people. It's woven of coarser threads than quilting cotton, with a nice hand. Medium weight, colorfast. If you like tiny-figured calico prints, this is a gem.

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  8. I love that Ahoy Matey fabric, it's so sweet. Thanks for sharing these sites.

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  9. HI,
    don't worry about that.
    I'm not an organised person too!
    Beautiful fabrics!
    See you,
    Annalisa from Italy

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  10. Lately I've been having odd anxiety dreams that involve last minute packing -- so I had to chuckle.  In real life I'm a list maker, but I still often end up with too many of something and too few socks (or something like that).  Thanks for sharing the links!  I used to browse at reprodepot.com, but it looks like they are just sharing books now.
    ~Jen

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  11. oops.  sharing > selling

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I read each and every comment--thank you so much!

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