Vintage fabric swatch packs - pink kiddies

Our scrap and swatch packs are very popular - some buyers prefer us to select the fabrics for them, whereas other customers have specific era, pattern or colourway requests. This is a pack we did recently - the request was for kiddies novelty with a girly twist in pinks, preferably. I thought I would take some shots of the patterns lined up so you could see the type of packs we can get collate. These pieces are around 30cm x 15cm wide.

If you're interested in single swatch or scrap fabrics visit here - if you're after monthly purchases visit our new Vintage Fabric Lovers Clubs subscription here.

Inspiration stash packs - want smaller remnants?

Lucienne Day, Miscellany, my own collection soon to be Retro Age collection!

Our stash and scrap packs are always so popular - so popular I had to remove them from the site for several months! They are now back and are hot little items...but this brings me to another idea. The stash are a larger size, the scrap pieces are around 15cm aquare - but is there a need for smaller scraps? I have a tonne (seriously - around six 150l bins worth, at minimum) of smaller pieces - probably around the 2" square to strips to...well, all sorts of sizes. Apart from me learning to sew (hi ho - in the NY!) I don't really know what to do with them. I could sell them on the website by the 100g, 250g, 500g and above and it would be pot luck what you would receive (still gorgeous 1930s to 1970s fabrics) - but are they wanted?

I have a lot of stock sitting here coming your way soon. Verner Panton, Lucienne Day and Heals, to name a few. I am so excited to be finally releasing these hard to come by rarities! I am starting afresh in the New Year...so stand by for a blitzing 2010...

Have a lovely week, everyone!

Some old vintage fabrics for a quilt

Here are some photos of the old fabrics we have popped aside for the buttons. Although now I am thinking vintage fabric notebooks - or swatch books? - may be cute, as well. Until I have a spare moment they shall sit there waiting for their sorting to be complete...oh my...

Here are some close ups of my favourite prints. Aren't the blue bows just gorgeous? And the black mod trees (or clouds?) below always gets to me...

There are a tonne of original polka dot and herringbone fabrics in the most divine colours - they will looks super as little buttons. I love the thought they are all original fabrics - perfect for designs who have a mid-century aesthetic...

The pieces are all rectangle, triangle or square - more than likely chopped for quilting - but, of course, never used. One of my other favourite prints is in the pic below - the red cherry. So of its time...

More ebay auctions going up soon :)

90% cotton, 10% hair - what the?

Some things you come across are just so precious. In amongst a fabric collection we purchased last year, shoved in a box long forgotten, was a vast array of vintage fabric samplers. Although not in their original books, one looks to be late 60s vintage and the other 1940s and 1950s. I kept the box with the intention of sitting down on a lazy day (yes, funny, I know) and putting them all into an art book. That day was yesterday. I sat down and stapled them all in a book and I just love it! I have photographed some of the fabrics above for you to peruse the warp and weft in detail...

The weirdest one is image four. 90% cotton and 10% hair - it's called hair canvas. What the??? Anyone have any idea what hair would be in it??

Have a great weekend, everyone - and happy long weekend to those of you in the USA!

Cutting vintage fabric scrap remnant packs...

Hello all

Sorry for the long time between posts. Haven't had much to really chat about - well, I have, but as I forget to take the camera EVERYWHERE there's nothing new I can ever show you. I've had the travel bug recently and we've been going on long drives - to Ballarat (gorgeous architecture) and a quick one-hour turn around trip to Melbourne to visit the Chapel St Bazaar. Always loved that place but hadn't been for years. Gosh - more expensive than what I remember. And a little more crowded! - but a great time, nonetheless...had a great coffee at a nearby bakery and went back to the 1990s when I used to go to 'Hard'n'Fast' at Chasers and the Lizard Lounge at the Windsor Hotel (I think)...such great uni days :)

We are overstocked by bolt ends and off cuts so I have set about sorting them into their eras and popping them into packs of five pieces so sell in the Etsy shop and the website. You'll be able to buy them from either, hopefully - and I reckon they're going to be a cheap flat $6-$7 for each pack of gorgeous fabrics and, of course, in Australia postage will only around $1. How much cheaper can you get than that...??

Excuse the shoddy photos...but these are some of the 1940s/50s fabrics currently being sorted...

Have a great long weekend!

Collectable pieces of vintage fabric - day 9/30

To wile away the time (ie - to get my brain away from thinking about morbid things) I have been having some fun with vintage fabric packs. Not just swatch packs which we've already got available on the website (most sold out at the mo', though) - but remnant/scrap packs or collectable vintage fabric packs. The above pics are of a retro 1970s alphabet pack that has been hot stuff in our Etsy store - we've already sold four packs, have one currently for sale and perhaps have maybe one complete one left after that...isn't the alpahbet collection gorgeous?

A public apology to the crab (stick)...

Above - This is a new green scrap pack just popped up on Etsy yesterday...some lovely fabrics here!

Above - This is a cracker of a scrap pack - popped on Etsy yesterday and already sold :)

Above - A striking retro brown scrap pack - popped into our Etsy store yesterday...

Above: One of my personal faves - a black and white colourway! Wonderful scrap pack - already sold but one like it coming again soon...

Above - Super cool red scrap pack with panda...retro! Coming soon to Etsy...

Above - a photo of just some of the scrap packs...some already sold, some on Etsy and some arriving to Etsy soon!

Here is the promised public apology to the crab stick I blamed for the pain in my abdomen. I have no idea what other ingedients were in the crab stick (tripe??...ugh unto itself!), or else I would seek you out, too, and apologise for tarnishing your crab stick reputation.

Now I obviously need to start conversing with my gall stones.

They think that's why I am getting this HORRID pain, but an ultrasound early next week will tell. How the heck does one grow gall stones??? Actually, I don't want to know...

Between bouts of gall stones running amok in their little sack, I have been getting up to loads with Retro Age. The Etsy shop is going well - the scrap packs are particularly popular! I'll put some photos above of what fabrics they have been comprising of...

I think it's the general January goodwill, but it's been fun offering some half yard bargains and our clearance stock. Refreshing not to be a business all of the time, but simply offering something for a bloody cheap good price!

Anyhoo - after this post I'll pop up some photos of the stock that's going onto the website and/or Etsy over the coming days...

Scrap / remnant packs are here!

If you can believe it - I have decided to get some scrap and remnant packs together and I am tired of being surrounded by boxes of small pieces! Tired, I say! So I set about today to get some packs together with our scraps and remnants, thinking I would put them all together in the same colourway...

By the end of the day I had five completed packs and eight more on the way. I have filled zip lock bags with various pieces and different designs - ranging from tiny squares to half fat quarter size.

Keep an eye on the Etsy store for more packs over the coming days...they must be sold! And they're a bargain, too :) The link to the Etsy store is directly to the left of this post...

A new shop...now what to do?

A bunch of vintage fabrics - can't see a great deal but there are two beautiful old Sanderson samplers in there, a linen/cotton Jonelle piece (one of a few we got) and an original blue and black harlequin cotton - a super piece...

Yay! - rare matching 70's Rowe fabrics - super pieces and wonderful to have a part of that range...

Lovely 60's cotton pique...quite a strong design for this blue...

This photo is a close up - about a quarter of the width - super psychedelic fabric in pinks and pale orange...

Not quite sure on the date of this one - it's a cotton crepe (a lot of people call this barkcloth, but without the slubbiness) - unique tiki design...anyone seen this one before?

Lovely 70's cotton pique with such a sweet design...

At the moment we are just selling our fabrics through our website www.vintagefabrics.com.au and locally, of course. But I have gotten to thinking in recent weeks (yes, as if I haven't OTHER things to think about) that people who are just after single remnants or even smaller stash pieces are really missing out.

You see, to make the website fully functional to buyers, we have to attribute a percentage of the sale to postage. IE - customers spend $40 on fabrics in Australia and postage is 10% on top of that - $4. But how can this ratio work with smaller pieces when a thick barkcloth can cost $5 to post Australia-wide?? Hmmm...so I put my thinking cap on...

Etsy is that wonderul invention I hope overtakes the greedy ebay. It's a wonderful site, filled with beautiful things made from the heart. There is a section on the site for supplies so I have been thinking about offering our remnants on that site for anybody wishing to buy smaller pieces...it might turn into our sale store or remnant store - I haven't come to any conclusions yet...

Any ideas?

Justin got some lovely pieces from a local seamstress yesterday - have featured a few above for some eye candy...

Vintage fabric - Inspiration Swatch Packs

Fab retro linen Scandinavian bird pack - five birds per pack, each slightly different.
Only two packs made - one is at Meet Me at Mikes and the other will soon be for sale on our website.

A stunning collection of 40's cottons - that decade had some of the prettiest colourways on the 20th century, we feel....Only two packs made - one is at Meet Me at Mikes and the other will soon be for sale on our website.

She rocks, doesn't she? The girl at the bottom is a rare hippie Sanderson fabric - unusual style for them. This pack is all novelty browns and greens - Only two packs made - one is at Meet Me at Mikes and the other will soon be for sale on our website.

A rare kiddies novelty pack - these novelty designs are getting harder and harder to source...they seem to be quite collectable with all types of fabric lovers. Only two packs made - one is at Meet Me at Mikes and the other will soon be for sale on our website.

We've been busily working on getting together some vintage fabric packs for the new Meet Me at Mikes store to open next week in Melbourne - city end of Brunswick St, Fitzroy, Vic, Australia. We started doing these fabric packs some months ago to great success. We realised there were lots of crafters out there who keep an eye out for smaller pieces of rare and unique fabric. It's a rarity, we think, offering these packs...we can't find anything like them worldwide. Seeing as most of our stock is rare, unique and oh so hard to find, we thought there would be crafters out there who wish to use smaller pieces we would otherwise trash...horror, horror, horror!

We don't trash the larger pieces - just scraps...says she in horror!! But I am slowly realising even that is bad when we're talking about vintage fabrics, so we're keeping all of our strips and offcuts now, too.

We decided to call the new range of packs Inspiration Swatch Packs for several reasons. Number one was largely due to the gorgeous unique designs - it seems a lot of people use the textile designs as 'inspiration' rather than actually using them. Secondly, the fabrics range in sizes - some just 20cm x 25cm all the way up to large fat quarter size. Thus the 'Swatch' term instead of the 'Stash' term.

Meet Me at Mikes has around 20 packs and we'll be putting around 15 packs on the website - www.vintagefabrics.com.au - in the next couple of days...so stay tuned...

Vintage fabric - Inspiration Swatch Packs

We've been busily working on getting together some vintage fabric packs for the new Meet Me at Mikes store to open next week in Melbourne - city end of Brunswick St, Fitzroy. We started doing thes