Fabrics

All of the fabrics you’ll see in this book are from Liberty Art Fabrics, but all of these projects will be equally beautiful in other fabric lines – you don’t necessarily have to stick with Liberty. Any fabric with a lightweight, dense weave and a bright, high-quality print will look absolutely gorgeous. However, you will need to bear in mind that at 137cm (54in) wide, Liberty fabrics are wider than regular printed cotton fabrics, which tend to be 121cm (44in) wide. For a bright and pretty look:

• Choose a patterned fabric, perhaps with a floral print, that has a small repeat – so that you see a good amount of the pattern, even on the smallest of skirts.
• Try to find cotton fabric with a high-thread count – you can tell by how soft and silky it feels to the touch. However, any kind of fabric will work with most of these projects.
• Don’t be afraid to combine a variety of different prints – a good way to start is to choose your absolute favourite, then use the colours in it to pick out other co-ordinating fabrics.

Tip

You could mix in vintage floral fabrics, perhaps from old dresses that you no longer wear.

I love working with Liberty Tana Lawn, it is 100 per cent high-thread-count cotton but often feels almost silk-like, yet it ‘behaves’ so well with a sewing machine! It is very easy to sew with and so versatile. The quality of the print enables a very detailed design – miniature florals in high definition.

Liberty fabrics are instantly recognizable and have a timeless quality – the classics never seem to date, even though some of the fabrics still ‘in print’ are designs that are over 100 years old. Liberty regularly update these classics in contemporary colourways. Seasonal collections are designed by the in-house Art Fabrics team and they take inspiration from a range of situations and themes, often collaborating with well-known artists. Many of the collections are designed by referencing Liberty’s extraordinary archive. I especially admire the creativity and artistry behind the prints.

One of the favourite parts of my job is receiving the new-season swatch book from Liberty, and searching through it for my favourite classic prints in gorgeous new colourways, or inventive new-season designs, to order for my shop. Part of the Liberty appeal is its heritage: my customers often get in touch and reminisce, about their childhood memories of the fabric, their first Liberty dress and first visit to the Liberty of London store, an emporium of wonder.

For plain fabrics I like to use Oakshott fabrics as they are high-quality cotton and come in a rainbow range of colours, some plain and some shot – where the warp and weft threads are different colours giving a beautiful iridescent look to the fabric.

I keep every single scrap of fabric, even tiny ones, you never know when they’ll come in handy for a sewing or craft project, or perhaps inspire a mini patchwork project, such as one of the Orla pencil cases in this book.

Beautiful detailed prints in a rainbow of colours are just right for little girls’ clothes and homewares. I hope the following projects inspire you!