February at Village Haberdashery

Time for my February visit to The Village Haberdashery, and so still feeling the Valentine's groove, these are my current loves in store.  First, Ayumi's amazing first fabric line, Light Hearted for Kokka.  This picture shows the mint colour way pretty accurately.   The mint is a bright aqua with more green than blue.

What is not to love about this- ditsy florals, fussy cut food images, hot pink jumbo polka print, squiggly plaid and Swedish text prints!   I took this pic at home and the colours are true.  Take a closer look at the selvedge:

I am hugely proud of Ayumi for this line.  Unbelievably, she doubted herself so much and it has proved incredibly popular, well before she revealed that it she was the designer.   I think this is one of the first quilting cotton ranges for Kokka, what a great debut! 

Double gauze is always a favourite of mine, so soft and lends itself to simple, flowing designs beautifully.  The Charms double gauze collection is another fabric range from Kokka, this time by Ellen Luckett Baker

The bottom right, Bamboo, is a metallic.  Annie snapped a picture of it made up into an Emery Dress (Christine Haynes' classic pattern) at Quilt Market.  It always helps to see a fabric made up into something and in this photo you can see the shimmer and how the double gauze gathers beautifully for the skirt.

Jen Beeman's Grainline patterns are classic modern wardrobe staples.  She designs comfortable  unfussy clothes to wear everyday.  The hugely popular Linden sweatshirt is in stock- for the moment, I think it will be snapped up super fast!

You can find sweatshirt knits here (the India ink is out of stock).  I have some of the Rapture Rose and it is a glorious soft raspberry colour!  You can find the accompanying wristband knits- an option for the neckline, cuffs and hem  here.

Also just arrived is Jen's latest pattern, the Cascade duffle coat- with two length options and with or without a hood.  Jen is in the middle of a detailed Cascade Sew-Along over at Grainline.com

There are some beautiful wool based coat fabrics (super wide too!) in the shop that you could consider for your Cascade coat.  

Left to right: Skinny Plaid, Herringbone and Pink stripe and Salt and Pepper.  YOu can find lightweight, anti static lining fabric here.

I've been crushing on this Time Warp organic bark cloth range by Jessica Jones for Cloud 9 since I first saw a peek of it. 

Its a heavier fabric- think home dec weight/canvas weight and has a textured finish.  Great for bags and pillows but also suitable for jackets or even a structured dress.    Annie took another quilt market snap of the fabric in use which shows you how it looks in use.

I'm finishing with a pattern that I noticed has sneaked its way into Village Haberdashery that I haven't seen stocked in the UK before, The Social Tote by Carolyn Friedlander and Anna Graham of Noodlehead. 

I made this for a swap- I also made one for myself and I received another from Sil in a swap.  It is incredibly useful.  I use both for all my hand sewing and it makes it easy to move from one room to another and keeps all my scissors and pins away from our pets.  It is a challenging make and I did use the recommended Soft and Stable ( an alternative to this is mentioned in Katy's post). but it was worth the time it took!  Maybe a little Pam Kitty Garden + Sunrise Studio would make a lovely spring version of this tote.  Optimistic thinking in the damp gloom of rainy half term weather!  Happy shopping x