Friday, June 20, 2008

Been bit by the sewing bug...

I'm sewing non-stop right now. Fabric, fabric, fabric... I've been buying bits here and there. I made 15 linen napkins this week and there will be several more still because I've got fabric I found in my stash yesterday being washed as I type.

My prizes this week have been two remnants of 1/2 yd linen and nearly 1/2 yd cotton velvet (which is something I like never see in stores! And at a JoAnn Fabrics, no less!) in the same color. How lucky is that?! I want to make an 18th century bodice with them as the outer fabrics... but of course, I have no pattern.

But what I really want to make are some tea towels... Old fashioned tea towels out of flour sack cotton... But I can't find any flour sack cotton that's not already cut up and/or cut up and hemmed into towels. I want to make them myself! (LOL! at me wanting more things to do.) And I don't want vintage fabric because... well... I'm silly, but I'm just not comfortable cutting up 50+ year old fabric. I'm just not. But there are people making flour sack towels to sell via ebay and etsy and Williams Sonoma carries/carried them at some point recently, so someone's got to be making and selling this fabric somewhere... I just can't seem to find it. Maybe it's called something else in the fabric trade nowadays, since not many/any companies put their flour in fabric sacks anymore?

6 comments:

La Duchesse said...

I totally understand. I can't figure out why people cut up things like vintage kimono... it seems criminal somehow.

Mom embroidered some; I think she got them at Hellmart, though, and I suspect that's an option you'd not choose. Good luck!

RaeS said...

Oh, goodness! Just the thought of cutting up something like vintage kimono makes me feel ill! I could never do it! Ack!

Do you mean the kind of tea towels that are part-terry cloth/part-embroidery fabric? Those are the only kinds of tea towels I've ever seen at Hellmart... *am curious if I missed something there* But yeah, I'd rather get uncut flour sack cloth so I can make them in whatever size I want to...

La Duchesse said...

I think they also carry proper flour sack towels, but they're really tricky to find. It's also possible that it was just the local one, but maybe they're just well hidden at other stores. It's really thin cotton cloth, almost like a really light muslin; they're a bit bigger than a hand towel.

I'd really rather not shop at Hellmart, either, but that's what happens when you don't have access to good local stores and the nearest good ones are two hours or more away. Have you tried The Vermont Country Store? They carry a lot of "old fashioned" things.

La Duchesse said...

Just googled it and Dharma Trading Co. carries them in several sizes. Yipe.. they's expensive.

Oddly, AMAZON has them, too... And, Vermont Country Store. I swear.. is there anything they DON'T carry?

RaeS said...

Yeah, they might carry them at some Hellmarts and not others... Thanks for looking for me! :D

I didn't look at those sites because I figured if they had them, they'd have finished towels and I want fabric by the yard. And it's not expensive at all if it's by the yard, as opposed to finished towels, which yeah, are much pricier. I looked up the history of flour sack towels and found an interesting several articles at fabrics.net. Apparently, flour sacks were made of about 5 different grades of cotton fabric and they were all used for all kinds of things, three kinds of cotton sheeting, osnaburg, and the finest grading the articles don't name. They do sell some comparable fabrics at Joann Fabrics, as "osnaburg" and as "sheeting," so I think I'll go take a look at that the next time I'm over there. And a company called "Moda Fabrics" also makes a toweling that they call flour sack, but their website is down for maintenance today, so I'll have to wait to look at it tomorrow.

La Duchesse said...

I thought the packages of towels were a little on the high side.. ick. I guess that explains it.
I'll mention it to mom in case she decides to do some more towels for the kitchen. :) Thanks for the hint.