Good Morning 2007!

I’ve been meaning to do a post about some of the materials I use, and since I woke up this morning to a nice comment and question here – I thought I’d go ahead and say a word about felt and fabric.

I started out using craft store felt and found that there really is a difference in quality between the less expensive variety and the kind you pay a bit more for. That’s not to say that I don’t ever use craft store felt, but I look very closely at it before I buy it. I have a craft store near me that carries good white felt that I use for the pages of my sewing books. You’ll know right away if it is of lesser quality because you’ll be able to hold up cheap felt and see through it (yuck!) and it will have a kind of shiny look to it, which I don’t like.

When I want to buy a really nice “felt” for my projects I go to Pacific Fabrics. But I don’t go to their felt section. I go to their wool section. Wool or wool blend is the way to go to get beautiful colors and that great soft texture. I look at the texture of the fabric very closely and the edges to see how cleanly it will cut (some will fray more than others). These wools are about $20 a yard.

There are two online resources for felt that I’ve seen recommended many times: A Child’s Dream and Earthsong Fibers. But I have not tried ordering from them yet.

For fabrics I like to shop at Pacific Fabrics and also online. There are many great sites to find fabrics that you won’t see in regular stores. Japanese fabrics are unique and very whimsical and popular. Here are a few of the online shops I like: Superbuzzy (they also carry Japanese craft magazines which are great inspiration), Reprodepot (they also have a very nice ribbon/trim selection), International Fabric Collection (I’ve been to their shop in PA – I could spend days there!) and Purlsoho (they have a lovely shop).

Here is a photo of one of my sketches for my plush animal & bag project along with two Japanese fabrics that I bought at Superbuzzy.

Investing in good quality felt and fabric can be intimidating at first. I started slowly, incorporating what I could afford into my projects. But I find that my felt projects tend to be smaller in scale – so a little felt goes a long way. You can cut the cost by buying a 1/4 or 1/2 yard instead of a full yard and by all means save your scraps! I keep three bins for my felt scraps: one for large pcs, one for small pcs and one for teeny tiny pieces : )

Hope this answers some questions and gives you direction for finding great materials to use in your projects. Once you use the good stuff you won’t want to go back to the cheap stuff again. And your work will look so nice!

Jenn : )

Tags: craft, fabric, Felt, links, resource

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