Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Wonderful Fabric!

Elliott Berman Textiles was a new name to me when I received a message at Stitcher's Guild that I should take a look and try them. Well, I did and I just received my fabric today, and it is just as wonderful as the very large swatch they had sent. Here's the fabric from their site, and below I'll give you a very detailed description of the fabric in-hand because I think it's impossible to get the feeling of the actual fabric without the swatch in hand, since it's a very complex weave.


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It's a wool with a very dark brown and caramel background. This is a single thread, and the caramel fiber is finer, and wrapped around the darker brown thread very much like a knitting yarn. It's a boucle weave, but very small, low loops.

It has a variegated yarn which is a very short eyelash type woven on the face into squares of about 1/2". The colors are marigold, russet and steel blue. The eyelash also includes a very small percentage of cellophane/shiny eyelashes, which gives the fabric a bit of sparkle when it's in the light, but is otherwise unobtrusive.

There's a thick/thin white yarn (the thin is a thread and the thick is like a blob) which is woven in squares on the back in the spaces between the eyelash squares which shows through a bit in the center of the squares. Its main purpose is drawing the fabric up into a waffle effect so that the eyelash lines form raised squares and the background is the dark/caramel part.

It's extremely light in weight, and looks like it might be a knit, but it isn't. It's a Bill Blass fabric, and it certainly has a lot going for it, since with all this detail, it reads as just a nice fabric until you really begin to look. Anyway, I'm smitten. and I have decided on a jacket and eventually a straight skirt. The jacket pattern I've chosen is Marfy #1234, a Chanel style jacket.


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I've been working on altering the pattern for the last couple days, and I'll be ready to start a muslin pretty soon I think.

And of course, I had to order just one more swatch, and it came with the wool. It's a laminated wool knit, and is a very unique fabric. It's very tempting. You can see a pretty good scan of the front and back below.



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I have a lot of plans, but I've had quite a while to plan. It looks like I'll be able to get some real sewing done soon, and I am ready!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Uh-oh, I'm cyber-feeling that chocolate/camel swatch, your descriptive magic is working just fine! Your Marfy pick looks perfect for this wonderful stuff, I look forward to watching the development of this fabric into suit.

I've run across only one Bill Blass fabric and 2 yds came home with me. I was helpless in the face of it! Nice fabrics, I agree. I'll have to check out this store too (thx I think)

Anonymous said...

Liana! Absolutely beautiful fabrics. What excellent taste you have. I can't wait to see the finished products! I know they will be even more beautiful than the fabrics themselves.

Marji said...

Such an interesting fabric, and it will be beautiful in that Marfy suit. Love the collar treatment on that jacket.

Nancy K said...

Love this fabric and thanks for a new site of gorgeous fabrics. Love that suit. It looks like the Chanel copy that LauraLo made last year.

EvaDress said...

Ok, this swatch of wool is wayyyy yummy!!!! It looks not unlike handknit-what a marvelous texture and color!