Another week of internet wanderings, and another Fab Find! This wasn't actually going to be this week's Fab Find but I was so completely blown away with the beauty of these fabrics that I wanted to write about them ASAP!
So todays Fab Find was discovered via
Kollabora. To be honest I sometimes find Kollabora a little too painfully hip for this mid-thirties nerdy girl. There's a lot of neon (but who doesn't like a little neon in small doses) and an lot of bright young cool things on there, but every now and then they feature someone truly awesome (like Jorth - another amazingly talented Melbourne chick who
KNITTED HER OWN DRESS!) and this time I found Olgalyn Jolly of
O! Jolly! Crafting Fashion.
Olgalyn is based in NYC and makes her own knit fabrics using vintage knitting machines, specifically to be made into sweaters, and they are absolutely exquisite. The project featured on Kollabora was a version of our favourite, the Sewaholic Renfrew, made with her beautiful knit fabrics and rib binding:
Olgalyn's blog is an absolute wealth of information for people wanting to sew with knit fabrics that are sweater (or jumper) weight - not fine knits like most of the info out there on the blogosphere. She has both an
Etsy shop, and her own shop via the blog, and when I emailed her to ask her a few questions she replied less than 24 hours later and was extremely gracious and lovely in her reply. Most of her tips on sewing with her knits mentioned servers/overlockers, so I wanted to know her thoughts on just using a machine with regular knit/stretchy stitches. And I also wanted to find out if she was willing to post outside North America - which she is! Yay! All she asks is that buyers contact her directly as it's easier for her to give postal quotes on a case-by-case need. She told me she plans to write a blog post about sewing her knits with a machine only......
And so to some pretty pretty pictures:
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| Pearl cotton knit - source: Crafting Fashion Etsy Shop |
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| As above - this is my favourite - the colour, the vintage pattern! I can just see a spring version of the Renfrew, with matching rib bands, and maybe the bottom band a bit deeper. |
This bamboo-merino knit is beautiful too:
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| Image source: as above |
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| Another beautiful cotton knit..... |
My favourite green fabric is about 20 inches wide, or about 50cm (the others vary in width, some up to 30 inches), and for a short sleeved sweater/jumper based on the short sleeved version of the Renfrew (size 4 which I've just quickly measured!) I'd guess one would need around 1.5 metres/yards of the main fabric, plus the custom made rib binding, based on the layout that Olgalyn recommends:
At about $48/m AUD (some of the others fabrics are significantly less costly) this is not your everyday bargain knit - this is a hand-made artisan product to be saved for a special project. I pretty much consider this fabric to be a super alternative to knitting a sweater - if like me you are either a beginner knitter, or have no interest or skills in knitting this is the next best thing! I think the price is absolutely justifiable!
I can just see myself in my teal green O!Jolly! Renfrew top this coming spring - sadly it's only day 4 of winter here, which gives me plenty of time to save up for my precious knit fabric in time for a spring masterpiece! Love it.
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