Favourite online fabric shops

I only ever seem to shop for fabric online, all the fabric shops near me are full of outdated and cheap fabric. In fact I don't tend to do much shopping in person, most of it is done online, mainly due to the ease but also you get double the thrill, once when you've ordered and again when it arrives!
Some of my absolute favourite shops are based online and I thought I'd share them with you:

eBay - best for sewing notions like embroidery hoops or quilting safety pins (two things I bought recently) because their prices beat any shop around and usually have free postage. Most of the fabric I've bought from eBay has been of rubbish quality so I wouldn't recommend it unless they were branded.

Merchant & Mills - best for linens and gorgeous dressmaking fabric (best have the budget to suit though, most fabric is £15+ pm)

The Village Haberdashery - great for dressmaking patterns and modern fabric

The Homemakery - best for Tilda/quilting cotton/fast delivery

Dragonfly fabrics - best for good quality stretch jersey

Minerva Crafts - best for really inexpensive fabric, I bought some gorgeous seersucker plaid for £4.99 a metre here!

M is for Make - I love browsing this website but as yet have not ordered anything.

Cabbages and Roses - I love their clothes but they also do absolutely gorgeous fabric

Peony and Sage - beautiful fabrics for the home

I hope you've enjoyed some of my recommendations - none of these are sponsored they're all places I visit frequently to window shop - where do you buy fabric from?

Amy

Summer adventures

I've mentioned before how one of the things I absolutely love doing is going on 'adventures' and travelling around England revisiting places I used to go when I was younger and finding new places to visit as a family in the future.

Some of the places we have visited recently have included a car vintage fair;

 

Our weekend ritual involves going out for breakfast, I pick a homemade outfit or something Cabbage & Roses inspired and slap on the red lipstick. Lots of car poses happen during this time - hey car journeys are boring okay?! Red lipstick makes me feel uber glamorous. This was on our way to the Lake District.

Picture now with added thumb. I really would love to learn some decent photography skills!


This was the hotel we stayed in near Cockermouth (yup it's ACTUALLY called that, major props to us for not slipping up and renaming it!).

Beach walk with a gorgeous sunset. It was absolutely freezing here but so beautiful.


The beautiful Grasmere.

With added Cabbages and Roses inspired outfit:

When we're not gallivanting round the country we like to go out for breakfast and pretend to be old grandparents by getting fish and chips and eating them in the car. I'm old past my time!

This breakfast was the best thing I have ever eaten. No lie. All visit Nick's in Holmfirth!

We live in Holmfirth near Huddersfield, which is in such a beautiful part of Yorkshire. It's a pleasure to drive 5 mins from our house and be surrounding by gorgeous scenery.

And finally a bad picture of me wearing my Lilou dress. I really need to take some better pictures, but we all know making and sewing is much easier than blogging and photography!
What do you like to do in your spare time? Any places to recommend visiting?

Amy

Sew body positive

A lady on Instagram was talking about how sewing made her more body positive and I can definitely say I've noticed a shift in how I think about my body since starting dressmaking.

Now I make clothes to fit my body, not my body to fit in clothes. 

I went into topshop the other day for some new jeans, I don't really shop in there much due to not being fashionable (I've always done my own thing when it comes to clothes). Anyway I tried on some jeans that are my size and surprise surprise they're too small. The next size up was a size bigger (obviously) but it was the next dress size up and it upset me that I had to go up a size. 

I ended up going to Levi's and buying some jeans that were my actual size and that fit well. 

This fiddling around that high street shops do with the sizes is really messing with girls' self esteem. It's upsetting when you think you're one size and buy something without trying it on and finding it doesn't fit. 

This is where sewing comes in. In most patterns there aren't the traditional sizes (for example Tilly uses 1,2,3,4) and you have to go by the measurements rather than the size you think you are. There's no going home and finding the garment doesn't fit. It will fit because you made it to fit. 

I've never been one to obsess about weight but I have noticed a shift in how I think about the way I look since dressmaking and I love it! Has dressmaking changed your perspective?