Not to rip off John Witherspoon's famous saying from the movie Boomerang but, it's true. In order to take something from mediocre to excellent, ya gotta know how to coordinate. Mixing and matching your own fabrics is a fabulous way to express your creativity and personal style. If you struggle with coordinating the right fabrics, we've included a few tips to help you along the way.
Coordinating fabrics in any of your sewing projects is just as important as the actual construction. From our previous blog on Coordinating Fabrics, you'll be happy to know that J&O Fabrics is now working on adding matching coordinates to just about every fabric we carry.
Anyhow, most home decor textile manufacturers come out with new lines each season jam-packed with coordinate collections complete with decorative florals, stripes, supersoft chenille upholstery and more. In any given catalogue, a whole living room will be decked out with a complete set of fabrics to upholster the couch, ottoman, chaise lounge and even make drapes and decorative pillows. All this is excellent! However, not everyone wants a cookie cutter living room, sometimes you may want to mix and match fabrics on your own to suit your own tastes. So. . . you'll need to have some idea on just how to do it.
Firstly, feel free to express yourself and not be shackled by trends. Trends will come and go. Just because everyone matches florals with stripes doesn't mean that you have to. If you follow the reasoning behind why florals match well with stripes, you should be okay matching on your own.
While coordinating, one idea is to create balance with contrast. A straight line will contrast with a circle. Dark will contrast light. A tight structure will contrast with chaos and something large will contrast with something very small.
Here are a few examples of how these ideas manifest themselves on fabric combinations.
Linear to Circular
Busy to Textural (Plain)
Large to Small
Going along with the idea of creating balance by contrast, another way to blend fabrics is to combine HOT with COOL colors. Hot colors include, reds, oranges, yellows etc. And COOL colors include, greens and blues. In a project full of hot warm colors, a cool colored accent may be just the key to creating a perfect balance. Take a look at these examples.
You may also want to consider combining Contrasting Colors. The Contrasting Colors include Blue/Yellow Green/Red Purple/Orange
Overall, texture, color, print, and scale all play a part in how well two fabrics will match. These principles can be explained further in an upcoming blog.
If you follow the above guidelines and focus on creating balance through contrast your coordinating adventures should prove to be both rewarding and a lot of fun!
J&O Fabrics. . . sew many possibilities
If you're in the area, visit our store in Pennsauken, New Jersey, right outside of Philadelphia. The size of a supermarket, we have the largest selection of fabrics in New Jersey! Everything we carry is not on our website, so if you're in the area, check us out and browse our fabric aisles.
J&O Fabric Center 9401 Route 130 South Where Rt.73 and 130 meet Pennsauken, New Jersey 08110 856-663-2121 info@jandofabrics.com
Is there even such a thing as no sew sewing???? Did you know that if you don't know how to sew, or don't have the patience to get out the old sewing machine, there are actually ways to attach fabric to another fabric without threading a needle? If you've only seen the thin strips of Stitch Witchery at your local drugstore, thats only the beginning.
There are all kinds of no sew products out on the market now. There are items such as fusible webbing, spray adhesive and fabric glue. For example our Heat N' Bond Iron-On Adhesive will give instant results without a lot of fuss.
Typically if you're making a garment, there's no easy way to get around sewing. For example, you probably will have a hard time making a prom dress without sewing, but if you're just making simple curtains etc., there are sewing alternatives.
Here are a few ideas for the budding craftmasters! - Hem pants without a visible stitch
- Make quick repairs
- Decorate Hat Boxes/ Shoe Boxes
- Make homemade greeting cards
- Create and Attach Appliques
- Fuse Trims to Fabrics
The possibilities for no sew sewing can be as limitless as your imagination and creativity. Log on to our upcoming Notions and Sewing Accessories Section and explore all of our "no sew" possibilities.
_____________________________________ If you're in the area, visit our store in Pennsauken, New Jersey, right outside of Philadelphia. The size of a supermarket, we have the largest selection of fabrics in New Jersey! Everything we carry is not on our website, so if you're in the area, check us out and browse our fabric aisles.
J&O Fabric Center 9401 Route 130 South Where Rt. 73 and 130 Meet Pennsauken, New Jersey 08110 info@jandofabrics.com
At only $2.98 a yard our 45" broadcloth is an indispensable resource for any sewing project. At 65% Polyester and 35% Combed Cotton, Perma Press and Fully Shrunk we have beautiful Lime, Olive, Pale Green, Rose and Sunflower.
In addition to our lightweight broadcloths, we have new Comfy Flannel Solids for only $3.98 a yard. At 45" wide, 100% cotton and double brushed, we have new flannel colors in Gold, Green Apple, Seafoam and Tealberry.
If you're not interested in broadcloth or flannel, surf our website to view our entire selection. Or perhaps check out the loads of other solid color fabrics we carry in the following weights and textures.
Great news is on the horizon in the novelty fabric industry! J&O Fabrics is happy to announce that soon we'll be getting in NBA team fabrics! Our customers have been inquiring about professional basketball fabrics for years and we will finally be getting them in around June of this year. When all is said and done we will have every NBA team available for you to purchase.
With our NBA novelty fabrics you'll feel as though you are part of the action during the regular season and playoffs. These discount basketball fabrics are ideal for making quilts, garments, draperies, table covers, pet clothing, placemats, purses, backpacks, aprons and many other items that will show off your favorite team.
Today, the National Basketball League consists of 30 teams, each of which is represented on their own cotton novelty fabric. Soon, we will also have in NBA polar fleece, so keep your eyes open for the new arrivals.
These are the team designs that we will be receiving in June:
What do you do with all those fabric scraps mounting up??????
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You should see the buckets of remnants we develop here at J&O cutting orders all day. For people who make things with fabric it may seem especially hard to throw away the substantial size scraps. One of the most traditional uses for fabric scraps is none other than patchwork quiltmaking. Even though quilting seems to be the end all for what to do with fabric scraps, not everyone is into quilting. J&O has included a list of ideas to lessen that ever growing pile of fabric scraps.
Here's four things to do with all those beautiful and useful fabric scraps. ________________________________________________ Wrapping Presents
For most of our holidays in American culture there seems to be a requirement to buy someone a present. Whether it's Mother's Day, Christmas or someone's birthday, on some level there's pressure to go out and spend money. At times, buying wrapping paper or purchasing a pretty gift bag on top of your gift expenses can be pretty annoying. One simple and "green" way to rid yourself of this annoyance is to wrap presents with your fabric scraps.
Depending on the size of the present and how creative you want to be, just cut your fabric into a square or rectangle and simply gather to the top and tie. If you have time to make it extra special, sew a custom-made fabric bag. Overall, the fabric scrap is out of your hair and passed on to someone else to reuse and do with it whatever they please.
To go along with wrapping presents with fabric, you can also use fabric scraps to make ribbon. Be creative and play around with contrasting patterns and colors as you would constructing a quilt.
________________________________________________ Fabric Envelopes and Cards
This particular use may be a little more "craftier" then making ribbons and wrapping presents, however if you really get into it you can end up making some really incredible cards. To make fabric envelopes and cards, most likely you'll need a stiffener.
If you're interested, check out these few links that give pretty good instructions.
Another idea, if you have a collection of novelty print scraps, cut out a repeat or just one item in the design and attach with glue to plain cards or envelopes. ________________________________________________ Donate!!
At the end of it all, if you still have a ton of fabric scraps; too much to even save for other crafts, DONATE IT :). There are a number of non-profit organizations that accept fabric scraps. Some organizations have a size requirement and may only accept fabric that is a of a particular material. Check out these links for more detailed information.
Project Linus, a volunteer, non-profit organization with a mission to provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need through the gifts of blankets and afghans, lovingly created by volunteer "blanketeers."
AIDS Baby Quilts, a international voluntary network program to make and provide baby quilts to infants with HIV/AIDS
Art Therapy Connection, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to serving children who are at risk of failure in their school setting. Participating children visit therapists during their regular school day. By making art, they develop a language of expression.
Many local Day-Care Centers accept fabric scrap donations , to use during arts and crafts projects.
Overall, making good use of your fabric scraps can prove to be very rewarding. It will push your creativity and foster the idea that everything can have a use. ________________________________________________
If you're in the area, visit our store in Pennsauken, New Jersey, right outside of Philadelphia. The size of a supermarket, we have the largest selection of fabrics in New Jersey! Everything we carry is not on our website, so if you're in the area, check us out and browse our fabric aisles.
J&O Fabric Center 9401 Route 130 South Where Rt.73 and 130 meet Pennsauken, New Jersey 08110 info@jandofabrics.com
J & O Fabrics is a leader in online fabric stores with hundreds of discount fabrics including: upholstery, quilt, quilting, drapery fabric, fleece, decorator, felt, retro, upholstery fabrics and more!
