Taking Flight Blog tour!

I’ve been sewing for a long time. Long enough to have built up a sizeable stash of fabric and to have seen many trends come and go. Yet I’m always impressed (and tempted!) by the creativity of fabric designers. I was delighted to discover a new Australian designer, Amanda Brandl, who’s Taking Flight fabric range for Kennard and Kennard Fabrics is just stunning. I was even more thrilled to be included in the Taking Flight blog tour!

The Taking Flight range is full of Australia’s unique plants and animals, in a bright, engaging pallet of colours. I love that the birds have a realistic character and those cockatoos are positively cheeky!

When the fabric arrived, I was keen to try it out on some projects. I thought bibs and wash cloths would be perfect, as the fabric has such a soft feel and high thread count.

I used the fabric featuring magpies and cockatoos for the bibs, using a lovely soft organic cotton and bamboo towelling as the backing. The fabric cut so smoothly and held its shape well, making it ideal for many different projects.

Eight lovely fabrics to work with

Cutting out the bibs and wash cloths

The magpies are majestic!

Cheeky cockatoo watching me as I top-stitch the bib

Attaching the snap fasteners to the bibs

I am so happy with how the bibs turned out! They’re bright and cheery, making them perfect for lifting your spirits when you have a cute but messy baby to deal with 🙂

I used the fabrics with smaller prints to make the wash cloths. It was hard to pick a favourite from these fabrics. Each one complements the others in the range and they work together perfectly. I lined the wash cloths with organic cotton and bamboo towelling, just like the bibs. Again, the fabric worked a treat, has such a lovely feel and was easy to top stitch.

I’m finding it hard to pick a favourite!

The small prints work beautifully as wash cloths

Since I follow a zero waste philosophy in my work, after making the bibs and wash cloths, I was keen to use the left-over offcuts of this lovely fabric. My go-to project for using small pieces of fabrics is making covered-button hair ties and bow headbands. These are simple to make and lots of fun!

Hand-made bow

I made the bow from a rectangle of fabric, folded in half and machine sewn. I then used a strip of the same fabric to hold the bow firmly in the middle, then hand-sewed it all in place. It looks really effective! I can imagine these bows embellishing hair ties, dresses and bags as well. And wouldn’t those covered buttons look great sewn onto clothing! I still have a little fabric left over and I’m thinking of using it to make cute patch pockets on shorts and pants.

I can’t wait to see what everyone else has made with this lovely fabric! Be sure to follow the rest of the blog tour – the first hop was Sarah of Piccolo Studio and the next hop is Ali of Arabesque Scissors. You can find the full schedule and links here.

If you’d like to purchase the Taking Flight range of fabrics, you can find them for sale on Amanda Brandl’s website.

I’ll have items made from these beautiful fabrics available in my online shops soon. Stay tuned!

Update: Bibs and dresses are now available online in my Etsy and Madeit shops 🙂