Tag Archive for 'sultan’s fine fabrics'

WIKSTEN TOVA : PLAID COTTON SHIRTING

Published on April 24, 2013 in clothing, stitchery and textiles. 13 Comments Tags: Italy, sultan's fine fabrics, Tova, Wiksten.

Wiksten Tova Dress by Jenny Gordy
Red/Blue Plaid Cotton Shirting from Sultan’s Fine Fabrics
Photographed in the town of Morro D’Orro, Italy

Continuing on with posting some Italy photos! I really just LOVE this dress to pieces. Everything about it. This is my first Wiksten Tova as a dress and it was a wonderful piece to travel with. Super comfortable, but also very pretty.

This fabric is a dream. I bought it last year at Sultan’s Fine Fabrics. I adore this plaid colour combo, but the fabric itself is the most beautiful, thin, cotton shirting. I will have to go back and see if there’s anything similar. I could wear this kind of fabric all the time.

One lesson that I learned while making this dress was that if you are carrying your fabric pieces around and you go grocery shopping, it’s not a good idea to put a carton of blueberries in with your fabric. Oh yes, I got smushed blueberry stains on the back piece of the dress. Total disaster. Luckily, my lovely pal, Jacqueline of Soak Wash, took charge of the situation and had me Soak the fabric over night while she checked on it every few hours, giving it a light rub here and there. Miraculously, (or not, since Soak is amazing!) the stains were gone in the morning. Phew. Crisis averted & lesson learned!

These photos were taking in the little town of Morro D’Orro close to where we attended Squam Italia. We wandered the winding streets one afternoon with our tour guide telling us stories of how the town had been bombed during WWII and I snuck into an abandoned building to take these shots.

I have it from a good source that we’ll be seeing some new Wiksten patterns soon. I can’t wait to see & sew Jenny’s new designs!

You can find the Wiksten Tova pattern here!

NANI IRO BIRDIE SLING

Published on September 21, 2012 in stitchery, the workroom and traveling. 9 Comments Tags: Birdie Sling, nani IRO, squam italia, sultan's fine fabrics.

I’m a bit embarrassed. I just looked to see how long ago it was that I made my last Birdie Sling Bag and it was just about two years ago. This is mostly embarrassing if you could see the state that the bag is in right now. The handle has almost disintegrated for starters and it’s rather faded and quite dirty. I use my Birdie Sling every day, I can’t seem to live without it. I’m a little surprised it’s taken me this long to make a replacement Birdie, but I’m rather picky about my fabric choices for this bag.

I have yet to show you, but I made a pretty skirt out of this same nani IRO fabric. The more I looked at it, the more I thought it would be an awesome Birdie Sling. For the last few months I’ve had a piece just waiting to find it’s matching handle & lining fabrics. With all the fabric coming through the doors of the workroom right now, I can’t believe I didn’t find a match sooner.

Sunday afternoon, I had a sewing date with Katherine who announced she was making a Birdie Sling for our upcoming trip to Italy. Drat! I wanted to make one too. I had no choice but to shop my stash at home and find something that would work. I ending up deciding to just use a stripe fabric I got at Sultan’s Fine Fabrics (meant for a dress) as just the bands and using the same nani IRO print for both the body of the bag and the handle. For the lining, I used a Japanese fabric I bought at Fancy Tiger when we went to the Makerie.

I always add an inside zippered pocket to my Birdie Slings. I like to have a secure area. Especially when traveling. Check out our Birdie Sling class photos for more inspiration.

Katherine & I are headed to Italy to go to Squam Italia. We’re going early to tour around since neither of us has been there before. If anyone out there has any favourite places to stay, eat, drink, shop, buy fabric, taste wine or anything we shouldn’t miss – we’d love your suggestions. We’re flying into Rome, then heading North to Siena, then Florence, then over to the east coast to a small town called Morro D’Oro for Squam. We leave on Monday. EEK!!!

SULTAN’S FINE FABRICS

Published on July 27, 2012 in clothing, local and textiles. 15 Comments Tags: B & J Fabrics, Mood Fabrics, sultan's fine fabrics, Toronto.

I used to work in the garment district of New York City. I think that made me a bit spoiled for textile fabrics. I would spend hours after work wandering the aisles of my favourite shops – B&J Fabrics, Mood Fabrics, NY Elegant Fabrics, etc, etc. The selection was endless. Rows, upon rows of cotton shirtings, linens, wools and everything else under the moon. It was not uncommon for clerks to say ‘this was from Marc Jacob’s/Calvin Klein’s/Diane Von Furstenburg’s last collection’. This selection of fine fabric is one of the things I really miss about New York.

The closest thing I’ve found to that quality of fabrics here has been at the Lida Baday Showroom, on a much smaller scale. Until now.

A few weeks ago, a customer was working on a dress for his wife in the shop, he was using the most gorgeous red & blue plaid fabric. When I asked where he got it, he showed me the card for a shop that I had never heard of. I took a photo of the fabric & the business card and I’ve been obsessing over that fabric ever since. Today, I took a little adventure in a Zip car to check out Sultan’s Fine Fabrics.

Tucked away in a small industrial building was an absolute treasure of a fabric shop.

I was not expecting the sheer volume of fabric and I was so happy that I had a specific fabric in mind as my starting point otherwise I may still be walking the aisles. The owner, Sultan, greeted me when I entered and after I showed him the photo of the fabric I wanted, he took me directly to the bolt. Thank goodness! I would never have found it on my own. Sultan was so helpful and kept pointing out all the different types of fabrics he carried – cashmere, wool, linen, lining, cotton shirting. His main clientele are Harry Rosen & Holt Renfrew for their made-to-measure programs, so you can imagine how nice these bolts were. His selection is amazing & overwhelming. His fabrics range from $2/yard to $5500/yard! My selections were in the $16 – $22/yard range.

I highly recommend going with some specific projects in mind or maybe a time limit. I had to return my Zip car, so I just had an hour to agonize over what to get. I ended up with four fabrics – the cotton plaid shirting, a grey stripe cotton, a brown plaid linen and a mustard-y herringbone. I am excited to sew these up! While I adore printed quilting fabric (obviously!), there has been a bit of a hole in my heart for proper clothing textiles here and there. No more!

Oh yes, and there were ‘cashmeres from Tom Ford’ on the shelf.

If you go to visit Sultan, please tell him that I say ‘Hi!’. You can also shop a selection of their fabrics online!

Sultan’s Fine Fabrics
89 Bentworth Avenue, Unit 2A
Toronto, ON M6A 1P6
416-783-7786