Sunday, August 12, 2007

I (heart) Joel Dewberry Fabric



I love this line of Aviary fabrics from Joel Dewberry. Faux bois woodgrain and bird motifs all in the same collection, and in orange and brown, one of my favorite color combinations? I can't think of any single collection that reflects my current aesthetic so perfectly. (BTW, if you like the woodgrain aesthetic as much as I do, check out one of my favorite blogs, It's (K)not Wood, which is entirely devoted to covering the topic of fake wood! They have also made note of this fabric.)

I first saw these fabrics on the shelves of purl soho, and I immediately snapped them up. These are all from the Bark palette - Sparrows in almond, and Woodgrain in both Orange and Chocolate. I did go back to buy a few different varieties of the Woodgrain. I have no immediate plans for them, but it seemed like a good idea to have them in my stash for future patchwork projects.



The first thing I did was create this pillow cover for the chicken. He also loves orange, brown, birds, and woodgrain, so it went really well with his existing pillows.



Also pictured here is a pillow by west elm in the back. I have to admit I am a bit of a fan of west elm. I go to their store, website, and catalog for inspiration (as well as actual shopping), and right now I use their pillow inserts for all of my pillow projects. While adopting their aesthetic as a whole could be a little dull, I have found that a lot of their items provide good backdrops for my handmade and more personalized projects, such as these.



The pillow in the middle is made from a barkcloth fabric from reprodepot and stuffed with fiber fill. The chicken's mom made this for him; this was before I was a crafter myself. She sewed it and we filled it; I remember how intimidated I was initially, and how satisfying it was to complete these. I think it was one of those aha moments where I realized I could do something that I thought I had no talent in.



I just made these coasters last night. There is a layer of cotton batting in between two layers of fabric. The tricky thing about working with the Sparrow fabric is cutting and sewing the birds so they appear in exactly the right place!



Now I'm enjoying a cool glass of water on the new coasters...

6 comments:

Ashley said...

Ooh, I love those coasters! Such a great use of that fabric--you definitely want to maximize the birds!

Anonymous said...

for a person who doesn't consider herself to be a sewer, your work is really wonderful - i saw it on flickr.

have you martha stewart's craftroom in the september issue of her magazine?

Badecca said...

No, I haven't seen it - I'll have to check it out!

Anonymous said...

wonderful use of those fabrics! I couldn't resist them when I saw them...but haven't figured out what I'm going to do with them :)

Badecca said...

I know the feeling! Which ones did you get?

Kate said...

Great fabrics - love what you've done with them!