FabMo and craft plans

J and I went to FabMo‘s fabric sale today! FabMo is a creative reuse non-profit that collects and sells craft items that would otherwise be thrown away. Many items come from the San Francisco Design Center, so FabMo has tiles, fabric samples, rug samples, buttons, etc. It’s awesome!! Look for creative reuse stores in your area! Here is a list of some around the country. I also know of Austin Creative Reuse in Austin, Tx.

The sale today was for larger pieces of fabric (>1 yd cuts) and rug. There was quite the selection. I have a few projects I’ve been looking for fabric for: linen undershirts (should be good for summer!), linen shirts, linen pants or shorts, and mayyyyybe a wool suit (I’m not an advanced enough sewer for this but I can dream!).

Here are the fabrics I bought:

The most exciting is the middle one!! I’m pretty sure it’s linen, and I suspect it’s handwoven. Isn’t that awesome??? Let me provide evidence.

Here is what a normal flower looks like:

But some of the flowers are woven incorrectly:

Now, if this were commercially produced, it probably wouldn’t have been sold. It wouldn’t have gotten past quality control.

I’m thinking of the red/orange plaid and the flower linen for shirts, and the white plaid for an undershirt. The white plaid isn’t exactly what I was looking for- I was thinking handkerchief linen- but it was cheap and I figure I can make a draft undershirt with it without too much heartbreak.

I also got leather, but it wasn’t photographed. And I considered getting wool/mohair blend suiting, but… it was pretty ugly 🙂