Fabric Nation-tell us more!

Well hello there Fabric Nation, do please tell us all more about you.....
1) If you were a cake, what kind of cake would you be?

A Tunnocks teacake! I love the red and silver shiny wrappers and bright and cheerful retro packaging. I have heard there is even a Tunnocks teashop next to the factory in Uddington with all sorts of fantastic Tunnocks packaging creations in the window. It’s my ambition to visit this place! Have a peek here and you’ll see why… http://www.nothingtoseehere.net/2008/01/the_tunnocks_factory_uddingsto_1.html

2) What will you be doing at “A Makey ‘do’”?

I will be doing a few things at the Makey ‘do. In the morning I’ll be having a pic ‘n’ mix brooch making party. I will bring a vast selection of crochet flowers, buttons and trims so that people can mix and match their fave colours and make a brooch just how they want it! In the afternoon bunting making will take over. I will have a whole stack of gingham for people to make their own customised bunting. I’ll be bringing templates, stamps, fabric paint and trimmings galore to decorate and adorn pre-made bunting ready to be threaded onto tape. Visitors will be able to sew and stick on letters, flowers, or anything else that takes their fancy. I will also be selling little ‘Makey ‘do’ kits to take away, including my bunting anklets!

3) Fish and Chips or Curry?

Mmm, curry. I don’t eat fish and although I am partial to chips and mushy peas I live near some of the finest curry purveyors in the city, if not the country! Can’t beat a beetroot dosa or Jai Krishna special jeera aloo!

4) Where else can your wares usually be found?

I have online shops on folksy (http://www.folksy.com/shops/FabricNation) and etsy (http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6519255). I will also be at the Handm@de Craft Fairs in Cambridge, Winchester and Oxford (http://www.handmadecraftfairs.co.uk/) and a few others. My shops and blog (http://fabricnationadventures.blogspot.com/) usually have details of any fairs I’m planning to attend. I mainly work with vintage fabrics which are recycled into my collection of cats, dogs and other strays from the 1950s and 60s. I have always loved vintage prints, particularly barkcloth fabrics of the 1950s and 60s and began using these to make clothes which I sold on my stall as a teenager (no dull Saturday job for me!). I am very pleased to say the stall bug has gripped me again and I’m looking forward to doing more stalls before the year is out and meeting more amazing designer makers.

5) Do you usually hang out in Sandwich, or are you a visitor?

I am a visitor, and very much looking forward to it. I love taking day trips to new and undiscovered towns and villages around the UK. My perfect day is arriving at a new place and exploring all the charity shops! Sandwich looks really pretty, so I’m really looking forward to visiting.

6) Who is your all-time hero?

It has to be John Peel. The discovery of his show and all the wonderful music he championed in my teenage years was a turning point for me. I love music, and his show opened up a whole world to me of fab music, but also literature and art as I obsessively explored to origins of the reference to books, films and artists that post-punk popsters littered their songs with.

7) Who got you started on your crafty journey?

My family always made things, from little flowery dresses my mum made for me, my nan’s knitted creations and my aunty’s lovely needlework. We always darned, mended and fixed things too. As a teenager without much money living far from any fancy boutiques, the only way to make an entrance was to make your clothes yourself, so many a brightly printed curtain ended up as a skirt, top or dress. So my friends inspired me in this respect too as well as the whole DIY ethos of just getting on and making stuff in your kitchen and front room with what ever you had. I also love vintage kid’s craft books. I have many of my own still including a very dog eared copy of the Puffin ‘Something to Do’ book which was my favourite book as a child.

8) What colour draws you most?

Colours in general draw me, especially lovely and surprising combinations, I like the mix of pink and green, brown and sky blue or orange and turquoise. I love the quality of colour used in old printed ephemera, especially paperbacks, board games, magazines and packaging from the 1950s. I could gaze at these for hours!

9) Where do you go for inspiration?

I cannot walk past a charity shop without looking inside and get lots of pleasure and inspiration from my charity shop finds from the 1950s and 60s including dressers, fabric, games, buttons, china and scraps of printed ephemera. I love the Opie packaging collections and the collections at the Geffrye Museum and Bethnal Green Museum of childhood.

10) Do you dunk?

‘fraid so! A Tunnocks wafer and cup of earl grey tea.

Thanks so much, will be lovely to see you on the big day-bunting anklets and all!