The Hopsack Trilogy
Please note that this fabric was reduced to £6 per metre during our May Fabric of The Month, but is now £10 per metre as this offer has expired.
Presenting the Hopsack Trilogy:
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About:
These superbly textured hopsack fabrics have a lovely reassuringly soft & natural weighty feel and a beautiful drape. This tantalising trilogy is a woven 100% cotton, featuring a crimped yarn that creates the excellent textural interest with thicker and thinner areas producing an almost bouclé-like effect. This fab collection of cottons is summer's answer to heavy woollen tweeds!
The fabric may be a heavyweight but its bright spring/summer colourways and airy open weave are ideal for replacing your winter woollens, whether you're creating quirky summer coatigans or new soft furnishings for the home. Add extra interest to your projects, utilising the natural frayed selvedge to your advantage and save time on hemming. See our piece on the Sculptural Bucket Coat below for ideas.
Heavyweight yet cool? Soft and cosy but still a spring/summer fabric? Yes, the superb Hopsack is a contradiction but it's true. This heavyweight is cool and airy due to its open weave, and is cosy due to its soft textural cotton yarn.
Avoca & Manufacturing:
One of Fabworks' main suppliers Avoca, are a heritage textiles company based in Ireland, weaving from their mill in the village of Avoca, working closely alongside other traditional Irish weavers, namely Foxford's who have produced the Hopsack cotton. Over the last 20 years Avoca have established their own highly successful ladies clothing range as well as soft furnishings for the home, building an iconic and colourful lifestyle brand.
Avoca has played the part of fabric supplier to Fabworks since 2011 with Fabworks' customers having benefited from the finest of fabrics; always colour full and inspiring! There has been every dressmaking fabric you can imagine, from linens to linings, fine wools to embroidered silk; not to mention all the haberdashery, trimmings and ribbon! The current FoTM collection is another great example of uniqueness, colour and quality!
The Avoca heritage, the brand, the traditional fibres, and the exclusivity all mean that you cannot purchase these particular fabrics anywhere other than from Fabworks.
Dressmaking & pattern recommendations:
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The fabric boasts a stable width and lengthwise handle as well as some ease across the bias, due to its open weave. When presented to the light you can fully appreciate the excellent textural quality of the weave detail. Garment makers may choose to use stabilisers and/or interfacings and linings when using fabrics from this striking collection (if necessary). We now have a fantastic pattern available online, tried and tested by our in-house team; The Sculptural Bucket Coat. Of course Chanel-style jackets will look excellent in this wonderfully woven cotton. Add a contrasting or a coordinating velvet trim and add frayed-edge details for a true Chanel style. Colour lovers rejoice! The three vibrant, bright and happy colours on offer will team up perfectly with navy and indigo palettes, as well as whites and other citrus colours. Use to make excellent interiors pieces, such as throws and cushions too! More info below. |
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Click here to view the Hopsack Trilogy fabric
Sculptural Bucket Coat:
Here it is, from the Fabworks expert herself. Dawn, who writes all the detailed Fabworks Online fabric descriptions, sharing her thoughts & ideas and explaining why the Sculptural Bucket Coat pattern is perfect for the Hopsack trilogy of fabrics.
"I was initially attracted to the Tangy Lime in this trilogy, I have to admit that I am a colour junkie and thrive on how bright cheerful colours make me feel. But the Persian Blue Hopsack kept stealing my attention. The seductive, mesmerising blue carries you off to exotic spice markets with beautiful blue tiled buildings. The Ancient Egyptians and Persians both valued the intensity of this beautiful colour.
First things first, after deciding on the Persian Blue Hopsack, was to launder. I purchased extra to allow for shrinkage as this is inevitable with an open weave fabric. If you have any left over you'll definitely find a use for it. I washed at 30 degrees on a delicates cycle and dried it naturally. The fabric shrinks at approximately 10%. At Fabworks FoTM price ~ £6 per metre ~ you can afford to take extra.
As I said, I am always inspired by colour and texture, and of course a good weave structure. These amazing fabrics tick all the boxes and I had one particular pattern in mind! The fabulous Tree from Stitchless TV and Laura from Sew Different have produced a wonderful coat pattern that I'm obsessed with! For the purposes of the Hopsack trilogy, the Sculptural Bucket Coat is a quirky drapey coat (as the Hopsack is a drapey fabric) but the coat can be more angular (if you use a fabric that has more structure, such as a wool melton). I was convinced that I could make a fabulous summer coat using this pattern in the Persian Blue colourway. I know certain areas on the coat such as the front facings and the collar require some form of stabilising so my chosen product was a bondaweb called Vliesoline because it's invisible once bonded. Take care with the processes of turning back facings and putting the collar on.
The fabric has great drape quality and is stable width and lengthwise and is therefore ideal for the Sculptural Bucket Coat. My own clothing pieces and textiles adventures often evolve and this is no exception. The lovely frayed selvedge kept giving me Chanel style vibes, so it had to be utilised. The addition of a particularly beautiful blue velvet ribbon gave an even more retro vibe. This pattern is basically an unlined coat with side pieces that fold back into the front facings to create the bucket / drape details and angular lines and wonderful Raglan sleeves that fit everybody well. A neat stand collar (or Mandarin collar) is the perfect finishing touch.
This is the third Sculptural Bucket Coat that I have made so it comes together quickly but even if you're a beginner / intermediate sewist the pattern has an informative YouTube tutorial hosted by the Tree and is super easy to follow! It's one of those patterns you can make easily using different fabrics to create varied styles. But I digress, back to the wonderful Persian Blue Hopsack. I toyed with the idea of a Liberty print binding detail to add to all the seams, as this binding method (Hong Kong finish) is showcased in the YouTube video. But because I wanted a quick make I decided to overlock all seams together and add textural interest with the beautiful velvet ribbon.
After placing the coat on my mannequin, I was yet to think about fastenings, but since it's a summer coat / coatigan I decided upon a simple 1950s style two button detail at the neck, with a velvet button loop. The buttons are actually Avoca Mother of Pearl one-offs from Fabworks Mill Shop (sold out now, sorry!). These additions make the coat very 1950s. The final addition of tiny Mother of Pearl buttons on the cuffs brings the look together.
As you can see, no filters required! I am really pleased with the gorgeous Persian Blue Hopsack and can't wait to wear my coat out. Although I think I'll have to snap up some of the Tangy Lime too!"
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Click here to view the Hopsack Trilogy fabric
Colour specifics & interiors uses for the Hopsack trilogy:
Rose Rhapsody is the perfect soft but luscious rose petal pink. Warm enough for a winter pastel accent (very on-trend teamed with beige) and of course perfect for feminine summer schemes too.
Tangy Lime is great for enlivening any home interiors, but just wonderful for an open plan living/kitchen area where fresh vibrant green is the accent colour. If you have beige or white walls and accessories this is perfect for adding a zap of colour. Greenery in all forms and styles still plays a huge role in fashion and interiors, bringing to mind all those palm and tropical leaved prints.
Persian Blue is the most amazingly intensely vibrant cobalt blue shade, perfect for adding that pop of colour to seaside inspired interiors. Go with its inspirational namesake's style and go all out middle eastern for an exotic interiors vibe. This colour will also add warmth to winter colour schemes when placed alongside purples, greens and teals. Team up with a purple theme, inspired by Pantone's Colour of the Year: Ultra Violet, for a totally on-trend look.
Rose Rhapsody, Persian Blue Hopsack, Tangy Lime Hopsack are all extremely colour infused fabrics and they feel amazing, the textured weave adds interest to an otherwise plain fabric and the feel is almost akin to a snug cotton baby blanket, gentle next to your skin and breathable too, making it ideal for home interiors and light soft furnishing projects.
Summer bed and sofa throws will make up perfectly. The weight is reassuring when you need that extra layer, so perfect for Mediterranean style throws with a colourful twist. Utilise the frayed edges for a relaxed style and why not hand-fray the top and bottom edges too, just stay stitch with a tiny zigzag to stabilise the edge, or add a coordinating trim as an alternative. Complete the look by making simple envelope style cushions (no need for zips!) and add chunky buttons as an extra detail.
Feeling adventurous? Why not create some tubular bolster style cushions (Christmas cracker style) and use the frayed edges on the ends. These are all quick makes that you can use to refresh your interiors in no time.
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Please note that the Midnight Breeze colourway is not included in this offer.
Extras:
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, all Fabworks Online customers will receive free swatches of our current FoTM when they order any cut length fabrics from Fabworks Online. These swatches will be included in your parcel and are clearly labelled. FoTM swatches are not sent with sample only orders.
FoTM is not just available at Fabworks Online, you can see, feel, play with & buy (!) these beautiful fabrics from Fabworks Mill Shop, in West Yorkshire, too! Please note that we do not offer free samples in-store, this is a Fabworks Online only privilege.
If you are a Fabworks Online customer and do not want to order cut length fabrics but would still like to see the samples of the current FoTM, you can order samples from the individual product pages, at a cost of £1 each. Click here for more info on the sample service that we provide.
Click here to view the Hopsack Trilogy fabric now