Decorator Fabrics and a Handmade Fabric Ghost Moth

I walk by this interior design shop quite often. It’s got a beautiful window display with interesting objects, chairs, clocks, and the most gorgeous fabrics, usually in sample books, or small pieces. As January is sale time in France, I decided to go in one day last week and see if there were any remnants of those lovely fabrics lying around. Turns out there were. There were some remnants, but also several books of fabric samples of discontinued fabrics. Each fabric has samples in many colors, and the pages are about 16 x 16 inches square. Large enough to make several brooches! The smaller swatches are only about 3 x 3 inches square, but I can see some smaller insect brooches already.

I got two large books of samples, five sets of swatches and one large remnant for a very interesting price! These are fabrics that I couldn’t afford to buy as yardage.

My first project was an off-white satin ghost moth brooch, made from a sample combined with vintage trim.

It’s worth trying your local interior designers to have access to some gorgeous fabrics, even if only in small pieces. Imagine the things you could sew up! I would love to hear what you make with remnants and scraps in the comments.