African Fabric Lady

Greetings All

I’m just thrilled to report that the most recent “African” wax and printed fabric shipments have arrived and that these 100% cotton cloths are every bit as wonderful as I had hoped.  Many have amazing color combinations and such dynamic designs from the recognizeably floral and geometric, to more abstracted arrangements that seem to have something biological somewhere in their origins. They are being processed to appear at www.africanfabricsales.com, but here are a few previews…

The new “gold” or metallic prints are exotic in appearance, n’est ce pas?  Because of the relatively small touches of the plasticized “gold” you will find that the drape is not affected and this textile will be useful as garment fabric for African style clothing or any other fashion statement.  Just remember that where the fabric brushes against itself, as where sleeves meet the body of a shirt, the “gold” may rub off sooner than elsewhere on the fabric.  These prints will also add a nice touch of bling into quilting or wall hanging projects.  Some of you incorporate fabric into Fine Arts collage projects, and you may find that using something like a wheat flour paste rather than a white glue has less of an effect on the fabric.  Just remember if you are pressing your work with an iron to work from the back side.

This is the only new “Kente” print added to the AfricanFabricSales collection at this time.   These designs call to mind the wonderful hand-woven traditional Kente cloths, long considered prestigious and originally reserved for the royalty and nobility.  Watch for a quilter’s variety pack of up to 15 different designs in the near future. These 1/8 yard cuts will be useful for incorporation into other pieced projects or a simple Kente-style print sampler.

The wax designs take my breath away.  There are many London and Dutch products among the new additions, which means the fabric is more densely densely woven and supple with little size or filler than you may find to be the case with some fabrics manufactured on the African continent.  The cloths are a pleasure to work with for their “hand” and uniformity of quality throughout the design and manufacturing process.  Eminently suitable for fashion couture whether African or other, and for all quilting, wall hanging or fiber art projects.  WOW Factor is high on these items.

Look for the items featured here to appear at my webstore over the next couple of days.  I’d love to hear your responses to the fabrics shown here.  Enjoy these lovely days of early spring.

Isa2