When I spotted this elephant fabric I knew I needed some.

Elephant Plans

You see, when I was about 19 or so I made a favourite elephant dress out of some lovely soft rayon. Which I wore until it was well past its best. It was white elephants on black background – the sketch is a rough approximation of the design. At Spotlight’s 40%-off sale I saw the white on navy first, then the blue on cream cotton. Also there was a cream on pink on the mountain of stuff waiting to be put away near the counter. I was feeling restrained so only the navy was carted about the store while I made some other selections. While standing in the queue (for about 7 years, I think) my enabler dear friend J agreed that the pink was a good idea (building on a past New Year’s Resolution to “wear more pink”), so I went off to get that. Her visit to the “waiting to be put away mountain of bolts” netted a polar fleece with rabbits printed on it to make a throw rug for her sister. After finally making it to a counter and paying for my treasures, I realised that it would be sensible to also get some blue, just in case. After all, how often have I seen elephant fabric in the intervening years?

Over dinner with my parents I mentioned the excitement of finding fabric to replicate the elephant dress of my late teens and early twenties and Mum looked a bit bemused at my description of colour and fabric. Because, it turns out she was remembering the elephant dress as I had one when I was a lot, lot shorter, probably on a teal background she thinks. Obviously I need an elephant dress in my standard wardrobe!

Now I am well equipped for the next few years. In good company too – Karen of DidYouMakeThat made a Burda elephant top, Winnie of ScruffyBadgerTime has a pink elephant Violet and Roobedoo  made a Lisette elephant  tunic = They’ve all already been wearing their elephant adorned garments!

Lately, my aforementioned friend and fabric purchasing pusher and I have been getting together for Crafternoons to work on sewing projects. J has been working on a present for her sister, a shoulder bag with applique rabbits – a different rabbit and fabric on each side. I learnt that I pin my fabric way less thoroughly than she was taught, and she learnt that pattern tissue won’t burn if you iron it. It’s fun doing stuff together.

Rabbit Bags

I am now the proud and slightly embarassed owner of an Olympic pool’s length of fabric. Uh, we counted it all up. Not all in the one fabric thankfully, that would be boring. Now, I hold myself and my dear husband ultimately responsible for such a state of affairs. I must say a “thank you” to my enablers  as well – Sewaholic’s Tasia for asking “How Close is your nearest fabric store?” and Rachel of MyMessings for helpfully responding to my plea in the comments for tips about Melbourne with: “If it’s a weekday or Saturday morning that you’re free it’s worth getting the 19 tram up to Sydney road in Brunswick, on the same block that the Brunswick Spotlight is on there are 4 or 5 little independent fabric stores that have some nice fabrics. Then if you walk east along one of the cross streets about 10 minutes to Lygon street you can go to Rathdowne Remnants and GJs (which has quilting and dance fabrics, a little bit of nice fashion fabric, but might not be your thing), and then you can get the tram back down Lygon street. I’ve done that little loop a few times on a Saturday morning when looking for fabrics.
Oh and if you’re after formal fabrics, I discovered Franke Stuart in Hawthorn last weekend, it has some AMAZING fabrics there and seemed very reasonably priced. It’s a short walk from Glenferrie train station.”

Oh, such wise words.

Combine that advice with a weekend in Melbourne a few weeks later and kaboom! My fabric cupboard overfloweth…

Click for larger images. First up a brocade. I think this will be a feature panel on a corduroy skirt. Then the assortment of fabric to make aforesaid husband an overcoat “like on Spooks“. We kept finding ones we liked better, finishing with a black wool blend flannel from Rathdowne Fabrics. Next up a textured vertical stripe knit in black (dress for me?) and some french terry in blue (PJs for the son). Then 3 stripey knits – dark merino for LS Tshirt for son (done!), cream/blue cotton wool for stroking making into something warm and stylish for me, black and white poly cotton for a Renfrew V neck with 3/4 sleeves (already sewn). Moving right along to the explosion of colour which is the Tshirt weight knits pile. Some more obviously for bright bike riding clothing, others for leggings and PJs, and others, perhaps even to be sewn as Tshirts. Then last but definitely not least. The colourful prints. I couldn’t decide between red or green ovals in a soft drapy knit, ‘both’ was the colour I went for, the red diagonal check and blue diamonds are both lycra. Possibly a skirt of the red check and some gym tops using the blue in panels? Can you tell I’ve been feeling starved for choice with knits lately? And a lovely border poppy print of lightweight cotton that has already become a birthday present skirt for my Mother-in-Law.

The Anita Skirt

The In-Laws collected us from the airport after this trip and sat around with us going through the fabric. My M-I-L held the poppy print in her lap while picking up and putting down others. As I hadn’t actually figured out what it was for when I bought it, it was obviously meant to be hers.

Note to self: it was a good move to buy the Japanese Men’s Coat/Jacket book and invite my husband to choose which one he’d like.

I think we have enough fabric to be getting on with.

We did do a lot of other Melbourne things too – drank coffee, went to Ikea (for a single table leg, if you must know), ate and drank at Movida’s Next Door bar, went to an opening – the 25 year retrospective of Peter Hill’s Museum of Contemporary Ideas (website), and spent lovely time with family.