One of the best things about running a boutique fabric business is that my customers often get back to me with what they made or what they’re doing with the fabric they buy.
Over the three years that Lady Virginia Vintage Fabrics has been operating I’ve heard so many heartwarming stories about your projects. So with Mother’s Day coming up, I thought I’d take a moment to shine the spotlight on you makers and seamstresses and design mavens, many of whom are moms, with stories of some of the projects you’ve shared with me.
Here are a few of my favorite stories about how our fabrics played a role in a special project — but these first ones are stories for which I, sadly, don’t have pics of the final project. Like:
- The woman who bought a ragged scrap of Waverly cotton fabric from the 1970s titled “The Big Balloon” who used it to repair her daughter’s tattered childhood baby blanket. Awww!
- A woman whose recently deceased mother had upholstered her living room furniture in a vibrant Jacobean style floral in the 1970s, only one chair of which was left. She found the exact same fabric in our shop in a set of curtains and repurposed them to restore one chair in memory of her mom. (I love it!)
- A maker who lives in an historic area and wanted her locally made goods to stand out from the rest. She used Bicentennial-era and other patriotic vintage fabric from Lady Virginia to make amazing totes that sell like hotcakes!
Show Me The Pics!
But sometimes we get pics:
A couple bought a camper van and scoured the Internet in hopes of finding the exact fabric that was installed originally. We had it and they were able to do curtains and redo some of the camper’s upholstery.
A local woman, Bonnie, who I’ve known for years, wanted to restore an inherited piece that was now sitting in a guest room. She used our 1980s “Eastleigh” polished cotton to magnificent effect:
A customer whose great uncle, Edward Bragaline, was a fabric designer in the Mid Century era. She often looks for his fabrics and found some in our vintage fabric samples. I did a whole blog about her home gallery dedicated to him.
Fabric as Art
This customer loved vintage abstract textiles so she and her husband made a gallery of framed fabrics for their loft:
Another customer did a similar thing, sharing this photo of a 1966 Scalamandré Silks piece titled “Chrysanthemum” that she split and had framed to hang in an elegant sitting room:
This maker shared how she used a rare 1950s Jofa equestrian fabric available at Lady Virginia to also do…framed fabric art!
This customer wanted to restore a doll. She’d searched high and low on the Internet to find the exact fabric and then lucked out one day when we listed it!
Furniture, Pillows, Windows
My customers love redoing chairs and foot stools. Check out some of these magnificent restoration pieces (the green floral footstool is from my own home!):
This customer fell in love with a vintage equestrian piece and hoped to find a way to make it shine. We think she did an amazing job with this powder room window treatment:
We can’t forget pillows. Eden Salaasaa, maker extraordinaire at Olden Vintage Co., often sources our vintage fabrics for her products. Here is a sampling of her work:
Another customer made this STUNNING oversized lumbar pillow. I’m drooling:
Sometimes a project is a work-in-process. This customer wanted to use this fabric to fix this old and beloved chair. We had the exact 1970s fabric to make her dreams a (coming) reality:
Clothing
These customers took Lady Virginia Vintage Fabrics to make clothing. One is a designer who made an original dress using a lightweight batiste fabric, one a shirt made from a 1930s feedsack, and the last a men’s stretch wool tunic:
My House
I’ve even done a few of my own projects. Here are my beloved chairs reupholstered in Brunschwig & Fils “French Gladiola” fabric; a settee redone in a fabulous pink micro flamestitch; a couch I had redone using Hill Brown’s “Nan King” chinoiserie and another couch in Hill Brown’s “Treille” fabric. I wrote blogs about the chairs and the couches.
As you can see we love your projects and even manage to squeak out a few of our own from time to time. If you’ve purchased fabric from us we’d LOVE to feature you in our social media and in the blog. Please send a pic and your story!
And P.S…as of this writing we’re having a pre-Mother’s Day sale through May 14th, 2023 with 10-25% off. Find something to meet your vision. Happy making!
— Lindsay Curren, Lady Virginia Vintage Fabrics
