Wednesday 13 January 2010

owena-k

Does this mean anything to you? It's the brand name (I guess, maybe it's the design name) printed in the selvedge of this awesome fabric that I bought at Goodwill a few days ago. It's a medium- to heavy-weight fabric, I'm assuming cotton. I didn't think to put anything in the photo to give a sense of scale but the pattern is very large. You can see its full width in the photo below which is probably the standard 150cm/60in wide.

This incredible fabric raises a couple of questions - first of all, what to do with it? It is really to heavy to make clothing out of and the scale of the print would probably be considered to large but that is part of what I love about it. Perhaps a duster of some sort (the jacket duster, not the housework type) would work with the weight and scale.

Really, I think that it is a decorator fabric and although I think that it could look great as a slipcover I can't see it in our house (besides which, Tim doesn't like the colours). Perhaps a bag of some sort, although that would lose the effect of the scale of the pattern. There is certainly enough of it - maybe 5 metres.

The other question that it raises for me is one about stash. It is all very well to plan to work from my stash this year and to not go out to buy materials for a project, but what about plain old buying materials because you come across them and they are great and unique and a real bargain (US$4.99). When there is no specific purpose for it, only ideas and aspirations, this fabric just becomes more stash and defeats my good intentions.

Anyway, I'll keep thinking about what to make from it and in the meantime will keep wondering about its provenance. If you recognise it, or the brand, please do let me know!

5 comments:

heidi said...

It's beautiful! I look forward to whatever you do with it, whenever that might be... :)

Lindi said...

I live in South Africa, and I must say the colours and pattern, looks so much like the African prints the local people use in traditional wear. Even the brand name sounds distinctly African. I can't say for sure, but it certainly does look very familiar! Good luck with finding something awesome to make with it!

Di said...

It's a fantastic find. So long as you have space, I think it is worth picking up good things like this- good quality, good condition, texture/pattern/colour that you like, good price. You can't really go wrong. Perhaps set yourself a $ per month for this kind of find as a way of trying to limit stash additions?

It reminds me of a bold Ikea furnishing fabric, which can make fantastic A-line skirts (eg http://www.flickr.com/photos/susefrompeasoup/4152034253/), or useful big, simple bags (eg http://www.flickr.com/photos/uniform-studio/3932091766/in/set-72157622194242319/).

Ann Gibson said...

I agree with Jelirob: looks very African to me. Google search reveals that Owena is a town in Nigeria. Someone brought it back from holiday/Peace Corps, it sat in their stash for 5 years, they couldn't figure out what to do with it either, and they finally donated it. (No, I've never done that, nope, not me!)

bunting said...

It's a great fabric. I can see what you mean about the large scale, I would use it as a blind maybe - if it's a heavyweight cotton it would hang really beautifully I'm sure.

Hang in there with baby, doing laps is pretty good - it just takes a lot of time to get some 'you' time back! Mine are 5 and 4, and I still don't get a lot to myself, although mostly they do sleep through the night now.

Take care,
B