This last week I was given the pleasure of sewing up a strike off piece of fabric for Second Star Fabric. Second Star is a custom fabric retail store, set up and run by three talented ladies who bonded over their love of fabric.  The fabric is predominantly ordered and sold on a pre-order basis, with new rounds of designs being launched every 4 weeks (or so) and then arriving 6 – 8 weeks later. For each new round of designs, the Second Star ladies receive a number of strike offs (a sample of the fabric from the printer) which they then pass on to other seamstresses and sewing enthusiasts for them to sew up and create something amazing with. These strike off creations are then used to help show customers how awesome the fabric looks once sewn up.

Second Star is now running it’s 6th round and it opened for orders on the 5th August. Here’s a quick photo of all the fabulous main designs available in this round (there are also panels and co-ordinating designs available)!

I was lucky enough to be sent one of the ‘I Believe’ panels, which matches with the main ‘I Believe’ print. Here’s how they look together;

I’m a big fan of all things Christmas so I couldn’t wait to get sewing up a storm! I decided to make my son a hooded jumper using one of my favourite patterns, the Hot Chocolate Hoody from Made by Jacks Mum. It fit’s great and has a self lining hood which is almost magical in how it fits together! The panel was perfect for the front of the hoody and I used solid colour jersey from Caboodle Textiles for the other pattern pieces.

As I was so keen I unfortunately completely forgot to take any work in progress shots showing how I used all my favourite haberdashery! However, I can tell you all about it! I used my 28mm Rotary Cutter and Cutting Mat to cut out all the pattern pieces, my favourite tape measure and chalk to mark out the cuffs and waist band, the Wonder Clips for holding the pieces together for sewing, both black and white overlocking thread to sew up the seams and of course…. my trusty stitch ripper when one seam went a bit awry! Our Everything You Need for Sewing with Stretch Fabrics kit would have been pretty perfect for this project!

The fabric is beautiful to sew with, so soft and is a lovely weight. It’s washes very well, with little colour loss or shrinkage. Having ordered from previous rounds I know the colours stay lovely and vibrant too – even when they’re being worn and dirtied by a 2 year old!

Here are two of my favourite photos of my ‘I Believe’ hoody, being modelled by my wonderful son Thomas. I couldn’t resist adding a few Christmas props, I think this fabric will be perfect for Christmas Eve Pyjamas!

 

So, if this ‘I Believe’ panel wasn’t special enough already, there’s also £1 from the sale of every panel being donated to Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity! Amazing right?! There’s an awesome story behind this and it centre’s around a special little boy called Aaron and his fabulous sewing-fan mummy, Tracey. You can find out more about Aaron and the fundraising for Glasgow Children’s Hospital at https://www.facebook.com/believeinaaron.  Here’s the little man himself, modelling the ‘I Believe’ panel and also the co-ordinating ‘I Believe’ main print.

I’m sure you’re now itching to go order yourself some of this fantastic fabric! Pre-orders close on Friday 19th August so don’t miss out – you can order the ‘I Believe’ panel here and the ‘I Believe’ main print here.

Happy Sewing! #IBelieve