Elegance Redefined » Textile

Tartan and Silk

Rachel Hagen — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 13:00:23 +0000

It was cold. And Rainy.

Two hour taxi ride.

Two, two-year old boys.

Two baby boys.

One great driver–Jerry.

Three determined and brave moms.

Mud. Puddles. The outside fabric market.

In all honesty: it. was. awesome.

Oh my heart flutters whenever I see great textiles. I knowingly went on this little outing– braving the elements and the not-the-best, not-the-worst part of town to find some beautiful fabrics. They weren’t home fabrics, but they were beautiful, nonetheless. Did I mention how CHEAP they were?! If only I could sew better. Things were a little too crazy to take pics. I only took this one in honor of my little brother. {Who will be volunteering two years of his life in Korea to teach about Jesus Christ.} Due to the conditions, I only stayed about thirty minutes. I left with a cranky baby, muddy shoes, broken umbrella, a great tartan, beautiful silk, and a smile on my face. Now I need to find a tailor to make me something…

Jobs Hand Painted Textiles

Rachel Hagen — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:50:50 +0000

There’s a lot of excitement about the start of March. Rightfully so. The first signs of spring are starting to show here too: our wisteria is starting to bud, the birds are hanging out by our fig tree–teasing Pixi, and there have been days when our outdoor rug is actually DRY from the sun!! They tell us the rainy season is January and February, so hopefully we’ll get some more consistent sun days.

I love hand-painted fabrics and I love floral prints. Jobs Handtryck’s textiles are so lovely. The perfect amount of spring florals to cure your winter-blues.

John Robshaw Textiles

Rachel Hagen — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 16:23:08 +0000

In need of some beautiful block printed cottons or linens? John Robshaw has a wide collection of Indian-inspired textiles. Some of my favorite, in the form of throw pillows:

Quadrille Wallpaper and Textiles

Rachel Hagen — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:28:31 +0000

Thinking about using this fabric in a project. LOVE it. By Quadrille.

Isabel Duvet

Rachel Hagen — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:58:10 +0000

Awe…so precious. I don’t know what it is for canopies and little girls, but I’m such a sucker for them. This is from the awesome Serena and Lily company.

John Robshaw Textiles

Rachel Hagen — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:54:10 +0000

I don’t think I can ever get enough of John Robshaw Textiles. A client and I are looking into getting this set for their guest room. Ahhh, so peaceful. Can also be used for the master room: not too masculine, not too feminine. Just right.

Amy Butler

Rachel Hagen — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 19:00:33 +0000

I. Love. Her.

Here’s a little secret: she does all the coordinating work for you! I think buying through her lines are great and easy way to get coordinate fabrics without the “matchy-matchy” look…something that designers are hired to do :)

But I’m all about helping my reader’s out. I even might get some of these fabrics for my own home. They have the perfect blend of modern with fun; faminine and masculine. I just wish her fabrics were a little nicer than a simple cotton blend (for my drapes). Mick and I have been having the hardest time agreeing on patterns we both like. I think I’ve found a winner though:

or…

from her Daisy Chain line. She also has beautiful bedding and stationary. Dear sister Elizabeth, will you please sew me some of these puffs with your mad sewing skills?

Alexandra Ferguson

Rachel Hagen — Wed, 13 May 2009 22:00:34 +0000

LOVE the beautiful emroidery by Alexandra Ferguson. By getting these pillows, not only are you getting beautiful work, but you’re being eco-friendly as well! She uses recycled material from plastic water bottles. Lovely!

Posey Nursery

Rachel Hagen — Tue, 05 May 2009 20:00:10 +0000

I love Serena and Lily. I’ve blogged about them before, and every night I dream about cuddling up in the Tess Collection. Unfortunatly my brown duvet will have to do. But I also fell in love Posey Collection for a girl’s nursery. So fun.

Kain Kain

Rachel Hagen — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:00:25 +0000

Handmade in Jakarta, these linen and cotton wares from Etsy shop Kain Kain are beautifully embroidered. “Kain” is the Indonesian word for fabric – everything in this shop is focused on textiles decorated with linear, graphic patterns.

Some of my favorites are this table runner and this ballet bag. I can’t get over how beautiful the embroidery is…and for such a great price too.

Serena and Lilly

Rachel Hagen — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:00:17 +0000

I love this bedding selection from Serena and Lily. Calming and Soothing. Maybe it’s time to redo the bedroom…

Merimekko Spring 2009

Rachel Hagen — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 19:00:52 +0000

love. love. LOVE the colors in Merimekko’s Spring 2009 collection. So bright. So fun.

Ink and Spindle: Hand Printed Textiles

Rachel Hagen — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 19:00:02 +0000

Oooh LaLa. Love the colors and designs for these textiles found at Ink and Spindle.

Bev Hisey Textiles

Rachel Hagen — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:00:21 +0000

Fun, funky textiles by Bev Hisey. I love the ant pillows! They’re so fun!

Pillow Talk

Rachel Hagen — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 06:20:43 +0000

Sticking with my colorful theme today. And in lieu of Valentine’s day…I present to you ELSWARES pillows. So cute.

Tikoli Kitchen Towels

Rachel Hagen — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 20:00:10 +0000

These fun kitchen towels from Tikoli almost make me want to spend more time in the kitchen. Almost.

Design Company Fabrics

Rachel Hagen — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:30:08 +0000

I blogged about this Friday, but some how it got deleted. And in that post I confessed how it’s hard for me to blog about awesome sales in fear of everything being gone before I get there. A few of you have contacted me needing the info, wondering if I deleted it for that reason. No. Although that’s not a bad idea…it just somehow got erased in cyberspace.

ANYWAY, Designer Company Fabrics is having their “step down” sale. This week sale fabrics are only $3/yard. Next Monday (Feb 2) they will only be $2/yard! Here’s their address. I recommend going to the Salt Lake location. They literally have hundreds more to choose from. I’m actually headed down there toady, say “hi” if you see me there!

Salt Lake: 2253 South 500 East

Draper: 196 West 12300 South

Thibaut

Rachel Hagen — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 21:00:07 +0000

I’ve been shopping for fabrics on Thaibaut, and ran across this chair. I love it! Classic chair, with elegance. Redefined Elegance that is.

Textile Tuesday

Rachel Hagen — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:00:48 +0000

First I must apologize: Sarah’s room wasn’t shown in last night’s Chuck episode. I feel like I’ve let you all down. But promise still holds: if/when you see her room, you won’t be disappointed.

I’ve got a busy morning today: early Home Builder’s meeting and then off to Contempo Tile. So I don’t have much time to write and elaborate on a given textile.

I was browsing through some old China pictures and came across a few from when we went to a silk factory. It was very, very interesting.

These are the silk worm cocoons floating in the hot water. The hot water allows the silk to be broken up, but still saved. Then the little spinners spool them into threads. Pretty cool. The only un-cool (like, is that even a word?) thing about this process is that the little silk worms do die in the process.

Did you know you can make mattresses out of silk? Well, you can. This is what we were doing here. You start off with a small square piece of woven silk about a the size of a square foot. Then you get a team to pull together from opposite sides. You do this layer after layer, after layer…as low as 50 times. I wasn’t able to lay on one, so I’m not sure how comfortable and supportive they are. Although if they were comfortable, I would imagine we’d have them here in the states.

That’s my little blonde head behind the sweet Asian silk worker.

Aaaand here’s a random picture of me catching a ride behind this crazy cyclist. I was scared for my life. And trying to keep my skirt down.

One more picture. I know, you’d expect this kind of thing coming from Mick. Not me, but isn’t this gross? EWE!