Sunday, April 13, 2014

Chambray Obsession: A Spotty Camber

Readers, I dream in chambray at the moment. I see it everywhere. It haunts me, making me believe that every garment should be in chambray. And yet, I cannot find dark denim chambray anywhere. Tessuti had lovely pale stuff, but the colour was much too pale for me. Over summer I did find some dark coloured spotty chambray at Tessuti Surrey Hills. I bought the last of the roll - about 1.6m of it. I   had thought I would make a bomber jacket out of it, but then realised it was too fine.

So I decided to make another Camber Dress by Merchant and Mills. I wear my linen version so much I knew this would be a wardrobe staple, and it only takes about 1.5m of fabric.

Guess who loves her Santa hat so much it is being worn as a trans-seasonal, every day hat? Hint: it's not me or Bessie.  
I made it the same as my last one. Size 14 at the shoulders and a size 10 through the body. I accidentally cut it too short however, so I bound the hem to preserve as much length as possible.



Look at my spot matching down the back through the yoke and dress! Almost perfect.




I love this dress. The chambray is really soft. It is perhaps a smidge too short. I wore it to Little M's birthday party yesterday (a blog post on that to come!), and had to be a little careful with how I sat/bent etc., especially as it was a fine day (phew!) and I wasn't wearing tights.

So, my question is -- where do I find lovely dark plain chambray? Please, if you know, I need all the details!

27 comments:

  1. I have some Robert Kaufman Essex Linen which is very dark chambray. I went to find the link and found a search for just chambray on fabric.com returned quite a few dark chambray options (including an intriguing tencel one...). Good luck!

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  2. Just as lovely as it was in person! Good luck on the fabric hunt.

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  3. This dress is really cute on you - I love the navy and white spots!

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  4. Love the spots! Speaking of dark chambray, I'm embarassed to confess I have a 10 metre roll! I know, I know, ridiculous really... but I brought it to make skirts for the school fair, but then decided it was too light-weight. You can check it out on your next visit.

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  5. I'm a little obsessed with chambray too. There are some utterly gorgeous ones in Liberty at the moment with floral prints, but they're £35/m, ouch. Merchant and Mills has this slightly darker one, not quite indigo though: http://merchantandmills.com/products/cloth/cotton-chambray-denim-blue-metre

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  6. Hello Rachel. This is lovely on you...beautiful fabric. I am hopeful this comment comes through, I haven't had any luck lately. regards.

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  7. Try www.hawthornethreads.com. Just type chambray in the search field and viola!

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  8. Thanks Chloe! I think I'm going to google RK linen.

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  9. Thanks Elizabeth! I do have that lovely pink/red stuff we both got at the Alannah Hill outlet too.

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  10. Thanks Anna! A good chambray is hard to find...

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  11. It's good to know I'm not the only one Katie. I saw the Merchant and Mills stuff - I would like to avoid such expensive shipping costs though! Postage costs seem to have blown through the roof.

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  12. Hi Maree! Your comment has worked. The fabric is lush, I wish there had been more. It is lovely to hear from you.

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  13. Thanks Sarah! I just did that and wowsers! Such beautiful stuff. The only problem is that 4m of chambray incurs $48 in postage!!! I suppose I could rationalise it is still only about $25/m, but it kills me to pay more in postage than the actual fabric costs.

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  14. Yep, postage is a killer! I generally save up my cash and place a big order to bring down the price per yard. Can't wait to see more chambray projects from you!

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  15. Bizarrely my local spotlight has just got in some Chambrays, not sure on all the colours though. Failing that my local fabric shop Sckafs had some, it's not on the website, but you could call them? http://www.sckafsfabrics.com.au/

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  16. Lovely dress, I can imagine how comfy this dress must be in chambray and it still looks polished enough for work!

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  17. I searched all the Sydney fabric shops for dark chambray just recently without any luck - I ended up ordering some fabric.com. I ordered a few fabrics to justify the postage and they sent it really quickly. The Robert Kaufman indigo chambray is pretty good quality too

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  18. Hi Rachel
    I think the Robert Kaufman Chambray Union chambray is the loveliest chambray around. I have used the 'dark', and am hoarding some of the 'light'.
    Hawthorne Threads is usually my online shop of choice, but their shipping for this was way too expensive. Pink Chalk offered a better shipping rate on this:
    http://www.pinkchalkfabrics.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=37_47_640&products_id=13335
    Justine

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  19. I couldn't find dark chambray anywhere either so I bought this indigo chambray from fabric.com (https://www.fabric.com/buy/0313224/cotton-tencel-chambray-3-oz-shirting-indigo?cm_vc=756b1813-cbc1-43b3-84bd-29889bf8fb7b). I have made a Grainline Scout Tee and have enough for an Archer shirt.

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  20. Ah, true. It would probably take a dye well being cotton, so maybe dye the lighter Tessuti one?

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  21. I hadn't thought of that! What a genius idea....

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  22. Lovely dress! I too am obsessed with chambray, and am wondering just how many chambray tops and dresses I can justify. Speaking of which, I just yesterday picked up some spotty chambray from GJs Discount Fabrics in East Brunswick, but they also have some plain chambrays and denims in stock too (in the upstairs, dress fabric section). I also purchased some lightweight denim from Lincraft a while back too, so maybe try there (although they can be a bit hit and miss).

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  23. I've got a lovely quite but not very dark chambray that I'm about to sew up, but I bought it about a year ago so I can't remember where I got it - pretty sure it was either The Fabric Store or Tessuti...

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