20 November 2019

Our First Fabric Collection is Coming Soon!



I’m pinching myself as I’m writing this… We are excited to tell you that we are launching our first fabric collection in a few weeks’ time!

You may have already seen an announcement about this on Instagram a while back, and today I’m here to share with you all the details about these gorgeous fabrics - and let you know that pre-orders are officially open :)

Get ready to be excited – not only are they cotton jerseys, but they are organic – yasss!



This all started in February of this year when we were approached by the Craft Cotton Company (part of Viscount Textiles) and asked if we would be interested in working on a fabric line together. The idea of doing Tilly and the Buttons fabrics had been a “someday” dream project for me… until that day when it suddenly jumped up the “to do” list.

I knew right away at that meeting that this was a great company to partner with. They had so much enthusiasm for our brand and were just really nice and genuine. I love working with people who are authentic and passionate about what they do – not just going through the motions. The Craft Cotton Company pride themselves on creating high quality fabrics at great value prices. They were keen to get a TATB collection just right, and embraced my perfectionist tendencies throughout the development process :)

THE MATERIAL


It’s no secret that I lurrrrve sewing with jersey, so this seemed like the perfect fabric for a TATB collection. What’s more, the fabric is organic cotton, made in India by a reputable factory, so you can feel good about it as you sew.

I was able to choose the exact properties of the base cloth, which was amazing. We went for a medium weight material (190gsm), with 96% organic cotton and 4% spandex, meaning it has a good amount of stretch and recovers well so it will hold its shape with wear. It’s also nice and wide (approximately 157cm or 60in), so you can fit lots of pattern pieces across the width.

The fabric is perfect for making knit tops, dresses, jumpsuits, pyjamas and more. It will work perfectly for the Coco top and dress, Agnes top, Romy top and dress and Nora T shirt, as well as the Freya top and dress, Frankie T shirt and Joni dress in my book Stretch. Just to note, the black base is printed on white jersey so it's best to avoid making fitted garments or styles with negative ease. The fabrics are also great for some of the patterns coming soon in my next book Make It Simple ;) And lots more patterns besides ours, of course, from jumpsuits to pyjamas.

THE DESIGNS


The collection features eight modern designs that are both wearable and fun.





If you know me, you know that I love a good stripe. Getting to design my own Breton stripes was THE. BEST. DAY. EVERRRRR. My partner couldn’t believe how long I was spending playing around with colour combinations… but when he leant over and said, “Ooh, actually, I think you have a talent for this,” I made a mental note of “Breton stripe designer” as my backup career plan, hehe. That’s a thing, no?!

There are two narrow Breton stripes in beautiful rainbow colours on both black and white backgrounds. These are literally my dream fabrics, and I’m snaffling about 100m for myself to make all the things.



There are also two wide stripes for when you want to get your stripe fix but can’t be bothered to spend much time pattern matching. You are welcome.

One of these is lilac on white – you may have noticed that Jenny and Louise from Team Buttons are obsessed with lilac, so this colour was a must (#lilacloversclub). It looks amazing paired with different coloured ribbing on neckbands and cuffs. In fact, you’ll see it featured in my new book with a mustard neckband ;)

The other is a crazy rainbow colourway inspired by our Office Manager Kate and her love of all things coral and bright – it’ll look so cool as a T shirt.



Probably the most stand-out of the prints is a heart-shaped hand design, drawn by the lovely Vicky from Craft Cotton Company, printed on black so it’s cute but not cutesy. I wanted to include this to represent my love of making things by hand.

Look closely and you may spot that the nails are painted in different colours which coordinate with the other fabrics in the collection – a little nod to my obsession with matching my manicures to fabrics in our photo shoots!





I’m always on the hunt for modern geometric print fabrics, so I knew I had to include some in the collection.

I love polka dots, and had always wanted to find a fabric with jumbo size, unevenly distributed spots... so we made one! It gives a twist to this classic, wearable print.

Plus there are geometric shapes in two colourways – multi colours on black, and black on a beautiful soft blue. I can’t wait to make the black version up into a dress and the blue one into PJs.

Tilly and the Buttons organic jersey fabrics will be shipping in January 2020. I can’t give you an exact date yet, but if you want to get your hands on some as soon as it’s available, you can pre-order from us now!