Buying stripes – What are your recommendations?

Hi, my name is Anna and I blog with my family on PeterSilie&Co. When the theme month stripes was declared my first thought was… I don’t have any (or let’s say a lot of them) in my stash!

I would loooove to sew stripes. Especially if there was not such a big problem with sourcing quality striped fabric. I have bought quite a lot of fabric since I started to sew, but stripes are a rare gem in my stash. I have 1.5m of gorgeous petrol blue stripe sweatshirting, about the same amount in black/grey from my grandma’s stash and white poplin with black stripes. That’s it. Why? Because it is not easy to get the perfect stripe! Fabric quality, stretch, thickness, colour, stripe width, … and there is often not a lot of choice around.

I once asked a fellow sewer (who quite often sews stripes) about her sources for lovely striped fabric, and she named Nosh fabrics. They do have really amazing fabrics – as far as I can tell – but the price point is quite high for a newbie stripe-sewist.

So, instead, here is a short list of other possible stripe suppliers I have compiled:

• Finland based Nosh fabrics has an extra stripe category for their organic cotton fabrics and they ship internationally!
• Shipping internationally (but outside of Europe the costs are astronomical) you also have Lebenskleidung.  This company, based in Germany, produce fair trade, organic cotton stripes.
• Dutch based Driessen Stoffen have the cheapest stripes (though not the most beatiful), that I found. Starting at just 1€ and shipping within Europe.
• UK-based only, but with lots of options for stripes: myfabrics.co.uk (and stoffe.de for Germany, Austria and Switzerland).
• I just fell in love with these woven striped fabrics from Ray Stitch, maybe for a great coat? They offer international shipping at a reasonable pricepoint.
• US-based (with quite vague international shipping prices) So Sew English has beautiful striped knits. Especially the combination of stripes and florals …
• Or why not create your own stripes at Woven Monkey?

Have you tried any of these? Do you have some amazing stripes in your stash? What is your best fabric source for stripes? If you have any insider info for great stripe shopping please let us know in the comments! (Since we are a international community it would be great if you could also share also the geographical location and shipping terms.)

I’m looking forward to your recommendations.
Happy stripe shopping!
Anna

PS: If everything fails, you could try dying techniques. I found an amazing example of stripe-dyed bedding and there are a mass of dyeing tutorials on the web.