I am a 40 something Irish woman, who loves to sew and loves fabrics especially dressmaking fabrics!

I started to sew my own clothes about 12 years ago – I got tired of trying to find clothes that fit, in the styles I wanted and in my price range. I learned to sew when I was in National School, and kept sewing during my teenage years until work and life took over. I rekindled this hobby when I was at home with the babies as something to be doing, starting with bags made from thrifted and old clothes. That slowly progressed onto making my own clothes for myself – now I make 95% of all my clothes and shirts, t-shirts and joggers for the husband and boys. 

I am mostly self thought and constantly learning new techniques. I have undertaken a few courses in the Grafton Academy in the past few years to expand my knowledge. 

Why did I open a fabric shop:

The shop: Dress Fabrics July 2015 – May 2021

With the rise in popularity of make do and mend, sewing programs on TV like the Great British Sewing Bee and a general resurgence of all things crafty, sewing your own clothes is becoming more popular once again.

It was difficult to find nice fabrics – while there were lots of brick and mortar and online shops who cater to the craft and patchwork market there was a deficit of garment fabric options available in Ireland when I started back in 2015. This has changed luckily and there are a variety of online and other shops selling a variety of fabrics and sewing supplies these days.

Pre Covid: We ran sewing classes in block of 6 weeks during the school term times – mornings and evenings. I missed these sewing classes a lot and now that I have a part time job and don’t have a premises to work from (the shop building has been taken over by the boys) I won’t be running regular classes for the forseeable.  Theres always the possibility of one off workshops in the future though.

For now check out our beginners online sewing course. I hope to expand this with new video content in 2022.

So if you are:

• Someone who would like to learn to sew??
• Like the idea of being able to make your own clothes – even just a simple t shirt??
• Did you learn to sew as a child and would like to take the plunge and get started again??
• Have you picked up an inexpensive sewing machine in Aldi or Lidl at one time and never taken it out of the box or just fixed a pair of jeans??

Subscribe to our email list:

If you sign up to subscribe to the dress fabrics email, you will receive regular emails highlighting what is happening in the shop – new fabric arrivals, special offers etc.

• Blog posts will include videos to help describe the different fabrics. It can be hard to get the feel of a fabric from a photo on your screen. I will do my best to describe the fabrics drape weight and colour on video too.
• I will be showcasing fabrics on the blog by making clothes to demonstrate the use of the different fabrics and as trial and error so that you the customer will have a better idea of what type of garment the fabric is suited to.
• I will link you to great patterns – there’s a world of independent pattern designers out there, designing up to the minute and timeless patterns for all shapes and sizes.
• Many patterns are available to download immediately as pdf, and you stick them together and cut out your size. I’ll demonstrate how this all works. There are plenty of free patterns which are great to get started on.
• I will share any tip or tricks I come across to help enable us all to become better at our craft.

Thanks for stopping by and reading this far,

Maeve xx