Abakhan’s is a fabric shop that has been running for about 30 years. The branch here in Manchester is a fab place to explore- it has a very dangerous yarn room, a room of different roll end fabrics sold by weight, trims, buttons and a yardage floor upstairs. It’s one of those places you always pop in to, either with a purpose or just to have a look, and I had gone in a few years ago now for some bits and bobs and just picked up a cute pre cut fat quarter of this fabric at the till (it’s like sweets at the checkout for crafters).
I bought it because I liked it, not necessarily to make anything out of it. This happens a fair bit which, I imagine, comes as no surprise to anyone….
I since discovered it was from a range of fabrics designed by Monika Forsberg and sadly hard to find now. I wish I had the whole bundle – it is so lovely.
After Wren Larkin, I really wanted to make some Classic dolls and decided this was finally time to make a doll dressed in this gorgeous fabric. It turned out I had two dolls that would suit it perfectly – a green linen look one and another in blue shot cotton.
Sometimes I really enjoy being led by a fabric pattern, and I decided to improvise my knitted balaclava to include the flowers on this print. The dolls also had to have a little green bird each.
So here are Pickle and her little bird, Sprout, and Periwinkle with their pal, Caper. I do hope you like them. I am so happy with how they turned out, they are full of character, I hope you agree.
You will find their shop listings here and here.
I still have a little piece of this fabric to keep in my fabric drawer…
