Material World

'Material World' blog post banner

Large number of vintage fabric bolts | H is for Home

What a boot full of booty!!

large number of vintage fabric bolts stuffed into the boot of our car

Unbelievably, we’ve just acquired approximately 40 bolts of vintage fabric.

large number of vintage fabric bolts

It all dates from the 1950s & 60s.

bolt of vintage David Whitehead fabric still wrapped in its original brown paper and address label

Most of them are unused – some still have their original labels & packaging. It’s so rare to discover original vintage textiles like this – especially in this quantity.

large number of vintage fabric bolts

A friend of ours works in the textiles. He has a friend, also in the trade, who was clearing one of his storage areas. Lurking at the back was all this fabric – bought by his father – which had lain there untouched for 50 or 60 years. A real fabric collectors dream!

large number of vintage fabric bolts

Each bolt measures between 30 & 60 yards in length.

large number of vintage fabric bolts

There are some fantastic patterns.

large number of vintage fabric bolts

…period designs featuring flowers & fruit, geometric shapes and even space galaxies.

group of vintage monotone fabric bolts

Some bold & bright, some monochrome.

close up of vintage monotone fabric bolt

We’ve only had the fabric for a few days and haven’t started identifying designers as yet – having said that, there are lots still with original David Whitehead labels…

close up of vintage David Whitehead fabric with rose pattern

…a prominent textile manufacturer from this period.

close up of vintage David Whitehead fabric with leaf pattern

We’re pretty sure that a good number of the ones without labels intact are by them too.

close up of vintage fabric with pink and grey stripe and embossed flower pattern

Here’s a quartet of David Whitehead adverts; we often come across them in vintage magazines from the 50s & 60s.

four vintage magazine adverts for Davis Whitehead fabrics

We’ll be putting the fabric up for sale in the coming weeks. Some we’ll sell as long fabric lengths in our Picture House Antiques pitch – some we’ll sell by the metre in our webshop and Etsy & Folksy and eBay outlets.

close up of vintage David Whitehead fabric with fruit pattern

A once in a lifetime find… many thanks to Shaun!!!

10 thoughts on “Material World

  1. OMG you are so, so lucky, what i would do for a find like that, of course most of it wouldn't get sold if it was me! will certainly look out for it when it hits the market- i want to make some dresses, and this could be perfect… x

  2. What a fantastic find. Some of those fabrics are fantastic designs and so 'trendy' at the moment. It proves there are still 'vintage' bargains out there if you know where to look.

Comments are closed.