COLORFUL TOILE FABRIC PICKS

Hey there!  We survived camp last week, but it's taken me a few days to recover and get back to a schedule for blogging.  We're approaching holiday mode and then vacation will be coming up soon, so thanks for hanging in there with me through a little bit of a sporadic summer posting schedule!

Any time I post a photo with these pillows in it, I get questions about the fabric.  The black background and bright colors really are unmatched in any other toile or chinoiserie I've seen.

I'm not sure that I ever fully told you the back story, so here goes!  Two summers ago my daughter was playing in a basketball tourney at a school right next to my sister's house, so in between games we snuck away to do some thrifting in the area.  At one of our usual thrift store stops, I flipped through the textiles on a whim while I was waiting for my sis to finish shopping and found one drapery panel made out of this fabric.  I'd never seen it before, but it seemed nice and clean (I actually washed it on cold and gentle later anyway) and I loved the colors.  It was just enough for a couple of pillows, so for $3 I scooped it up and posted this photo on Instagram...

I made a couple of pillows and first posted them on my winter tour early last year.  There weren't any markings on the piece I had, so I didn't know anything about it.  A kind reader informed me that the fabric was a vintage 1940's bark cloth made by Markwood, and the pattern is called Chippendale.  I've since had a few other readers find a piece here and there, and it's EXPENSIVE, so I really got a bargain with my drapery panel!  (I might have cut it a little more judiciously had I know that, and tried to squeeze a little more out of it!)

Since my exact fabric would be hard to come by, I've rounded up a few good options if you're looking for something similar.  Believe it or not, it's pretty difficult to find a good chinoiserie with a dark background and bright colors, it seems like an unusual combo.  I think that's why my piece caught my eye.

One of my favorite fabrics, Chiang Mai Dragon, is available in a dark colorway.  I LOVE it and someday I'm sure I'll come up with an excuse to use it somewhere, even though I already have it in the alabaster colorway.  It's an expensive designer fabric, but worth the splurge on just a bit in my opinion.  Here's a ready made pillow if you don't want to sew your own.

Summer Palace by P. Kaufmann is a pretty good alternative at a great price point if you like the brighter pastel colors rather than more primary colored accents.

I also think Robert Allen's Neo Toile in charcoal/black is a good option, although there isn't such a variety of brighter colors. (Pillow here)

This is Neo Toile "Coral", which is a lighter colorway, and although it doesn't have the dark background the bright colors are pretty. (Pillow here)

It's also available in an idigo colorway if you like the darker color, though the accent colors aren't as bright.  (Pillow here)

I did find the Markwood Chippendale print on Etsy available as pillows in a red colorway- cute!

Searching for fabric in this post has reminded me how much I love toile!  There are SO many pretty chinoiserie choices, but I tried to stick with colors similar to my inspiration fabric in this post.  Maybe I'll do another post with other colors soon!


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