Welcome to the African Fabric Shop
Magie Relph and Bob Irwin
Vintage & Collectable African Textiles
The textile treasures we couldn't resist on our travels
Textiles
From across Africa
Beads
Handmade recycled African beads
Genuine Bolga baskets
Quality baskets - fairly traded
Inspiration
Talks for textile groups
Quilt, bag and jewellery kits
Welcome to the African Fabric Shop
Magie Relph and Bob Irwin travel extensively all over Africa searching out fabulous textiles, beads and baskets.
Every time we unpack our bags, we add new temptations to the website. Enjoy!
We are co-organisers of seven World Textile Days around the UK.
Featured Items
Janice Gunner visits the shop: auditioning fabrics for our Janice Gunner Special Selection packs. Tofali Rouge © Janice Gunner, made by Janice using one of her special selections.NEW Janice Gunner Special Selection packs
Janice was in the shop recently and guess what she got up to...
As always, she just couldn't keep her hands off the fabrics, so Magie put her to work selecting fabrics for a new range of packs: our Janice Gunner Special Selections.
As an added bonus, each pack contains a 'hints and tips' sheet by Janice - perfect to get you started on your way to a new creation.
Be quick - these are limited editions!
View and buy: Janice Gunner Special Selections
Half Metre Challenge pack: five new colourways availableOur half metre challenge
What can YOU make with:
- One half metre of hand-dyed African batik
- One 16 metre skein of Perle No 8 embroidery thread, hand-dyed in South Africa
- And a bag of colour co-ordinated recycled beads from Ghana
Answer:
- Experiment... break some rules... and get creative
- Take some inspiration from the sample pieces here on our website
We have five great new Half Metre Challenge packs on the website to tempt you. Great colours, great fabrics, great colour co-ordinated threads and embellishments.
View and buy: Half Metre Challenge packs
Can we bring the shop to you? Magie and Bob at World Textile Day in Frodsham, 2018We'd love to come to your group
Have you noticed we've cut down on the big shows? We've only got Festival of Quilts left. Here's why.
From our World Textile Days, we've discovered something important about running a small scale, fair trade business. We're not just selling fabrics, beads and baskets. We're communicating our experiences and our passion for what we do directly to you.
So instead of big shows, we'd rather bring our mobile shop to you. These types of events are perfect for what we're talking about:
- Guild regional and area days
- Quilt groups
- Embroiderers' Guilds
- Spinners, Weavers and Dyers Guilds
- Textile and costume groups
Invite Magie as a speaker and we'll bring the shop with us!
More info: Talks by Magie Relph
Find us in Travel Africa Online Extra, July 2018We're in Travel Africa magazine
Going back a few years, Bob used to write fairly regularly for Travel Africa magazine.
Recently he's reconnected with the publisher Craig Rix and his editorial staff and we're looking forward to working together to bring African fabrics to whole new audience.
Our first story for them is online now in the Travel Africa Extra section of their website.