Bark Fabric
 

I have inherited some Bark Fabric circa 1910. Has anyone worked with it before? Not exactly sure what I want to do with it yet.....
Le-Ann

do you mean fabric with a print that looks like bard or barkcloth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barkcloth
Do you have a picture?

I have never heard of this before. It was interesting to see what Wikipedia has to say about it. This is a thread I will be following closely.

I took it to a friend of mine who owns a patchwork shop. She showed me some fabric which was commissioned by a lady here in Australia. She told me it is no longer made. They used it to cover chairs, curtains etc.... i remember my Grandma having chairs in this when I was a child.

I seem to have some trouble with getting a photo here so I can only get it to upload via a pdf..... sorry. If it does not work let me know and i will get my son to look at it for me and see if we can get the picture up.

Le-Ann

Hi

I uploaded a pdf of the fabric....

That fabric patterning looks like Toile fabric which has been used frequently for chair coverings and curtains in earlier times. Now, if it is 100% cotton and lightweight, people use it like any quilt fabric. Is your Bark fabric more sturdy than quilting cotton? Then it may have been upholstery fabric. Here are some images from a Bing search. https://www.bing.com/images/search?q...cw=1117&ch=623

Hi,
It is rough, but I would not say that it is a heavy weight fabric, I have worked with some cottons that would be heavier than it. Quite grainy in texture however. I would probably not have used it to cover chairs as my Gran did, I do not think that it is robust enough for that.... but it would have done for curtaining. I will look at the link. Thanks

I've worked with bark cloth. I don't know if it's the same thing that you are referring to though. I used to live in Hawaii, where it was very popular in the 40s and had a resurgence in the late 60s, early 70s. It is usually 100% cotton, medium, to slightly, heavy weight, and frequently has tropical floral prints s/a heliconia, pineapples, hydrangia, ferns, etc. It works great for pillows and light upholstery. It looks fabulous with bamboo outdoor furniture. I've never tried it for quilting. It might be too heavy for that purpose.

~ C

This sounds like it might be it. My shop owner told me that the lady the commissioned the making of the fabric here in Australia a few years ago did so specifically for patchwork. The bolts she showed me she had left were quite colourful and had quite large prints on them. It is so rough in texture, that I was wondering if anyone had worked with it for patchwork. But on this forum I see people are working with denim, so.... maybe it is worth a go? I have also been given some of my Great-Aunts crochet, which none of my children want, so maybe I could put it all together somehow.
Le-Ann

I agree with the others that barkcloth was usually used for decor.

I think that print would be a challenge to work with... but maybe fussy cutting snowballs and bordering with prints, something like an Around the Twist/Garden Twist would work.

There is a specific type of cloth often used in muumuus, never did learn the name of it, with a bit of texture. I've collected quite a bit of that and will make a large modern style log cabin variation. It's not barkcloth, it's lighter and super slippery and will be a challenge to work with even with an easy straight seam.