Visiting Mona Luna Fabrics

When I ordered some of the new Mona Luna Knit fabrics for my etsy shop,
I realized that the Studio is just one town away from where I live, in lovely Walnut Creek, California.
I' ve never done something like this before, but I just asked Jennifer if I could come and pick it um instead of having the fabric sent to me.

(picture source: monaluna.com)

And she said yes.

Isn't that exiting? I think all fellow fabric addicts can relate, that it is an awesome opportunity to meet the designer of your fabric in her studio.

Mona Luna is a one woman company, Jennifer does everything by herself, from designing the fabric to shipping envelops with fabric out, but her husband is helping her.

Jennifer has a studio / fabric depot in her house, and it was so nice to pass by it's window on the way to the entry door and see cans stuffed with color pencils.....
She told me that she used to have the fabric stored in her attic, but rented a warehouse to store it now and then drives back and forth to ship it.
(But there was enough fabric stored in the studio to be envy anyway!)

I was able to get a sneak peak of screen print offs (did you know they do the screen print offs by hand?) of her new to come collection, Haven, and wow, it is awesome:

(picture source: monaluna.com)

It looks so scandinavian, doesn't it? 

I really like the folkloristic nature of the prints, and the grey, yellow and pink colors are so pretty.

Do you see the fabric swatch on top? You can't really see it, but these are the cutest kittens EVER!

It is no wonder that a lot of Jennifer's prints speak to me, because she gave away that she lived in Denmark for a year. I can clearly see a lot of danish influence here! Denmark is only about an hour drive from my German hometown, and don't we all love scandinavian designs? I sure do.

Jennifer told me that the woodland knit collection sold really (and surprisingly) fast (so you better grab what you can right now *g*) and for all us knit fabric lovers that hopefully means there are more of her prints to come in knits...

I asked her how long it takes from doing a sketch for a fabric to having the bolts coming in, and it varies a little bit, but for woven fabric it takes about three to four months. Knit fabrics even longer.

All of mona luna's knit fabrics are GOTS certified, and that means not only that the fabric is organic but also that the factory workers are treated well - isn't it good to know that there wasn't any child labor involved in the production of the fabric? And that it is safe to use for baby layettes and crib sets?

I asked Jennifer if it would be possible to have the fabric milled and printed in the US, and she said yes, but it could hardly be for a mass market - the price per yard would probably sky rocket to about 25-30 Dollars per yard. But there might be a future for an exclusive, high quality, low quantity "made in the USA" collection....

Wouldn't that be exiting?

I only picked up two different knit fabrics, that you can find in my etsy shop - they are sold out at monaluna, so don't wait to long if you want to order some, we all know foxes are the new owls *what does the fox say?*

and of course I had to use some of the goodness for my daughter.

She loves to wear comfortable, but cute cloths - and the foxes are more than cute...

I made her a pair of leggings using the Rivera pattern from the book sewing kids love and a tunic with a german pattern by Erbsenprinzessin, Lieblingstunika.

For the photo shoot, I had to wait for natural light and my model being in good mood - not that easy!

I decided to let her play around with her beloved scooter (If you think about buying one for your toddler, take the micro scooter. It is just the best!) to get some better pictures:

NO, it was not my decision to add rain boots to the combination....

So this is the combination in front view - don't get distracted by her silly face...

And here you can see the inserted waist (or bust?) band and the foxes on the neck binding. Cute, isn't it?

by the way: interlock knit fabric without spandex is by far the easiest knit fabric to sew with, because the edges don't roll. If you never tried to sew with knits before, interlock knit is a really good starting point. Just remember to use a ballpoint needle for your sewing machine.

fabric: monaluna woodland knits, fishkopp Shop
patterns: Rivera Leggings, Sewing cloths kids love (you NEED this book!)
Tunic: Lieblingstunika, Erbsenprinzessin