African Fabric Stash

My parents work in Ghana, West Africa, so I've been lucky enough to get beautiful Ghanaian fabric as gifts over the last few years. I thought it was about time I took the fabric out again and contemplate the projects that they could inspire. The fabric is all cotton, so they would be more suited to summer wear, so it is a funny time of year to be hauling these out, but I was actually pulling out "winter" fabrics and decided to put these aside too.

Photo 1: All the brights...All are 100% cotton Made in Ghana wax prints, all but one were produced by Akosombo Textiles Ltd.

Photo 2: An orange and black large scale print (see apple size for reference). When I researched the company name, it came from China, so not Ghanaian, but in that style and at least bought in Ghana.

Photo 3:  The two blue fabrics have a coating on top and are textured. They would probably work for a big bag??? The brown wax print is slightly thinner than the others in the collection and says "London Wax Print".

Photo 4 & 5:  My favourite, a beautiful turquoise and gold design with a gold and black border. It is printed with "sukhotthai style" in the selvage, so it is probably from Thailand. I want something really special with this fabric.

So what do you think? Which is your favourite? Do you have any suggestions for patterns to use? I was thinking about summer dresses, skirts or loose tunic styles. My husband has some beautiful examples of the men's shirts made from this fabric, but I thought I'd leave you a photo of the little men in my life wearing their Ghanaian shirts.

Here are Willem and James with their cousin Daniel last Christmas in South Africa. It is Daniel's 2nd birthday today, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY little Danny Boy!!!