Very Belated PR Weekend Post

I went to my second Pattern Review weekend in November. This was months ago now, so my memories are hazy and pleasant of fabric, food, and friends. Well, the fabric itself gives me pleasure. A full day of fabric shopping in the Garment District is kind of brutal. After 2006 and fearing that the weight of the bags of fabric would break my arm I vowed to bring some sort of wheeled contraption, but I didn't actually think to look for such wheeled contraption until I was packing. Oops. I did bring my big Ikea bag (the kind you can buy for 59 cents at the register), so I could at least carry stuff on my shoulder rather than in the crook of my elbow with plastic carrier bags. It helped marginally but I think my spine is still a little crooked!

There were some people from last year and new faces as well and everyone was just a doll.

It was Cidell's first time and she magnanimously arranged for my lodging with her friends and family. As the hotel was prohibitively expensive, I greatly appreciated that! I would not have been able to go had she not provided places for me to lay my head.

Blah blah blah, let's get to the fabric haul and the reason I'm finally posting this (I used the CHEAP ASS MOOD FABRIC, so I figured I should show its provenance):



Top row: green velvet from Metro Textile, purple and black striped shirting from Paron (Vera Wang), pinstriped silk dupioni from Paron, green silk/cotton blend from Paron, navy stretch wool with orange windowpanes from Metro Textile, knit print from Metro Textile, grey pinstriped cotton with a sheen and stretch from Mood

Bottom row: white batiste from Chic, lightweight black wool from Chic, white shirting from Chic, knit print from Metro Textile, two way medium weight textured blue stretch woven from Paron, magenta cotton knit from Spandex House.




The trip of course included a stop at Metro Textiles, where JodiB, Cmarie12, and Cidell posed for a picture.




Karen6790 and I arranged to swap some BWOF issues, and she surprised me with these fantastic vintage patterns! I love the illustrations on old patterns so much, and to imagine the women who made them at that time and where they wore their clothes.

Before we left town we stopped off at Crumb, a trendy cupcake bakery with a dizzying array of choices. I got Raspberry and Snickerdoodle, though I should explain that by Snickerdoodle they meant Snickers. There is a big difference between the two flavors and I was surprised a bakery would get mixed up. Devastatingly, I left the cupcakes in Cidell's car when she so generously brought me all the way into DC. She saved them in her freezer and I had them last month and they were still delicious. I guess filled cupcakes are their thing. The raspberry was filled with purple, and the snickerdoodle with chocolate mousse-ish.

On the way home we stopped by Cmarie12's. Seeing her clothes in person is really breathtaking. She puts so many details into everything and all the construction is perfect. She definitely won't be catching a look of the inside of my garments. `-) Her fabric closet was very inspiring. There is a lot there, but it is all organized by color and very visually stimulating. We were petting the fabrics and this crazy green that looks like astroturf really caught my eye. She gave it to me! I am thinking a 60s shift and a cropped jacket from BWOF. She worked for a button manufacturer for many years and has sooo many great buttons, and she insisted Cidell and I fill our pockets with them. It was so much fun! For someone who only got over her fear of buttonholes last spring, I sure do love buttons (and have a lot of them).

It was definitely another successful PR weekend. Though I got quite a bit of fabric, I felt that I showed remarkable restraint. Of course, I've only used two of them (well, three because I've used the batiste for underlining). There's still time...