Stashoholism Confessional: Internet Edition and Excited for Montreal!

OK, so admittedly I just bought yards and yards and YARDS of fabric at PR Weekend Philadelphia, but one of the few things of which I had a specific need was more cotton batiste. I use this to line/underline everything in the summer (winter needs something slippery that won't stick to tights) and I am almost out.




The best price I found was at Vogue Fabrics. $3.50/yd is less than I pay at Chic Fabrics in NYC ($5/yd). It is a little stiffer and coarser than the batiste I've been using, but I haven't pre-washed it yet so hopefully it will soften up. I ordered 10 yards so I'm still contemplating the best way to pre-wash. Just tossing the whole length in the wash machine results in a wrinkled mess, but pre-treating it by project ends up with wasted length. Dilemma.

Since I was making the order anyway I just had to check out the rest of what they had on offer. I loved the gray voile with polka dots. They are textured somehow, but not on the wrong side of the fabric so I'm not really sure how to describe them. They're not really applique. The fabric has a subtle shimmer to it that I just love. I don't wear white blouses because (1) there is too much danger of looking like a waiter (and I absolutely NEVER wear a white blouse with a black bottom because of the waiter factor) and (2) the real reason is pit stains. So a gray is a nice stand-in. Vogue Fabric's website photo showed it as a very pale gray but it is in fact a lightish/mediumish gray, which suits me better. It will be the double flounce 04-2010-105 blouse from Burda's April issue--the link is to the French version of the site, who knows how long it will exist. At $3.99/yd, this lovely fabric was a bargain! I wish I'd gotten enough to make a longish flowy skirt. We are thinking of Turkey for holiday this year so I will want some longer but very cool dresses and skirts to wear there so as to fit in more with local mores.



And yet, I still had an itch that was not scratched. An itch for cotton prints. An itch for orange. And so I visited fabric.com, which I really, really try not to do. I mistake "free shipping" for "free fabric" and go a little bit nuts (and even if there were free fabric, do I really need more?). The cotton lawn print is what drew me in. With red and orange it will match two of the skirts in my endless combination. However, I guess I was not really familiar with fabric.com's photography practices. What I thought would be a Liberty scale delicate paisley print turns out to be ginormous salad-plate sized paisleys. I had intended the fabric to be the Burda 05-2009-105 peplum blouse, as seen on AllisonC (LOVE! It would be easier if Allison would just give me hers.). But I am not feeling it with the large scale print. I could actually just return the fabric, but it is not in my nature to give up fabric. So now I'm thinking a quick and easy McCall 5884, with or without short sleeves.

I saw *two* women on the same day in that fab shade of mustard and was like, "Why don't I have a mustard dress????" At $1.95/yd, this fabric was the place to start. I am excited about making it into the Vogue Cynthia Steffe 1151. I ordered 4 yards and I wish I'd ordered more, because to get a firm double-knit texture I'm going to double the fabric and I think I'd like both a tee and a skirt of this fabric in addition to the dress. Maybe I can underline with knit lining and save some fashion fabric. I love the color of this, but beware that as a poly-cotton knit with no lycra it doesn't have much stretch; it's a light to medium weight.

The teal will be a skirt, the two polka dot knits tops (the orange and teal polka dots don't exactly match the orange or teal skirts I have planned, but I think it will still coordinate). I just loved the purple cotton "London Calling" lawn and don't have a set idea for it yet. BTW, fabric.com calls the lawn 100% cotton, but it definitely has a little bit of lycra in it. Which I consider a good thing, but would be a surprise to a quilter. Also, I wouldn't really call it a lawn either, as it is quite substantial and opaque.

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I leave for Montreal on Monday! I'll be spending the week there before PR Weekend and I am really looking forward to some vacation. I've never been to Canada! Unfortunately, I have been traveling 3 of the past 4 weekends and have sewn nothing new for the trip. I'll have to wear something I've already worn to the cocktail party. The only thing I hope to finish before leaving is a computer bag for my adorable turquoise Samsung N150, but even that is up in the air because it will require a lot of hand sewing. After my nightmare of a trip last weekend (flight from DFW to DC cancelled; after 7 hours in the airport I managed to catch a flight to Philly and took the Amtrak home, arriving well after midnight and 15 hours after leaving my hotel in Dallas, didn't get my suitcase until last night, four days later) I am a little wary but hopefully the travel will be a little easier this trip!

So perhaps I should hold off on fabric buying for a while until I actually have sewn something! I think most of our shopping in Montreal will be higher end. Luckily I am cheap and expensive fabric isn't too tempting.