Pilgrimage to Fabric Mart

Well, our visit to Fabric Mart was a roaring success!  In addition to me and Cidell, 5 people were able to join our spur-of-the-moment trip.  The group photo shows Layla, Mary, Claudine, Cidell, Lisette, me, and Diane thoroughly dazed and sated after our 3(!!!) hour visit to the store.  We really felt like we'd been in there for only an hour.



The drive from Baltimore took about two hours and Fabric Mart was easy to spot once we got into town.  The parking lot isn't large, but they don't get too much in-person business and we had no trouble finding a place.










You can enter through the front of the store (didn't get a picture, sorry) or the back, from the parking lot.  We came in through the back.  Here I am about to enter the store for the first time.  Can you feel the anticipation?










We were greeted by Sharon, with whom many of us have had email correspondence.  She was incredibly nice and patient with us and gave us a tour of the palace grounds.

The area you enter is the store.  Down the center of the store are the clearance items--generally there is not enough yardage to sell online.  Once it gets into the store's clearance area, prices are 50% off marked.  Most of my purchases came from this area.  Where the items are available online I provided a link below.







Then you keep going.  There's a cutting area, a back room, an upstairs, and a downstairs.  The areas are marked with letter codes (B=Back, D=Downstairs, and so on--so now I know where their product codes come from!).  You can wander the shelves at will, writing down codes.  There is a computer in the front where you look up fabric content and price based on your code.  If you decide you want something, you just grab it off the shelf and bring it to be cut.

The whole time we were there, the cutters were steadily working on online orders.  It seemed like a happy workplace.  The cutters were joking with one another and everyone was incredibly nice.  This makes me doubly glad to shop there in the future.  Happy employees and a non-chain business--what more could you ask for?




After much contemplation, it was finally time to get our fabric cut.  Sharon had so much patience with us--we ended up getting 97 yards as a group!  I was responsible for more than my fair share, I'll confess:  27 1/8 yard.  Cidell beat me at 28 yards.

I think the look on my face in this photos shows it all.






 The fuchsia wool/cotton/lycra blend on the right was my splurge fabric, a Julie's Pick at $12.99/yd.  For this quality fabric, I consider the price a bargain.  It's lighter weight, but totally opaque.  It will make a gorgeous work dress.

The nylon jacquard is, I think, my only mistake.  I was really drawn to the color and the weave, but I didn't really feel it until I got it home.  It has a scratchy, uncomfortable hand.  It would be ok for a purse, but the color wouldn't work for a purse.  I think one mistake is allowed.


My second mistake was being too influenced--I LOVE the mustard ponte and I only bought one yard of it.  I wish I'd bought 3.  This was from the clearance section so it's not available online.  Alas.

These pontes are great quality and you can't beat the $4/yd price!  The turquoise is totally my color and I was influenced by the sweatshirt dress Cidell was wearing that day in getting the heathered charcoal gray.





The bright print with the black background hasn't made it onto the website yet, but it is meant to eventually in the ITY section.  The border print was in the clearance section and Cidell and I had a bit of a tug of war over it.  Let's just say, I'm small but I'm fierce.  LOL.  It will be a wrap dress.






Love these two prints!  The cotton was from the clearance area.  I can never have enough bright colors.

The peacock-style print on the right is a rayon challis.  It's another fabric that hasn't yet made it onto the website but is supposed to join the other rayon challises.  It will be be another Burda 09-2007-120 tie front blouse, and hopefully soon.


I also got some underpinnings:  8 yards of a nice light gray lining ($1.99/yd) and 1 yard of black tricot ($1/yd)



After all this, you can imagine that we were ravenous!  We tried to go to the pizza place just down the street, but it was closed.  We all piled into Lisette's minivan (imagine 7 grown women emerging from a minivan, it was kind of hilarious) and headed to Frank's Pizza to tally our purchases and plan our next stop.

You didn't think there would be more?







The PA Fabric Outlet, which has a store in Philly and a few other locations, is based (I believe) in Lancaster, PA, which just happened to be on our way back home.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take any photos inside but it is a big store famous for its notions and trims.  They also have plenty of fabric.









I couldn't resist two more knits, an orange red medium-weight knit that will make a nice top in a fiery color to keep me warm through the winter, and a purple wool-blend (based on my burn test) knit for $7.97/yd.  You really can't beat that price.  It will make a great t-shirt dress, though I am contemplating other uses for it.





I also stocked up on notions.  The best find was this elastic reflective piping for athletic-wear at 25 cents/yard.  That is a crazy price for this notion.  They also had pinchy toggle cord stops in a bag of about 24 for $3!!!!  It costs $3 for two of these at Joann.  Lisette and I split a bag.  I also picked up some zippers from the 8 for $2 barrel (plus two more "by the each").

Then it really was time to get home.  I managed to heave my suitcase onto the train, two metros, and finally made it to home sweet home, exhausted but entirely pleased.

All photos are here.

Travel Togs for Portugal: A Line Skirt and Waterfall Cardi

Thank you all for the lovely comments on my photos from Portugal!  It really is a wonderful place to visit.  I highly recommend it.

Since making my biking/travel wardrobe for The Netherlands, I've pretty much been set on travel clothes.  For that trip, I made 6 tops out of solid-colored wicking fabric and added 3 print skirts to my already broad repertoire.  Throw in a dress or two and you've got two weeks worth of outfits that you might not even get sick of.  However, for Portugal the weather was likely to be a little cooler than my sleeveless tops and summer skirts would work for, and plus I always need an excuse to do some sewing!

I made four new items and in writing about them I realized that all of them are TNTs, or at least based on a TNT.  Am I getting boring?  I hope not.  I think it's that with 275 pattern reviews (plus all the patterns sewn before I discovered PR and those I haven't gotten around to reviewing), I've got a lot of bases covered.  I'm also getting better at adapting patterns I already know that go together nicely and fit well rather than having to start over each time.

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The skirts I made for The Netherlands are mostly cotton, which sometimes doesn't interact well with tights, so I wanted a more tights-oriented skirt.  I turned to--what else--TNT A line skirt Simplicity 2211.  This is a recent addition to my lexicon, as I only made it for the first time over the summer.  I've now made it 4 times, and this certainly isn't the last.

I used a bronze silk dupioni I bought in NYC several years ago.  It was intended for another project but I kept using bits of it here and there and finally there wasn't enough for the original plan.  Also, I am (as ever) working on Too Good to Use.  Sometimes having a plan for something makes it TGTU.  If I really cared about the planned project, it would have been made sometime in the last four years.  It wasn't.  Better to make it into something I will wear than continue to "save" the fabric indefinitely.

The challenge with this was choosing the right side and then keeping all the piece straight.  I tore little pieces of tissue paper, marked them with CF, SF, SB, and CB and then pinned them on the wrong side of the respective pieces.


To add body to the dupioni, I underlined in silk organza using the faux Hong Kong finish technique, as described here.  You cut the underlining 1.5 inches wider than the fashion fabric, line up the cut vertical edges and sew right sides together (so the underlining is kind of bulging over the fashion fabric), then turn it right-side out, letting the underlining roll over to cover the seam allowances.  It creates such a high-end looking finish!









To complete the high-end look, I put in a hand hem.  I don't usually do hems by hand.  The machine blind stitch is truly nicer than anything I've ever achieved by hand.  But here I was able to sew the hem allowance only to the underlining, for a completely invisible hem.







The waist is bound with a straight-grain strip of fabric.  I sewed it first to the wrong side, stitching a ribbon in place as I sewed on the binding to ensure the waist would remain stable.  Then I folded it over to the right side and topstitched, using my walking foot to ensure even feed.  I left a tab overlapping the zipper opening, and sewed in a snap for closing.  I find snaps more secure than hooks-and-eyes.









This still isn't a great skirt for sitting in; the dupioni wrinkles like crazy despite the underlining.  So I think I only wore it twice, on the days we didn't take any train rides.  It is gorgeous, though, and I felt very luxe in this 100% silk outfit.  The blouse is McCall 5708 made out of Vera Wang silk from that Fabric.com $1.99/yd blowout a couple years ago.  The photos were taken near the Oceanario (aquarium) in Lisbon.

All photos for S2211 are here.






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I made use of my waterfall cardigan t-shirt variation pattern right away for this gorgeous wool sweaterknit I bought in New York last Fall.  It was $10/yd and I only bought one yard, thinking I'd make a pullover sweater (aka long-sleeve t-shirt).  To get the waterfall cardigan out of it, I had to cut the sleeves on the crossgrain.  Before doing so I tested the fabric and it appeared to have stretch.



Well, clearly my stretch test was not sufficiently rigorous because I could barely pull the sweater on, the sleeves were so tight.  Dang it!  Stupid, stupid mistake.  I contemplated it and then found scraps large enough to add gussets under each arm.  I carefully cut away the serged seams as narrowly as possible, and then added diamond-shaped patches (you can see them in the photo if you look carefully).














I should have made the gussets extend longer on the arms, all the way to the elbow, but the sweater is wearable now.  It is surprisingly warm, even with the lacy pattern.  I am wearing it here with Butterick 5382 in the fabric gifted to me by Marji.






Please excuse my appearance.  It looks like I forgot to put on lipstick that day.  Also, I look a little bit like I'm upset but I was actually having a lot of fun!  These photos were taken in the Castelo in Guimaraes.  It's an 11th century (? as I recall) ruin that has been rebuilt enough to be safe to scramble around in.  It is free to enter and you can climb up and down the walls and staircases.

While we were there some students were having some sort of initiation ceremony, it looked like.  Students in Portugal wear capes or robes, so three girls flowed by in their long robes, climbed a staircase, and called something out from the top of the walls.  The initiates down below, wearing street clothes and straw hats, had to shout something in response, dance a jig, do pushups, and generally carry on.  It was so fun--I felt like I was at Hogwarts!

All photos for the waterfall cardi are here.

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All is well with me through Hurricane Sandy.  We got a lot of rain and wind, but I have power and my roof didn't leak.  Those of you still dealing with it, take care and my fingers are crossed you get off as easy as I did.

Back from Portugal!

Back from vacation, back to real life.  Le sigh.  I have been back for more than a week but you know how it is to readjust (and the inevitable cold from flying).  Portugal was beautiful and easy to get around.  The people were all lovely and kindly spoke English.  I speak passable tourist-level French and Spanish and figured Portuguese wouldn't be too much of a stretch but, boy, was I wrong!  The spelling and grammar are similar, so I could read things well enough to get the gist, but the pronunciation is so different that I couldn't understand a word.


We visited Lisbon, Porto, and Guimaraes, a small city about an hour from Porto.  Guimaraes was named European City of Culture for 2012, so it was a great year to visit.  A lot of money had been poured into it and has a lot of interesting history.  The button sculpture at the top is the Guimaraes 2012 logo, a G turned on its side so looks a bit like a heart.


I managed to encounter some interesting textile and fashion related stuff along the way.  The fabric sculpture at leftwas in the Teleferico station in Guimaraes (the sky gondola that takes you to the top of Mt. Penha).  The fabrics are arranged in the color of a rainbow, and there was also a flag garland.  Unexpected little piece of art!

On the right is an azulejo, blue-painted tile, from the Palacio Nacional in Sintra.  I loved the woman's hat!




I was amazed to encounter a fabric store on the main tourist drag of Rua Augusta in Lisbon.  The window displays were gorgeous, with tonal fabrics draped artistically and inspiration photos showing how the fabrics can be used.  I have to confess, though, that I didn't even go in the store.  The fabrics seemed to start around 40 Euro/meter, and while I'm sure I could have found something gorgeous I just don't have a need for a luxurious and luxuriously expensive souvenir fabric.





In Lisbon the Museu do Design e da Moda (museum of design and fashion) is free to visit.  It's in an old bank building, and the permanent exhibit downstairs is really cool.  It's a chronological look at design and fashion over the past 100 years, with about 8 different "stations" as you walk in a circle through time.

There wasn't a whole lot of fashion--a lot more home and industrial design--but I really liked this coat from Dries van Noten.


The textile-related photos from my trip are here.  You can see all the photos from my trip here, and view them as a slide show here.  There are a few new wardrobe elements in them which I will write about soon! 

Back from Ecuador: Adventure Shorts, Jungle Pants, and Bowler Hats, Oh My!

I am home safely from my wonderful trip to Ecuador. There was a lot of hiking, some ziplining, and even some horseback riding, which was truly comical. An equestrienne I am not (Betty Draper makes it look so easy...). You'll recognize the tops from my bike trip to the Netherlands. For hiking I figured I should break down and actually wear shorts and pants, rather than my usual skirts.

I took my machine in for service a few weeks before the trip but *needed* just a few new things for the suitcase. First up were my Adventure Shorts. I will review them eventually. Suffice it to say that the sewing machine that was graciously loaned to me did not enjoy sewing them and I actually busted out the treadle. They are not my most well-made item ever (the treadle has incredibly heavy pressure on the presser foot that caused pulling and wrinkling on the waistband topstitching) but they were Adventure Shorts in more ways than one! These got the seal of approval from my travel companion. One morning when I put on a pair of Jungle Pants, he actually asked, "No Adventure Shorts today?" I thought it was so cute that he used their proper name.



Then I made not one but TWO pairs of Jungle Pants. Jungle Pants are lightweight cotton pants that cover the legs against bugs and brush but allow for air circulation under steamy tropical circumstances.
Both pairs are made from the same pajama pants pattern as my waterproof biking pants for the Netherlands, so they are not the most flattering item. I put cargo pockets on the seersucker pair and in-seam pockets in the blue pair. This ended up being perfect because I'd put my camera in one pocket and my money purse in the other so my two most valuable possessions were on me and everything carried externally was dispensable. They both got a lot of wear, though they won't see the light of day in an urban environment! (I think the blue pair will officially become pajamas.)

I also added another top to the mix, but apparently didn't get any photos of myself on the days I was wearing it! Must inquire with my travel companion.

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We stayed in the Old Town of Quito ("Centro Historico") near the Plaza Santa Domingo, and we turned out to be in the middle of the Garment District! There were lots of fabric shops, many of them combination fabric shop and custom clothing store. Cidell and I had just been lamenting that we wished it was possible to buy a suit jacket and then a length of fabric for making your own skirts, pants, or dress. I should have looked into that in Quito, though I think it's not like Asia where the sewing happens in a day or two.

The fabric stores all had enticing displays in the window, as at right. I went into a couple but *gasp* didn't buy anything. The fabrics were generally very nice English and Italian wools (with fancy woven selvages bearing their country of origin), shirtings, and colorful polyester prints. I couldn't find anything that was made in Ecuador or that seemed very special (English wools are definitely special, but not to Ecuador). I already had my souvenir (described below), so I passed on a fabric souvenir--I would have been buying just to buy, not because I found something I loved.

All the photos from the trip are here (you can see them broken up by day and destination here)

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I was very much inspired by the traditional dress. There is a short description of traditional Ecuadorian Andean dress here. The women wear a dark, knee-length dirndl skirt, light colored stockings (usually white), and low heeled black shoes, generally in a brogue or what we now call "shootie" style. The blouses are generally white, but aren't seen very much as they are covered with a shawl, generally dark but you see the occasional brightly colored shawl. 99% of the shawls I saw were solid colored. The crowning glory is a bowler hat with a narrow brim (2 inches at most), turned up in the back and flat in front, with two dimples in the crown at the front. A long braid is worn down the back, coming out of the hat.

I did not want to take pictures of people without their permission, assuming there would be thousands of examples on the web. Not so! I can't find anything truly representative. The photo at left is close, though her shawl is smaller than most and would generally cover the top and I never saw anyone in a print skirt (they were a bit fuller, too). The photo at right shows the back (though the skirt is longer than most). While I still think that the sari is the most beautiful traditional dress I have encountered, the women of Ecuador in Andean highland dress is one of the most dignified things I have ever seen. They just exude thousands of years of civilization. Amazing. This was only worn by older women. I don't know if it's not adopted until one gets older or if the tradition is dying out in favor of track suits and jeans as everywhere else. I really hope it's the former.

My favorite part was the hat so I had to get one of my own. It is forest green and will be making an appearance at this year's Tweed Ride, Sunday November 13, woot! It does not look anything close to the authentic on me--I don't have the right demeanor or the long dark braid--but I love it so.

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I'm off to Texas for a family reunion this weekend, and will be traveling for work next week, but I will eventually return to regular posting, I promise...


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Blog Housekeeping: I know some people have been having trouble with comments. I finally had a chance to investigate and it appears that Blogger has a bug in its comment form that is embedded at the bottom of the post. I switched to this a few months ago because it's cleaner. I've gone back to the pop-up format, which appears to have fixed the problem for most people that were experiencing it. Sorry it took me so long to deal with it!

I'm Back and Netherlands Wardrobe in Action

I assume you probably gathered I am back from the Netherlands from the fact that Cidell has been posting like a mad woman. I don't have that kind of stamina. I spent last week going to bed very early to get over jet lag rather than editing photos and writing posts!

I have finally finished posting all my photos--you can see them here.

All the mad sewing paid off, even the very last "just one more" project, which was the gray wool jersey shrug. I ended up wearing that a lot! More details to come about the trip and the wardrobe!

A Rainbow of Packing and Stashoholism Confessional: Thrift Store Edition

I can't believe Cidell and I leave on our bike trip tomorrow!!!! I have been sewing like crazy (as per usual for trips), each time saying, "This is the last one, I promise." I was not supposed to set foot in the sewing room last night, but I found myself sneaking in a wool jersey shrug at the last minute. When I confessed my inability to stop sewing, I was accused of fitting the profile of this Onion article. Lol.

The list of items I have sewn for this trip:
-6 tops
-4 skirts
-2 sweaters
-2 shrugs
-2 scarves
-4 ersatz "packing cubes" (mesh bags with zippers)
-rain pants
-rain pullover
-rain spats
-rain mitts
(the rain helmet cover is for home use; helmets aren't worn in the Netherlands as the bike paths are off the roadway)

OK, that is a little crazy, I admit. I made a list three weeks ago with 7 things on it; I finished the list and made an additional sweater, shrug, and the packing cubes. It's been a busy three weeks!

But worth it! I started packing last night and was just tickled by my rainbow of clothing, building on the items I sewed for the mini wardrobe contest. Each top goes with at least two skirts and vice-versa. I am bringing 6 skirts and 6 tops for 10 days of clothing needs, so one of each will only get one wear. I tried to pare down a skirt and only bring 5, but honestly I felt like I would have been leaving one of my children behind. Not sure I should admit that.

There is no wifi on the boat so I am not bringing my computer and likely won't post again until I get back. Cidell is my best photographer so I hope to have lots of great pictures of all these projects to show you. Cross your fingers for blue skies!

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Cidell and I have been doing training rides for the trip, and on our Gwynns Falls ride we stopped at DeBois Textiles. What a fantastic thrift/vintage store! The front is a well-curated collection of vintage clothing and shoes, extremely well-priced for the vintage market. The front also has a surprisingly large collection of textiles (hard to tell if they are vintage or not). The textiles are mostly home dec, but I did find one fabulous piece that can be used for garment sewing. I didn't make the photo very exciting, but it's a jacquard in off-white and my favorite shade of green.

How perfect is Burda 05-2011-108 for this fabric? I didn't even realize until I looked at it again that it calls for jacquard, and recommends using both sides of the fabric--which I was planning to do. The pattern is perfect for me as it is both professional (with some more shoulder coverage) and bikeable. The holy grail!

Back from Turkey! and Travel Wardrobe Preview

I have returned! I actually got back last Saturday but caught a cold on the plane back and have been a little out of it. Although the weather was not ideal (two days of sun out of ten days in Turkey and a day and a half of rain in Athens), we had a great time. We especially loved our visit to Kapadokya in the center of the country--it has amazing geological formations (pictured at the top of the post) and fantastic hiking. Which I was able to do as I was cleared to leave the US without the boot. What a relief! You can see all of my photos here.

I went into a sewing mania before I left. It was almost to the level of unhealthy. Well, let's be real. It *was* unhealthy. I called Cidell and begged her to stop me. I was acting like a true addict, and kept saying, "OK, this really is the last one." And then I would sneak and sew something else.

Because I sewed so much it was more like shopping than planning. I just wanted a lot of pieces to choose from! In the end, I didn't pack quite right because it was much colder than the weather had predicted but I survived. I will eventually (I hope) blog about most of the pieces individually, but here's a few sneak peeks (click the photos to enlarge).

First and foremost, a new jacket! This is the fuschia lambswool from the Vera Wang Lavendar Label collection that Fabric.com was selling for $1.99/yd at the beginning of the year. I was not overly impressed with the quality of most of the fabrics from that collection, but this jacket held up well with 12+ daily hours of wear for nearly two weeks and better yet--I'm not sick of it! I am really happy with this piece. The pattern is Burda 08-2010-113. Here I am posing with a reproduction of a medusa head that is found in the Byzantine Cistern (photo in situ here)

A wrap dress out of the fantastic border print knit that was a gift from Marji (I also managed to squeeze another dress and a skirt out of this fabric, quite a feat as it was a double border, double directional print). I'm pictured here on the Acropolis in Athens in front of the Erechtheion. I persuaded the friendly German guy who took my picture to take another after a sudden gust of wind blew the skirt open to the waist in the first photo!

A wrap sweater, made from a gold sweaterknit I bought ages ago for the very purpose of making a wrap sweater. It's amazing when things actually happen as planned. I rubbed the pattern off a sweater I bought from H&M about 6 years ago. I loved the sweater so much I went back and bought it in the other color they had and I wear them all the time. I'm glad I finally got around to making this into a pattern! Also glad I got around to making it for the trip, as many days I wore two sweaters and a jacket to stay warm, so I was glad to have the extra layer.

In addition to these pieces, I made two more dresses (both came), four tops (two came), a skirt, a nightgown, and a sunhat (the very, very last piece made at midnight the night before departure--really needn't have bothered on that one, lol!!!).

I was looking forward to fabric shopping in the Grand Bazaar, as the little map in my guidebook showed a whole "street" of fabric shops. Well, I think home sewing is about as popular in Turkey as here because there were only 4 or 5 fabric stands, mostly with fancy sequined type fabric. I did manage to find two pieces. The one on the left was sold to me as cotton; I was suspicious of how soft it was but liked the print. When I pulled out out of the washing machine I confirmed for sure that it is rayon as it had that papery, woody texture. Oh well. The piece on the right I purchased from a man who spoke a little more English than I do Turkish (6 words instead of 4) so he didn't represent anything to me about the fiber content, and I knew it was poly anyway. I think it may be a rayon-poly blend, based on the burn test (a quick bright flame with almost no odor, but a hard bead after extinguishing). I just love the delicate print.

Now it's back to real life (*sigh*) and hopefully a healthier, more balanced relationship with my sewing machine.

McCall 5579, 4th of July Kimono Dress

I bought this stretch silk charmeuse in Hong Kong with AllisonC (I think I paid about $3/meter for it). I enjoy subtle stunt dressing and thought it would be perfect for a 4th of July dress, as it is red, white, and blue but not covered with stripes and spangles. Of course, I didn't think so much about the pattern--you can't sit on the ground in this because the skirt isn't very full. I'd had it in mind for this pattern for a year, and in my frenzy of activity leading up to PR Weekend Montreal I managed to get it done! Unfortunately, with this fabric I got what I paid for and it is not holding up well and keeps getting snags. Hopefully it will last a couple years.




The whole time I was thinking about the dress I was debating whether to do contrast bands in red along the neckline and at the midriff. In the end, I decided not to. I don't know that the Duro look (see my Simplicity 4072 version at right) is now unfashionable, but the rage that lasted a good 2.5 years has definitely subsided.




A kimono look is always in fashion, so I went plain old, figuring I could always dress it up with an obi. The one I'm wearing on the left is from Burda 06-2009-151 obi. The reverse side, which you can see in my Montreal collage below, is a silk brocade a friend brought me back from China many years ago. I have no idea what to do with it, so I was glad to finally use a piece!



I did my usual small bust adjustment for a crossover top of shortening the diagonal wrap line. This doesn't have any problems with gaping.





For the swayback alteration, I split the length reduction between the midriff and the skirt, which worked well. No swayback puddling.


Rather than use facings to finish the neckline, I just used a self-fabric binding. As I recall, I didn't even cut the binding on the bias as the neckline curve is never extreme. I just cut the binding about two inches wide on the crossgrain, pressed into a double fold, sewed one edge to the wrong side of the neckline and then folded over and topstitched on the right side. A nice clean finish without any floppy facings.

I cut the skirt a little wider than drafted, the full width of my 45 wide fabric, for comfort.

As depicted on the pattern envelope, the sleeves ended up elbow length, which was entirely unflattering on me. I shortened them about 3 inches at the shoulder seam, tapering to nothing at the underarm.



There are zero reviews of this pattern on PatternReview (well, now there is one) and the pattern is now out of print. I am so surprised by both of those! It is a cute pattern and not too complicated, suitable for beginners. This look never really goes out of style, or if it does it has not done so yet. It's as cute or cuter than several other patterns in this vein. Why it didn't get any love, I don't know. If you have it in stash pull it out and see if you have anything that will work for it!


All photos are here and the pattern review is here.












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My theme for my trip to Montreal for PR Weekend was red and white because I have a RTW red and white hat I wanted to be able to wear with everything. I had several pieces in my closet, but of course what is a trip without new clothes? Somehow over the weekend before leaving I managed to make two dresses and a top before flying out Monday morning: this dress, the Vogue 1161 Rachel Comey, and another version of the Simplicity 2938 princess seam tank top. That one was quite a coup. I had saved the fabric, leftover from Vogue 2787 for almost 3 years. The fabric I had left was in a long skinny piece. I knew that someday I would find a pattern that would work. And finally, I did. Although, it's probably a bad thing that it reinforced my tendency to save small bits of fabric.

PR Weekend Montreal 2010

I was thrilled to get to Montreal and do some sightseeing, but the impetus for my visit was PR Weekend Montreal 2010! It was such a great location for PR Weekend. It is beautiful and easily navigable by public transportation, including the fabric shopping. Anne-Marie arranged for everything to take place very conveniently at the Universite de Montreal and for us to stay in the dorms there so it was easy to attend all the events (although my inability to read maps did stymie me occasionally). It was completely fabulous and I'm so glad I got the chance to go. The organizers (Anne-Marie, Connie, Kay, and Claire) did an amazing job and it was so fun to meet so many new people and see old friends again.



We started off on Friday with lectures by Kathryn Brenne and Jeanne and Emilie of Jalie. Kathryn gave a great demonstration of how to get a complete set of accurate measurements. Cidell and I did this for each other a couple of years ago but I think it may be time to do it again...

Jeanne and Emilie were fantastic! Jeanne demonstrated how to make three or four Jalie projects (I can't even remember how many--it was a blur, she worked so fast). Seeing things happening in person is soooooo helpful. And she certainly made it look easy! I really appreciate all the thought they put into their designs; lately I am developing a pet peeve about the useless notches used by the Big 4. They put in meaningless notches and then all the actual match points are circles and squares and dots. Why not ditch the meaningless notches and replace the circles, squares, and dots with useful notches???? They were a hoot, with Jeanne speaking in French and Emilie translating for her. I bought the criss-cross top, my first Jalie pattern, mostly because adorably pregnant Emilie looked so adorable in it.



Then we all transformed ourselves for the cocktail party! Everyone looked fantastic and we did a little fashion show. It was better than a regular fashion show because everyone talked a little bit about their project, so you got the story as well as the garment. The food was beautiful (and the lemon curd dessert was to die for) and we all had a fantastic time. But we had to head to bed early because the next day was...shopping day!

We had a choice of starting at St. Hubert, the Fabric Row of Montreal, or first heading to Suzie Spandex and a few other warehouse-type stores further out of the city. I went first to Suzie Spandex, and then took the metro to St. Hubert to meet the rest of the group at Madeleine Soie et Laine and from there to wander St. Hubert.

Since I had just bought gallons of fabric at PR Weekend Philly and online I was luckily not in much of a fabric shopping mood. Seriously, I really need to learn how to cultivate this feeling because I felt good about not buying too much. In fact, I bought only one piece! And while I really love the fabric, I bought it mostly just because I wanted a souvenir. This yellow pique has a bit of stretch and will be adorable as a shift. I ended up with nearly four yards. I am trying not to kid myself about the fact that I do NOT make jackets, ever. Coats, yes; jackets, no. But wouldn't it be cute with a matching jacket?

We had another party back at the Universite, this time to show off our acquisitions and swap patterns and fabric. Reneeb4930 had posted on the message board that she volunteers at a thrift shop and they had a bunch of vintage patterns come through and would we be interested in looking at them? Yes please! Well, she brought a huge bag of amazing patterns from the 1940s-60s. They were all gorgeous! She picked out several for me and I was just in heaven.

You can click on the photos to make them larger and see the amazingness! I adore the 40s and early 50s, so it was a no brainer that I'd love those. I usually stay away from the Shapeless Sixties, but I was really drawn to the 60s shift, even though I can't really wear that shape because of my protruding belly and large hips. But I am hoping the empire waist belt will magically deal with those little problems. I hadn't realized we could also bring patterns to swap so unfortunately I didn't bring any. But after the patterns had been looked through for a while there were still plenty left so I picked up two contemporary patterns as well. The Vogue is for the little jacket that I will never make, but is cute, no?

We also did a fabric swap. This is the best thing ever, as far as I'm concerned. We were to bring nice fabrics from our stash that we would never, for whatever reason, actually sew. I brought some pieces that I loved but somehow could never think of anything to make them into. It was so much better than sending them off into the unknown of the thrift store (I would not have been able to let go of them that way) and they were quickly claimed by sewists who will love them. And I ended up with a fantastic haul! In fact, I felt a little buyer's remorse over the yellow floral pique because with the swap fabrics and patterns I have plenty to remember Montreal by! I think the first one I make up will be the batik using two of the vintage patterns.

It seems I have not been able to travel without terrible drama lately--cancelled flights, delayed flights, endless waiting in airports, suitcases in the ether for days and days--but my flight home left on time, landed on time, *and* my suitcase arrived with me. I was (still am!) completely exhausted and so happy!

All PR Weekend related photos (and a selection of my travel photos) are here. All the travel photos are here and you can read about my sightseeing adventures here.