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.

Stashoholism Confessional: 7 Month Itch Edition

So, you may recall that I decided to go on a Fabric Fast for Lent this year, which I promptly broke the first week due to the seductive powers of Fabric Mart.

I stayed faithful through the remainder of Lent, and threw in another week to atone for my sins.  Then I kept going.  I didn't buy any fabric until July, at which point I bought fabric for my white A line skirt.  I feel that I have somewhat learned my lesson in fabric buying, because I first bought online from Michael's Fabrics, which had a cotton/linen blend for an incredible $4.99/yd.  I know this was in July because I lost my wallet on 4th of July and I still didn't have a replacement credit card, so I had to get the boyfriend to order it for me.  When it arrived, dangit!, it was winter white, not white.  It also didn't come through the pre-wash very well and it's quite thick/heavy, like a denim weight.

I mostly stuck with in-person buying after that.  I kept my buying sparse, trying to purchase only for wardrobe holes.  For instance, the red silk is to replace this one, whose sleeves I just never loved.  The taupe silk is for a silk half-slip.  The black and white geometric is for (another) A line skirt--I got rid of my black and white plaid skirt several years ago and occasionally miss having a b&w skirt.

The gorgeous wool denim from Michael's fabrics on the lower left will be a sheath dress.  I realized I would really like more non-print sheath dresses for work.  So easy to wear and accessorize and yet instantly professional.



The two knits on the right are for long-sleeve tees.  I have pasted the larger picture above to ask if the turquoise on the left is French terry?  People talk about French terry but I honestly have no idea what it is.  This is a very stretchy knit, fairly heavy weight.  One side is smooth like a jersey knit, the other side almost looks like a sweater knit.  Unfortunately, it didn't wash too well--it has parched desert "crack" marks all over it, the way you sometimes see on rayon knits (though it doesn't feel or burn like rayon).  They are worse on the sweaterknit looking side, so I will be using the smooth side as the outside.

I will admit there is a folly in there. I fell in love with that peacock feather sequined mesh at sewings.com and had to have it.  I have no real idea for it other than a simple skirt.  But I loved it so much online, and I love it just as much in person.

I think for the first time ever I am below parity in my fabric buying, counting the number of pieces of fabric purchased for 2012 against the number of garments sewn (which is not a 1:1 yardage correlation, but is an easy rough calculation).

How better to celebrate than to blow that streak in a fantastical fabric buying spree?  Nikki organized a trip to FabricMart earlier this year, but it was on a Wednesday and I just couldn't take the day off.  Cidell and I are taking our own field trip on Monday since we have the Veteran's Day holiday.  I am so excited.  I just can't even tell you.  Comment here or on her post if you want to meet up with us!

And then next week I will be in NYC for work.  I haven't quite figured out when I'll go fabric shopping, but there will be Garment District visiting.  I will be free for dinner on Thursday night (November 15) if anyone would like to keep me company.

And then I will go back to being parsimonious and puritanical in my buying, and sew like hell to make more room!

Stashoholism Confessional and Book Recommendation

So, I've been feeling a little out of control on fabric buying lately.  I decided that I would not buy any fabric during Lent.  It's not that long, and heaven knows I don't need more fabric, or at least no need would arise in 6 weeks.

I blame Cidell for this.  She sent me a tweet from Fabric Mart about it receiving a shipment of Dry Flex knit.  You know I've been looking for good quality knits for months.  They had it in peacock, one of my favorite colors.  I tried my mantra, "There will always be more fabric."  (My other mantra:  "Buying more fabric keeps me from projects I love.")  But in fact, this kind of fabric is not easy to find and definitely not at that price, and Fabric Mart's stock was quite limited.

Because it has flat rate shipping, it is just economically foolish to buy only one piece of fabric from Fabric Mart.  Right?  (OK, fine, I know that the best "bargain" is spending no money at all.)  But they were also having a 20% off sale.  (There will always be more fabric.)

At any rate, the knit print was so cheap I couldn't pass it up, and it turned out to be really lovely in person.  The print is high end-looking, if that makes sense, and the light parts are light gray rather than white.

The dupioni will be great for a silk shell, of which I don't have enough.

The purple silk was on deep discount as there was only one yard left and it was just so pretty I had to give it a home.  It will be a lovely airy blouse.

Oh right, and the dry flex knit is AWESOME.  Very high quality, thick, good recovery.  It could even be used as a bottom-weight for yoga pants.  I ordered 3 yards and will be glad to have this available in my stash for years.

I have to say, I'm not sorry and I would do it again.  But from now on I really will endeavor to keep my Lenten pledge.

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Enjoying sewing does not mean that you enjoy fashion, and enjoying fashion does not mean you have any interest in the business of fashion.  But if you have an interest in the business of fashion (or , I would argue, business *or* fashion), you must read this fascinating book. 

It explores how luxury brands--couture houses such as Dior and Chanel, custom luggage makers such as Louis Vuitton and Hermes--went from tiny purveyors of wildly expensive goods to the very wealthy to aspirational and then to attainable by the middle class. Chapters cover the consolidation of luxury brands (LVMH being the behemoth), vertical integration of the supply and distribution chain, the development of smaller items such as perfume to drive revenue and brand recognition, the explosive rise in the market for luxury goods (or luxury-branded goods, at any rate) outside Europe and the United States, counterfeiting (chilling), and the move from fashion into "lifestyle."

I may not be making it sounds interesting, but trust me, it is *riveting.*

It's not perfect, of course, and I identified two negatives.

The first is not Thomas's fault: the book just happened to be published on the cusp of the Great Recession. So the tone that takes continued, free-for-all growth for granted is a bit quaint and the data is dated. In addition, one of the big stories of the Great Recession has been the stability of luxury brands. They are not recession-proof, but have not contracted to the same degree as other industries, from what I've read (the Wall Street Journal does an excellent job covering the business of fashion). It would have been interesting to read about that in the book.

The second is totally Thomas's fault, and is evident in the book's subtitle, "How Luxury Lost Its Luster." A more fitting subtitle would have been "The Democratization of Luxury" or "How Luxury Became Big Business." But there is a tone throughout that indicates Thomas's great regret is that "true" luxury disappeared before she could join the luxury class.  The last chapter is devoted to reassuring the reader that the rich still have ways to spend lots of money on things that ordinary people cannot obtain, such as $800 made-to-measure bras (to which I say, eat your heart out over Sigrid's gorgeous bras!!!!).

There is a link to my Goodreads shelf on the right hand sidebar.  Please send me a friend request if you join!  

Upgrades and Stashoholism Confessional

Aaaaand we have a new serger.  I had been meaning to get one for months.  After I couldn't get the tension fully repaired on my old Bernette (it overlocks fine, but won't rolled hem) I gave it to my mom when I went home for Christmas.  It was a nightmare to transport, and I'm pretty sure I cracked the overhead bin as I pulled it out (it didn't really fit; to pull it out I had to stand on the seat and tug with all my might and it emerged with a loud pop).  I gave it away on purpose so I wouldn't continue to use it but would buy a new one.  I "temporarily" went back to my old White Speedylock, which never had great tension.

 Ming kindly loaned me her Brother 1034D to try out.  Threading the lower looper is a DREAM on the 1034D, but I decided that I would treat myself to a little bit of an upgrade.  I thought I wanted a Juki, and the Juki website said there was a Juki dealer in metro-accessible Maryland.  It's a good thing I called them before heading over, though, because they went out of business who knows how long in the past.  So I continued to dither.


Then I was working on my red dress.  The tension on the old serger was never great but it pretty much gave out as I was trying to rolled hem my ruffle.  If you click on the photo you can see it larger.  Those threads are barely holding themselves together.

So of course now it was a crisis!  I wanted to finish my red dress, but I couldn't go any further on it until the ruffle was properly hemmed (it would have been unpleasant to finish the edge after the gathering was done).

I had been waffling between the 4 thread and 5 thread Jukis.  I have, in the past, had a problem with buying the cheap version of what I want, hating it, and eventually buying the expensive version.  This wastes both the money spent on the cheap version and adds unnecessary aggravation to life.  So I have focused on buying what I really want rather than cheaping out.

However, after much thinking, I decided getting the 4 thread would not be cheaping out.  I have no idea what a 5 thread serger is used for, but I understand the chain stitch is generally used in the home dec context.  Given that I wouldn't know how to use it and have obviously not been missing the functionality in my life, I finally decided on the 4 thread Juki MO 644D.



The other thing that was stopping was how to actually GET the serger.  As mentioned, there is no dealer closer than 90 miles away (I don't have a car). I can't get private carrier packages at home because I work and it is not secure to leave things on my front porch.  I hate having large packages sent to work because it is unfair to ask the mailroom to handle my personal stuff.  And I wanted it NOW.  Enter Amazon Prime.  Love.  For $4.99, I got overnight delivery on a Saturday.

Threading the lower looper is no fun on the Juki--certainly nothing like the sliding lever of the Brother 1034D and it doesn't even have the lever that brings the looper into the main body of the serger like on my old Bernette.  It comes with a fancy paperclip you can use to thread it, but it is more trouble than it's worth.

But overall threading is not too bad, and it has a threading map inside the front cover.  So I thread it and do a test stitch aaaaaaand:  thread nest.  Rethreaded the lower looper.  Thread nest.  Rethreaded both loopers.  Thread nest.  I was just about ready to cry, thinking I had gotten a lemon.  So then I rethreaded the lower looper in a different color.  Thread nest, but it wasn't the lower looper like I thought.  Rethreaded upper looper in a different color.  Huh.  It was actually one of the needle threads.  It turned out it hadn't fully clicked into the tension disk.  Argh!

Once I got it actually working it was fabulous.  I did the rolled hem on the ruffle of the red dress (after shot on the right) and it's perfect.  For edge finishing and construction on a regular overlock stitch it's been perfect. It has its quirks--I will do a full review after I have more time with it--but overall I'm pleased with it and I'm so glad I finally got this taken care of!

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I have been out of control on the fabric shopping lately.  It is a real problem.

After our successful DC Pattern Review Meetup, Nikki continued our streak by organizing a Baltimore Fabric Crawl.  We started at Guss Woolens, which I had visited previously, but hadn't gone upstairs.  There is a small room on the first floor and then on the second floor is a largish room with a big table in the middle and the table is piled with by-the-piece remnants at really reasonable prices (there is also a third floor but it only had a few items and none were interesting).  Guss specializes in wool (as you can guess from the name) and there were a fair number of them on the table.  Most of its stock is menswear, which generally doesn't tempt me.  However, I was totally drawn to the wool herringbone.  My photo is gross, but it's a soft white with aqua accents.  It's a little bit of an oxymoron of a fabric--the color is too light for Winter but it's wool so it may be too hot for Summer.  It was $20 for the piece, which is over 2 yards long, and I finally decided I had to have it.  Not sure what I'll make with it.

Underneath the cutting table downstairs they had a few tie silks.  I wear my tie silk obis (I've made 3 at this point) all.the.time so I got a 1 yard cut for a purple and gray one.  I was suspicious of the $5/yd price, but I burned it and it really is silk!  Huge bargain.

We also headed to Michael's/A Fabric Place where we petted some amazing (and amazingly pricey) designer wools, but I didn't get anything.


I am obsessed with stripes lately, even though I hate sewing them.  This pink, red, turquoise, and white stripes knit is a little crazy, but it has all my favorite colors and is a nice, opaque knit with good recovery.  The taupe fabric is for knit lining.



So, speaking of opaque knits, why are they impossible to find?  Ugh.  I have been wanting to make solid-colored long-sleeve t-shirts forever but have never been able to find good quality knits for it.  I ordered some rayon/lycra knits from Fabric.com, thinking that their high lycra content indicated good quality.  Nope.  It is the same lightweight, sheer, no recovery, endlessly growing rayon knit available everywhere.  I did my first return to Fabric.com with them (which was super easy--I sent them an email, a few days later they sent me a UPS label; I just had to box up the fabric and drop it off at UPS).  I kept several of the things I ordered, though, the blue stretch lace, off black sweater knit, yellow stripes, sparkle sweater knit, yellow floral watercolor knit. 

The red sweater knit was *not* described online as metallic, even though it is very, very metallic.  I debated keeping it, but finally decided to do so.  I made a top out of it and it pilled terrible on the first wear!  I might have snagged it on something because the pilling was in one spot, but I was so annoyned.



On yet another visit to G Street, I found these heathered turquoise and metallic black and white stripe knits.  I can't stop!

Source: net-a-porter.com via Trena on Pinterest

Elizabeth came to visit DC last weekend on the spur of the moment, and we made an excursion to Exquisite Fabrics, which is open through March 23.  They still have most everything on discount.

Lace tops are huge this season, as in this Valentino embroidered organza top ($1890 on Net a Porter).  When I saw this lace at a bargain price (it is poly, but quite lovely) I had to get it.  It perfectly matches the batiste I got at the DC PR meetup swap.  That's gotta be a sign, right? 

Now I need to find a pattern and make some decisions.  First, do I want a pullover blouse?  They aren't great for me because you can't really have waist definition in a pullover blouse.  But a zipper really weighs down the lace.  Second, so I want to line the top or make a separate tank top to go under it?  It is again a zipper issue.  Inserting a zipper directly into lace could look terrible.  But I really prefer the lining on a sheer fabric to float freely at the side seams and hem, attached only at the armscye and neckline.  Dilemma.


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My other upgrade is at work.  For the next six months I am working one level higher in my organization.  It is a great opportunity and I will learn a lot.  However, it will mean more days and hours in the office and will cut into my sewing time.  In my usual position, I work a compressed schedule of longer days with every other Friday off.  I get about 70% of my sewing done on that bonus day.  In my current position, there are no bonus days.  Perhaps that's why I've been buying so much fabric--I know I'm not alone in buying fabric when I don't have time to actually sew! 

Hopefully I can work out a new rhythm, but if you see less of me the next 6 months you'll know why.

Stashoholism Confessional: A Long Time Coming

One of the things I looked forward to over the holidays (in addition to seeing family, of course) was going back to Golden D'Or in Dallas, where I had scored so handily last year.

I have not been crazy about Burda lately (so much with the shapeless!), but I was definitely interested in the Burda 11-2011-114 drapey faux-wrap top. I didn't have anything in stash really suitable for it, and when I found the drapey pink sweaterish knit at Golden D'Or it seemed perfect.



I have already sewn up the copper sweaterknit.  My dear friend and neighbor (we bought condos next door to one another) loooooves copper, and I immediately thought of her when I saw the fabric.  Metallic copper sweaterknit for clothes is a little whackadoodle, even for me, but it is great trim for accessories.  I made her a fleece hat with sweaterknit brim and a fleece-lined scarf.  I bought a pair of gloves and hand-stitched a copper cuff to the inside lining, for a full set.  My photo is terrible but the gift had already been handed over before I realized it, but you get the gist.



You may recognize this silk jersey as the same print in a different colorway as the perfect knit wrap dress I just sewed.  I believe the silk jerseys were originally $24/yd.  I got the turquoise print for the wrap dress on sale for $12.  And then I saw this on sale for $6.  When you see silk jersey for $6/yd, you just buy it.  Unfortunately, I hesitated for a day and only got two yards of this, which is all he had left.  It is extremely narrow.  I would like to make another McCall 6069 cowl dress (with a non-cowl back bodice), but haven't investigated whether I have enough fabric for it. 

Source: flickr.com via Trena on Pinterest

Ever since I first saw this Robert Rodriguez dress, I have been wanting some copper silk. Not to try to copy the dress (way above my skill level), but just because it is so rich and gorgeous! When I found it on the $7.97/yd table, with 25% off sale plus a coupon, I had to have it.  I am thinking maybe Burda 7519, or at least the sleeves from it.  I dig the carapace sleeves.  In pre-washing, I realized the copper silk is a stretch, so I may have to do something to take advantage of that property.




I have this giant fleece robe I wear when it's cold.  It is red with plasticky dragons on it.  I got the fabric on clearance from Joann and it's fairly hideous.  Also, the robe is about 9 years old at this point and pilled (on the plus side, the plasticky dragons in the seam allowances that used to poke me have finally worn off).  So, it's time for a new robe.  This leopard print amused me.



This was my first purchase of 2012, and already I made a mistake!  In the store, the mushroom-colored knit on the left looked gray, but then I got it into sunlight and saw that it is brown.  Argh!!!  I don't wear brown.  I guess I will use it for knit muslin.

I am almost always allowed to buy knit prints when I find them and I like the colors in this border print.  Orange!  There is never enough orange.

The Schiarparelli pink silk charmeuse caught my eye on the $7.97/yd silk table.  It will make a fabulous lining for something.

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I have bought more fabric since these items--including on the Baltimore Fabric Crawl--but I am so slow in posting this that I won't wait until I have photos done.

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I am terrible at answering questions.  I apologize for that.  Here are two recent ones:

MySummerTouch asks:
I wonder what do you do with your traced Burda patterns? Save them or throw them away?

I generally save them.  There are probably a few I've thrown away because the pattern was terrible on me.  I fold the pattern pieces together into a rectangle bundle (making sure the pattern number is facing out) and put it into a plastic page protector sleeve.  I have giant three ring binders with the patterns arranged chronologically in them.  With three ring binders, it's easy to open up the rings and put the latest pattern in the proper order. 





However, it is getting to the point where I have a LOT of traced patterns.  I need more binders, but the giant ones are expensive!  I get lazy about actually filing the patterns, too.  I should probably do a cull of patterns I will not realistically sew again, but the tracing is so much work that it's hard to just toss it!



Has anybody developed a brilliant system for saving these tracings?



Thank you all for your supportive and helpful comments on my pants post.  I have looked through the resources you recommended and may eventually be ready to tackle them again.  I actually sewed up a muslin of a Palmer/Pletsch pattern that fit better out of the envelope than the Burda did after 4 muslins!  However, I made the stupid mistake of assuming that a P/P pattern would not have the ridiculous ease of a normal Big 3 and sewed according to what size I "should" be.  The good crotch fit may only be because the overall muslin is way too big.

JENL observed:
I think a lot of the problem was the weight of the fabric-it looked too light and shimmery? Perhaps a little bit of a pressing issue-though I know you were just making a sample.

I actually like using "worst case scenario" fabric for a muslin.  Not to mention I bought like 10 yards of that stuff at Jomar, only to get it home and realize it was too loud to be used as lining!  The shiny, unforgiving fabric reveals every fitting issue in stark clarity, so there will be no surprises in real fabric. 

Stashoholism Confessional: NYC November 2011

I went to New York to speak at a conference a couple weeks ago. I was a tiny bit grumpy about going because I had been traveling so much the previous few weeks and had a cold coming on. But at least, among all the work, I found a little bit of time to visit the garment district.

The bulk of my purchases are pretty boring--lining and interfacing--but I did get a few pretties in fashion fabric. On the train up to New York I had actually been thinking that I need to let go of my snakeskin Burda 09-2009-123 wrap blouse. I really love the blouse and it is so different for me, but without a broad back adjustment it's just not wearable. I popped the underarm seam on first wear from the strain of, you know, reaching onto my desk to get a pen. I cannot move in it. So I had given myself permission to seek fabric to replace it. And lo and behold I found this piece in Chic Fabrics, a silk chiffon with a crepey texture for $10/yd. I don't like the print quite as much as the original; the diamond motifs will be annoying to cut around, but it will help me pass the top along to someone who can wear it without being straitjacketed.

I was trying to focus on cool weather fabrics, as I am really all stocked up on warm weather fabric. They had this wool sweaterknit in a couple of colors. I hemmed and hawed over turquoise (of course) or this royal blue. It is a good color for me, but I avoid it because I feel weird wearing any shade of blue with jeans. I don't wear jeans a ton, but we are allowed to wear them at work on Fridays and I do wear them on the weekend when it's cold. It will be a waterfall-type cardigan. Maybe I will even practice wearing it with jeans.



There was more sweaterknit at Fabrics for Less. I fell in love with the multi-blue striped wool knit but at $12/yd it seemed a little steep for me. I wandered around the store for a while and heard a woman aggressively bargaining with the guy working the store, who reluctantly (or not--I guess that's part of the game) knocked a couple dollars off the price.

I started with the copper denim in the middle. The picture does not do the fabric any justice. It shows the color, but not the gorgeous sheen of this fabric. I broke my cardinal fabric-buying rule with this piece. I have to be able to envision a specific project for a piece of fabric before I can buy it, but with this my imagination failed me. I am looking for some replacement fabric for the McCall 6279 trench dress (review forthcoming), but I'm not sure how much I'd wear a shimmery copper trench dress. Maybe a lot. Who knows? The fabric is a denim, but quite lightweight; good for a dress, not quite beefy enough for a jacket or pants. It was marked $7/yd, but I talked him down to $6 because it was narrower than the rest of the denims.

The green stripe caught my eye for some reason, though I'm not sure I don't regret the purchase now. There is a striped tunic I've been wanting to try so this will be a cheap way to try it.

Then it was time for the wool knit. I paid the marked price for the green stripe to butter him up. The wool knit was marked at $12. I asked what he could do for me. He said he couldn't knock down the price, that it was already rock bottom. I started walking away. He offered me $10/yd. I was sold.



Most of what I bought is actually, gasp, practical. I bought a lot of lining and interfacing. At Paron I found a bolt of 100% rayon lining in the Annex for $3.50/yd, an excellent price for what I assume is Bemberg or its equivalent knockoff. I also bought some silk habitoi; at $5.25/yd it will make a wonderful, luxurious lining for something. My splurge was the light sage stretch silk charmeuse. I want to try pants this winter and I have a nice stretch wool (though I found it quite wrinkled during my stash reorg and am a bit worried I might have ruined it). Stretch fabric needs a stretch lining and how luxurious would silk-lined pants be? I wear pants only on the very coldest days of winter and a silk lining would be much appreciated. Of course, the fabric is so lovely that I am now questioning whether I could sacrifice it for lining!

One of the things I was hoping to pick up while in NYC was interfacing. I couldn't recall ever having seen interfacing in all the trips I have made to all the stores, so I contacted Garment District Goddess LindsayT at her blog, Shop the Garment District, for her advice. She responded that Mood, of all places, was the best source for reasonably priced interfacing.

After Project Runway hit, I visited Mood along with every other fan of the show. They do have a wide selection of beautiful fabric, but the prices are so, so high compared to the other stores of the Garment District that I haven't been back. Well, Mood's popularity has not waned. The store was *packed* and I passed several groups of pre-teen girls, one group receiving a lecture from one of the store employees about how he and Tim Gunn are tight. I managed to squeeze my way back to the interfacings and, sure enough, they are good quality and reasonably priced ($2.50/yd and relatively wide at around 40 inches). LindsayT had warned me that they are not labeled; you have to know what you're looking for.

In addition to the reasonably-priced interfacing, they also have good prices on lining. I picked up a bunch of this stretch lining for $5/yd.

I had to stop by Steinlauf & Stoller to pick up some more bra strap keepers at 90 cents a pair. With my sloping shoulders, I've gotten in the habit of putting them in just about every garment that can't be worn with a racerback bra. No more bra straps falling down! I also got these two specialty elastics at $0.90/yd. I use my black picot elastic fairly frequently on underwear and outerwear and have occasionally wished I had some white. The black ruffle elastic I just thought was cute.

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You'd think this would have sated me for a while, but when I went to G Street for Fashion Sewing Club they had some really good stuff on the $2.97/yd table. On the left is a black & white knit with a boucle-like texture. It was make a cute cardigan and skirt combo for a very low-end faux Chanel look. The yellow fabric was, of course, immediately sewn up. The fabric on the right is a stretch lace in a deep sage color. I got it in case I decided I didn't like the yellow netting when I got it home. It will be a top as well.

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When I posted about the Tweed Ride, Bijoux asked about the shoes I was wearing. I bought them at 6pm.com last year, where they are unfortunately no longer available. The shoe is the Born Gellar; a google search shows a few random sizes available on various places of the web. Good luck!

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Abby and Lydia both expressed interest in the stash purge I have up for grabs, but neither of you left any contact information. If you're still interested, please leave a comment on this post with an email address I can reach you at. Don't write out the full email address to avoid spam harvesters--write it something like "example at yahoo."

An African Safari...of Fabric

A dear friend has spent the past year working in Liberia. Liberia has no real mail delivery; everything must arrive by private carrier. She had an emergency need for novelty keychains (no, really) so I went to one of DC's souvenir stores and DHLed her the keychains. I told her that rather than reimburse me for the shipping, she should use the money to buy me some fabrics. She has had wonderful clothes made in Africa and loves shopping for fabric for them.




She came back with an amazing haul for me! I love bright colors, as you know, and they are to be found in abundance in the markets of Liberia. The prints are also a lot of fun; large scale with nature motifs such as fish and flowers. The fabric on the right of this bunch is unusual in its geometric design. It would make great curtains if I ever sewed such a thing.




Apparently, these packaged coordinates are quite popular, and are used to make tiered styles. I love lime green and my mom loves purple, so I think I will find a way to use both of these sets. The un-printed fabric is a lightweight jacquard weave. The fabric has a plasticky feel and I assumed it was synthetic, but a burn test shows it to be cotton. I am going to have to figure out laundering to get whatever amazing array of chemicals is giving it that hand out of the fabric.




The peacock print may be my absolute favorite of the whole stunning array. I love blues. The two right-most fabrics are not from Liberia but from Ghana, where the fern and the conch are popular motifs. The fabric on the left would make a great St. Patrick's day outfit!





G Street had a Columbus Day sale where most everything was 25% off. Then they offered a coupon online for 20% off one item already on sale. They have a table of "Novelty Silk" for $7.97/yd (I swear it used to be $6.97, but I could be wrong). With the 25% + 20% off, it came out to around $5 yard. This olive is one of my favorite colors. I could not leave it behind. I believe it is a georgette weave; it is somewhat sheer but not as sheer as chiffon. I have been wanting to make the Burda 09-2010-111 wrap blouse since it came out in the magazine, and this seems the perfect fabric for it. It will replace my beloved silk-cotton McCall 5314 wrap blouse; this was before I knew I needed a broad back adjustment. I is just too tight across the back and the fabric can't handle the strain.






When I went to Cidell's to help her tidy her sewing area and she offered me this knit stripe I just couldn't turn it down. I have been wanting to make another Vogue 1020 with a little more ease and I think the stripes would be a fun way to play with the pattern.




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Are you overwhelmed yet? I am! Eeek. I feel a little bit like I'm drowning in fabric. Look for giveaways coming soon. Speaking of which, Aroura, I still haven't heard from you on the khaki knit. t r e n a [dot] b at g m a i l.

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I haven't done any sewing the past couple weeks because I have been ridiculously fracking busy. It is driving me crazy. I won't do much sewing for the foreseeable future either, as I have back-to-back-to-back travel for 3 weeks. I'm going to Ecuador next week! I think the only thing I'll get sewn is a pair of lightweight jungle pants (nothing complicated, just elastic waist--I don't want to sweat it out in jeans or yoga pants) and possibly a pair of shorts, identical to the pants except in length. Let's just hope I get some time to myself this weekend!

Let me live vicariously...what are you sewing?

Stashoholism Confessional: Fabric Mart Bundled Me In

I had gone a while without ordering fabric from the internet--my last order was in July, knits from Fabric.com. But I opened one too many Fabric Mart emails, and they enticed me with their sale on ponte knits. They were doing a promotion for a free 10 yard bundle with a $75 order. It's amazing (or horrifying, depending on your perspective) how quickly you get to $75. While I definitely enjoy carefully selecting my fabric, dreaming up projects for them, the anticipation of waiting for them to arrive, there is something about a mystery bundle that is too much fun.

I have no idea how they select and package their bundles, but the times I have received one it seems almost as though they look at my selected order and actually make an effort to give me fabrics I will use. And they did an excellent job here!

The pick of the litter is the rayon print in cream, hot pink, and black. I immediately saw it as a pussybow blouse, and then I thought "Why make a blouse when you can have a dress?" I am hoping I have enough fabric to make the Cynthia Rowley Simplicity 2305 dress with a tie neck.

The navy and green print is a polyester knit; you can't have too many of those. At least, I can't.

The black fabric is a nice lightweight high quality glossy cotton. This was extremely fortuitous. One of the items in my selected fabrics is a black cotton "lawn." I need a lightweight black cotton to make bias tape and for lining pieces where white batiste won't do. Well, the "lawn" is actually a heavy-weight faille; a wonderful fabric, but not at all suitable for the purpose for which I ordered it. The bundle fabric is exactly what I was looking for.

The pastel print rayon is not my style and not great quality, but it will be perfect for muslining lightweight projects (maybe my sari silk?).

The only thing I won't find a use for is the khaki/beige knit. It's a nice heavy knit and it appears to be pre-fused with a lightweight interfacing (in other words, the black side cannot be used as the public side). It would be perfect to make a waterfall cardigan or unstructured knit jacket. I do not wear brown, ever, and if I were ever to wear brown it would be rich brown, not khaki. This fabric is too close to the color of my skin.

If you would like this beige/khaki knitfabric, sign up for the giveaway drawing in the comments. I'm limiting to US only; so sorry to my international readers but this heavy fabric would be quite expensive to ship internationally. As usual, you must have commented on my blog in the past six months to be eligible.



And here is what I actually ordered. I love the faille knit in black with blue print. And such a steal at $1.99/yd! It is high on the list to make Butterick 5677 (on sale today for $1.88!), the colorblock dress, with black.

I was hoping the blue in the faille print would match the midnight blue ponte next to it, but they are completely different colors so no go there. LOVE the midnight ponte. I haven't decided what to do with it yet. Maybe Butterick 5559, the Maggy London with the pleats radiating from the side seam.

I mentioned before that I passed my yellow and gray fan dress Simplicity 2754 on to the Goodwill, as it never stopped feeling like a nightgown to me. I liked the pattern a lot, though, so I got this pink and gray rayon knit fabric to replace it. The bad thing about new fabric is that it pushes planned projects to the back of the line. The good thing is that it is inspiring to sew up. So all that remains on this project is the hem.

For my long awaited animal print dress, I will use Butterick 5672. I have high hopes for this pattern. It is a nice basic shape, but the pleats give it a little extra interest. This animal print rayon knit appears to be the same thing as the Style Studio Stretch Rayon I got from Fabric.com in July, as Fabric Mart had a different colorway of the print I got from Fabric.com in their selection. It is a nice weight and appears fairly stable (with a little bit of growing at the hem). I'm not sure it will totally work as a slinky number like this; it is stable but not the type of fabric that will stay highly fitted. We'll see.

The next rayon knit print is to match some purple satin from G Street to make an outfit for my mom. I'm not sure she'll love the bright bold print, but I think it will be cute on her.

The fairly unappealing olive textured knit is to underline the gorgeous olive sweaterknit I got from Golden D'Or in Dallas last Christmas. I wanted a similar color, not a flesh tone, to underline the sheer sweaterknit and this is the first time I've found something that will work. I have been puzzling over the content of that sweater knit, btw. It burns to a hard plastic bead, but the smoke isn't thick and curling and it doesn't smell like poly. I pre-washed it by hand and when wet it is clear there is some wool in it. Woot! I think it is a wool/nylon blend, but no guess on percentages. I am kicking myself for not getting some of the hot pink, too!

The last is the cotton "lawn," which, as noted above, I speculate is really faille. As far as I know, lawn is a smooth, lightweight weave. This fabric is quite heavy (bottomweight at the least; it would be hard to wear as a dress), ribbed along the cross-grain, and has a sheen that made me suspect that it was actually poly--I was pleasantly surprised when the burn test said all cotton. I don't wear a lot of black. I think it looks good on me, but when I'm reaching for something to wear I am almost never in the mood for darkness. So I was contemplating whether to keep this. However, I think it would make a spectacular less-than-formal suit with a Chanel-style jacket. I don't see myself doing the full Chanel treatment, but I have McCall 6041 and it gets good reviews on PR. I will not, however, be "making it crafty." I see black-on-black grosgrain ribbon trim for this. Very chic.

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I have been doing some snoop shopping for Fall! I can't wait to talk about all my ideas (in addition to these--my sewing time delusion is going strong). What's appealing to you right now?

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Thank you for the advice on the project that reveals itself to be a fail midway! I ended up finishing the dress. Love the style, and it was good to make this "muslin," which showed me a few needed fitting tweaks. I will try to take photos this weekend and show it to you next week.