The Magic and Generosity of the Internet

Thank you everyone so much for your good thoughts, good vibes, and good wishes. Isabelle found me a place to stay with a fellow sewist. I leave this afternoon, and I found out from my mom last night that they're definitely not arriving in Paris until Sunday so I am very grateful!

Shameless Request for Couch in Paris

Soooo, don't hate me but...I'm going back to Paris. Friday. For work.

In a bizarre yet wonderful coincidence, my mother is leaving the country for the first time in over a decade to go to Paris. This weekend. It's so cool!

Here's the thing. I arrive Saturday night. My work hotel starts Sunday night. My mom is traveling with friends and has a place for me to stay, IF they arrive. She used to work for an airline and is traveling with airline friends on standby, so their arrival in a timely manner is iffy, probably 50/50. So I need to line up a backup place to stay on Saturday. I'm trying to avoid booking a hotel, because I won't know until Saturday if they're going to get there or not, so I will have to pay either way because I'll be outside the cancellation window. Since there's a good chance I won't end up staying in the hotel I don't want it to be too expensive, but since there's *also* I good chance I *will* end up staying in it, I don't want it to be too far away or grubby either. The only hostel that has openings has absolutely dismal reviews.

I have actually hosted a couple of people in DC through the Couchsurfing website, but have not had any luck finding a place to (possibly) sleep in Paris through it, and lovely Isabelle of Kitty Couture is going to a family reunion for the weekend (so I'm double glad I got the chance to meet up with her last week!).

Soooo, can anybody in Paris offer me a tentative couch to sleep on? I will store my luggage at Gare du Nord and let you know by afternoon if I need to stay, and will be completely on your schedule as to when to arrive.

Next post will be about sewing, I promise! (Or possibly Paris.)

Stashoholism Confessional: Paris Edition

Well, I had so much fun blogging my Paris fashion! Thanks for playing along with me. Eventually, there will be travel blogging at Travel at Home and Abroad. The posts are actually all written, but I need to edit and post pictures *and* I'd really like to put up Vietnam first, since I went there first. But those posts are not written. So who knows. I'll post an alert when it goes up.

Here's a recap:



And now, the good stuff! Here are my fabric purchases. Only two, but I think all of us with stash problems have learned the hard way that more isn't always better. Sometimes it's just more. (I lifted that from the "Sabrina" remake, which I watched before I left to feed my excitement about my trip.)



The one on the left is from Dreyfus, purchased while I was with Karen. It's a beautiful polished cotton and I love the print. I didn't think to put anything on there for scale, but the polka dots are about 2 1/2 inches in diameter. They're big. And cute. I got three meters, with the idea of making the BWOF 04-2008-127 Marilyn-esque exclusive design. It may be my birthday dress this year. Total cost was around 13E.

The one on the right is an embroidered cotton batiste from Reine. More blue! I always think I should branch out from blue, but you know, it is just my favorite color and that's all there is to it. Around 21E for two meters. It will be a shirtdress, I think. I'm considering tackling Simplicity 4122 again, sleeveless again with a wide ruffle and then some layered ruffles at the sleeve (based on an idea from an expensive designer garment I saw in Printemps) and using an elasticated shirring in the back to give it some shape, or else making the bodice and skirt separate. I don't know. I need to think on it some more. If you have any shirtdress ideas with a slimmer cut skirt (at only 2 meters and around 50 wide, I can't eke out a full-skirt) let me know. A pear shape can be tough to dress sometimes.

Paris, Day 7: Friday at L'Opera

Today was our last day in Paris, and we decided it was fitting to devote it to shopping. I did *have* to take us to some picturesque background for the fashion photo of the day. So here I am at the Opera house. The weather was utterly variable today--a little bit rainy, a little bit hot. I could have worn footless tights and sandals, but eh, I was ok in full tights and mary janes. The skirt is the same fabric as the DVFish dress, and the line suits the blouse much more than the fuller navy skirt. At home I have never in my life tied a layer around my neck, but I felt very insouciant and Parisian tying my denim jacket over my shoulders. Everyone does it here. Well, with sweaters, not denim jackets. But I was still an approximation of Parisian.



S's husband had requested (!) that she buy a dress in Paris so she, you know, reluctantly agreed. As for me, on my very first visit to Paris when I was 17 years old I promised myself a Parisian dress. I was on a package tour with my less-than-mobile grandmother and I didn't get a chance to fulfill my wish.

Then when I came back three years ago just for 24 hours at the tail end of my Scandinavia trip because I was feeling the itch for Paris my Parisienne friend Rebecca took me to some boutiques where I discreetly suffered a heart attack at the 100E+ prices and luckily nothing fit--trop grande a la poitrine. You'd think with the alleged French appreciation for petite boobies I wouldn't have the same trouble I have at home of everything being too big in the bust, but it was the same.

I had my two cuts of fabric that will become dresses, but the promise I made to myself umpty-hum-over-a-decade years ago was still outstanding, so I was casually looking as well. Our first stop was Printemps, which S had been lulled by the guidebooks into believing was the "affordable" Paris department store. *cough* It was amazing to see high end designers up close (I went straight for the Sonia Rykiel, as I love *everything* she sends down the runway) but she quickly concluded that Printemps was a bit out of our price range. I was pleased while wearing my yoked blouse with tucks that there was a whole lot of yoking and tucking going on in the latest styles by the latest designers.

Instead, we went to the little mall next door and the cheap shops across the street where she found a cute linen dress and a top. I wasn't sure about buying my dress after all. Everything is in the current babydoll/trapeze line, which is very trendy but (1) the perpetual sewist's refrain of "I could make that" was echoing in my head, and (2) my vaunted Paris dress will have a life cycle of two years max if I buy now.

We later went to Rue de Levis (there is a Levi's store on there, but we don't know if it was named after blue jeans, somebody else named Levi, or the ancient Jewish tribe) where I tried on a mod/flapper rayon stretch dress with a drop waist that just made me a little too uncomfortable about the hip fluff to pay $50 for it.

I did, though, finally buy my Paris dress. It is in a trapeze line, and I will have to take it in a little under the arms because even the S was too big in the bust, but it's a lovely navy linen (which just happens to go with the wardrobe), made in Europe (Italy), and every time I wear it I will relish that I am finally, finally in my Paris Dress! (And at 29E, I don't feel so bad that it's a trendy line. Though I'm trying to avoid converting that into dollars in my head.)

This picture is horrid--the girls have both left and this is me at the end of a 7th long day of sightseeing using the self timer with the camera on a shelf inside the cabinet that holds wine glasses and without any kind of video editing program. But after all that talk, I felt like I couldn't leave you totally hanging.



I leave very early in the morning for the airport, and then it will be "Au revoir, mon Paris"...for, um, a week. I'll be back for work less than 7 days after I get home. Weird, right? BUT! My mom is leaving the country for the first time in well over a decade and it just so happens that she's coming to Paris and it just so happens that I can arrange my work trip so we overlap for a day. Isn't that tres cool? I won't have a computer/internet for that trip, but I'll try to do some fashion pics to post when I get home.

Paris, Day 6: Thursday at Centre Pompidou

Our run of good weather came to end yesterday evening at about 7 when the skies opened up. We had checked the weather and were prepared with our umbrellas, while the locals cowered at the foot of the metro stairs, unable to emerge out onto the street. Today continued cloudy and cool (though very little rain, thank goodness). This afternoon it cleared up and warmed up, so I'm hoping tomorrow (last day, sob) will be nice.

I wore jeans and boots to deal with the cold and wet, and topped my Vogue reissue from 1935 with the perfect little sweater I found at Goodwill(!) for $5. I'd gone to Goodwill hoping to find a wool sweater in an appropriate color that I could felt and shrink and then make into a shrug. I did that too, but this little one went with my wardrobe so well I decided to bring it as a layering piece.

We went to the Centre Pompidou to see the building and eat our crepes in the (surprisingly terrible) courtyard. We opted not to go in, but I had to visit the famous fountain. The fountain is on a much smaller scale than it appears in photos, one of the only things in Paris that has that effect, I've found.



From there we headed to Monmartre, and I had to stop into Reine (thank goodness it was open today). I got one cut of a beautiful embroidered cotton batiste. I spent a lot of time fondling the Liberty of London prints, but ultimately couldn't cough up the 21,95E/metre. I took a couple of surreptitious pictures of the mannequins.