Thursday, July 24, 2008

What do you do when you have too much fabric?

You get on a train, obviously, go to New York, and buy more!

I met up with Elizabeth (Ladybirdlove on Patternreview) yesterday morning in Trenton and we took the NJ Transit train to NY for a little bit of shopping. I had an agenda and a shopping list; she didn't. It worked out just fine.

First stop: a little store called Hollywood Fabrics on 35th Street. We were just browsing on our way to another store, but I saw this orange/brown/tan/white lightweight floral poly and thought it looked wonderfully vintage. It also said it wants to be a BWOF blouse. Or maybe a Patrones blouse.But definitely a blouse, either way. I also picked up a yard of beautiful silk charmeuse for a lining - even at the discount the salesman gave it was still pricy, so I kept it to a yard. I'm hoping it will it will coordinate with the green Chanel boucle from A Fabric Place.

Leather, Suede, Skins, also on 35th, came up with the Florida-orange lambskin for my new Hotpatterns tote bag. I pulled two shades of orange from the shelf - this, and a darker, burnt orange - but when looked at them togeher the burnt orange looked muddy. I decided that if I was going to make an orange bag, it should be ORANGE. And it is. It certainly is.

I talked to Carolyn and we decided to meet at Metro Textiles at 1:30, so that left us some more time to browse. We walked up to 38th Street and went through the madness that is Spandex House. Elizabeth had never been there and was just stunned by the amount of fabric. I've been there several times and I still find it overwhelming. I was good - only a one-yard remnant of this brown/copper/black stretch. I can get a 3/4 sleeve tshirt out of that.

We also went to Pacific Trims, my all-time favorite trim store. I needed hardware for my Hotpatterns bag and found 4 shiny silver oval rings and a doodad to hold my keys. I also got some random silver studs (several different kinds, and a handful of each) because I'm not sure how I might want to trim the bag, and they were there and affordable. Also some buttons for a shirt I'm going to make for Mario, and some pewtery-looking buttons with slots instead of holes because I want to try the technique that Christina used on her BWOF jacket.

By then it was time to walk back to visit Kashi and meet up with Carolyn. We got a little shopping done before Carolyn arrived. When she came in I recognized her first by her great dress, which I liked on her blog and which was even prettier in person - as was Carolyn.

What was really funny was that some customers came in while we were talking and one of them recognized Carolyn from her blog and jumped right in and started talking. It's so strange (in a good way), immediately feeling that you know people because you either read their blog or their PR reviews. It was great finally talking to Carolyn in person, and we ended up taking home two of the same fabrics. I can't wait to see what we each make from them - our duplicates were this brown/black paisley on white, and this fabulous floral with a woven stripe that reminds me a little of one of my mom's vintage tablecloths.

Kashi also provided me with 2 yards of animal print (with green) stretch, 2 yards of pink/tan geometric that he says is poly but felt like silk, almost 4 yards of olive-green eyelet (the same square eyelet that I resisted in Baltimore because they only had it in white), a yard of black/white/gray flame-stitch stretch that gave me childhood hippie clothes flashbacks, and 4 yards of a multi-colored, fabulously happy printed cotton from France. He bought 300 yards of this stuff and it will go FAST. As in "call him now and let him ship you some - it's only $6 per yard." It feels like heaven and it makes me smile just to look at it.

After Carolyn left, we paid for our purchases and started back down 8th Ave, aiming to go to the FIT Bookstore. We realized that it was already after 3:00 p.m., and that if we hiked to FIT with our purchases and started looking around in the store, much less stuck our noses in the museum, we wouldn't be home until dark. So we were practical and caught the 3:30 train from Penn Station. Which got stuck outside of Princeton until 5:45 p.m. because of electrical problems caused by the storm. Once we finally got moving, we got to Trenton at 6:00, and luckily my Septa train had also been delayed and was sitting at the far end of the platform with its doors open. I made it home by 7:10 - which would have been fine if I'd left at 5:00.

So much for coming home and pre-treating all my fabrics, taking their pictures and then catching Project Runway. I had the energy to snarf up a big bowl of pasta and then sleep through Runway. On the other hand, I had a nice nap and caught the 11:00 p.m. rerun. All in all, still a good day.

10 comments:

Adrienne said...

You got some gorgeous pieces!!

Elaray said...

Ohhhh, Karen! I really wish I had been able to go with you! You made some great buys!

Maryissewfast said...

Fun!!! I love your east coast fabric shopping reports! Maybe someday I will make it to New York to go fabric shopping. Wonder if I can sell that vacation to my sportsman husband! Mary

Meg said...

What a great haul, Karen! I wish I could have met up with you guys. Do let me know when you'll be in town again, okay?

-E said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
-E said...

I agree with you completely about the Happy Fabric- I'm kicking myself now for not getting some :) Maybe I'll have to give Kashi a call....

Carolyn (Diary of a Sewing Fanatic) said...

Karen - I can still feel the leather...it was like buttah! Can't wait to see the bag made from that!!!

It was a great hour and a half that went wayyyy to quickly! I'm glad that I got to meet you and Elizabeth in person...and remember JoMars, soon!!!

Kat said...

Gosh! What an enjoyable trip you had. It's always great to meet PR buddies too. Lucky you :) !

Gretchen the Household Deity said...

What great finds! My favorite is the blue border print, and second favorite is the orange paisley. Can't wait to see your bag, too! i am having quite an orange lust at the moment.

Cennetta said...

Fabric shopping in NY is definitely in my future.