Friday, March 27, 2009

Self-Control: what a concept

So I took a day off on Tuesday and went up to NYC with Elizabeth to meet up with Sherril Miller, who was in town from LA for a little fabric shopping. (I'm sure she was there for other reasons as well, but the fabric shopping part was key). We met up briefly with Terry and Carolyn while at Metro Textiles, where I did purchase some - but very little - fabric.

I went to New York with a list. Isn't that a novel idea? Most of my list was stuff I needed to purchase at Pacific Trims - buttons for my green linen jacket, buttons for my eventual Chanel jacket, trims for said Chanel jacket, buttons and a buckle for the BWOF trench jacket. Another interesting set of buttons for Mario's next shirt, if anything struck me.

I got all of those (except the enamel Chanel jacket buttons) at Pacific. I found those at M&J Trims, and they weren't astronomically expensive - which has got to be a first.

Fabric-wise, I was very good. I was looking for a silk charmeuse to line the Chanel jacket. If I didn't find one, I had one picked out at Fashion Fabrics Club that would do nicely, but I wanted the option of finding something first. No luck. Lots of charmeuse, lots of pretty charmeuse, but none that looked like the one in my head. On to the next thing: in a little store on 35th Street, I found some pretty black diamond-quilted lining. Lightweight but substantial, it will do nicely in my trench jacket. I bought 5 yards of Fusi-Knit at Mood, my only purchase there.

We had "lunch" at Metro Textiles, which basically meant we met there and talked and shopped for an hour. No food involved. I bought only 4 cuts of fabric from Kashi, two dress knits that were both inexpensive and pretty, a rust-colored cotton jersey (possibly the ONLY color I didn't buy at Jomar), and, because I had been so good, I treated myself to the last of a bolt of silk velvet patterned with dragons. There was only about a yard and a half left, so I'm going to have to think carefully about what it wants to be. It's also exceptionally unphotogenic, so a picture will have to wait until I can take one in natural light - flash photos all turned orange, no matter how I tweaked.

Sure, I probably shouldn't have been buying fabric at all, considering the damage I've racked up so far this month, but I wasn't going to New York to fabric WINDOW shop. If I was there, I was going to buy, so I tried to be very specific on my list and I actually got everything on it, except for the charmeuse. Which I ordered from FFC today, along with some black stretch twill which should have been on yesterday's list, and 2 yards of denim because I want to do the Jeans Sew-Along on Patternreview.

5 comments:

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

I am sorry that the silk velvet didn't photograph well because that is one AMAZING piece of fabric!!!!

gwensews said...

Sounds like you had a fantastic shopping day! I'm so jealous of those of you who live near big cities. I can only dream and order online!

window dressing said...

One of my must-do's is to go on a fabric shopping spree next time I visit N.Y. I have bins of fabric (at home) which I should be sewing soon, but the lure of new fabric is always a sweet treat! Your shopping spree sounds like so much fun. Lucky girl.

Nancy K said...

You absolutely cannot go to NYC and window shop fabric! Just doesn't happen. But, a list is good, which is what I had for my day in January. I only went off a little bit.

Cennetta said...

Karen, You are such a gem. I have fond memories of your met up last year around this time. "Self Control?" What is that? I have none when it comes to purchases for sewing.