Pattern Review Weekend - The Fabrics

I can't talk about a PR Weekend without talking about fabric.  It's as essential as the friendships that are made and the friends who are re-encountered year after year, having aged not a bit, but whose wardrobes have expanded exponentially.

Since I had just been to NYC recently (remember the trip with Mario, when I wasn't going to buy any fabric and Kashi basically knocked me over the head and when I woke up there was a UPS box on my doorstep full of goodies?), I didn't plan on buying much.

Except for a few specific things.

You see, I had a few gift certificates.  Yes, a few.  Back at Christmastime, two of the lawyers I work with gave me gift certificates to Mood, always welcome because the stuff I generally fall for in Mood isn't the stuff I can afford, so other people's money is always welcome.

Also, at Secretary's Day or Administrative Professionals Day or whatever PC term we want to use these days for throwing a gift at the person who cleans up your messes all year long, Andrea convinced my lawyers to chip in for a gift certificate to Metro Textiles.  I'm only sorry I couldn't convince her bosses to do something that imaginative.

So I had other people's money to spend.  And on Friday, I chose to start out - where else - at Metro Textiles because I wanted to hit up Kashi while he was fresh and before the store turned into a total trash heap.  There were about 10 of us there right after he opened, and I think we did him proud.  I know I did.

I got 7 fabrics from Kashi, most of them 2 yard cuts.  The prize, at least to me, is the fabric at the top right.  The underside is fleecy, but the top feels almost like a close-cropped fake fur, and the leather texture is printed.  It's soft and cuddly and drapy and strange.  I love it.  It was the most expensive piece, and it's going to take up a crapload of space in the workroom, so I'd better decide what jacket it wants to be soon.

Other than that, I went knit happy, as I always do at Metro.  The second photo, left, is two knits, different prints but exactly the same colors.  I couldn't resist, and I'd love to find a way to mix the two that wouldn't make people dizzy.

Third, my loud purchase of the weekend.  I loved the orange/brown tones of the print, but the solid was the perfect contrast orange, so I had to have that as well.  I also had to have the wonderful faux tie-dye stripe, if that's what you call it.  Blues and greens and browns and ivory.  Mine.  Lastly, I got two yards of a black cable sweater knit, and four yards of a wonderful soft heathered gray knit that I intend to use for around-the-house clothes.  (My lounging clothes are just . . . beyond awful.  My flannels have lost their fluff, my sweatshirts have holes, and face it, sometimes I'd like to still look decent when I'm at home).

From there, we went to Mood, where Meg was a very gracious hostess and turned us loose on the store like a bunch of ravening wolves.  Having money to spend, do you know I wandered that entire store - three floors - and couldn't find something I wanted.  Or something I wanted enough to make me turn away from the other fabrics I considered.  Finally I went downstairs to their lowest level, where the leathers live, picked out a gorgeous supple olive green lambskin, and plunked the roll on the table. The Mood guy asked how many skins I wanted, and I said, "$125 worth."  Except then I saw the Persian lamb and had to have one of the honey-colored skins for a collar, so I scaled back on the green.  There's enough of it, that's all I care about.  And it's a less "sticky" color than pictured; it didn't photograph well with the flash.

After Mood, we broke for lunch.  After hitting Metro and Mood that quickly, and that hard, it's a wonder we weren't broken.  But after a restorative glass of wine and some fish and chips, we were off again.

I've lost track of the order here, but I know we hit up Pacific Trims, my favorite trim store in the Garment District.  I know there are others, and I've purchased from them, but there's something that keeps me coming back to Pacific.  But this time, all I got were two lengths of chain for two upcoming (eventually) jackets.

I haven't been to Paron's since they moved.  It's bizarre - it looks like they picked up the old store, gave it a good shake, changed the light bulbs and put it back down.  It doesn't have the narrow side Annex anymore, but there are a good selection of half price fabrics in the back  Of course I did not find a half price fabric.

One of the things I had been looking for at Mood was a moss or olive green boucle.  For yet another jacket.  At least count, I have three boucles which are still awaiting jackethood.  But I needed another.  And Mood didn't have the exact thing I pictured, which is how I ended up with leather.  Oh, the hardship.

But Paron's, they had the exact stinking green fabric that I wanted at Mood.  I waffled.  I showed it to every PR woman in the store, and everyone, everyone, said I should buy it.

Isn't it nice when your friends validate the choice you've already made?  So I bought 2 yards.  And in real light, without camera flash, it's beautiful with the Mood leather.  If I wore leather skirts, I would step back from the green leather jacket idea and make a leather skirt.  I'm still vaguely considering it; I just need to find a "me" skirt that would look good in leather.

Which means both boucle and leather will go into the stash, to marinate for however long it will take.  Maybe I'll take down one of those other boucles; I can hear them talking up there, on the high shelf.  They're plotting an avalanche, and I'm afraid the new one will just jump right in and help them.

So that's PR Weekend fabric.  There will be a full Weekend recap, but my camera died as soon as I walked into the workshops on Saturday, so I'm still waiting on a few photos from others, and I'm still digesting some of what I heard that day .

Moral of the story: if you have the opportunity to attend a PR Weekend, be it in your area or across the country, DO IT.  You'll get so much more from it than it could ever cost.

The Afghan Farmer's Daughter

Sorry for the cryptic title; it's in honor of Kashi at Metro Textiles, who after he tried to tell me that these weren't poppies all over the fabric (I think poppies have some kind of negative drug connotations to him), then acknowledged they were and told me -- and I don't know if this is true, but it made for a good fabric story -- that Afghan poppy farmers receive their money from the drug lords before planting season, and then hope for the best.  When the crop is harvested, if he doesn't have enough to pay back his advance money, he has to hand over one of his daughters. 

I said that was horrible, and Kashi just spread his hands.  "They have a lot of daughters," he said, "but it's not good."

This has nothing at all to do with my fabric other than this story is going to be permanently stuck in my head whenever I wear this dress, so I've named it in honor of all those Afghan farmers' daughters, who, even if they were allowed to stay with dear old dad on the poppy farm, would never get to wear this dress.

The patternreview is here.  I love this dress way more than I expected to - I've had this pattern (V8633) since it came out, and wondered a few times since why I bought it.  At the time I remember liking the version with the straight skirt; when I started on it this time, it was the big skirt all the way.

Apparently some patterns, like fabrics, need to marinate in stash for a while until they're ready. 

I took my time on this one.  There's quite a bit of hand sewing inside the bodice, and because it's a circle skirt, I hemmed it by hand so I would have more control of the curve.  I don't know as I needed to do that much, but after working on the 1912 Project patterns for a while, I'm beginning to appreciate the meditative aspect of some hand sewing. 

Which is good, because the hem is the only meditative thing about this dress.  I think the loudness of my dress was the only thing keeping me awake this morning after my non-drowsy allergy meds kicked in.

No self control



The whole shebang (plus 3 yards of black knit)

 None whatsoever. Not where fabric is concerned, anyway.

I had a day off from work on Tuesday, and Mario and I decided to treat ourselves and take the bus up to NY for the day. We agreed that we weren't going to do our usual things - I'd stay away from the garment district and he wouldn't go near Midtown Comics or Forbidden Planet, his weaknesses.

That didn't last long. We got off the bus and went to grab breakfast, and while we're sitting there, he said, "If I just ducked down to Midtown for 45 minutes, could you find something to do?" We were at 35th and 7th at the time. What's a girl to do?



Watercolor flower knit

 Okay, I could have NOT gone to a fabric store. But trim stores are dangerous too. Or I could have gone to a fabric store where there was little likelihood of buying anything. Mood is always good for that; at their prices, I tell myself I can buy one fabric and I can never narrow it to just one and I leave empty handed. But no, I went to see Kashi. Because I had to.

And the problem with Kashi is that you can't leave his store empty-handed; he'd be hurt. And offended. And I do not want to hurt and/or offend the man who has the best fabric in NY and is so willing to sell it to me.



Gray/brown/black paisley knit

 I also didn't need to go on a complete binge, but that's a whole different story. Is it at least good that of all the fabrics I bought, only 4 of them were prints? Those other printholics out there will understand my happiness about that. But yeah, virtue, she fell by the wayside and was buried in an avalanche of fabric. Next time I saw my virtue, it was reclining on a bolt of fabric with a dopey smile and a cigarette.

It was that kind of shopping trip.

Put it this way. I keep a spreadsheet detailing my sewing projects and yardage month-by-month. As of March 27th, I had used 35 yards of fabric for the year, which I thought was pretty damn good.



Poppy print stretch woven

 The problem is, I replaced every single yard I used so far this year. In 45 minutes, while Mario was at the comic book shop.

And he bought nothing. Nothing. And when he met me, and saw my empty hands, he thought I bought nothing. Then he saw the 2 cuts of fabric in my bag, and realized that was not the case. And then I mentioned that a box would be arriving at the office on Thursday, and he knew.

And then he took me to Around the World Books and I bought a pattern drafting book and 3 back issues of La Mia Boutique. At that point, what point was there in trying to get virtue back on track? She'd been on a bender and the least I could do was let her down easy.



Ivory/gray/black silk

 We had a very nice day. We ended up doing other stuff, walked a lot, had a lovely lunch and caught the bus home again. I have to say, it was easier to walk without dragging 18 pounds of fabric (Kashi kindly weighed it for me). And I could wait until it was delivered. After all, I had those 2 cuts in my bag . . .

Thankfully, Kashi ships by UPS two day, because I'm not sure how long I could have waited for all this loveliness.  I opened the box at work, petted everything and stashed it into two Patternreview shopping bags so I could get it home on train.  Not easy, but way better than schlepping it around Manhattan.

The top photo, left to right, bottom to top:  turquoise/navy double-faced wool; appliqued net fabric (the only really pointless purchase), teal crepe, turquoise silk/cotton blend, white silk/cotton blend, tan silk charmeuse; aqua silk charmeuse; poppy print stretch woven; blue/purple/gold floral knit; gray flecked bottomweight; ivory/gray/black print silk; brown/gray/black paisley knit; medium brown flecked bottomweight.  And 3 yards of black stretch knit, not in the photo.

Phew.  It looks like a lot.  It is a lot.

And I can't wait to start sewing it up!  I've been thinking about it ever since I walked out of Metro, and waiting for the UPS guy today was a torture.  Now I just need to pick a fabric, pick up my scissors, and have fun.

I think that poppy print's days are numbered, at least as as fabric.  As a dress, now, that's a whole different thing.

Clearing my head

Okay, sewing for others is over for a while. After I finished the theater costume (which is actually back visiting so that I can make minor adjustments), I quickly knocked out one of my favorite skirt patterns to make myself feel better.

BWOF 10/06 #117 is my go-to pattern when I want a quick skirt fix. I know it fits and it takes a yard of fabric. What's not to like? The simple style lines make it nearly perfect for some of the prints that I can't seem to resist.

Remember last year, when everyone was making wonderful things from madras patchwork? I saw the fabrics, I liked the fabrics, I didn't buy any of the fabrics. However, when I was in NYC a few months back buying fabric for my wedding jacket, I stopped to visit Kashi at Metro and picked up a piece of the patchwork that had ended up in his remnant bin. He actually gave it to me for free because it was slightly under a yard and he said I probably wouldn't be able to do anything with it.

Don't tell me I can't use a piece of fabric, it'll jump the line and end up on me before many other, more worthy fabrics!

Turns out there was JUST enough fabric to not only make the skirt, but also to make a change to my TNT pattern.

After I realized I would have some excess (nice wide fabric), I laid the pattern pieces on the folds, then pulled them back by about 2" and cut. The excess fabric in the center was pleated and stitched down, and added some extra fullness to the skirt. Since the pattern has a narrow yoke instead of a waistband, the pleats weren't sitting right at the waist so they don't make me look puffy. I did 6 pleats in front, 4 in back - same amount of excess, I just wanted it spread out a little flatter in the front.

I've already worn the skirt this week, and I can see this one in heavy rotation all summer and into the fall, because of the colors.

Next up: finished a set of curtains for a co-worker, so it's going to be a dress for me! I'm using another TNT - the Burdastyle Fatina - combined with some 3 year old fabric and trim purchased at the PR NY shopping day last year.

And then there were the fabrics

For those who are interested in the loot I lugged home from NY on Saturday, here we go:

First photo: 2 yards blue/white palm print stretch knit and some nice remnants of cream suede (both from Metro Textiles). The blue and white knit is destined to be a dress, though it hasn't decided which one yet. The suede, who knows. But it was two nice sized pieces and he only charged $8 for them, so who am I to say no to cheap leather?

Second photo: Possibly my favorite fabric of the day, and the most expensive (and totally not my colors, and I didn't care). Italian knit (aren't Kashi's best fabrics always Italian?) with a lovely stretch. I had originally said 2 yards but when he told me the price, I downgraded to one - from dress to top, in one easy move.

As far as which top, it's actually on the cutting table right now, well on its way to becoming the knit turtleneck in the otherwise bland September issue of BWOF.

The turtleneck is still pretty blah, but nothing about these pink, white, gray and black ladies is bland. Nothing. And it's fabulous to work with. I'm looking forward to the end of the heat wave so I can wear this one.

Third photo: Stretch woven, also from Metro, orange, black and teal stripes with bizarre bubbly-dots. I'm not sure what it wants to be yet, though it did have a friend purchased by the end of the day. 2 yards of this baby.

Fourth photo: The last of the Metro Textiles haul - bottom right, 2 yards of medallion-print silk for lining, bottom left, fabulous paisley remnant (free because it was under a yard), and top, aqua crinkled fabric that has absolutely no purpose but I have a weakness for the color and I'm sure something will come up. That paisley remnant has already been earmarked for the back of the gentleman's next vest. Definitely not a neutral.

Last photo: My one piece of fabric from Elliott Berman, a store where I would like to spend some serious quality time. I saw 5-6 different fabrics that really called to me, but when I unrolled this one and looked at that splotchy paisley design - in all my favorite colors - all the other fabrics went right out of my mind.

Italian cotton, they said this was. It feels almost as good as Liberty, and definitely washes as well. I think it's going to be a dress, probably for next spring-into-summer-into-fall.

All these fabrics have been pre-treated (if they can be) and are stacked up with the rest of the stash in the workroom, waiting for inspiration to strike.

I did make one purchase at Mood, completely unintentional. I blame Andrea, since she dragged me downstairs to help her look at leather. Somehow I went from looking at her leather to drooling over things I liked.

Long story short, I now have a jacket's worth of teal leather reclining comfortably on the shelf. It wants to be a jacket - after the big orange bag, I've had my fill of using expensive, brightly colored leather on something that will get put on the floor, dragged around everywhere and show marks in about 2 weeks time. Some leather looks good distressed; that did not. Definitely a jacket, but no ideas on style yet.

I briefly thought about swapping in the teal leather for the leather I had planned for McCall 6171, but I already have a matching zipper and lining, so what would be the point, other than using up the newest, shiniest piece of stash? Admittedly that is sometimes reason enough, but I left NY without a teal zipper of the right length and I'm certainly not going to find that here.

Just to make sure I didn't derail myself, I went in last night and started drawing out all the pattern pieces on the back of the leather I already had. It just fit, and I think the teal might be a little smaller, so leaving well enough alone was probably a good idea.

Lots of plans for the weekend, but not a lot of sewing. Labor Day Weekend is generally my time for getting all the last-minute outdoor house projects done, and this year will be no different. Plus we're going to go up and visit my aunt on Sunday and then on Monday I'll do more stuff to the house.

Who am I kidding? There will be sewing, and probably a decent bit of it.

Better Late than Never – the PR Weekend Review

Somehow, when I walked into the Milford Plaza lobby and saw Kathy, Connie and Kim, and a few other familiar faces, it didn’t matter that I was still half-asleep. Fabric was on the horizon: how much better could it get?

We met up with the rest of the ladies and headed out. First stop was Mood, where I wasn’t going to buy any fabric. They’re too expensive, and it was only the first store. So I only bought two cuts of shirting fabric, both for Mario, because he requested “non-traditional shirting.” Be careful what you wish for. (On the other hand, “non-traditional shirting” is a pretty articulate request from a guy who didn’t know the difference between one fabric and another before he met me.)

We made a brief stop at Pacific Trims, which blew M&J and Daytona completely out of the water as far as I was concerned. That place is a candy store! I bought trim, buttons, buckles, fasteners, and more trim. And I went back again later for a 12” separating zipper.Then it was off to Leather, Suede, Skins. I really liked Global Leathers last year, and got a very nice deal on some leather I was afraid to sew with for months. This year I decided I was ready to make myself a leather jacket. LSS supplied 40 square feet of buttery black lambskin (price started at $180, then went to $155, finally purchased at $128), plus some remnants of a wonderfully awful (or awfully wonderful, depending on your taste) snakeskin printed leather. That’s definitely a bag in the making.

After that, we went to see wonderful Kashi at Metro Textiles. This wasn’t my most productive trip, though you can’t tell from the amount of fabric I bought. I was going to let him ship it (and my previous purchases), but since Monday was a holiday, I knew I probably wouldn’t get my fabric until Wednesday, and I could have it all washed and ironed by then. Kashi supplied me with a wonderful silk scarf square to line my leather jacket, some striped linen (looks like vintage dishtowels!), a pink and cream lightweight coating for a Christmas present jacket, a brown with pink embroidery that wants to be a skirt, a great turquoise/green/gold and brown stretch knit, and the most amazing trim I’ve ever seen. I bought 6 yards of it without a purpose, but it was only $3 per yard.

We broke for lunch at 1:00 p.m. at the Times Deli. Trena and Cidell caught up to us there and Trena and I got to do our BWOF swap and I gave her some too-small vintage patterns that have been taking up space in my drawer. It felt good to be surrounded by fellow fabric mavens and to know that they understood why I had so many bags that they filled up their own chair!

Beginning to drag a little, but never too tired for Paron. I love the Annex – I hardly ever buy anything in the full price section. I found a wonderful semi-sheer floral in shades of orange in the $2 bin, then I got stretch twill in both black and a wonderful dark chocolate brown, and finally I bought a bottom-weight in gray with tiny broken stripes of black, brown and tan. One of those three fabrics is going to be the jumper from BWOF 10/2007.

I made it through Spandex House without a purchase, though I did have a nice rest on the 2nd floor, sitting and leaning against a few bolts of stretch velvet. I’ve still got a lot of stretch at home and I’m trying to get back into working with wovens because it requires more focus and the kind of detail work that I’ve been trying to avoid. Deepika seems to be on the same kick. She asked, “Does this mean I’m growing up?” Maybe we are, at least a little.

Last stop, Rosen & Chadick. I wasn’t buying anything. I was exhausted, thirsty, and shopped out, and I could barely lift my bags anymore. But they had such a fabulous selection, and Preston was so sweet and helpful that I bought one cut of shirting, this time for me – olive and gold with tiny stripes of red. Just my colors. And then I went in the back and sat on the floor again.

We re-fueled at Starbuck’s – peppermint mocha, yummm. But my 3½ hours of sleep had finally caught up to me. After coffee and some show & tell, and Deepika trying on my woolly mammoth coat, I headed off to Penn Station and caught the train home.

If this had been any other event, I would have probably blown it off, but no way was I missing PR Weekend. I had such a fabulous time, shopping and comparing fabrics and talking to so many great like-minded women. A day like that lasts a long time.